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Welcome to the Cross References podcast on the Book of Ezekiel. In this study, you learn how every small piece of the Bible tells one big story- and most importantly, how they all connect to the cross and Christ.
Whether you’re a newbie Christian or a veteran Bible reader, my goal is that God’s Word will make more sense to you after every episode.
Host: Luke Taylor
My Life as a Tree
Ezekiel 31:1-18
Ezekiel series, Part 52
A Lesson from Loki
The ancient pharaohs of Egypt had a desire to be worshipped as a god. And that put them on a collision course with the true God. Pride will do that to you.
It’s like that old expression: this town ain’t big enough for the two of us.
Well, heaven ain’t big enough for two gods. There’s only room for one.
I’m releasing this episode on April Fools Day, and I’d like to talk for a moment about a particular fool who once thought himself a god.
The character of Loki in the Marvel movies reminds me a lot of Pharaohs. Here was a guy who wanted nothing but to be worshipped as a god. If you aren’t familiar, Loki is the brother of Thor who made visits to earth throughout time where he wore a funny horned hat and convinced humans that he was a god. In reality, he was just an alien with a few superpowers and a funny horned hat. But he desired to be worshipped and to declare himself a god.
In a scene where Captain America decided to chase after him, he was warned that he was out of his league.
[clip of Captain America saying: there’s only one god ma’am and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that]
And Loki eventually was captured and judged for his crimes, at which point his father reminded him that you can’t become a god just by declaring yourself one.
[odin saying: we are not gods, loki]
Now, Loki had kind of an interesting journey. Throughout the Marvel films, he comes around to joining the good guys, he got his own tv show, meets a female version of himself from another dimension that he falls in love with- which is a very Loki thing to do, with how much he always loved himself- and then he accepted his own mortality, and came around to realizing he was no god, no more important than anyone else. And in his last scene, he sacrifices himself to save the universe. And the way he does it is by turning himself into a tree.
[clip of Loki saying: I know what kind of god I need to be]
Wait, what? Yeah, it was a very weird ending to a very weird story about a weird character. Why did he get turned into a tree? I’ll spare you some of the geekier details, but he turns himself into something called the world tree so that he can hold all of time together and keep the multiverse from unraveling. He becomes the embodiment of an ancient Norse myth called yygradisill, the World Tree.
When I first watched it, I didn’t know what it was talking about. But come to find out, this concept of a world tree is is found in a lot of ancient cultures, and there are even some references to it as a motif in the Bible.
From Wikipedia: The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European, Siberian, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life, but it is the source of wisdom of the ages.
Loki had an interesting arc to his character: he started by desiring to be worshipped as a god, learning about his own mortality, becoming a hero, and at the end of the story: becoming the godlike being he always wanted to be, but having to sacrifice himself in order to do it.
Loki had a tragic but emotionally fulfilling ending. And that’s more than can be said for the Pharaoh of Ezekiel’s day, who thought himself and his nation too big to fall, and that belief ended up being the exact reason God had to take him down.
Today on the Cross References podcast, we’re going to look at a message that God sent to Pharaoh in chapter 31 of Ezekiel: you can put on a funny hat and force people to worship you all you want, but there’s only one God, and he doesn’t dress like that.
[theme music]
(Continued)
Welcome to the Cross References podcast. My name is Luke Taylor, and this podcast is kind of a tree. This is a podcast about how everything in the Bible is interconnected, and how all these small pieces of the Bible tell one big story. Just like all the branches of a tree are connected to one large trunk.
And trees are a familiar motif in the Bible. One of the most famous parts is when Nebu-chad-nezzar is warned that if he doesn’t humble himself, he’s going to be turned into a wild animal. And how is he warned of this? He has a dream in which he’s a great big tree:
Daniel 4:10-12
I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
And later that tree is chopped down, and this signifies that Nebuchadnezzar is gonna lose his position of greatness. Won’t be such a Chad anymore.
