Ezekiel 28—Destruction Of The Devil
28:1. The Word of the Lord came again unto me, saying.—Chapter 28:1-10 depicts the destruction of priestcraft by the sword of revolution and anarchy and by the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
28:2. Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God.—To the exalted class, the clergy (prince) of Christendom, as a system of paganized philosophy: Because of thy pride of heart, thou hast said through thy chief representative, the Pope of Rome, I am as a god, I am the vice-gerent of Jehovah, my seat is “upon many waters” (Rev. 17:1), upon “peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues” (Rev. 17:15), yet thou art man-made, man-ordained, and not of God, not Divinely ordained, even though thou set thine heart to pose before the people as Divinely ordained.
28:3. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee.—Behold, thou thinkest that thou art wiser than Daniel (Z. '05-280); that through supposed Divine inspiration, the confessional and the universal clergy-spy system, there is nothing in Heaven or earth which thou dost not know.
28:4. With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.—With thy false philosophy and thy misunderstanding thou hast acquired riches, much gold and silver into thy treasury—many, too, of both Little Flock (gold) and Great Company (silver) into bondage.
28:5. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick has thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.—By scientific suppositions of infidel Evolution and Higher Criticism, and by good salesmanship of these worthless goods, thou hast heaped up wealth; and thou hast become proud, because of thy riches of materials, doctrines and membership.
[pg 501]28:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God.—Therefore Jehovah says, Because thou hast set thyself up in pride to be as God, claiming to represent Him on earth as God's vice-gerent.
28:7. Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.—I will bring upon thee paganized anarchists, strangers to thy theories, the terror of the nations—and also My pilgrims and strangers, the sons of God, those whom thy philosophy dreadest; and the anarchists shall turn their weapons of destruction against thee, and the sons of God shall smite with the Sword of the Spirit thy falsely beautiful philosophy, and shall expose the real pollution of thy wisdom.
28:8. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the sea.—They shall bring thee down to a dishonored oblivion, and materially and religiously thou shalt die the deaths of those slain in the roaring waves of anarchy.
28:9. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.—Though thou sayest to the anarchy that shall slay thee materially and to Him that shall destroy thee religiously, “I represent God!”—yet thou shalt be seen to be man-made and not ordained by God, in the power of the destroyer appointed by Jehovah.
28:10. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.—Thou shalt die the deaths of the wicked by the hand of the anarchists, and be destroyed religiously as one of unclean conscience (uncircumcised) at the hand of the sons of God, My strangers and pilgrims in the earth (1 Pet. 1:1); for Jehovah hath spoken it.
28:11. Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying.—Verses 11 to 26 deal with the destruction of the Devil, pictured as the King of Tyrus.
28:12. Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the King of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.—Satan, the Devil, the father of lies and king over Christendom's system of pagan philosophy, is by nature the summation of perfection, the personification of Wisdom (Wisdom was one of the cherubs) and by nature perfect in the beauty of holiness.—Z. '03-135.
28:13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, topaz, and [pg 502]the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.—Thou wast in the garden of Eden at the fall of man. Every good fruit of character wast thine adornment (Rev. 21:18-21); with this perfection of character endowment thou wast created.
28:14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the Holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.—Before thy fall thou wast appointed the care-taker (coverer) of the innocent pair in Eden. Thou wast the embodiment of Wisdom (cherub), and endowed with the Holy Spirit (anointed); and I so made thee. Thou wast in high position in the holy heavenly Kingdom of God (Eph. 6:12); thou hast had thy course of life among God's holy angels (Isa. 14:13)—stars, fiery stones.
28:15, 16. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.—By their multitudinous trading in mixed doctrines (merchandise) “for revenue only” thy adherents, demons and clergy, have filled thy following with violence and warfare; and thou hast sinned unto death. Therefore I will cast thee as polluted out of the Kingdom of God (A. 318); and I will destroy thee from amongst My holy angels.
28:17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.—Thou becamest proud because of thine endowment of beauteous character. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy conceited teaching of counterfeit wisdom (brightness); I will humble thee to the dust, and expose thy real character.
28:18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick: therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.—Thou hast defiled the churches of Christendom by thine iniquitous doctrines and the teaching of them. Therefore I will utterly destroy thee with annihilation, and thy following with anarchy, in the sight of all that behold thee, in Heaven and on earth.
[pg 503]28:19. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.—All shall marvel at thy destruction; thou shall become wasted, devastated (a terror), and never shalt thou exist any more.
28:20. Again the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying,—Verses 20 to 26 relate to the destruction of organized Churchianity.
28:21. Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it.—Zidon meant “fortress”; and the fortress of churchianity since the third century A. D. has been the doctrine that, to be saved, men must belong to a church organization. The King of Zidon typed the Devil.
28:22. And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.—God says, I am against thee, organized churchianity, and I will be glorified and made holy in thee, only when I have executed retribution and justice upon thee.
28:23. For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord.—For I will afflict thee with literal and spiritual sickness and death (shed blood).
28:24. And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grievous thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God.—The adherents to the church-organization idea have persecuted and dispersed both Jews and Christians, but they shall do so no more.
28:25, 26. Thus saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to My servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.—The Jews shall enjoy God's earthly blessings, and the true Christians His Heavenly blessings, when He has executed justly earned judgments upon the people that have adhered to or taught the belong-to-a-church-or-go-to-hell idea.—Z. '94-76.
Ezekiel 29—The Egyptians A Type
29:1. In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying.—Chapters 29 to 32 are directed against Egypt, its king and people, and against the surrounding peoples. Egypt was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, and was known as Mizraim, which meant “Middle Country,” and typed organized, entrenched and enthroned middle-course worldliness. The word Egypt means “that binds or oppresses,” and signifies the bondage of the Lord's people to the oppressive, enslaving spirit of the world—the spirit that slew our Lord (Rev. 11:8), and has enslaved and slain millions of God's saints. Chapter 29:1-7 represents worldliness as a crocodile, the dragon of Revelation 12:3, etc.
29:2. Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt.—This message is against Satan, the Devil, the king of this present evil world, and against all worldliness.
29:3. Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said. My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.—Jehovah says, I am against thee, Satan (Pharaoh means the sun, the god of the sun worshipper, the Devil), the great wicked dragon, also called Pagan Rome (later Papal Rome), that dwells in the midst of the church denominations (rivers, channels of Truth), and says, The church system is mine own, and I (not God) made it for my own purposes.
29:4. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.—God will bind thy utterances (jaws) with a chain (hook means chain or ring) (Rev. 20:1), and will cause thy active worldly church members and other adherents in thy churches (rivers) to adhere to thy protecting doctrines (scales) and will alienate thy churches from thee (corresponds to drying up Euphrates) and from all thy active supporters.
[pg 505]29:5. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.—And I will cause thee to be forsaken (in the wilderness), thee and all thy adherents (fish). Thou shalt fall unprotected into the hands of a cold, cruel world (open fields), not to be established again in power, but to be destroyed by the evil revolutionary governments (beasts) of the world (field), in world-wide revolution, and by wicked criminals, jail birds (fowls) and anarchists.
29:6. And the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.—The worldly people who have been no real support to either Jews or true Christians (Isa. 36:6; Z. '95-144), shall realize that Jehovah is the Lord.
29:7. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.—When they in their weakness sought some aid of thee, thou didst roughly abuse them; and didst try to destroy them in persecution.
29:8, 9. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee. And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.—And worldliness shall be destroyed, and the people shall know Jehovah as He is; because Satan said, The churches are mine.
29:10. Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.—I am against thee and thy churches, and will utterly destroy worldliness from end to end.
29:11, 12. No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.—Christendom shall be uninhabited and desolate for forty years after its devastation.
29:13. Yet thus saith the Lord God; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered.—After forty years God will gather into the Kingdom the scattered worldly people.
[pg 506]29:14. And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.—And will bring them back from the dead into their own country, where they shall be insignificant.
29:15. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.—This has been literally fulfilled upon Egypt, which for many centuries has not enjoyed self-government.
29:16. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord God.—Neither Jews nor Christians shall ever again look to the worldly people (Egypt), (Isa. 30:1-5) for help; for the sight of the worldly will make them remember Christendom's iniquity.
29:17, 18. And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it.—The forces of anarchy's king, the Devil, will perform a great service in the Divine Plan of the Ages, but there will be nothing in it for the anarchists.
29:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages of his army.—Jehovah will give worldly Christendom to anarchy: and this shall be the material reward of the forces of anarchy.
29:20. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for Me, saith the Lord God.—God will give worldly Christendom to anarchy, for its labor in serving the interests of God's plans against pagan religion masquerading as Christendom, because in doing so anarchy will do its part.
29:21. In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.—During the Time of Trouble God will cause the power (T. 42) of the Jews to bud forth in Zionism, and make known the glad tidings of the Kingdom, taught in Studies in the Scriptures.—Isa. 19:1-25.
Ezekiel 30—Pharaoh's Two Arms Broken
30:1, 2. The Word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of Man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Howl ye, Woe worth the day.—Thus saith Jehovah: Weep, and cry! O woeful day!
30:3. For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.—The day is near, the day of Jehovah, a gloomy day—the time of infidel anarchy!—Joel 1:15; Zeph. 1:7.
30:4. And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.—The weapons of anarchy and the Sword of the Spirit shall come against worldly Christendom. Great distress shall be upon non-church members (Ethiopia, black) socialists, laborites and revolutionists, when Christendom's slain shall fall literally and spiritually, when her multitude shall abandon her, and when her foundations—social, economic, moral and religious—shall be broken down in war, revolution and anarchy.
30:5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.—The worst peoples, darker religiously and morally—the socialists, laborites and revolutionists, in touch with worldly Christendom—shall fall with Christendom by literal weapons and by the Word of God.
30:6. Thus saith the Lord; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord God.—All supporters of worldly Christendom shall fall; her pride of power shall be humbled; from end to end of Christendom shall they fall.
30:7. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.—Worldly Christendom shall be utterly desolated.
30:8. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.—They shall know that Jehovah permitted anarchy [pg 508] to start in Christendom, and will recognize Him, when they see that all their helpers are destroyed.
30:9. In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh.—At the time of Christendom's fall, the message from God shall be borne by independent religious organizations to the too-confident socialists, laborites, and revolutionists that shall make them afraid of anarchy, and great distress shall ensue upon them, as in Christendom's fall.
30:10. Thus saith the Lord God; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.—God will make the multitude of adherents to worldly Christendom to cease adhering to her, by the power of revolution and anarchy and their instigator, the Devil.
30:11. He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.—Satan and his followers—devils and humans—the most terrible of all the nations—the anarchists—shall destroy Christendom's worldly order of things. They shall attack Christendom with their weapons and fill the land with their slain—as will the Sword of the Spirit with those slain spiritually.
30:12. And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it.—God will cause the denominations to become dry of members and of money, will give the order of things over into the power of the wicked anarchists, and will desolate Christendom's order of things and all belonging to it, literally by the power of anarchists, strangers to the existing order of things, and spiritually by the sons of God.
30:13. Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.—God will destroy Christendom's idols of love of gold, power, etc (Jer. 43:12, 13), and will cause these gods to cease among the more prosperous people of Christendom (Noph was the Delta and richer part of Egypt); and there shall be no [pg 509] more an exalted class, a worldly clergy class, in Christendom; but God will put in her fear and failing of heart.
30:14. And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No.—God will make the upper classes (Pathros, upper Egypt), desolate, will permit anarchy and destruction to start among them (Zoan, capital of Egypt), and will execute retributive judgments upon the leaders of the upper classes (No, capital of Upper Egypt).
30:15. And I will pour My fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.—God will pour His fury upon Papacy, the strength of worldly Christendom, and will cut off the multitudes that support the upper classes.
30:16. And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily.—God will let anarchy start in Christendom. Papacy shall have great distress; the upper classes shall be rent asunder, and the lower classes shall suffer daily distress.
30:17. The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.—The young men who follow Christendom's vain show (Aven, vanity), and her honors (Pi-beseth, very exalted), shall fall by the sword of anarchy; for these things shall come to their end in anarchy.
30:18, 19. At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the Lord.—For the lower classes also (Tehaphnehes, in Lower Egypt), it shall be a dark day when God breaks the bondage imposed by worldly Christendom. Her pompous power shall cease. A cloud of trouble shall cover her, and her churches (daughters) shall be taken and lost in anarchy.
30:20, 21. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.—Ecclesiasticism, Satan's right arm shall be broken, never to be healed. The Lord's time for their punishment has come.
[pg 510]30:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.—God is against Satan, the mighty king of worldliness, and will break also the civil powers, and make him powerless to use his sword.
30:23. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.—God will scatter the worldly people among the anarchists.
30:24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put My Sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.—God will strengthen the civil and philosophic (infidel, anarchistic religions) powers of Anarchy; and anarchy shall both use the Bible (God's Sword) and shall wield the sword of earthly weapons, as His own sword; and this evil order of things, with powers broken down, shall utter its dying groans of distress.
30:25. But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.—But this order of things, with powers broken, and the anarchistic state of affairs with strengthened power, shall realize that it is of Jehovah's might, when anarchy grows in power and attacks the existing order of things.
30:26. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the Lord.—And the worldly peoples scattered everywhere, shall by the fulfillment of this prophecy know that Jehovah rules in the affairs of men.
Ezekiel 31—Christendom Not To Endure
31:1, 2. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?—Chapter 31 represents Christendom as a cedar tree which is cut down. It opens with a message respecting Satan (Pharaoh, the sungod) king of worldly Christendom (Egypt) and her multitudes. What comparison could be made of her greatness!
31:3. Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.—Behold, Satan and his counterfeit Christian system (tree; “Assyrian” should probably read “teashur,” a box-tree), thought of as never to end (cedar, type of man with eternal life), and as a righteous kingdom (Lebanon, a mountain, white, snowy), having as members (branches, like the branches of Christendom) the great, the evil and the good, worldly people, with protecting power (shadowing shroud) and very prominent, with the greatest people at the very top.
31:4. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.—The peoples and the secular truth (waters) made Satan's system great; the great nations and the apparently profound truths of liberty, fraternity and equality, made it prominent, with its roots (plantings) nourished by nations and sects (rivers) and sending out national and denominational influences throughout all the systems of the world.
31:5. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.—Therefore Christendom's prominence was exalted above everything like it in the world; and its mighty members were increased in number and made of far reaching influence, because of the multitude of their people and of their teachings.
31:6. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt [pg 512]all great nations.—All the jail-birds (fowls) of the powers of spiritual control, made their church organizations (nests) among its members; and under the power of its membership (branches) did all of the governments (beasts) of this world (field) bring forth their progeny; and under its defense (shadow) dwelt all nations.
31:7. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.—Thus was it magnificent in its greatness, and in the extent of its ramifications; for it was rooted in great peoples and in great secular truths.
31:8. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.—In Christendom's egotism there was nothing equal to her in this age or the next.
31:9. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.—Christendom felt itself the envy of everything, present and to come.
31:10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height.—Because of Christendom's self-exaltation and pride.
31:11. 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.—God will deliver Christendom into the power of the god (el, mighty one) of the heathen, the Devil himself; He shall surely deal vengeance to her; He will drive her out of existence.
31:12. 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.—The anarchists, the terror of the nations, will lay her low; upon the kingdoms (mountains), and among the people (valleys) her members (branches) will fall, and be broken off by her seceding denominations; all the people of this order of things will leave her protection, and abandon her.
31:13. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches.—The jail-birds of ecclesiasticism, and all the revolutionary governments of this state of affairs, shall profit by her ruin and through her members (branches).
[pg 513]31:14. To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water; for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.—No other earthly system may follow her proud example; for all of them are delivered, as systems, into death, to a dishonored place among the lowest in society.
31:15. Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.—In the year 1918, when Christendom shall go down as a system to oblivion, (Sheol) to be succeeded by revolutionary republics, God will cause mourning. He will restrain and defer for a brief period the threatening waves of anarchy. He will cause the nations to mourn for Christendom, and all the man-made systems (trees) of the world (field) to become weak on account of her fall.—E. 392, 372.
31:16. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell (Sheol) with them that descend to the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.—God will cause the nations to shake with gigantic revolutions, when He shall cast worldly Christendom, as an organized system, down to oblivion (as He did the Jews in the Dives parable).
31:17. They also went down into hell (Sheol) with him, unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were in his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.—But they also shall go down to oblivion (Sheol) (E. 392, 372), with Christendom, as well as those that were her power, that dwelt under her defense among the people.
31:18. To whom art thou thus like in glory in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet thou shalt be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.—Though worldly Christendom is unsurpassed in glory and in greatness among other systems, yet shall she be brought down to be one of the most disesteemed grades of the social order; she shalt be counted as one of the ungodly. The Egyptians practiced circumcision, typical of worldly Christendom's counterfeit ease of conscience through belief in error. This is said of Satan, the god of Christendom and all his multitude.