Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 17-19.

I have rarely given much thought to the message of chapter seventeen.  However, today I realized it gives us an important lesson for understanding the implications of how a country implements its foreign policy (and from that, some lessons on our own actions).  When King Josiah ruled, Judah was an ally of Babylon against Assyria, while Egypt was an ally of Assyria.  Josiah was killed in battle trying to prevent Egypt from marching to Assyria’s aid.  Egypt deposed Josiah’s eldest son and put his second son (Jehoiakim) on the throne as a puppet.  A little over a decade later, Babylon deposed Jehoiakim’s son and put Zedekiah on the throne.  As part of that process, Zedekiah swore oaths of loyalty to Babylon.  However, he was soon convinced to renounce those oaths and rely on Egypt for support against Babylon.  In this passage Ezekiel condemns Zedekiah for breaking his oath to Babylon, pointing out that Babylon had provided Judah with the means to thrive during a tumultuous time.  Zedekiah thought that by throwing his support to Egypt he could capitalize on being in between these two powers.  The end result was that instead of thriving as a client state of Babylon Judah became a mere province of Babylon, and later of Persia.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.