I know its long:) but worth the read it is the entire chapter I cant make it shorter read it a couple verses a day..............................................................................................Eze. 17 A message for all Today God is speaking here in a parable so that some that hear these words simply will not understand. Jesus was asked by His disciples in Matthew 13:10 why He spake in parables, "and He answered and said unto them, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." Matthew 13:11. The reference to them are to theTares/ Kenites, and others that it is not meant for them to understand. If you can hear and understand, then it was intended for you to know the parable. To the others it is simple and just foolishness.Ezekiel seventeen is the parable of the Babylonian wars In Revelation sixteen we are taught how the entire world will fall to Babylon, and all that had the "mark of the beast" in their forehead, which is believing that the first Christ to arrive is the Jesus, will gladly run to Satan, the Antichrist. This Babylonian will claim the souls of the people of the entire earth, all that is except God's elect.This Babylon is what is called "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.' Revelation 17:5. Mystery Babylon is a Religious form, and the Antichrist will have complete control over that form. That Babylon will present itself in two forms, or as referred in Revelation thirteen, as two beasts that rise up out of the seas, or nations. The first is a political beast which is controlling us today in the form of the One World Order. While the second beast Antichrist /Satan will come into being as a power when the first receives its "mortal head wound", antichrist/Satan heals this deadly woundThis is what this parable is all about.Ezekiel 17:1 "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,"Ezekiel 17:2 "Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;"This "riddle and parable" is God's overall plan. It is God's warning as to what is actually going to happen. The "House of Israel" is the ten tribes that were scattered by the Assyrian army between 745 and 722 B.C. and that call themselves "Caucasians" today. They are the Christian nations scattered around the world. Hosea 1:10 identifies these people.Hosea 1:10; "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, tat in the place where it was said unto them, 'Ye are not My People,' there it shall be said unto them, 'Ye are the sons of the living God." The living God is "Jesus Christ", the the believers in Jesus Christ are called "Christians"This riddle that is spoken in this parable is to all the Christian nations.Ezekiel 17:3 "And say, 'Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:"The "Great wings" show that the creature in this parable will have much power.eagle--the king of birds. The literal Hebrew is, "the great eagle." The symbol of the Assyrian supreme god, Nisroch; so applied to "the great king" of Babylon, his vicegerent on earth (Jer 48:40; 49:22). His "wings" are his great forces. Such symbols were very familiar to the Jews, Long winged: implys the wide extent of his power,full of feathers--when they have been renewed after moulting; and so in the full freshness of renovated youth (Ps 103:5; Isa 40:31). Answering to the many peoples which, as tributaries, constituted the strength of Babylon. Divers colours represents a variety of languages,peoples and customs,of the peole of Babylon Just as it represents the Babylon of end times the One world system under contol of Antichrist/ SatanThis is when King Nebuchadnezzar came down and took king Jehoiachin of Judah captive. This book of Ezekiel is dated from that kingship. King Jehoiachin is the "highest branch of the cedar", which represents all Israel in the parable.It is important that you notice that it will only be the sons of king Jehoiachin that will be taken captive, and not the daughters. It is these daughters that Jeremiah the prophet would later take to Europe, and continue the Royal throne there, yes even to this day.This is the begining of the mystery of Ten lost tribes that would become the christain nations of today later in Eze37 to be called Joseph and Ephraim (the jews of today are called Judha) they are the two sticks (branches of the same tree) Listen to the riddle, for it is important.Ezekiel 17:4 "He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants."This is to say the King Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin and his sons, the top of his young twigs, and he carried them into Babylon, the capital of the world at that time, and the city of merchants.Ezekiel 17:5 "He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.""The seed of the land", is king Zedekiah of the house of Judah, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin with the Levite priests scattered amongst them.(these two tribes will be called Judah in futher future prochecy as it was the largest tribe we call it Todays Israel that is todays Jews) However Nebuchadnezzar left the king in charge with many of the people of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar gave Zedekiah a flowing river of supplies, as long as he would obey the rule from Babylon. In the prophecies of II Kings, Judah was to obey Nebuchadnezzar, for God said that he was His servant.In Daniel 4 we see that Nebuchadnezzar(is sometimes called a type of antichrist because of his title king of Babylon which is also another name for Satan) was brought to repentance and was the author of Daniel chapter four. In our generation, Satan, the Nebuchadnezzar of the end times, is also a servant of God, only Satan will not repent, and he has already been sentence to death. This is how Satan gets the name "son of Perdition".Ezekiel 17:6 "And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs."Nebuchadnezzar allowed the nation of Judah(vine) to grow slowly,Judah was prosperous , however he would not allow it to become the great powerful nation that it once was. The branches, or the people turned to Babylon for support, and Zedekiah had ten sons as well as daughters, while he ruled in Judah.Ezekiel 17:7 "There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: an, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation."This other "great eagle" with "great wings" is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. This king, the Pharaoh of Egypt "bend her roots", or tried to get Zedekiah to come to Egypt for their support, and protection. Pharaoh promised that Israel could draw strength from Egypt, and in turn the pharaoh wanted to use Zedekiah, combined with his forces to defeat Nebuchadnezzar.God had instructed Zedekiah through the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, "follow the king of Babylon, you will be there exactly seventy years." Then I will deliver you out of his hand. Now we see that Zedekiah is trying to find another way to out of what God said will come to pass. vine . . . bend . . . roots towards him--literally, "thirsted after him with its roots"; expressing the longings after Egypt in the Jewish heart. Zedekiah sought the alliance of Egypt, as though by it he could throw off his dependence on Babylon (2Ki 24:7, 20; 2Ch 36:13; Jer 37:5, 7). Ezekiel 17:8 "It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine."It was planted in a good soil--It was not want of the necessaries of life, nor oppression on the port of Nebuchadnezzar, which caused Zedekiah to revolt: it was gratuitous ambition, pride, and ingratitude.Ezekiel 17:9 "Say thou, 'Thus saith the Lord God; 'Shall it prosper? shall He not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof."Shall it prosper? Anything that goes against God's word and will not prosper. God will pull them up by the roots, without great power or many--It shall not need all the forces of Babylon to destroy it; a small division of the army will suffice because God will deliver it into Nebuchadnezzar's hand (Jer 37:10).when Christ cursed the the fig tree, and in the parable that fig tree, that tree would be planted in the end times,( Jews returned to Israel May 1948 planting of the fig tree) with its baskets of both the good and bad figs. This was future in Ezekiel's day, yet it is past history now.Zedekiah's moving to combine forces with the Pharaoh did not prosper, and neither will the forces of the Antichrist, and his bad figs of Jerusalem in these last days.fig tree Parable Studieshttp://www.christianityboard.com/parable-f...10815#post10815short version http://www.christianityboard.com/parable-f...ht=parable+tree