Appreciate that singing. Let's take your Bible please and turn to Ezekiel 17. Ezekiel 17. While you're turning, I'll just say this, that as we've been preaching through the book of Ezekiel, some of the most recent sermons have been dealing with the incorrigible conduct now of Judah. Israel has already gone apart from God and carried into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar has come. The first captivity has taken place. And then we saw where the Spirit of God departed from the temple, from Judah. And I preached a sermon, When God is Gone. When God is Gone. And they finally came to the place where God told them, you've had time after time after time after time to repent and turn, and now that's passed. That opportunity is passed. And when the Babylonians come, this was God's message through His prophets, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, submit. Submit. Go into captivity. Because if you don't, it will even be worse for you. So go into Babylonian captivity. You had your opportunity to avoid it. You didn't avoid it. So now God is still counseling and His counsel is for them to submit. Now tonight in Ezekiel chapter 17 is what is called the parable of the great eagle. Actually, there's more than one eagle mentioned here. It's a parable. It's also called in verse 2, I think, a riddle as well. But it's like those parables that Jesus gave. He gave the parable and then he interpreted the parable. Then he told what it meant. And that's what happens in this passage of Scripture. So let's stand tonight in reverence to the reading of God's Word. And I'll begin reading with verse 1 in chapter 17. I want to preach on the parable of the eagles. The Bible says, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle and speak a parable unto the house of Israel. And now he's using that term Israel just in a generic way. It applies both to Judah, both kingdoms. And he says, And thus saith the Lord God, a great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had diverse colors, came into Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar. Now, just so you know, this eagle that's described here, this great eagle, multicolored, expansive wings and so on, is a picture of Babylon. When he says that this eagle goes into Lebanon, that is a reference to Jerusalem, mainly because of the cedars of Lebanon that came out of and were used to build the temple in Jerusalem. And so he goes on and says about this eagle, And he cropped off the top of his young twigs and carried it into a land of traffic. He set it in a city of merchants. This is talking about how the Babylonians came. They took away the top branches, talking about their king, Jehoiachin, carried them into captivity and actually settled them down in what was really Canaan land. And then it says in verse 5, he took also of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by the great waters and set it as a willow tree. And it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him. And the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. So this is in the context of Babylon. and the captivity of Judah and how now that they are dependent upon them. I'll say more about it later. It involves a treaty between their king and Nebuchadnezzar. There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of the plantation. It was planted in a good soil by great waters that it might bring forth branches and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Now this second eagle is talking about Egypt. It's talking about King Zedekiah who wasn't satisfied with the tribute and the treaty that he had with Nebuchadnezzar and now he is working a conspiracy with the king of Egypt hoping that they can deliver them from the Chaldeans. And here's what God says to all of this intrigue and this conspiring. He says, say thou, tells Ezekiel, thus saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof and cut off the fruit thereof that it wither? It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring. even without great power are many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither? When the east wind toucheth it, it shall wither in the furrows where it grew." And then in verse 11 begins the interpretation of this, but may the Lord add His blessing to the reading of this Word tonight. Please be seated. Now, sometimes I know when you're preaching through and reading and one of these prophetical books. Sometimes it almost seems like a history lesson more than anything else. But the Bible says in the New Testament, all of these things were written for our instruction. And furthermore, therefore, we can draw practical lessons for our own selves from what is happening here. Some great truths in how God deals with people and how He deals with individuals and with nations. There's three things I want us to see in this parable of the eagles tonight. I want us to see, number one, Zedekiah. Zedekiah is the king of Judah. I'll say more about him in a moment. And he has been placed in his position by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar has deposed the former king and he has put Zedekiah, Prince of Judah, in his place. And so we'll look at Zedekiah here and we'll look at his position under Nebuchadnezzar. And secondly, we'll look at Zedekiah's plot against Nebuchadnezzar. Now remember that God had told them to submit. And thirdly, we'll look at Zedekiah's punishment by Nebuchadnezzar. Now first, Zedekiah's position. When you look, as I said in verse 3-6, this first eagle that comes on the scene, this great eagle, these great wings, these long extended pinions, and it represents Babylon and all of those feathers represent the