23 June 2005 Devotion for Today “Compromise or Integrity” Ezekiel 17:1-11
On the Discovery Channel was a one-hour television special on the Great Wall of China. Perhaps you have also seen it. It told how the original wall, erected two-hundred years before Christ, was built with dampened dirt that was firmly packed. But throughout the centuries it has eroded, and few traces of it remain today. In contrast, the later wall built with stones has not only been preserved, but will probably be standing as long as this earth remains. But the stone wall was one hundred times more costly than the wall built with mud.
We all face a choice: Do we take the cheaper route and build our lives on convenient decisions, or do we make the tough and right choices, at great personal cost? In Ezekiel’s prophecy, the prophet confronts Israel with the same choices:
The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell the house of Israel a parable. 3 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, 4 he broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders. 5 " 'He took some of the seed of your land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water, 6 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. 7 " '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. 8 It had been planted in good soil by abundant water so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine.' 9 "Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it withers? All its new growth will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the roots. 10 Even if it is transplanted, will it thrive? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it—wither away in the plot where it grew?' " Ezekiel 17:1-10
The prophet’s allegory basically makes the same point. If we desire to plant something that will last, we must take the time and trouble to make certain that its roots go way down deep. The world is so constituted that the right path is usually not the easiest path. History is full of heroes who made great sacrifices- not because they were forced to- but voluntarily.
How deep do your roots go? Make them go so deep that the strongest temptation or compromise cannot pull them out. Then you will have what cannot be said of others: integrity. Have a blessed day!
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