Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, / Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.’”’

September 21st, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This lament over the king of Tyre is similar to Isaiah 14:3–23, which foretold the destruction of Babylon. In both places, the verses have 2 layers of prophetic insight. The first layer of Isaiah 14 refers to the human king of Babylon, but at a deeper layer, the language best fits Satan. Here in Ezekiel, on the physical, human layer, Ezekiel is lamenting the king of Tyre (which secular history calls Ethbaal III), but the deeper layer clearly tells us the power behind this king was Satan.

Before Satan rebelled against God, he was perfect in angelic beauty. These verses expose Satan’s sin of pride as the root of all this evil. Pride is what led to Satan’s fall, it is what led to Tyre’s fall, and it is what will make us fall as well. Proverbs tells us that “Pride goes before destruction, / And a haughty spirit before a fall” (16:18). The Apostle Paul warned young Timothy not to let a new believer become an elder because of the danger of pride: “not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil” (1 Tim. 3:6).

Corrie ten Boom told this story of a proud woodpecker:

A woodpecker pecked with his beak against the trunk of a tree, like they are used to do. At that very moment a bolt of lightning struck the tree, and destroyed it. As the woodpecker flew away it said, “I didn’t know that there was so much power in my beak!”

This woodpecker reminds us of those who think more highly of themselves than they should. Usually they are so busy bragging about their achievements and greatness that they fail to recognize God as the source of all their abilities. We all can easily fall prey to spiritual delusions of grandeur. Everything we are, everything we are not, and everything we should be, must continually be surrendered back to the Lord again and again.

“LORD, please be LORD of our lives today. We give everything to You, and we ask You to change us as You please.”