peoples and the nations that were under her power. And when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, as I said, he deposed their king, Jehoiachin, and he put a young prince who happened to be a son of Josiah. Now, we all know who Josiah was. Josiah, next to Hezekiah, was one of those two kings that led in the greatest revivals that Israel ever had. But he had many sons. And one of those sons was this man that was named Zedekiah. Now Zedekiah was really, his name had been Macaniah. But when Nebuchadnezzar came, he changed his name. And having deposed the old king, he put Zedekiah in his place. Now, Zedekiah was not like his father. His father was a godly man. His father could be touched by spiritual things. His father led in revival. Zedekiah was a wicked young man, and he had a dark, dark, dark outlook and attitude upon the things of God. And so this youngest son of Josiah is now placed upon the throne. I want you to see the throne upon which he was seated. Nebuchadnezzar places him on the throne in 597. 597 years before Christ. Jehoiachin is displaced. He is sent into exile. And Zedekiah is put into place to govern the kingdom as kind of a puppet king, but to pay tribute unto Nebuchadnezzar. And they have a covenant and they have an agreement together. And to be real frank about it, Nebuchadnezzar's being very, very lenient. Surprisingly so in the way that he's treating them. He didn't take some Chaldean and put them on the throne. But he doesn't want to have any more rebellion out of these people. And so he puts Zedekiah, one of their own, on the throne and under pretty comfortable terms. And the fact of the matter is that in the following years, the kingdom of Judah was prospering. Remember that this is what God had told them to do. And they're prospering. They're doing well. A covenant is made. A promise is made by Zedekiah. Remember that. He made a promise. He made a covenant. He made a vow. Gave his word. And prosperity and comfort followed for the kingdom. Because even though the conditions are what they are, they're still doing what God said to do and the people are prospering. in spite of everything. You know, that's a good thing to do. To do what God says to do, no matter how rough and tough it may seem. It will sure be better under those circumstances. Life will sure be better to obey God, even in times like that, than to disobey and come up with your own idea, your own scheme, your own plan of things that's really out of the will of God. And so we'll see that. Now the second thing I want you to see is what Zedekiah did. He began to plot and he began to scheme. And he began to plan. And what his plot and his scheming and his planning was all about was to overthrow, throw off the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Now by now, any Bible student at any level knows that Nebuchadnezzar At least I'm not calling Nehemiah tonight, right? Nebuchadnezzar is not somebody to fool with. And so this plot, let me say this about it in the first place, was a foolish plot. It was very, very foolish. He was being well treated. by Nebuchadnezzar, and he was in the will of God at this point. So why did he begin to plot, to plan, to scheme, and so on and so forth? He was doing what a lot of people do. And why was he doing it? Because of his own pride, because of his own ambition, because of his own self-will, he begins to do this. And here's what we're going to find out about Zedekiah. The people are being blessed like some people. They're fairly well being blessed. Their families are being blessed. It's not the best of times, but it's not the worst of times. But they are in God's will. And therefore, God's able to bless them. But Zedekiah is one of these people, you know them and I know them, that have a gift, that have a knack, for snatching defeat right out of the jaws of victory. Years ago they had a television program called Wide World of Sports and it shows skiers, a skier coming down the hill and he's almost ready to finish and get the medal and then he flips off and goes flying off the snowbank somewhere and it would show these clips and here a boxer would be right there and show what the score was and everything and right at the last minute he'd get knocked out. And they had three or four clips like that before every single program and they would end those clips like this and they said something about snatching victory are snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. Well, when you're supposed to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, see, that's what we want to see happen where America is concerned. We would like to snatch victory at this 59th minute and 59th second out of what appears to be the jaws of defeat. And it can be done if God will intervene on our behalf. But He is not going to intervene for us any more than His people of old Unless we meet His terms, which are, if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves, really humble themselves, and turn from their wicked ways and pray, then will I hear from heaven and heal their land. So, Zedekiah was one of those people. I mean, things are going really well. It's in God's will. And then he comes up with this great idea. