I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar.
Divine sovereignty
These verses have been accepted by Jewish commentators and by Christian commentators alike as referring to the Messiah, to be read and pondered and grasped as to their inner meaning and effect. God winds up the whole parable and its application by some marvellous words; He says, “And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree,” etc. Then what mistakes we have to correct! What a revelation there will be at last, what a different view, what a correction of our misinterpretations of Providence: Everything has been of God. Is the high tree down? God felled it. Is the low tree exalted? God lifted it upwards to the blue heavens. Is the green tree dry, withered, utterly desiccated? God hath sucked its juice, and left it a barren, blighted thing in the meadow. Is the dry tree flourishing? Is the tree that men thought dead beginning to show signs of vitality? Are there spring buds upon it? Are the birds looking at it curiously, as if by and by, mayhap, they may build even there? The Lord hath made the dry tree to flourish. This is Divine sovereignty. The God of the riddle and the God who works His will among the trees must be regarded as the same God. What is true in this verse is true to all human life. Is one man successful? God made him so, in the degree in which his success was legitimate, healthy, righteous. Is a man vainly, viciously successful? The green tree shall be dried up. Is a man humbled, laid low in the dust? God may have done that for the man’s salvation; after a day or two who can tell what may happen, if the overthrow has been accepted in the right spirit, and if, instead of being turned in the direction of despair, it has been turned in the direction of self-examination and self-accusation and penitence and broken-heartedness? Is the nation suffering from singular visitation? Is trade going away? God is looking on, and He will know when to send the ships back to the ports, and when to revive commerce, and when to make the desert blossom as the rose. Is an enemy hard upon me? It is not the enemy, it is God: I have been doing wrong; when I have opposition to encounter I must ask myself serious questions; as for any man that can assail me, who is he? what faculty has he? what can he do? Have no fear of enemies, but interpret their enmity aright. If a man’s ways please the Lord He will make even his enemies to be at peace with him; if a man shall try to be right and good, virtuous, generous, and to live a Divine life, no weapon that is formed against him shall prosper; it shall be forged, it shall be whetted, it shall be lifted up, but it shall never come down upon the head of him for whom it was intended. How joyous would be our life if we could live in this strong conviction! (J. Parker, D. D.)
God’s overrule among the kingdoms of the earth
The attempts of the king of Babylon to set up a kingdom in Israel miscarried; He who set up the kingdom took it away. The shoot planted by him was smitten by the east wind, and withered. But Jehovah Himself will plant a shoot of the high cedar, the Davidic house, on a high mountain, that all nations may see it (Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 11:10), even on the height of the mountain land of Israel, and it shall become a great cedar, so that all the fowls of heaven shall lodge in the branches of it. This kingdom shall be imposing and universal, and all peoples shall find protection under it. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
The reign of the Son of God
I. The beautiful and appropriate symbol by which the Son of God is here represented. “The highest branch of the high cedar.”
1. Because it was the remotest from the root.
2. Because the loftiest of all. He was at once the mightiest and the meanest: rooted in the earth, yet elevated to the skies.
II. The place where this was to be planted. “In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it.”
1. The truth of the promises God had made.
2. A striking evidence of the almighty power of God. This is the triumph of wisdom over folly--of holiness over sin--of the goodness of God over the malice of men. Its being planted at Jerusalem may be regarded--
3. As the last expression of unrequited kindness and love.
4. As an evident demonstration of the truth and power of the Gospel.
III. The rapid growth of this plant. There are few things more delightful and instructive than to observe the commencement of that which has risen to eminence. As the traveller in America steps over a stream which he may almost dry up with his foot, he is struck with astonishment to know that it is the same fountain, fed by tributary streams, which becomes a mighty river and rolls on to empty itself into the sea. Here is the planting of the tree that is to fill the world. Though Christ is now enthroned in glory, filling heaven with a splendour surpassing that of ten thousand suns, He was once a babe in Bethlehem’s manger. Tertullian could say, within a short time after the introduction of Christianity, “Your towns, your cities, your camps, your palaces, your courts, your army, your senate, your forum--all swarm with Christians.”
