That the “cedar in Lebanon,” which in the prophet Ezekiel’s day pictured “Pharaoh the king of Egypt and . . . his crowd,” pictures something larger today. It pictures the world system of things in which the political ruling factors govern all the earthly nations. Although it is likened to the cedar that was the envy of all the other trees in the Edenic land of Lebanon, this system of things was not planted by Jehovah God, who planted those evergreen trees in the literal land of Lebanon, which was then like “the garden of God.” As far as the Planter’s record, the Sacred Bible, shows, the symbolic political “cedar in Lebanon” had its beginning on earth in the days of the mighty hunter, Nimrod, the founder of the first Babylonian empire, in the second century after the deluge of Noah’s day. Just as Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, rebelled against the universal sovereignty of Noah’s God, Jehovah, so too, the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” does not recognize the sovereignty of the Most High God but defies it.​—Gen. 10:8-12; 1 Chron. 1:8-10.

1. In what way have the treelike nations envied the “cedar in Lebanon”?

LIKE the “cedar in Lebanon” that Jehovah described in Ezekiel’s prophecy, Eze chapter thirty-one, the man-made political structure of this system of things looks prettier than anything else. As Jehovah said, in Ezekiel 31:8, 9, “no other tree in the garden of God resembled it in its prettiness. Pretty is the way that I made it [the literal cedar that is used as an illustration] in the abundance of its foliage, and all the other trees of Eden that were in the garden of the true God kept envying it.” This worldwide political system of things has produced many boughs to carry its abundance of shadegiving foliage, so as to cover and protect the political needs of all worldly nations. Each treelike nation would like to be a world power to dominate all else, thus being an enviable organization.

2. How does the world of mankind show that it considers the “cedar in Lebanon” prettier than anything else?

² All people who believe in man’s ability to rule himself independently of Jehovah God admire that symbolic “cedar in Lebanon,” thinking it to be the acme of prettiness. To appreciate this fact, a soberminded person merely has to note the worldwide rage for nationalism and national sovereignties. Coupled with this is the great power-struggle on the part of great blocs of nations for world domination. Worship of the State is what is taking place on a global scale. It is being demanded of all the inhabitants of the earth. This form of envious admiration of the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” compares with the adoring admiration that is foretold in the last book of the Bible, at Revelation 13:3, 4, 15, where we read:

3. How was worship of the political State pictured in Revelation 13:3, 4, 15?

³ “All the earth followed the wild beast with admiration. And they worshiped the dragon because it gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshiped the wild beast with the words: ‘Who is like the wild beast, and who can do battle with it?’ And there was granted it to give breath to the image of the wild beast, so that the image of the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who would not in any way worship the image of the wild beast.”

4. Why could worshipers of the one living and true God not take part in such worship?

⁴ In that prophetic description of the things to come, we note how widespread the enforced worship was to become, earth wide, and the extreme to which the worship would go, to mankind’s adoring, not God Jehovah, but an earthly creature and its idolatrous “image.” So, now, what about it? Could such creature worship be participated in by the worshipers of the one living and true God, the Creator, who requires exclusive devotion for himself? No! (Ex. 20:1-6) Speaking for himself, this Creator says, according to the words of the American Standard Version of the Bible: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images.”​—Isa. 42:8.

5. With respect to those divine words, who is the man whose example we can safely follow today? Why?

⁵ In today’s nationalistically minded world, are we personally going to take those words seriously, even though they were uttered more than 2,700 years ago? In this respect there is one man whose example above all we can safely follow, and that is Jesus Christ. When Satan the Devil, the symbolic Dragon, offered him world rule in exchange for one act of Devil worship, Jesus replied: “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.”​—Matt. 4:8-10.

6. How does God view the “cedar in Lebanon” and, therefore, what courses do we have to choose between without delay?

⁶ Jesus’ rebuff to Satan showed that the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” did not look “pretty” to him. Neither has that man-made political structure of this system of things looked alluringly “pretty” and worshipful to Christ’s true disciples to this day. True, Jehovah God describes the “prettiness” of the symbolic “cedar in Lebanon” from the world’s standpoint, but to Him the thing symbolized by that “cedar in Lebanon” (Pharaoh the king of Egypt and his crowd) does not look “pretty.” It is wicked; for which reason he says: “According to its wickedness I will drive it out.” (Ezek. 31:11) Do we today view the symbolic “cedar” as Jehovah God does, and do we believe that the final fulfillment of His words will shortly take place without fail? Our conviction in this matter will decide for us the question: Shall we go along with the nations and dwell under the symbolic “cedar,” or shall we get out from under it without delay?