Another place I think of is Judges 9, where one of Gideon’s sons, Jotham, tells a story paralleling the leaders of Israel with trees, arguing about which tree is the greatest. Another one that comes to mind is when a king of Israel named Jehoash sends a letter to another king in
II Kings 14:9
“A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon…
So in the Bible, leaders of nations are often compared to trees. But also, God’s Kingdom is compared to a tree. And we have a choice of which tree we’d like to come and rest under. And you don’t want to pick Pharaoh’s tree. Let’s hear what God says about it as we start into Ezekiel 31.
V1-9, My Life as a Tree
Ezekiel 31:1-4
In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:
“Whom are you like in your greatness?
3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon,
with beautiful branches and forest shade,
and of towering height,
its top among the clouds.
4 The waters nourished it;
the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow
around the place of its planting,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the field.
I’ll start with the date. This takes place on June 21, 587 BC. Now, the strange thing about this oracle is that even though it’s directed toward Egypt, it might actually be describing Assyria. Verse 3 said “Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon.” And then it goes on to describe the tree, meaning that Assyria was a great tree; and the point of this chapter is to say: Assyria was a great tree and it was able to be brought down. Why didn’t you learn their lesson? If Assyria can fall, don’t you think you can fall?
And you might want to right that down if you’d like to know the point of this chapter and the main idea that chapter 31 is trying to communicate; nobody is too big to fall. If Assyria can fall, Egypt can fall. If Egypt can fall, you can fall. Nobody is too big to fall.
However, since this is directed toward Egypt, some speculate that the word “Assyria” is a misspelling in the original Hebrew, because if you change one letter, the word “Assyria” becomes the Hebrew word “cypress,” which is another type of tree, and so they say that the tree of chapter 31 is really talking about Egypt.
I’m going to say that either way you understand this chapter- that whether the tree is Egypt or whether the tree is Assyria- either way, it teaches the same lesson and makes the same amount of sense. Either way, the main idea is the same: nobody is too big to fall.
I am of the opinion that it’s not a misspelling, that it’s talking about Assyria, because Assyria had fallen not long before the events of Ezekiel. So it makes perfect sense to me that God would use Assyria as an example to Pharaoh here. If it was a misspelling, it would be too much of a coincidence that the nation it was misspelled into was the exact same nation that had just fallen to the Babylonians right before all this. So I think it’s right on. Let’s keep reading about the greatness of Assyria as personified by this tree:
Verses 5 through 9
5 So it towered high
above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long
from abundant water in its shoots.
6 All the birds of the heavens
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the beasts of the field
gave birth to their young,
and under its shadow
lived all great nations.
7 It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down
to abundant waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
neither were the plane trees
like its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was its equal in beauty.
9 I made it beautiful
in the mass of its branches,
and all the trees of Eden envied it,
that were in the garden of God.
It is interesting that Eden keeps getting all of these namedrops right here. I will try to explain what I believe it’s saying in these verses.
The other trees of the garden are other nations. If the main tree is a nation, then other nations are other trees. But they’re jealous of this big tree, the biggest nation of all. All the birds of the heavens just want to live in the big tree with the best shade. It’s the best-looking tree.
The other trees are envious. They can’t be as great as this tallest tree. Why is it drawing our attention back to Eden? I believe it’s because this tree of Assyria has grown to a greatness that any tree back in the garden of Eden couldn’t have even imagined.
Here’s an example: if you think of modern times, think of how much of the modern technology we didn’t even have on our radar a few generations ago. At one time, computers were the size of a room and they were used by scientists to send man to the moon. Today, we have computers more powerful than that rest in our pocket and can look up any fact you want to know in the entire world, and you can do it in about a minute unless you’re using Internet Explorer, and you’re probably listening to this podcast on one of them right now. Imagine how the thing you’re doing right now would be mind-blowing to someone from a hundred years ago, or even 50 years ago.
That’s what someone in the Garden of Eden would think about a nation like Assyria or Egypt. Back in the time of Eden, they never could have imagined a great nation like Assyria someday and all that it would accomplish. It would have been mind-blowing. So I believe that is the idea here that Ezekiel 31 is trying to use by saying, “None of the trees in Eden could have comprehended the greatness of the future tree of Assyria.”
And this is kind of poetic language- it drifts back and forth between literal and figurative all throughout this chapter- so it’s a bit open to interpretation. But that is how I’m understanding these verses.
V10-18, The Judgment of the Pharaonic Tree
Ezekiel 31:10-13
10 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, 11 I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. 12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land, and all the peoples of the earth have gone away from its shadow and left it. 13 On its fallen trunk dwell all the birds of the heavens, and on its branches are all the beasts of the field.
This is the judgment of this tree. It is going to be cut down because of its pride. Just like Loki in my opening- it thought itself a god. It set its top among the clouds. Its heart was proud of its height.
We all have things we’re proud of about ourselves. Our intelligence, our possessions, our careers, our families, our complete library of the NIV Application Commentary series from Zondervan publishers. Maybe that’s just me. My point is, we all have things that we’re proud of. But we forget that we didn’t do it on our own. Our blessings are gifts from God.
You know, my 5-year-old is proud of his lego collection. He is proud of what he can build with his legos. And I try to encourage him and tell him he has good ideas. But what he forgets sometimes is: those are not his legos! They are my legos from when I was a kid! He can be proud of that lego collection all he wants, but those legos did not come from him, they came from me! And maybe he can do some cool things with what I gave him, and we can do some cool things with what God gave us, but we have to remember that all those gifts came first from Him.
So this tree who was proud of its height gave itself credit for its height, much like how the previous chapter was talking about how Pharaoh was so prideful that he would take credit for the Nile River itself. So God said that foreigners would chop down this tree, meaning that it would be conquered by its enemies.
Verse 14 stands out in this chapter. It basically sums up the entire chapter by itself; some scholars think it was not originally part of this little parable because it kind of interrupts the flow of the story to sum up the whole thing.
It says:
14 All this is in order that no trees by the waters may grow to towering height or set their tops among the clouds, and that no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death, to the world below, among the children of man, with those who go down to the pit.
It gives the thesis statement of this chapter, which I already told you at the beginning: nobody is too big to fall. Whether this tree is Assyria, or whether it was a typo and it was Egypt, the lesson for Egypt is the same either way: don’t get too big for your britches. Anyone can fall. Everyone will die. Remember what Loki’s dad told him:
[play that clip again: we are not gods]
All nations can fall. All nations will fall. I haven’t drawn any parallels to America yet but they’re there. If Jesus doesn’t come back before long, America will not last forever. There are many people pointing to signs of the times and saying we’re near the end times, and I hope they’re right. I truly do. I’m ready to be out of here. But sometimes people point to things like the election years in America or a solar eclipse over the nation as proof that we’re near the end and I’m like: America’s got nothing to do with end times prophecy, guys. America can rise and fall and 500 years can go by before the end times kick off. America’s got nothing to do with it. There are a lot of special things about America but we can go down in flames and that doesn’t mean anything about the end times kicking off. God’s end times scenario revolves around Israel, not us. It’s on the other side of the world. If you’re looking for signs of the end, look over there, not here!
And we should learn the lesson of Assyria and Egypt that your nation can disappear and the rest of the world might depend on us but that does’nt mean they can’t pick up the pieces and keep going.
OK, rant over. That’s your modern application for today. Let’s read the last verses of this chapter. The tree is gonna be tossed into hell.
Ezekiel 31:15-18
15 “Thus says the Lord God: On the day the cedar went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I closed the deep over it, and restrained its rivers, and many waters were stopped. I clothed Lebanon in gloom for it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the world below. 17 They also went down to Sheol with it, to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were its arm, who lived under its shadow among the nations.
18 “Whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword.
“This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.”
The tree descends into Sheol. This is an Old Testament word for the underworld. This is the first time the word “Sheol” appears in the book of Ezekiel, although this is a common word in other books of the Bible, especially the Psalms. We’ll talk more about Sheol as we study the next chapter, but I also did a whole exploration of the afterlife vocabulary back in episode 36 of this podcast, called What is Abraham’s Bosom?
It says the other trees were comforted in the underworld when they saw Assyria fall. Why would they be comforted? Remember that this is poetic language. They’re saying, “Good, I’m glad you got what you had coming to you. We were wiped out, and you thought you were better than us, but now you’re brought down too and we’re laughing about it. We’re happy to see you down here with us.” As they say, misery loves company.
