I must admit that Ezekiel 17 confused me a bit. I couldn't keep track of the Eagles and kings.
The lesson seems to be that a divided loyalty cannot stand, particularly when we divide our loyalty between God and something else. Trying to please both masters just weakens us. IN God, we are planted by a stream, watered and nourished, yet we often strain ourselves looking after the wealth of the world. Material things, power, 'happiness', etc all draw our eyes from Him and as we strain, we weaken our roots.
Israel did it, it seems, with both God and man. They pursued other gods after making a covenant with The Lord and they pursued help from Egypt after making a deal with Babylon.
Ezekiel 17 ends with a prophesy about Jesus, how God will take him from the topmost twig of a lofty cedar (the cream of the crop of mankind, the line of David I assume) and plant him on a high mountain in Israel. He will grow up to be mighty and noble cedar and every kind of bird (people) will come to it. All the trees (people again?) will know that God is The Lord because of the cedar.
Israel is told over and over that they will know that He is The Lord from his judgement. wrath and punishment; we can know that God is The Lord through Jesus and the fruit he bears in the lives that come to Him.
