Thursday, November 20, 2014

Ezekiel 28:4-9 -- On Being Cool But Not God

"With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness.
They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee."
Ezekiel 28:4-9


This is a message from God to the prince of Tyrus, and it sounds like the prince had a lot of things going for him.  In the verse before this selection it says that he was wiser than Daniel.  High praise. :)  And yet, sometimes that is the hardest position to be in when it comes to living in the gospel.  We're used to thinking that we are pretty cool and able to do things that others can't, and we start running into pride problems.  Daniel had other things going for him besides his wisdom... significantly humility, and a healthy respect for God's position.  It's just a plain fact that God knows more than all of us, and that he can see farther ahead on the road than we can, no matter how far we've planned ahead.
Today, let's work on not imagining that our hearts are as the heart of God.  Let's recognize that we have a lot to learn.  Let's use our talents to make the world better, but not believe that they make us better than each other, or better than God.  It's okay to be cool... let's just help others be cool and share in the fun, right? :)

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