1.
The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2.
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
3.
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
4.
With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
5.
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
6.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
7.
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.
8.
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.
9.
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.
THE DOOM OF PRIDE
‘A man, and no God.’
Ezekiel 28:9
I. At the time of this prophecy Ethbaal was King of Tyre—the representative of the Phœnician Sun-Deity, whose name he bore. Like Herod, he was tempted, in the pride of his heart, to claim the honour which belongs to God alone. He sat on the throne of God, in the midst of the seas. No precious stone from the bed of ocean or the mines of earth was withheld from him. As the cherubim covered the ark with outspread wings, so did he cover the interests of Tyre. He seemed to stand as the beau-ideal of humanity, on the very sapphire pavement described in Exodus ( Ezekiel 24:10; Ezekiel 24:17). But his beauty, of which he was so conscious, caused his heart to be lifted up to his ruin, and the brightness of his glory dazzled his eyes, so that God cast him to the ground as a warning of the terrible consequences of pride.
II. We are strongly reminded, in this marvellous description, of Adam, standing in his native innocence and beauty in Eden; and especially of Satan, before his fall.—Behind the figure of the King of Tyre rises that of the prince or god of this world, when as yet he was the unfallen son of the morning. The creature may be placed in the most favourable circumstances that can be imagined—as, for instance, in Eden, the garden of God, or even in heaven itself—but he cannot remain there if his heart becomes its own centre, or lifted up with pride. We cannot stand for a moment unless we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. The records of the world are full of those who thought they could stand, but who fell, because they had not made God their strength. But the Israel of God shall dwell safely, and shall know the Lord. O blessed day, when we shall rest for ever with God, knowing Him even as we are known!
Illustration
‘It is a historical parable. The kings of Tyre are first personified as one individual, an ideal man—one complete in all material excellence, perfect manhood. And then this ideal man, the representative of whatever there was of greatness and glory in Tyre, and in whom the Tyrian spirit of self-elation and pride appear in full efflorescence, is ironically viewed by the prophet as the type of humanity in its highest states of existence upon earth. All that is best and noblest in the history of the past he sees in imagination meeting in this new beau-ideal of humanity. It was he who in primeval time trod the hallowed walks of paradise, and used at will its manifold treasures, and regaled himself with its corporeal delights. It was he who afterwards appeared in the form of a cherub—ideal compound of the highest forms of animal existence—type of humanity in its predestined state of ultimate completeness and, glory; and as such, had a place assigned him among the consecrated symbols of God’s sanctuary in the holy mount, and the immediate presence of the Most High. Thou thinkest, thou ideal man, thou quintessence of human greatness and pride—thou thinkest that manhood’s divinest qualities, and most honourable conditions of being, belong peculiarly to thyself, since thou dost nobly peer above all, and standest alone in thy glory. Let it be so. But thou art still a man, and, like humanity itself in its most favoured conditions, thou hast not been perfect before God: thou hast yielded thyself a servant to corruption, therefore thou must be cast down from thine excellency, thou must lose thy cherubic nearness to God, etc.… So that the cry which the prophet would utter through this parabolical history in the ears of all is, that man in his best estate—with everything that art or nature can bring to his aid—is still corruption and vanity. The flesh can win for itself nothing that is really and permanently good; and the more that it can surround itself with the comforts and luxuries of life, the more only does it pamper the godless pride of nature, and draw down upon itself calamity and destruction.’
10.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
11.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12.
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16.
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18.
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
20.
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21.
Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
22.
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
23.
For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
24.
And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
25.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
26.
And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.