Bible Lesson: Parables Of The Old
Testament: The Lioness And Her
Cubs.
Spoken By: Ezekiel
Location: Babylon
Bible Text:
Ezekiel 19:1-9 NLT (A
Funeral Song for Israel’s Kings.)
1 “Sing this
funeral song for the princes of Israel:
2 “What is
your mother? A lioness among lions! She lay down among the young
lions and reared her cubs.
3 She raised
one of her cubs to become a strong young lion. He learned to hunt and
devour prey, and he became a man-eater.
4 Then the
nations heard about him, and he was trapped in their pit. They led
him away with hooks to the land of Egypt.
5 “When the
lioness saw that her hopes for him were gone, she took another of her
cubs and taught him to be a strong young lion.
6 He prowled
among the other lions and stood out among them in his strength. He
learned to hunt and devour prey, and he, too, became a man-eater.
7 He demolished
fortresses and destroyed their towns and cities. Their farms were
desolated, and their crops were destroyed. The land and its people
trembled in fear when they heard him roar.
8 Then the
armies of the nations attacked him, surrounding him from every
direction.
They threw a
net over him and captured him in their pit.
9 With hooks,
they dragged him into a cage and brought him before the king of
Babylon. They held him in captivity, so his voice could never again
be hear on the mountains of Israel.
The Players:
Jerusalem: Like a young lioness (House of David, Jerusalem,
the nations capital), royal among beasts and powerful.
Princes of Israel: An elegy, or lamentation, for Kings
Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin.
King Jehoahaz (Shallum – Son of Josiah): King of Judah, (Did
evil before The Lord). Pharaoh-necho took him from Jerusalem to
Riblah, and from Riblah to Egypt, where he was put into chains, and
there he died.
King Jehoiachin (Son of Jehoiakim): (Did that which was evil
before The Lord) After being king for only three months he
surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar. He remained in prison until the death
of King Nebuchadnezzar some 36 years.
This parable of Ezekiel, is a lament, an expression of deep grief or
sorrow.
Ezekiel 19:3,4 NLT (First Cub)
3 She raised
one of her cubs to become a strong young lion. He learned to hunt and
devour prey, and he became a man-eater.
4 Then the
nations heard about him, and he was trapped in their pit. They led
him away with hooks to the land of Egypt.
Jehoahaz became a ruthless leader even to the harm of his own people.
Other nations heard well of his cunning and ever present danger.
Egypt snared him, and brought him with chains before Pharaoh. Beaten
and defeated, Jehoahaz died in Egyptian captivity.
II Kings
23:31-34 NLT
31 Jehoahaz was
twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in
Jerusalem three months. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of
Jeremiah from Libnah.
32 He did
what was evil in The Lord’s sight, just as his ancestors had
done.
33 Pharaoh Neco
put Jehoahaz in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath to prevent him
from ruling in Jerusalem. He also demanded that Judah pay 7,500
pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold as tribute.
34 Pharaoh Neco
then installed Eliakim, another of Josiah’s sons, to reign in place
of his father, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz
was taken to Egypt as a prisoner, where he died.
Then in Ezekiel's elegy, the lioness had a second cub, and that cub
was represented by King Jehoiachin.
Jehoiachin did his best to imitate other surrounding, ruthless and
wicked kings. Jehoiachin turned his own country upside down,
“defiling the widows,” making cities desolate and empty. Then
came the day when surrounding nations, the Chaldeans, Syrians,
Moabites, and Ammonites marched against Judah, like a great hunter
taking prey. They put him in chains, taking him to Babylon,
his cries, as a wild animal, to be heard no more.
II Chronicles
36:9,10 NLT
9 Jehoiachin
was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in
Jerusalem three months and ten days. Jehoiachin did what was evil in
The Lord’s sight.
10 In the
spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylon.
Many treasures from the Temple of the Lord were also taken to Babylon
at that time. And Nebuchadnezzar installed Jehoiachin’s uncle,
Zedekiah, as the next king in Judah and Jerusalem.
The Lesson:
God knows how to deal with the disobedience and pride of man!
Lucifer's Pride:
Isaiah 14:12-14
KJV
12 How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to
hell, to the sides of the pit.
Ezekiel 28:12-19
KJV
12 "...Thou sealest up the sum,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden
of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz,
and 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.
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.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways
from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 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.
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.
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.
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."...
Pride:
Psalm 59:12 KJV
For the sin of their mouth and the
words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for
cursing and lying which they speak.
Psalm 138:6 NLT
Though The Lord is great, He
cares for the humble, but He keeps His distance from the proud.
Proverbs 8:13
KJV
The fear of The Lord is to hate
evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth,
do I hate.
Proverbs 11:2
KJV
When pride cometh, then cometh
shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
Proverbs
16:18,19 KJV
18 Pride goeth before
destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better it is to be of an humble
spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Proverbs 22:4
KJV
By humility and the fear of the Lord
are riches, and honor, and life.
Proverbs 29:23
KJV
A man's pride shall bring him low:
but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Isaiah 2:11,12
KJV
11 The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and
The Lord alone shall be exalted in
that day.
12 For the day of The Lord Of Hosts
shall be upon every one that is proud and
Isaiah 57:15 KJV
For thus saith The High And Lofty
One That Inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high
and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart
of the contrite ones.
Micah 6:8 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is
good; and what doth The Lord require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Zechariah 9:9
NLT
Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in
triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you.
He is righteous and victorious, yet
He is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt.
Malachi 4:1 KJV
For, behold, the day cometh, that
shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn
them up, saith The Lord Of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither
root nor branch.
Matthew 11:29,30
KJV
29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn
of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light.
Matthew 16:24
KJV
Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me.
Matthew 18:4 KJV
Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.
Luke 1:51,52 NLT
51 His mighty arm has done
tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52 He has brought down princes
from their thrones and exalted the humble.
Luke 14:10 KJV
But when thou art bidden, go and sit
down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may
say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in
the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
Luke 18:9-14 KJV
9 And He spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple
to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to
his house justified rather than the other: for every one that
exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted.
Luke 22:24-27
NLT
24 Then they began to argue among
themselves about who would be the greatest among them.
25 Jesus told them, “In this world
the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are
called ‘friends of the people.’
26 But among you it will be
different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the
lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.
27 Who is more important, the one
who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the
table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.
John 13:5,15 KJV
5 After that He poureth water into a
basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with
the towel wherewith He was girded.
15 For I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you.
Romans 12:3,16
KJV
3 For I say, through the grace given
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God
hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
16 Be of the same mind one toward
another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
Philippians 2:8
KJV
And being found in fashion as A Man,
He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross.
James 4:6,10 KJV
6 But He giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace
unto the humble.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of
The Lord, and He shall lift you up.
I Peter 2:21 KJV
For even hereunto were ye called:
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that
ye should follow His steps:
I Peter 5:5 KJV
Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another,
and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and
giveth grace to the humble.
I John 2:16 KJV
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.
