A few years back, Phillip and I went on a combination bike ride and canoe trip. After church I drove our station wagon to a landing on the St. Louis River near Toivola, MN. We dropped our canoe off at the landing and drove the station wagon to another landing near Floodwood, about fifteen miles down river. Once there we unloaded our bicycles and rode them back to the landing near Toivola. We left our bikes at the landing and paddled the canoe back to the station wagon.

It was a beautiful trip. Over the years the river has cut a sizable channel through the landscape, the banks are steep, and in places, at least twenty to thirty feet high. The steep banks isolate the river from the surrounding countryside. The river corridor is like a wilderness area. There may be farm houses very close to the river, but you don’t see them from the water. Beaver and Wood Ducks live in the corridor mostly undisturbed by their human neighbors.

The trees on the banks of the river look healthy and green. Since the steep angle of the river bank would make logging these trees difficult, they have been untouched for many years. There are Cedar trees at least three feet in diameter at the base.

In the seventeenth chapter of Ezekiel, the image of a Cedar tree is used. It is a noble tree planted on a lofty mountain. I’m not used to thinking of cedar trees as noble. Many of the cedar trees I’ve seen have been small and well trimmed. I’ve seen them in people’s yards serving as decorations, or lawn shrubbery. Most of the time they are not much taller than the eve of the roof of the homes they decorate. They serve their purpose nicely, they enhance the appearance of the yard, but I would not describe them as noble.

A Norway pine, or a white pine growing to over a hundred feet high, now that’s noble. But along the banks of the St. Louis River are Cedar trees that I would describe as noble. Neither hedge trimmers nor chain saws have touched them.

The Lord speaks an allegory, or a riddle, through the prophet Ezekiel in the seventeenth chapter of that book. In the allegory, a cedar tree is used to represent the nation of Israel, and great eagles with great wing and great plumage are used to represent both the king of Babylon, and the king of Egypt.

The first eagle, the king of Babylon, breaks off the top of a Cedar and transplants it in a foreign land. The transplanted bush seeks protection from the second eagle, the king of Egypt, but that is not to be.

Later in the chapter the prophet says, “Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost if its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, In order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble Cedar.”

This passage recalls a time when Israel was in captivity. The rulers of the nation had been carted off to Babylon. In a sense you could say that the family tree of the nation of Israel had been decapitated. The nation that was a noble cedar tree during the reign of King David was now little more than a yard decoration in a foreign land.

Some of the people were eventually allowed to return to the land, and they rebelled against Babylon, with the help of Egypt. That rebellion was quickly put down. The people of Israel saw Babylon as invincible. God saw things differently.

The prophet passed on the word of the Lord to the people. He said, “All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.”

The water had been high on the St. Louis River in the spring. As we traveled on the river we could see the damage done to the vegetation. Some of the big majestic trees along the banks of the river had been swept away. The water rose up on the riverbanks, it washed away soil from the roots of the trees and huge trees were swept into the river. In one spot there were about a dozen trees piled up against a beaver house. Those once tall, proud, noble, trees are simply a logjam at the side of the river.

God was telling the people that He can sweep away Egypt and Babylon, and He can take a twig from the Israel family tree, transplant it and cause it to grow into a majestic cedar once again. God is putting things into perspective for us. God can bring down the mighty tree and God can cause the little twig to grow into a mighty tree. It is God who brings down, and it is God who raises up.

The promise God gives to these people who have been hauled into captivity is that God is going to plant them on Mount Zion and cause them to grow into a noble cedar. God does not concern himself with whether or not Babylon will let the people go. God says he will plant them on Mount Zion and He will cause them to grow. God can cause the river water to nourish the trees along the banks, or God can cause the water to rise and wash them into the river.

You are now a branch on this lofty Cedar Tree. It is the tree of the Kingdom of God. God provides it with nourishment, no force on earth has swept it away and none ever will. You could say that Christians are now a part of the shoot mentioned in Isaiah 11:1 that came out of the stump of Jesse, or as Paul claims in Romans 11 that we have been grafted into the tree. The kingdom has become gigantic. It is a lofty and noble cedar. The root system on this tree is deep. It draws nourishment from a never ending River of Life. The source of this tree’s nourishment will never run dry, and God will not allow this tree to be uprooted.

I’m glad we canoed down the St. Louis River. We saw about a half dozen beaver. We saw two families of wood ducks. We got some exercise. We got a bit of sun, and because I saw some lofty, noble, cedar trees, and the trees that had been swept away by the river, I understand Ezekiel’s message a little better.

May God bless and keep each and every one of you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk