(The Pharisees said,) “We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where He comes from.” John 9:29.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. Isaiah 40:26.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3.

I have to confess that all too easily I look at strangers who are behaving badly and look down on them from the very high perch of my self-righteous vantage point – and realize later as I’m praying, that I’m standing waist deep in a pit of muddy water. And Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, helps me see. I can’t see without His help. I see all too easily the problems that I see no help for because I am not God. We need to understand that truth before we can, with His help, climb out of our muddy pits. I can’t bring salvation but I can trust the One who does.

And in our chapter, Ezekiel 17, God uses imagery to show He is at work in this world then and now. The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell it to the Israelites as a parable. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: A great eagle with powerful wings, long feathers and full plumage of varied colors came to Lebanon. Taking hold of the top of a cedar, he broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders. He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy boughs. But there was another great eagle with powerful wings and full plumage. The vine now sent out its roots toward him from the plot where it was planted and stretched out its branches to him for water. It had been planted in good soil by abundant water so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’” v. 1-8. I looked up allegory: “A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.” And God asks if it would thrive when the east wind strikes it?, v. 9-10. God goes on to say that that shoot was Zedekiah because Nebuchadnezzar uprooted the king of Judah who was killed in Babylon. But Zedekiah was not faithful to Nebuchadnezzar or the people of Judah. He turned to Egypt for an alliance against Nebuchadnezzar and that effort failed, v. 11-18. “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will repay him for despising My oath and breaking My covenant. I will spread My net for him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment on him there because he was unfaithful to Me. All his choice troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’” v. 19-24. And in the notes below referencing the shoot of the Lord: “Isaiah 11:1-5 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord – and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist.“

In this world are pits of muddy water…hate, violence, judging, idolatry. When I sit in judgment of others, I climb into my own pit and God’s love cannot do His work in me. And in His love, He doesn’t let me stay in that pit. He helps me see what I’m doing that is hurting me so grievously. For a moment I feel so helpless because from my pit, I can still see all the pits everywhere and despair of how anything good will come. And He reminds me that His love that helps me – will be the love that helps all. I can’t love that way. Thanks be to our Creator God – He does! The question is will I trust His love…will we trust His love once He reveals it in us? It takes courage and faith to trust what you cannot yet see. What muddy pit are you bound in? You don’t need to stay there. His hand is ready when we ask for His help to lift us up out of the pits we so easily fall into. His love will wash us clean and show us a better way with Him. His love is the most powerful and enduring force there is. It is more powerful than all the darkness that blinds us to all the pits everywhere in this broken world. The darkness knows, and flees. And when we are with Creator God, we are in His spacious place where His love heals us and brings hope. Jesus is the visible revelation of the invisible God, the Father. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17. Him I can trust!