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people do that in my lifetime. God is blessing. They're doing alright. It's like they spin the cylinder on a six-shooter and begin pulling the trigger with their great ideas. So this is the kind of man that Zedekiah is. And this is the plot that he begins to hatch. And his ally, hopefully, is going to be Egypt. And he's got this great plan. He is going to turn to Egypt to come in and unite with Zedekiah and what army he is allowed to have. And they're going to turn against Nebuchadnezzar. Well, you know, Egypt is that second eagle. That's what it's talking about here. See, this first eagle is Babylon. And this vine is Israel. Remember the message on the burning vine? It's symbolic of Israel. And this vine, it talks about how it's leaning towards Babylon. But now this other eagle comes in verse 7 and 8. That's Egypt. And now the vine begins to lean toward it and depend upon it. Now let me just say this. The Bible is full of this truth. Egypt was one of the most useless allies anybody could ever have. Listen to what God says about that in Isaiah 36 and in verse 6. He talks about how useless it would be to depend upon Egypt. Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. See, some allies, if you get them, you make alliances with some people, you depend upon some people, you're going to hurt yourself. You're going to get hurt when you trust in them. He says, so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all that trust in him. I mean, there's a lot of people. You better be careful about their counsel, their companionship, because you're going to wind up getting in real serious trouble. In Ezekiel 29, verse 6 and 7, let's see how it kind of turns out in Ezekiel 29, see how this alliance works out for him. Ezekiel 29, verse 6 and 7, And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder. And when they leaned upon thee, thou breakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand." In other words, their alliance with Egypt was just terribly, terribly detrimental and harmful to them. They're getting out of God's will. Over and over, God told people not to make alliances with Egypt. Early on, God had said to His people Israel, don't even go down to Egypt to gather up horses, because the Egyptians at this time were famous for their horses. They were famous for their charioteers. They were famous for their thousands of cavalrymen. And they were a pretty formidable force in the ancient day, probably second to the Chaldeans at this point in time. But God said, don't trust in their horses. Remember David said, some trust in horses and some in chariots, but I will trust in the Lord my God. That's a good thing to think. We shouldn't be trusting in bankers, lawyers, neighbors. And last of all, be terrified of the government. Be terrified. Be very, very afraid. Some trust in horses, some in chariots, but I'll trust in the Lord my God. Trust not in man, the Bible says. Now, Zedekiah is doing the exact opposite of what God says. And you know what? When people do that, People in places of leadership, it has terrible, terrible consequences in terms of collateral damage. I want to preach one of these days about when some people let Paul down in a basket. Do you remember that? I was reading and studying on that lot not too long ago and thinking about all that that means. Somebody was holding a basket. A whole lot depended upon what happened and what was in the basket. Well, think about it. You know, people that are in leadership, these people are doing fairly well because they're in God's will. They've submitted and they're being treated fairly well by Nebuchadnezzar. And then Zedekiah does what he's doing. In Lamentations 4.17, this is how it turns out. This is the commentary on what finally happens. As for us, God's people said in that day, our eyes as yet fail for our vain help. They kept looking for help and deliverance from Egypt and it didn't come. In our watching, we have watched for a nation that could not save us. A nation that could not save us. And so let me say a second thing about this plot. Besides it being foolish, It was forbidden. Here's why it was forbidden. When Nebuchadnezzar came and disenthroned Jehoiachin and placed Zedekiah on the throne, the terms were clear. You do this with your people, be in subjection to me, pay your tribute, and so on and so forth. And we give you a measure of limited self-government and so on. Not a bad deal with a man like Nebuchadnezzar. And God said, do that. And here's what Zedekiah did. He made a solemn covenant and a vow. The prophets of God. Here's two ways it was prohibited. It was prohibited, number one, it was forbidden by God's prophets. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 30 verse 1 and 7 and listen to what Isaiah said to Judah and to Zedekiah. Isaiah 30 and verse 1. Now he's warning against an alliance with Egypt. He says, don't get aligned with Egypt. You're going in the wrong direction there. Don't you get Sennacherib, the commander of the host of Babylon, mad at you. Don't do it. He said, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel but not of Me. How many times did people take counsel of men and not of God? You ever done it? I have. When I have done it, it has been catastrophic. In my mind, it has. Big disappointment. And that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit. I wonder what that covering might be. It might be things like justification, rationalization, excuses, why to go ahead and do this. It seems so good. add sin to sin that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt." God just says they're a shadow. There's no substance there in terms of something to hope in. Therefore, shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them. nor be a help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the south into the land of trouble and anguish from whence come the young and old lion, the viper, and their fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose Therefore, have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still." Now think about that phrase. God's saying through the