One last note: why was Egypt threatened with lying with the uncircumcised? That sounds like a threat against the Hebrews, not a gentile nation. Historically, though, Egypt was actually a nation that practiced circumcision, so this would have been just a further humiliation to them that they were doomed to spend eternity next to all these uncircumcised heathens when the Egyptians always fancied themselves a cut above the rest.
I’ll see myself out now and come back in a moment with some closing thoughts on today’s chapter.
[musical interlude]
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, we may wrap up this section of Ezekiel that’s directed toward Egypt. We’ll cover chapter 32. My working title right now is: Pharaoh gets a Tour of Hell. If that sounds intriguing, make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
Weird stuff in the Bible is getting into hell subject matter as well. We’re talking about what the concept of Twice Dead means in the Book of Jude. If you want to learn about that, go check out my other podcast.
Email: crossreferencespodcast@gmail.com
And I’d really appreciate it if you left a 5-star review. Because I didn’t know when I got up this morning that I’d be googling whether it’s true that Egyptians used to practice circumcision. So if you appreciate learning these little details, you can show your appreciation by rating me 5 stars or a “like” on whatever podcast platform you’re listening on.
A Tree that will never fall
As we wrap up today, I mentioned at the start that there are several trees spoken of throughout the Bible. It’s a familiar motif throughout scripture, and as we look in ancient cultures, myths, and even pagan religions, there was the cosmic tree or the world tree, connecting all of reality. Jesus spoke of a cosmic tree as well, known as the parable of the mustard seed.
Matthew 13:31-32
31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Unlike the other trees that we read about in scripture, this tree will never fall. It starts as a mustard seed. A mustard seed is probably about the smallest seed you can find. It means the Kingdom of God has small beginnings. It started with a man named Abraham in a Middle Eastern desert. Or you might say it started with a man named Jesus in a small town under foreign occupation. Either way, it starts small, and then it spread throughout all Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
It grew far beyond what you would expect a mustard seed to do, because mustard seeds typically grow into small plants that are just a few feet tall. But this mustard seed grows into a great tree.
And that’s what the Kingdom of God did. It grew out far beyond any other religion or cult has ever done. If you compare Christianity to any other religion, it’s the only one that moves. Islam started in the Middle East and it has pretty much stayed there. Hinduism started in India and it has stayed there. Confusionism started in China and it has pretty much stayed there. Taoism and Shinto started in Japan and it has pretty much stayed there. Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses started in America and it has pretty much stayed there. Africa has its religions. South America has its religions. The Nordic countries had their own religions. And that’s where they stayed.
But Christianity MOVES. It started in the Middle East. But the center of Christianity moved to Europe. And then the center of Christianity moved to North America. And now many say that the center of Christianity has moved to South America and Africa; that there are way way more people getting saved on those continents than there are on our continent. I believe there are is even more Christianity growing in China today than there is in America. It’s hard to measure that because you can’t get statistical data on Christianity in China, but many who study this say that the underground church is booming in China- a country where Christianity is not even legal! The Kingdom of God is a mustard seed, it has grown out into a tree, far surpassing what anyone dreamed it would do.
Which again, is why I say that the end times has nothing to do with what happens to America. America can come and go. America can fall. And God can still be on the move and very active in other parts of the world.
I hope the end times are close. I had to go to Walmart yesterday and dogfood is going for $35 a bag where I live. I am sure all the trees in Eden never thought dogfood would be $35 a bag someday, yet here we are. So I hope the end times are close.
On a more serious note, I saw some things coming out of WPATH this week that will make your hair curl. WPATH is the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. They are pushing some even more disturbing and demonic stuff for the days ahead. It makes me think of that verse in Romans 1, that man will invent new ways of doing evil. There is some wicked stuff on the horizon; truly, I hope the end times are close.
But until then, nobody’s tree is too large to fall. No nation can be too large to collapse. There’s only one tree you should put your hope into. God’s cosmic tree is still growing, and it’s growing out further than anyone ever would have dreamed it would have. And until Jesus comes back, I’m going to rest in the shade of His tree. It’s my glorious purpose.
Thanks for listening to the Cross References Podcast. This has been Luke Taylor, and I hope the Bible makes more sense to you after this episode.