“Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”Your heart became proud
Ezekiel 28:12, 17
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 is a challenging passage. It is a lament against one who has fallen because of his pride and is facing God’s judgment. He is identified as the king of Tyre, but the language used here seems inappropriate for a human ruler. He is described as a guardian cherub who was in Eden, the garden of God. And he was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Some understand this to be metaphorical language describing the human ruler of Tyre. But others see the one described here as something else, an angelic being of some kind, potentially Satan.
But, regardless of who this is, they had a problem. A problem that many of us have today. Pride! And, as Proverbs 16:18 says, his pride led to his fall. His heart became pride, and his beauty and splendor corrupted his wisdom. As a result, he fell into sin and was expelled from the Mount of God.
Be Careful of Pride
I am not a guardian cherub or a king. My beauty and wisdom are far from perfect or complete. But the warning about pride contained in this passage is still appropriate. I have to guard against thinking more highly of myself than I should. Thinking I am somehow better than the person sleeping on the street or in a jail cell. That I am in some way worthy of God’s love. Or that I deserve some credit for my service within the kingdom.
Pride takes our focus off of the one who is worthy and turns it onto ourselves. It hinders our ability to serve our Lord. And it can even lead to a fall. Take pride, not in who you are or what you do, but in whose you are and what he is doing in and through you. Take pride in the one who alone is worthy of praise and honor.