prophet Isaiah, the best thing that you can do is nothing about this yoke of Babylon, about this servitude. What do we do about it? God said nothing. Didn't I tell you this is where you need to be? The best thing you can do is sit still. See, sometimes we need to listen to God when God is telling us, quit fidgeting around where you are. Now, this is something churches deal with all the time. They always have. People begin to fidget around about this. They begin to get antsy and all of this, you know, agitated and so on about All kinds of different things. They're going to make this decision and that decision and another decision and so on and so forth. And what they need is to sit still and be still, God says, and know that I am God. While you're running hither and thither, you're not keeping Me consciously in the position that I need to be in in your life and that is as the Lord God Almighty of your whole life. And so this is said by the prophets. The prophets are warning. See, it's a forbidden plot. The prophets are against it. Look at what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 37. Jeremiah 37. Turn to that and look at verse 6. You've got these two great prophets crying out to them. Don't do it. Don't go there. These prophets are saying. In Jeremiah 37, And in verse 6, Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Thus shall you say to the king of Judah that sent you unto me to inquire of me. Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans, that is the Babylonians, shall come again and fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire. Thus saith the Lord, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart. Now notice what Zedekiah had done here. He's going through the motions and making a little token appearance of consulting the Lord. Notice verse 7. He said, Thus shall you say to the king of Judah that sent you unto me to inquire of me. Let me tell you what this deal was. This is like when somebody comes to the pastor and says, Pastor, I would really like to have some counsel about this situation. You give them the counsel, they totally ignore it. Totally. I mean, you can show them the Scripture and it can be such a clear-cut thing. Don't do this. It's against God. It's against the principles of the Word of God. Don't do this. At least really think about it within 24 hours. Well, sometimes it's within 24 hours. Well, Pastor, we're doing this. We really believe it's God's will. You know what that's called? I'll say more about this in a minute. It's called taking God's name in vain. It's taking God's name in vain. I could stay here for the next couple of hours and tell you things that are not God's will that Christian people are doing, church people are doing, even some church members here tonight are doing things that are clearly not God's will. You're doing them. And you're telling yourself, it's OK, it is God's will, I'm going to go ahead and do it. And you're dragging God's name into your sin. Now, I'm just saying that because it's this way, and I'd say every church has this kind of situation with people. Now, it was forbidden by the prophets. That's why this is a forbidden plot. And it's also, as I started to say a while ago, it's forbidden because Zedekiah has given his word to Nebuchadnezzar. He made a covenant, and it was in keeping with God's will, and submitted himself to them and made this treaty and placed himself and Judah under tribute under the Babylonians' terms. In other words, he made a promise. Now let me say why that's so strong, the fact that he made this promise. In 2 Chronicles 36 and verse 13 tells us a little more of the details of this story when they made this treaty together and so on. Let's talk about Zedekiah and how he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and said he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. So what did Zedekiah do? Nebuchadnezzar said, now you're in this treaty, I want you to swear by the name of your God that you're going to keep it. Zedekiah didn't blink an eye. Okay. I swear in God's name that I'm going to keep this treaty. And God records that here. But here's what he did. And he swore by God, but he stiffened his neck Now, he made this oath. He swore in the name of God. Now, years ago when I first started pastoring, I've told you this before, we had a church covenant. For years and years and years and years in my ministry, you know, I've had people, I made it very plain, I'd stand up before the whole church and say, here's the covenant. Do you agree to this? And if anyone had ever said, well, no, I don't really go along with that covenant. Of course, we've talked about it beforehand. If anyone had said, no, I really don't go along with the church covenant. Well, we wouldn't even have proceeded any further in receiving the men as a member. And so people would say, yes, I agree to that in the presence of God and His holy angels under this covenant with the church. And most people followed through on it. But a few of them, they didn't. And they must have thought that was a light thing for them to do. They have language like that in the presence of God and the holy angels and the Holy Spirit. And in this assembly, I now covenant together with this church. Now, people need to take and I'm just preaching on this tonight because it's following year and because it's the truth. And I mean, you're the ones that are here, right? But people need to take their vows seriously. I mean, I believe when people join the church, they ought to attend the church. And they ought to give and they ought to support it. And they ought to be behind the goals of the church, which is to win people to Christ and