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Prophets and Kings
and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall
sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for He shall
uncover the cedar work.”
Zephaniah 2:14
.
Great was the glory of the Assyrian realm; great was its downfall.
The prophet Ezekiel, carrying farther the figure of a noble cedar tree,
plainly foretold the fall of Assyria because of its pride and cruelty. He
declared:
“Thus saith the Lord God; ... He hath shot up his top among the
thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore
delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall
surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. And
strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left
him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen,
and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the
people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the
beasts of the field shall be upon his branches: to the end that none of
all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height....
“Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the
grave I caused a mourning: ... and all the trees of the field fainted
for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall.”
Ezekiel
31:10-16
.
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The pride of Assyria and its fall are to serve as an object lesson to
the end of time. Of the nations of earth today who in arrogance and
pride array themselves against Him, God inquires, “To whom art thou
thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt
thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of
the earth.”
Verse 18
.
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He
knoweth them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He
will make an utter end” of all who endeavor to exalt themselves above
the Most High.
Nahum 1:7, 8
.
“The pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of
Egypt shall depart away.”
Zechariah 10:11
. This is true not only of the
nations that arrayed themselves against God in ancient times, but also
of nations today who fail of fulfilling the divine purpose. In the day
of final awards, when the righteous Judge of all the earth shall “sift
the nations” (
Isaiah 30:28
), and those that have kept the truth shall be