Cedar of Lebanon

The cedars of Lebanon were the most magnificent trees known to the biblical world: immense, long-lived, fragrant, and resistant to rot and insects. Their timber was the premium building material, shipped south for the grandest projects.

Solomon used cedar throughout the temple and his palace, and the wood became shorthand for splendour and permanence. As a symbol, the cedar pictured the righteous who “shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,” but also proud rulers and nations whose lofty height God would humble — “the LORD breaketh the cedars.”

The cedar's blend of genuine majesty and the danger of pride gives it a double lesson: true greatness and stability are gifts to be cultivated, yet height alone invites the axe when it becomes arrogance. Strength is meant to be rooted in righteousness, not self-exaltation.