which is to have a holy, upstanding lifestyle. You know, not to get involved in all of this worldly trash. that's broadcasted. I said something about Facebook a while back. It's been several, maybe a few months ago now. Somebody that's not attending anymore got really mad when I suggested that I might get on and look at people's Facebook accounts. I never dreamed that would make anybody mad. It made them mad. I mean irate. The idea that I just said, well, listen, why would anybody have a problem as a Christian with anybody looking at your Facebook? Now, I haven't looked at anybody's Facebooks, but I want to tell you right now, some of these Christian sites, so-called Christian sites, the way people are dressed on them, the way people are acting on them, You know, you've got these guys that are supposed to be Christians, and they've got their whole chest bared and their hair sticking up like it's crazy. And they're trying to be real sensual. And you've got Christian so-called girls, and they're making all kinds of... you know, like they're posing for Playboy magazine. I'm telling you, that's a bedevil. I do not want that garbage propagated out of this church! This is a church! And I'm telling you, if anybody has any trashy, trashy, Hollywood-y stuff like this, get it off! I mean, why are you getting so upset, Brother Kirby? You don't even know anybody who's got anything like that. Well, just in case. I mean, some people don't understand. I mean, you have to make it plain today. People don't understand. You say black, they think you mean gray. Oh, it's nutty. He gave His Word. You see His oath. And then you see His obstinance. As soon as He made that oath, He stiffened His neck, the Bible says, and He hardened His heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Made the oath. Made a promise. Used God's name. stiffened his neck and harmed his heart." What does that mean? "...made my oath to God." Who's God? "...that I should follow Him." Well, he was in the right company to have that attitude because that's exactly what a former Pharaoh of Israel had said. Who's God? "...that I should follow Him." Who is the Lord? There's nobody to me. In Ecclesiastes 5 and 4, the Bible says, "...better is it that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay." I really do. I wish people would never join the church if they don't intend to live a godly life. To try to, right? I wish people would never get in a choir, take any places of leadership. I wish they'd just be honest and say, you know, the things that you're preaching out of the Bible and the things that you're saying there about this and this and this, I don't agree with them. I'm not going to support that. I mean, really? People say, well, then we'll just leave. We'll just leave the church. We'll all just leave. We'll just leave. Well, now, how spiritual is that? See, that's the stiff-neck, hard-hearted attitude. When the real spirit ought to be, maybe I need to just step back and examine myself and where I'm at. You know, here's what the Bible says, and I really try to do a lot. I try to do this. I do. The Bible says, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and patience. And I really try to do that. I think it's important to do that. And I found this out. People change. And it takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of waiting sometimes. But people will change. They'll either change or they'll get saved. Now, in Exodus 20 and verse 7, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by God in vain. See, first in Ecclesiastes, he says, better not to make a vow than to make one and not keep it. Just be better not even to make a vow. Then it says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. See, that's kind of like when Andy and Amy or anybody else get married, but when they were up here and saying their marriage vows. And as I mentioned then, it's holy matrimony. He got married in God's name. He made those vows. Now, it's been a little while since they got married, but those vows are just as strong and good today as they were back then. Amen? And the same goes for any of us, whether we got married 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago, or whatever. These are things done in God's name. And Zedekiah is treading on really thin ice because he's going completely against God's will and he's leading other people into a dangerous spot. Well, here's what happened. He hatched up this plot and he did manage to snatch defeat right out of the jaws of victory. The good place they were in turned into a real, real bad place because the Egyptians came up to be their allies. And when Nebuchadnezzar came against them the first time, the Egyptians had come and they were able to repulse him the first time. But that was almost a fluke. Because the second time, Nebuchadnezzar just overwhelmed them. And the Egyptians started heading back to Egypt as fast as they could go. In other words, what was God doing? He was using Nebuchadnezzar as a rod in his hand. against Zedekiah, against him. Remember those sermons where God said, I am against thee now. See, when the time comes that God is against a person or God is against a nation, that is a scary time. And this is what's happened here. Here's a classic case of this. Nebuchadnezzar, well, let me put it this way. God is the facilitator. In other words, God is the one that's directing the operations. Nebuchadnezzar is the functionary. In other words, he is the instrument with which God is working through. And he is the rod in God's hand to punish Zedekiah. And so he gets punished. And what was the motive behind Zedekiah's punishment? Why did he get punished? Because he