Ezekiel 31:1-2: “Now it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: “Whom are you like in your greatness?”‘”

September 24th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This is the third chapter dedicated to a prophecy against Egypt, and is dated a little less than 2 months after the prophecy of the last chapter. By God calling His prophet Ezekiel “son of man,” he was reminding him that he was just a man and needed to stay humble and usable. Which is interesting since Ezekiel was being instructed to describe the fall of Pharaoh the king of Egypt for thinking too highly of himself. In fact, Pharaoh claimed to be the creator of the Nile River. And because Pharaoh thought of himself as a god, the true God, God Almighty, He asked him who he would compare himself to. God went on to remind him of another nation that thought itself godlike and invincible and then described its destruction.

The lesson for us, the readers, is that we must diligently guard against pride in our lives. We can ask ourselves the same question: Who do we want to compare ourselves to? Would it be a rock star or movie star, maybe a famous preacher or world leader? The real question is why do we want to be that person? Our heavenly Father wants us all to have a proper perspective of our own identity; we were knit together in our mother’s womb by God Himself (Psalm 139), meaning our heavenly Father created us to be exactly who we are. Of course there is nothing wrong with desiring to be all that God wants us to be but there is a danger in wanting to be something that God did not intend us to be, and that is pride!

There was a wealthy guy who decided to take up fishing, so he bought the most expensive equipment and bait, but couldn’t catch anything. Dejected, he passed by a farm boy who had caught a big string of fish with just an old stick and rusty hook. “How did you manage to catch so many, when I couldn’t catch a single one?” he asked. “Oh,” said the boy, “I try to keep out of sight so the fish don’t see me. I think you show yourself to them too much.”

“LORD, keep us hidden behind You this day we ask in Jesus’ name.”