The Swan Song of Lion Kings, Ezekiel 19

“Moreover,

A conjunction saying, in addition to what was just said.

What was just said?

Judgement is coming. Repent. I take no pleasure in death, turn and live. Ezekiel 18:30-32.

Moreover, Ezekiel, since they won’t repent, turn and live...

 take up a lamentation

Prepare a dirge, a funeral march, a swan song, a lamentation...

for the princes of Israel,

Specifically, the last kings of Judah, who were evil sons, and one grandson, of Godly King Josiah.

609 BC. Jehoahaz (aka Shallum), king for three months.

609-597 BC. Jehoiakim, king for eleven years.

597 Jehoiachin: Jehoiakim’s son, Josiah’s grandson, king for three months.

597-586 BC Zedekiah, king for eleven years.

1 Chronicles 3:15.

² and say:

‘What is your mother? A lioness:

This refers to the kingdom of Judah.

It comes from Genesis 49:8-11, when Jacob was blessing each of his sons. When he got to Judah, he said this:

⁸ “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
¹¹ Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.

Remember verse ten. It is a Messianic prophecy. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, means a King’s reign from Judah shall have no end.

Remember verse eleven, it is a foreshadowing of when The Lion, returns with a roar.

She lay down among the lions;

The kingdom of Judah commits idolatry with surrounding pagan nations.

Among the young lions she nourished her cubs.

She raised her children in the ways of the world.

³ She brought up one of her cubs,

Jehoahaz, also known as Shallum (1 Chronicles 3:15, Jer. 22:11-12).

And he became a young lion;

He became strong. He became king at 23 when his Godly father Josiah died in battle. 2 Kings 23:29-31.

He learned to catch prey,

He was violent.

And he devoured men

He was ruthless. He did evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Kings 23:32.

⁴ The nations also heard of him;

Even the evil nations thought he was evil.

He was trapped in their pit,

And they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt.

This is how we know it is referring to Jehoahaz, because he is the king that was taken to Egypt.

2 Kings 23:31-34. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. (NOTE: This in not Jeremiah the Prophet). ³² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. (Fathers, not father, his father was Godly Josiah, this refers to ungodly ancestors like great grandfather Manasseh and grandfather, Amon). ³³ Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

Now, there’s an eleven year gap between verses 4 and 5, while Jehoiakim reigned from 609 – 597 between Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin.

Jehoiakim is skipped in the dirge, perhaps because he was exceedingly wicked and cursed, perhaps because he’s the only one not taken captive, but probably because, he was an illegitimate king, he was installed as a puppet by Pharaoh.

Here’s a snapshot into the wicked life of Jehoiakim:

Jeremiah 22:19. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 26:23, Jehoiakim had the Lord's Prophet Urijah, killed

Jeremiah 36:23–24, as the scroll of Jeremiah was read, declaring the invasion of Egypt and Babylon was God's judgement on Judah due to their wickedness. Jehoiakim, cut off the scroll and threw it into the fire. (Same evil as those trying to rewrite and erase the Godly history of America).

Jeremiah 36:30. He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

597 BC this prophecy was fulfilled when, in the eleventh year of Jehoiakim’s reign, he stopped paying tribute to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar responded by besieging Jerusalem. According to Josephus, Jehoiakim was killed during the siege, and his body was thrown over the city wall. LIKE GARBAGE

⁵ ‘When she saw that she waited, that her hope was lost,

She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

Judah made Jehoiakim’s eighteen year old son, Jehoiachin, their king. 2 Kings 24:8.

⁶ He roved among the lions,

And became a young lion;

He learned to catch prey;

He devoured men.

⁷ He knew their desolate places,

And laid waste their cities;

The land with its fullness was desolated

By the noise of his roaring.

Jehoiachin, the grandson of Godly Josiah, did evil in the sight of the sight of the Lord. 2 Kings 24:9.

Just one generation from the strong Godly national revival of Josiah to the corrupt, wretched, weakness of his sons and grandson.

“Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.” President Ronald Reagan.

⁸ Then the nations set against him from the provinces on every side,

And spread their net over him;

He was trapped in their pit.

⁹ They put him in a cage with chains,

And brought him to the king of Babylon;

They brought him in nets,

That his voice should no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.

597 BC. Jehoiachin, was king for only three months, when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, again, and took him captive to Babylon, where he died. 2 Kings 24:11-12.

10 ‘Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline,

Planted by the waters,

Fruitful and full of branches

Because of many waters.

Oh, beautiful land of Judah, with purple mountain majesty above the fruited plain, where God shed His grace on thee, and crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

11 She had strong branches for scepters of rulers.

She towered in stature above the thick branches,

And was seen in her height amid the dense foliage.

Oh, dear Judah, you have the blood of strong righteous rulers in your veins.

Your founding fathers Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and David and Solomon... (and George Washington, and John Adams, and Abraham Lincoln...) rose and fought and stayed the course, and laid the foundation of a Godly, prosperous, blessed nation.

For you to tend and keep and enjoy, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

 

12 But she was plucked up in fury,

She was cast down to the ground,

And the east wind dried her fruit.

Her strong branches were broken and withered;

       The fire consumed them.      

13 And now she is planted in the wilderness,

In a dry and thirsty land.

Instead of staying the course of your founding fathers, your founding documents, your constitution... you rejected the Source of your excellence and turned to false foreign gods.

Make no mistake. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7.

You’ve sown to the wind and are reaping the whirlwind.  

14 Fire has come out from a rod of her branches

And devoured her fruit,

So that she has no strong branch—a scepter for ruling.’ ”

This is a lamentation, and has become a lamentation.

THE END.

The swan song goes silent.

The lamentation breathes its last.

586 BC. Zedekiah deposed from the throne ended a lamentable, wicked, rule, but more alarming, ended the royal dynasty of David.

Your very own rulers burn you to the ground.

Corruption, waste, fraud and abuse, from within, devour you.

Godly leadership is replaced by godless foreign interests.

The trajectory of the nation is a death march to the grave.

But how could this happen?

They had promises from God.

2 Samuel 7:16
And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.

Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord will perform this.

But it was like the lights went out, all went black.

Psalm 11:3. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

What do you do when all is lost, with no hope in sight?

The faith chapter opens answering that question:

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

The solution is no mystery. The plan is already made. The path is clear to see. Follow the faith giants who through faith and patience received the Promise. Hebrews 6:12.

The Lord through Jeremiah told them plainly, but they refused:

Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the LORD says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, Godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’

Nevertheless, His Truth marches on, and in the fullness of time, The Lion of Judah, came as a cub, but quickly grew to be known as, The King.

Just to be sure, Pilate asked:

Are You The King of the Jews? (Matthew 27:11).

Pilate did not ask, “Are you a king... he asked are You THE King. Definite article, “the”. Are You, The One and Only King?

Jesus said, “It is as you say.” In other Words: I AM.

In the beginning, in the first book, in Genesis, the precedent was set when Jacob prophesied about the scepter never departing from The Lion of Judah.  

In the middle the Lord told Ezekiel to write a lament for the lions of Judah who failed.

But in the end, in the last book, in Revelation, John is told, not to weep, not to lament, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed... Revelation 5:5.

The Lion King, is coming back to roar, as King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19:11-16.

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. ¹³ He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. ¹⁵ Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.

Previously we said to remember Genesis 49:11, it foreshadows when The Lion, returns with a roar.

Genesis 49:11... He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.

Revelation 19: ¹³ He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood... ¹⁵ ...He Himself treads the winepress

The lions of Judah died in their iniquity, but The Lion of Judah, died FOR our iniquity, and turned death itself backwards.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, those kings had it made, until they let their blessing become their god. The nation of Israel was blessed beyond measure, until they rejected You.

We are not so different.

Please forgive US and help US to return to You. Individually, and corporately. As a Church and nation, humbly honoring You. It’s a big ask. Our internal corruption is akin to what we’ve just read. But, Lord, You specialize in bringing Life from death. So, we Your people, humble ourselves, seek Your face, turn from our wicked ways, and trust, You, will do, what only You can do, and heal our land.

Now, this moment, and every moment from here through Eternity, keep us busy, about Your business of being soul winners and disciple makers.

Thank You.

We Love You, forever.

Amen.

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