practiced deceit and because he was disloyal. That's the only two reasons you'll really find stand out there. He practiced deceit and he was disloyal. He lied about his vow. He was untrue to God. And he was disloyal. His disloyalty. And how was he punished? Well, this is the second time in the series that we've looked at this. In 2 Kings 25 and 7, when the battle is over, Nebuchadnezzar is ready to deal personally with Zedekiah. And the Bible says they slew, they lined up all of the many sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and slew them. Now, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't the first one in ancient history to do this, have this as a practice. Many times when a king would defeat another king, Alexander the Great even did it. They would take the children of that king and force the king to watch them kill them, sometimes in the most cruel of ways. One time in Alexander's day, a king just asked Alexander, instead of sending all of my He said, instead of sending all of my sons, could I just keep one at home? This was the king of one of the countries. Instead of sending them off on your campaign. And it so infuriated, I may have him mixed up with Darius now, but nevertheless, it so infuriated that ruler that he took that one son that he was talking about and tied his arm and a leg to one horse and the other arm and a leg to another horse and whipped them in opposite directions and then marched his armies between the divided carcass of his son. This is how Nebuchadnezzar is treating his Edekai, lines up all of his children and has them killed before his very eyes and then he blinded. Zedekiah. So that was the last thing he would have in his sighted memory. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with fetters of brass and carried him to Babylon. And so he's blinded and he goes into bondage. Now this is just the whole lesson here is is here is someone who very well knows the will of God and it's not what they wanted, would like to have had, but as long as they're in the will of God, they'll be okay. But they begin to hatch other ideas and goes directly against the will of God and then this is what happens. Now, there was two eagles mentioned. And aren't they formidably described? The one representing this great eagle that represents Babylon and this great, great eagle that represents Egypt, the two most powerful entities on earth. And we've seen the one come and he plucks off the top branches which is the kings and the princes of Judah. And then this Egypt comes and deals in their way with God's people and with Jerusalem. But there's another... It's like reading about an eagle. Maybe I would just call it a third eagle with a capital E. In verse 22, Israel is going to be dealt with again. It's not going to be with the eagle of Babylon, the eagle of Egypt, or the eagle of Russia, or the eagle of England, or the eagle of any other country. There's coming a time when this will happen. I mean, things are so bad. They look so bad for these people. They'll never have. Zedekiah was the last king on Judah's throne. The last one. And imagine how all of those Jews felt, we've had our last king. But guess what? It's not over. In verse 22, here is a messianic and kingdom promise again. Thus saith the Lord God, and I won't listen to this language, I, I will also, I will also get active. I will also be involved in this. I will also take the highest branch of the high cedar and will set it. I will crop off the top of his young twigs to tender age, and I will plant it upon the high mountain and eminent. In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar. And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing, and the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." You know who this is talking about? It's talking about the last, great, eternal King. And that's Jesus. God says, I will also. It will happen. And God is going to establish His King Jesus upon the Davidic throne. And in verse 24, He says, And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken and have done it. In other words, it's as good as done. I'm going to close with this verse. In Psalm 2 and 6, the Bible says, and that's why as Christian people, I want to encourage you, along with myself, to just gobble up the Word of God. Just begin now to take it in great portions of the Word of God. Just feed upon it. Just stuff ourselves with the Word of God. Because all of these things that are happening, I'll admit to you, they are worrisome to me. But they don't overcome me. Because you know what's being fulfilled? What's being fulfilled is what God said would come to pass in this old sinful world. But I know there's some other things that are going to come to pass. And one of those things is that King Jesus is going to come back and He is going to rule and reign over this earth. in Psalm 2 and in verse 6. See, that's the second Psalm that says, why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine, the kings of the earth imagine the same thing. See, old Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler and ACLU and Obama and all of his henchmen and all of his czars and all of that, they think they're more powerful than God. They're less than ants. Or they can rage and have their vain imaginations about how they're going to unseat God. God says, yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. So they can rage all they want. One of these days they're going to be cast down into the abyss, into deep, deep places in hell. God is going to be setting his king on Zion. And you know what? We're going to be there. Are you happy about that or is that saddening you? Let's all stand together.