Ezekiel 31 · Grade 5
The Cedar That Fell
Read and Think
Ezekiel 31 is dated two months after the broken-arm oracle. God told Ezekiel to ask Pharaoh whom he was like in his greatness. The answer was a history lesson. Assyria had once been the greatest empire in the world, yet God said it had been cut down. If Assyria could fall, so could Egypt.
Assyria is pictured as a cedar of Lebanon, the most prized tree of the ancient world. The waters nourished it, and the deep made it grow tall. Birds nested in its boughs, animals bore young beneath it, and all great nations lived in its shade. God himself made it beautiful, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it. Similar imagery appears in Daniel 4, where Nebuchadnezzar is a great tree.
The turn comes in verse 10: because its heart was lifted up in its height, God delivered it to the mighty one of the nations. Strangers cut it down and left it. The fall shook the nations, a warning that no tree by the waters should exalt itself in its height. In the New Testament, 1 Peter 5:5 says that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Show What You Know
Why did God point Pharaoh to Assyria's history?
Who made the cedar beautiful?
What other book uses a great-tree image for a king?
Which New Testament verse says God gives grace to the humble?
Crossword
Across
- The cypress trees were not like its ____
Down
- All great ____ lived under its shadow
- Its branches became long by reason of many ____
- And its top was among the thick ____
- So that all the ____ of Eden
Think About It
Assyria's greatness was a gift from God that became a cause of pride. How can success become spiritually dangerous?
God used history to warn Pharaoh. What lessons from history or from others' lives can warn us against pride?
Memory Verse
“I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’”
Ezekiel 31:9 (WEB)
Copy It
Prayer
Dear God, thank You for making me strong. Help me . Amen.
Take It Home
For families: talk about these together.
- What lessons from the past can help you obey God?
- How does 1 Peter 5:5 connect to Ezekiel 31?
- What is one way you could live out this chapter this week?
Scripture: World English Bible, public domain, eBible.org. © 2026 The Daily Rooted. Free to print and copy for church and home use; not for resale. Original line art.