SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2015
9:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Judgment on the prince of Tyre
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
28:1-10
Message of the
verses: We have moved to the fourth
main section in Dr. Wiersbe’s outline from his outline for the eighth chapter
of his commentary and he has entitled it “Judgment of Tyre’s ruler.”
1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 "Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre,
’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Because your heart is lifted up And you have
said, ’I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods In the heart of the seas’; Yet you
are a man and not God, Although you make your heart like the heart of God-
3 Behold, you are wiser than Daniel;
There is no secret that is a match for you. 4 “By your wisdom and understanding
You have acquired riches for yourself And have acquired gold and silver for
your treasuries. 5 "By your great wisdom, by your trade You have increased
your riches And your heart is lifted up because of your riches- 6 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ’Because you have made your
heart Like the heart of God, 7 Therefore, behold, I will
bring strangers upon you, The most ruthless of the nations. And they will draw
their swords Against the beauty of your wisdom And defile your splendor. 8
’They will bring you down to the pit, And you will die the death of those who
are slain In the heart of the seas. 9 ’Will you still say, "I am a
god," In the presence of your slayer, Though you are a man and not God, In
the hands of those who wound you? 10 ’You will die the death of the
uncircumcised By the hand of strangers, For I have spoken!’ declares the Lord
GOD!"’"”
I have mentioned that chapter 28 of Ezekiel talks about
Satan, along with Isaiah chapter 14. In
Isaiah 14 the prophet is speaking of judgment on the king of Babylon, however
most Bible scholars believe this is speaking of Satan as many Bible scholars
believe that chapter 28 of Ezekiel speaks of one judgment, that of the prince
of Tyre, its leader when Babylon was attacking them, and then a king of Tyre,
which is actually a lament on what Lucifer became. Verse 14 of chapter 28 speaks of the king of
Tyre as “the anointed cherub.”
As we look at these verses we see that the issue is of
pride. I have mentioned this before, but
worth repeating, the successful leader realizes that they are second in
command, and the prince of Tyre certainly did not believe he was second in
command, for he even calls himself a god, and because of this the Lord would
bring the country of Babylon upon Tyre and destroy both prince and country
because of his pride. I am sure that he
was not the only one from Tyre who had the deadly sin of pride.
Proverbs 6:16-17 reads as follows “16 There are six things which the
LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a
lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood.” We can see why the Lord would judge the
prince of Tyre. Verses 3-5 speak of his
pride because of his wisdom and wealth, and it was because of this pride he
said that he was a god. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “When you read Scripture, you find occasions when God judged arrogant
rulers, such as Pharaoh, whom the Egyptians treated as a god (Ex. 5:2),
Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4), and Herod Agrippa (Acts 12). World leaders who ignore the Lord and act as
if they are gods will all be exposed and judged.” And for that I say AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment