Ezekiel 31:10 - Meaning and Application

We have already seen the king of Egypt like the king of Assyria in wealth, power, and success, and now we see him like him in pride too (Ezekiel 31:10). One corrupt heart often looks very much like another, and the same temptations that ruin some people in times of prosperity ruin many others as well. The king of Egypt had lifted himself up because of his wealth and power (Ezekiel 29:3), and the king of Assyria did the same when he became great. His heart rose with his height, and he became arrogant and harsh, even defying God and crushing God’s people, as seen in the messages and letter the Assyrian king sent to Hezekiah, king of Judah (Isaiah 36:4).

Pride was at the root of other sins too, especially the oppression of God’s people, which is charged against both Egypt and Assyria together (Isaiah 52:4). But here the sin is traced back to its source. Pride makes people contemptuous, and the proud are filled with contempt. When a person’s outward position rises, his mind often rises with it, and it is rare to find a humble spirit in the middle of great success.

The king of Egypt will also resemble the king of Assyria in his fall. God says that because the Assyrian was lifted up, He handed him over to a mighty one from the nations, that is, a powerful ruler God used as His tool (Ezekiel 31:11). Cyaxares, king of the Medes, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, joined with Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, and together they destroyed Nineveh and the Assyrian empire. Nebuchadnezzar was not yet the greatest ruler among the nations, but later he became so in a clear and striking way.

Three things are said about the Assyrian’s fall. First, God Himself ordered it. He says, “I have handed him over,” and “I have driven him out.” God is the Judge who puts down one ruler and raises up another (Psalm 75:7). When He chooses, He can remove those who seem deeply rooted and secure. Second, his own sin brought this ruin on him. God says He drove him out because of his wickedness. People do not lose honor, power, or possessions without sin being somewhere behind it. Third, God used a mighty ruler from among the nations to carry out the judgment. God often uses one wicked man to punish another. Proud, overbearing men will sooner or later meet someone who can deal with them.

The image of the cedar continues here. The Assyrian grew high and spread far, but his day of falling came. First, the great cedar was cut back. “The terrible of the nations” cut him down, that is, soldiers who were armed and given authority to kill and destroy. They first lopped off his branches by seizing parts of his dominion and forcing them away from him. Across the mountains, valleys, highlands, lowlands, and riverlands around him, cities and lands broke away from the Assyrian power. The borrowed feathers were taken back, and what remained was like a bare stump.

Second, he was abandoned. The people who had once fled to him for shelter went down from his shadow and left him. Once he could no longer protect them, they no longer felt bound to serve him. Great men should not boast in the crowds around them or in those who depend on them, because many are attached only to what they can gain. When God turns against them, their followers quickly scatter.

Third, his fall was mocked and used as a warning. The birds of the sky remain among his ruins, and the other trees rejoice or tremble at his downfall. The trees of Eden, that is, the great and lofty rulers who had already been cut down, are pictured as comforted in the underworld when they see this proud cedar brought as low as themselves. It is some relief to sufferers to have companions in misery. But the trees of Lebanon that still stood in strength mourned for him, and the trees of the field fainted for him, because they could see their own fate in his fall. If the cedar is shaken, the fir trees should howl too (Zechariah 11:2).

The meaning of the cedar is explained plainly. The cutting down of this cedar means the slaughter of this mighty king and all who supported him. They are all given over to death, to fall by the sword, just as the cedar falls by the axe. He and his princes, whom he had claimed were all kings, go down to the grave, to the lowest parts of the earth, among ordinary men with no rank or distinction. They died like other men (Psalm 82:7), and their splendor did not protect them or go with them into death. They are cast down to hell, that is, to the state of the dead, and buried in obscurity and forgetfulness. All who were his strength, on whom he relied, who acted for him, and all who lived under his protection, also went down into ruin with him, among those killed by the sword. When great men fall, many others often fall with them, just as many have fallen before them.

God’s purpose in bringing down this mighty ruler and his kingdom follows from all this.

He intended this, first, to warn the nations around him. He would make them stop and stare, as Ezekiel 31:16 says: “I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall.” They were stunned to see such a powerful ruler brought down so suddenly. It shook their sense of security, because each nation feared that its own turn would come next.

When he went down to the grave, as Ezekiel 31:15 says, God caused a mourning, a wide public sorrow, like a whole kingdom mourning the death of its king. As a sign of this general grief, he covered the deep in darkness, as if business itself stopped in respect for the mourning. He held back the rivers and the great waters, so everything seemed to shift into grief instead of ordinary life. Lebanon, especially, the kingdom of Syria, which had sometimes allied itself with Assyria, mourned for him, much as Babylon’s allies are said to mourn in (Revelation 18:9).

Second, this was meant as a warning to the nations and their kings, as Ezekiel 31:14 says. No tree by the waters, however well placed, should lift itself up because of its height, become proud, or shoot its top above the thick branches while looking down on others. None should trust in its own strength, power, or politics as if it could never fall. Let all of them learn from Assyria, because Assyria once stood as tall and felt as secure as any of them, but pride went before its ruin, and its confidence failed.

This is a warning for proud and overconfident people. Their fall is meant to teach others to stay humble. It would have been good for Nebuchadnezzar, who helped bring down Assyria, if he had taken that warning to heart.

The passage then gives a prophecy of the fall of the king of Egypt in the same way, as Ezekiel 31:18 says. He had thought himself like Assyria in glory and greatness, towering over all the trees of Eden, as a cypress rises above shrubs. But he too would be brought down, along with the other trees that were beautiful to look at.

He would go to the grave, to the lower parts of the earth, and lie among the uncircumcised, those who died in uncleanness. That means he would die without honor, under God’s judgment, and far from God’s favor. Then those he had crushed would triumph over him and say, “This is Pharaoh and all his great multitude.” See how small he looks now, and how low he lies. See what has become of all his pomp and pride. This is all that remains of him.

Great men and great crowds, with all the show and noise they make in the world, become very small when God rises up against them. Pharaoh and all his multitude would soon be brought to nothing.