IV. The productiveness of this tree. It was to “bring forth boughs, and to bear fruit.”
1. This fruit is varied in its character, etc. Are you ignorant? Here are truths to instruct, wisdom that makes wise unto salvation. Are you guilty? Hero is pardon full, free, and everlasting. Are you forlorn? Are you dying, and recoiling from the prospect of futurity? Behold, “the gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
2. It is satisfying in its enjoyment. As Christ united the glories of the Godhead with humanity, in the sacrifice He made, it must prove all-sufficient to supply the wants of the soul for which He made it. His grace can reach and heal all the maladies of the soul, and save it forever.
3. It is free in its gift.
V. The ultimate blessings which this tree is designed to diffuse through the world. “It shall be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell,” etc. Have we not numerous indications of this in our day? Never since that sun, which is now setting, began its course--never since he first lightened this earth--have there been such proofs of the increase of the glory of the Gospel as in the day in which we live. (T. Adkins.)
The goodly cedar and the birds of every wing
A glorious prophecy of the Messiah concludes this chapter! Recurring to the cedar of Lebanon, as the type of the people of God, in its noble growth and far-extending shade, Ezekiel foretells how God would take a stem or branch from that tall cedar, which should be “the root of David,” that, planted by the Divine Hand, it should grow up a goodly cedar tree, and under its boughs the birds “of every wing should dwell.” So was the Saviour, as to His lineage, of the ancient people, and a branch taken from the noble cedar tree, which typified the Hebrew race. He was born in humility, and cradled in the rude manger of Bethlehem, but from this lowly origin He becomes like the mighty cedar tree of the prophecy, the very perfection of our humanity, in righteousness and nobility of character! Then, as He invited weary souls to come unto Him, we read how they drew nigh and found peace, and “dwelt under His shadow.” The words of this prophecy also apply to the Church, which is the visible representative of Jesus upon earth! It, like a little plant or cutting, began in weakness. The number of the names, it is written, was but one hundred and twenty. But soon, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, the microscopic organisation developed and grew into the mighty cedar, under which dwelt the “fowl of every wing,” and found refuge under “the shadows of its branches.” That the cedar was to be planted “on the mountain of Israel” foretold that the later, the Christian Church, should grow out of, and be a development from, the older dispensation! But how remarkable to find that the prophet anticipates the admission of the Gentiles. “The fowl of every wing” are to find a shelter under the boughs of the Gospel cedar. Now, that which was prophecy is being fulfilled. The birds of brightest plumage, the feathered songsters of sweetest voices, the noblest intellects, the most melodious souls that earth has produced, have found in the religion of Jesus peace and satisfaction, and have dwelt restfully under its shadow! The Church must take up her missionary work. Whether it be the ease of our own countrymen, “for whose souls no man cares,” or the heathen, who abide where overhead flutters the flag of England--the duty lies at our door! (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.)
Refuge for all in Christ
Christ is the cedar, and all kinds of people seek rest in Him, as birds of every wing. Young and old, rich and poor; men high-soaring as the eagle, fierce as the raven, gentle as the dove. The young, just learning to try their wings; the old, weary, and lonely; those who have kept all the commandments from their youth, and those who have broken them all. It does not matter with what wing we come to Jesus, so long as we come. The practised eye can easily recognise the birds by their flight; each bird has its own wing; so every soul has its own disposition and temperament--one feverish, the other languid and lethargic; one impetuous, the other dilatory; one affectionate and warm, the other cool and shy. But the Lord Jesus knows our frame, and understands us afar off. He does not chide the dove because it cannot breast the storm and face the sun like the eagle. He does not expect the sustained flight of the seagull from the sparrow; or the song of the nightingale from the chaffinch. Do not imitate another: be yourself. Do not go about the world counting that you are useless and a failure, because you cannot do what is done by others. Learn how to be abased, and how to abound. Only rest in Christ. Out of the windy storm and tempest, make for your roosting place under the shelter of His wing. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)