On its boughs all the flying creatures of the heavens made their nests, and under its branches all the wild beasts of the field gave birth, and in its shade all the populous nations would dwell.

Well, for one thing, the prophecy says that, not only did the birds lodge on its far-reaching branches and the wild beasts give birth to their young beneath it, but “in its shade all the populous nations would dwell.” Also: “At the sound of its downfall I [Jehovah] shall certainly cause nations to rock.” (Ezek. 31:6, 16) Those words carry political overtones. They indicate that this upstanding “cedar in Lebanon” pictures something political. It does!

12. How was Egypt, even in Ezekiel’s day, still like that tall, overshadowing “cedar in Lebanon”?

¹² Even in Ezekiel’s time the Jewish government of Jerusalem had appealed to Egypt for military aid against the expanding empire of Babylon. (Ezek. 17:7-17) There is no questioning that Egypt still held international influence. (Jer. 37:5-7) Thus Pharaoh the king of Egypt and his crowd were still like a tall political, military structure that reached up higher than cedars of Lebanon that can grow to the height of a hundred feet (30 meters) or more. Like a cedar of Lebanon that extends out its lower branches so far that they make the tallest cedar look squat, Egypt of that time even challenged Babylon and offered shade to nations that chose to ally themselves to the land of the Nile and to come under the protection of its wide-spreading branches of military aid. Egypt still looked “pretty in bough” to distressed nations back there, who preferred alliance with Egypt to submission to Babylon, which power Jehovah God was then using as his instrument for executing divine wrath.