10/23/2007
Ezekiel 28:11 - 17
(HCSB)
11The word of the LORD came to me:
12“Son of man, lament
for the king of Tyre and say to him: This is what the Lord GOD says:
You
were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty.
13 You
were in Eden, the garden of God.
Every kind of
precious stone covered you:
carnelian, topaz, and
diamond,
beryl, onyx, and
jasper,
sapphire, turquoise
and emerald.
Your mountings and
settings were crafted in gold;
they were prepared on
the day you were created.
14 You
were an anointed guardian cherub,
for I had appointed
you.
You were on the holy
mountain of God;
you walked among the
fiery stones.
15 From
the day you were created
you were blameless in
your ways
until wickedness was
found in you.
…
17 Your
heart became proud because of your beauty;
For the sake of your
splendor
you corrupted your
wisdom.
So I threw you down
to the earth;
I made a spectacle of
you before kings.”
Prophecy often comes in the form of double-speak. This particular passage comes after Jerusalem has fallen. Tyre, an ancient coastal city notorious for trade is now located in the southern part of Lebanon. They city had become such a center of trade that it was notorious as a very wealthy city.
Yet when Tyre heard that Jerusalem had fallen, they set sites on Jerusalem to plunder her spoils. Although God had proclaimed judgment against Jerusalem, He did not intend for Tyre (or any other nation) to completely overrun her.
Nonetheless, in this passage, Ezekiel has been given a few oracles against Tyre as a whole, but here, a specific oracle against the king of Tyre is given, but we can easily see by its language that this is double-speak and the secondary meaning is commonly believed to be an oracle against Lucifer when he was cast from Heaven.
We do know that Lucifer was created as an arch-angle in Heaven, but because he exalted himself and his pride caused him to sin, he was cast from heaven. This passage suggests that Lucifer was created as an image of perfect beauty. I like to refer to this level of pride as arrogance.
We can see this same arrogance today in people around us. Those who possess beauty and wealth soon begin to see themselves as better than others. Of course, I do not mean this to include everyone. But clearly some do. I see this particularly in the wealthy. So many of those who possess great wealth begin to see themselves as “chosen” or “gifted” and somewhat higher than the masses.
Indeed, pride is called the original sin.
Is it a sin to be proud? Only when it pretends to raise us to equal or greater status than God. There is nothing wrong with being proud of a child for a flawless recital, or even proud of one’s self for an achievement, however, Pride becomes a sin when it fails to yield to God the Father as the creator and sustainer of all things.
The opposite of arrogance is humility. You cannot have arrogance with humility, but you can have pride with humility. And God honors humility, because it yields authority and glory to Him.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2007 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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