SYMBOLISM
OF THE CEDAR
Do
you like solving riddles? Then look up Ezekiel, Chapter
17. There God gives to the prophet Ezekiel a riddle to speak
to the house of Israel. It is about a cedar tree, and the
solution of the riddle is given in the same chapter, verses
11-21. A great eagle (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon) came
and took Johoiachin, king of Judah, a prisoner to Babylon
(v. 3-4). Then Nebuchadnezzar set up Zedekiah (“the
seed of the land”) in Jerusalem, subject to him (hence
“a low tree”) (v. 5-6). But Zedekiah broke his
oath with Nebuchadnezzar, and sought aid of Egypt (the “other
great eagle”—v. 7). God had warned Israel not
to turn to Egypt for help, and Zedekiah is therefore told
(v. 20) that he too will be taken to Babylon. (For the history
of these events, read: II Kings 24:10-20; 25:1-7 and 22-30;
Jer. 37:1-8; Chapter 41: 43:47).
God then tells Ezekiel (17:22) that He will take “the
highest branch of the high cedar” (that is, the heir
to the throne) and plant it. He says, “I will crop
off from the top of his young twigs (children) a ‘tender’
one (a daughter), and will plant it upon a high mountain
and eminent (that is, at the head of a great kingdom.”)
In the next verse God tells Ezekiel this great kingdom is
Israel. We know that both Israel and Judah were gone from
the land of Palestine then, so we must conclude that Israel
is somewhere else.
Continuing, we read that this daughter of the king shall
establish a royal house (v. 23), and all shall know that
God has “brought down the high tree and exalted the
low tree; dried up the green tree and made the dry tree
to flourish.” What can this mean?
Notice that in Jer. 43:6, the king’s daughters are
taken with Jeremiah and the rest to Egypt. Tradition says
that Jeremiah, Baruch the scribe, and the elder princess
(Tea Tephi) arrived in Ireland from Egypt, via Spain; and
that the princess married the king of Ireland. Now, who
was this king of Ireland?
I Chron. 2:3-15 gives us the genealogy of the twin sons
of Judah, named Pharez and Zerah (or Zarah). Pharez was
the ancestor of David (v. 15); and so of Zedekiah and his
daughters. However, the Bible nowhere gives the descendants
of Zerah (beyond the first generation-v. 6). Two of Zerah’s
sons (Calcol and Dara or Darda) are mentioned in ancient
writings as the founders of Troy (near the “Darda-nelles”);
and they later built New Troy in Britain (on the site of
the present London). It has been established that this king
of Ireland was of the Zarah line, Zarah of the scarlet thread
(see Gen. 38:30). Perhaps you have heard, too, of the “red
hand of Ulster” – possibly traceable to this
scarlet thread.
Thus God exalted the Zarah line to rulership in Israel instead
of the Pharez line. “The dry became green, and the
green became dry.”
