Ezekiel 17:22-24

Reader! how refreshing is it, after going through a long chapter full of the history of the perfidy and baseness of man, to come to a portion of it, however short, yet full of grace, to show the goodness and loving-kindness of God. Not more grateful to the parched traveler over a long and dreary desert, is it, when he meets with a cooling stream. We have here the Lord's gracious provision for the recovery of his people, when to all human appearance the whole seed of Israel was destroyed. The Lord calls upon the Church to attend to his promise concerning it. There shall be deliverance, for the highest branch of the cedar of Lebanon is still left, and which shall be planted. This shall become a goodly tree full of branches. Under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing. And though now the Church is in Babylon, this branch shall be planted in the mountain of the height of Israel. And to give certainty to the promise, the Lord saith, that He will plant it; yea, that all the trees of the field shall know it. Reader! see, behold, and admire, with thankfulness and praise, how, under this similitude, Jesus, that plant of renown, is promised. And do not fail to remark, under the figure, the many delightful features of the Lord's Christ, which point to His person, and offices, and character. And how fully is the whole made to answer in the Church of the Lord, when, in the use of ordinances and means of grace, the people of Jesus sit down under His shadow with great delight, and find His fruit sweet to their taste. Truly hath God the Holy Ghost recorded it of Him, that His branches shall spread, and His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and His smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the vine of Lebanon. Hosea 14:6.