Ezekiel 17:24
Most of us have looked at someone else’s life and quietly thought, that doesn’t make sense. Why would God bless them and not me? Why does that struggling family keep struggling while another one seems to have it easy?
Ezekiel 17 tells the story of two eagles, two kings, and a nation caught in the middle of decisions that felt confusing at the time. But the chapter ends with a promise that cuts straight through the confusion. “And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it” (Ezekiel 17:24, ESV). Read that carefully. The tree that looked strong gets brought low. The tree that looked weak and dry gets made to flourish. God is the one deciding which is which, and he doesn’t explain himself to the trees.
That’s an important truth about God, maybe one we’d rather skip past. He is all powerful and all knowing. There is no limit to his reasoning, no angle he hasn’t already considered. We never know better than God, even when we’re certain we do. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8).
This verse also reveals something about his authority. He chooses what he chooses. He doesn’t need our input, our approval, or our opinion on whether it’s fair. Paul wrote about this same tension in Romans, reminding us that it doesn’t depend on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy (Romans 9:16).
If we’re being honest, we have a long history of making the wrong call here. We look at situations through worldly eyes instead of godly ones. We trust our own logic, our own sense of what should happen, over what God has actually said. But the Lord always makes the right choice, even when it looks nothing like what we would have chosen ourselves.
That’s true for how he chooses people too. He calls people we would never pick. We look at them and see no obvious talent, nothing impressive to offer. And often, the people God calls feel exactly the same way about themselves. But their ability was never the point. Willingness was. God equips who he calls. He doesn’t call the already qualified.
None of us could actually do what he’s asked us to do on our own strength. Jesus said the one who hears his words and does them is like a man who built his house on a foundation of rock, one that can withstand the flood (Luke 6:47-48). That kind of stability doesn’t come from our own wisdom. It comes from trusting the one who brings low the high tree and lifts up the low one, and who has never once needed our permission to do it.
