Ezekiel 31:14-16
‘None of all the trees by the waters, exalt themselves for their height; neither do they shoot up their tops among the thick boughs; neither do their trees stand up in their height…. For they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the Earth in the midst of the children of men that go down with them to the pit. Thus says the Lord GOD: “In the day when he went down to the grave…, I caused Lebanon to mourn for him…. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Hell with them that descend into the pit!”‘ Ezekiel 31:14-16.
Here, God is speaking about Pharaoh king of Egypt (Ezekiel 31:2). But, by implication, also about all other ungodly men.
Egypt had always boasted in her greatness. There were formerly at least fifteen ptolemies. The wide-branched cedar, was a striking image of Egypt with her equally wide-branched net of streams.
In order to cause Egypt to see her pride, Ezekiel likened her to the great Assyria which God has brought down somewhat earlier. The downfall of Pharaoh is a chastisement of his pride — and a warning. It is not merely pride of heart because of the height. It is the height itself, the shooting up of their tops among the clouds, aspiring to a greatness belonging only to Heaven — that is sin.
The divine judgment which has come upon Egypt, grasps deeply into life. The cedars lived from water. Now that they had fallen, there was mourning. The cedars (Ezekiel 31:8) stood on the Lebanon, in the land of cedars! Their fall is an irrecoverable loss to the Lebanon. It is no wonder that the nations fear and tremble. For now that the strongest fall, what shall the lot of the weaker ones be? Thus even Pharoah, that mightiest of the cedars, descends into the pit!
Yet mighty Egypt was not the Creator! She only existed among other lofty creatures. Egypt would die. She would go down to the place of the dead where other nations too had descended. Egypt should have learned from the downfall of Assyria. But she did not.
All die, the wise as well as the foolish and the brutish. The ‘mighty ones’ have no privilege over common men, in that respect. The deep which had nourished the great cedar, was covered with mourning and paralysed by his fall.
Is it not so, that all the high trees — all the rulers, are mortal? Divested of all glory and power, they must soon take their place among the ordinary men — above whom they presently see themselves so much elevated during life. But soon, they too will find their place in the grave!
‘(I cast him down) to Hell, into the pit’ — to Sheool, with them that have gone down to the pit! The nations living on the Earth, shake with terror at the noise of his fall!
God casts ungodly men down into the grave! But God also resurrects — the godly! And you?
