I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the realm of the dead to be with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below. – Ezekiel 31:16

Today's Scripture Reading (September 29, 2026): Ezekiel 31

Ashurbanipal rose to power in the Assyrian Empire in 668 B.C.E. He inherited a growing empire, and early in his reign, he sustained that growth. Soon after Ashurbanipal took control, the Assyrian Empire became the largest empire ever to rule in the known world. The empire extended from the Caucasus region in the north to North Africa in the south, and from the eastern Mediterranean in the west to central Iran in the east. The empire's sheer size became a strain on the kingdom's health. The decline of the Assyrian Empire seems to have been entirely because the empire simply reached too far. Suddenly, the member provinces found they could rebel against their Assyrian overlords because the Assyrians could not police or secure their own territory. With that realization, the fall had begun.

Ezekiel compares the fall of Assyria to the felling of a great tree in the forest. Just as a great tree makes the forest tremble, Ezekiel asserts that the destruction of the Assyrian Empire made the nations tremble. Ezekiel is not prophesying about the future; Ezekiel is not speaking of things that had not yet happened. It is a prophecy of the past; Ezekiel was putting into perspective events that had already taken place. The reign of Ashurbanipal and the fall of the Assyrian Empire had happened probably fifty to sixty years before the exile. Ezekiel seemed to be trying to add understanding to recent history.

However, Ezekiel was right: the nations did tremble, although some possibly trembled with fear while others trembled with anticipation. Of direct concern to Ezekiel were the fates of two nations: Babylon and Egypt. Assyria's overextension opened a window for the Babylonians that might not have existed otherwise. The other major nation in Judah's sphere of influence, Egypt, tried valiantly to aid Assyria but could not stop Assyria's decline and Babylon's rise. Egypt would continue to struggle against Babylon, but could not overcome the new Empire builder, a ruler remembered as Nebuchadnezzar II.

And in the midst of all of this conflict was Judah. The tree that was Assyria had fallen, and Judah was in no position to do anything. Ezekiel wants to make this clear. Judah's disobedience to God had made it a pawn instead of a major player in the events that followed the fall of the Assyrians. God was not absent in all that was happening. In fact, he authored what was happening, including many of the miraculous circumstances that led to the rise of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But at the center of world events in the Middle East was the moral failure of Judah, the children of God. While other nations had at least tried to follow their made-up gods, Judah had spurned the real one they had once followed.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 32