Ezekiel 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
Reading about any historical figure who has accomplished anything of importance, you almost invariably find that they themselves have studied great leaders who came before them. Napoleon was almost obsessed by great conquerors before him. He had read exhaustively. He knew a lot about Alexander the Great, Pharaoh, and other conquerors. He knew about their lives even before he himself was a conqueror. I may not be a fan of Napoleon, but he is a fascinating character. What I found about Napoleon is that the last chapter of his story is precisely the same as Alexander the Great, Pharoah, and every conqueror who has ever lived. I don’t mean their lives came to an end in the same way. I mean that their lives came to an end, which is always the last chapter of any person of whom you read. What did Alexander the Great, Pharaoh, and Napoleon have in common? What is the ultimate lesson? They all could look back and they all came to an end. They all died.
In Ezekiel 31 God is speaking of great leaders, specifically to Pharoah. He says to Ezekiel, “Speaking unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude.” Ezekiel was to ask Pharoah, “Whom art thou like in thy greatness?” Napoleon looked at those who came before him, and Pharoah could do the same. God answers the question in verse 3, “Behold, the Assyrian was.” Egypt was like Assyria and Assyria in turn was like a great tree, head and shoulders above every tree in the forest. It continues, “Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon.” He had a high stature and lifted himself up in his height, therefore God was going to deliver him to an enemy to be cut off. The bigger they are the harder they fall. God and life have a way of chopping us down to size.
You might ask yourself, “To whom am I like?” Are you like Napoleon who was like Alexander the Great who was like Pharoah? Are you like one of these great people who had intellect and great power? The bottom line is you are like anyone else in the sense that your life will end. Verse 18 comes full circle on Pharoah, having compared him to the Assyrians who came before him. God says, “To whom art thou thus like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth.” When Pharoah died and went down to the pit and into the netherworld, a picture of the end of life on this planet, he ended up in the pit with all the other greats that came before him.
Now, there is existence beyond this life, but everyone ends up in the same place as to this life. Everyone’s life ends. Life is not eternal on this planet. So, we learn a lesson from Pharoah who was in turn to learn a lesson from the Assyrians. That is, the way you respond to the fall of others indicates how high you believe yourself to be. How high was Assyria? She was very high indeed. How did the other nations, the other trees in the forest, respond to the destruction of Assyria and subsequently to Pharoah and Egypt?
There are three possible responses. One is in verse 16 where God says, “I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall.” When Assyria was cut down like a great tree in the forest there were those who trembled. Sometimes when telling a cautionary tale we say, “I’m not trying to scare you.” You may not be trying to scare someone else, but God is. You may think fear a poor motive for life, but it can sometimes be a noble motive and it is certainly a legitimate motive. None of us should look at the examples of those who come before us and think nothing of them. It should make us tremble.
In verse 15 we find the nations mourning. “I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.” When we see the destruction of those that come before us, why do we sometimes feel sad and mourn? We are mourning in some sense for ourselves. In Luke 23, when there were women who were weeping for Jesus as He went to Calvary, Jesus said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” To be sure, Jesus is not like anyone else who has ever lived. He is God incarnate. But the point was that they were weeping for Jesus when they should have been looking to themselves. All of us should look at those who have gone before us in life and realize that life is not eternal on this planet. The way you respond to the fall of others indicates how high you believe yourself to be. Are you smug or sad? Do you tremble?
Oddly enough, some were comforted at the fall of Assyria. The picture is of all those great nations that had gone before into the pit, the world of the departed, and he says they “shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.” Why should they be comforted? The Bible says something similar in Ezekiel 32:31, “Pharoah shall see them [all those who have gone before], and shall be comforted.” Why? It is because misery loves company. Dante imagined the gates of hell with a sign over the top that says, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” So, there may not be hope, but at least there can be some comfort that you are not the only one there. At the end of the day, the only ones who find comfort in the destruction of others are the ones who are themselves down. Only the dead are comforted.
The wise learn from the past, both the inevitability and the mortality of the future. This life is not the end, but we should learn from those whose lives have ended. I Corinthians 10:12 says, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Am I alarmed by those who fall? Am I comforted by those who fall? That says something about me. The way you respond to the fall of others indicates how high you believe yourself to be. Today, we should view those who have gone before us with humility, learn the lessons, and live our lives in light of eternity.