The course and doom of arrogance.
This prophecy is directed against "the Prince [or, 'King'] of Tyre" (Ezekiel 28:1), and was doubtless meant lot him particularly; but it may be taken that he was representative of his court and of his people, and that the denunciation and doom here recorded apply to the state as well as to its head. We have suggested to us the course as well as the doom of arrogance.
I. IT BEGINS IN A DANGEROUS AND IRREVERENT COMPLACENCY. The consciousness of power or of priority is found to be a pleasant thing, and it need not be any wise associated with evil. 'It is often the gift of God; it is often the result of such natural advantages as Tyro possessed. It may give a pure and honest joy to the heart; and when it leads to gratitude and ends in blessing, it is good in every light and at every turn. But when, as is only too often the case, it gives rise to an unwholesome complacency of spirit, which ascribes too much to its own sagacity and too little to the Divine favor, then it stands on perilous ground (Ezekiel 28:4, Ezekiel 28:5). Indeed, it has already begun to depart from the highway of wisdom and goodness; for this is not the spirit of godliness, but of irreverence.
II. IT PASSES ON TO A WEAK AND FOOLISH EXAGGERATION, Its heart is "lifted up" (Ezekiel 28:2). It magnifies its own capacities, its own virtues, its own achievements. It conceals its own errors, defects, misdoings, so that they are not visible to its own eyes. It thinks much "more highly of itself than it ought to think," and supposes itself capable of accomplishing that to which it is wholly unequal. It thinks itself a Daniel (Verse 3) when it is not.
III. IT ENDS IN IMPIOUS PRESUMPTION. It says, "I am a god, I sit in the seat of God" (Verse 2). There have been many men and there have been some "world-powers"—Babylon, Macedon, Rome, Spain—who (which) have arrogated to themselves an authority and a power little (if any) short of the Divine. They have believes themselves able to act as a Divine providence, determining who or what should be raised up or cast down, supposing that their will could be impressed upon the institutions, or the peoples, or the Churches of their age. They have claimed a homage and assumed a function which belong to none but the Most High himself. Thus human arrogance places on its own haughty head the crown of a daring and impious assumption.
IV. IT BRINGS UPON ITSELF THE SEVERE CONDEMNATION OF GOD. (Text; see 2 Samuel 22:28; Isaiah 2:11; Daniel 4:37; Luke 1:51; James 4:6.)
V. IT IS DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION. (Verses 6, 10.) The strong terms of the text speak of:
1. The decisive and successful antagonism of those who have been despised, but who prove to be "terrible" and victorious (Verse 7, former part).
2. The loss of all that has been most prized (Verse 7, latter part).
3. Uttermost ruin (Verse 8). And this is the fate of the haughty-hearted. They suffer the most mortifying humiliation in the discovery to themselves and exposure to others of their false pretensions; the loss of their high position and forfeiture of all that they once held in so tight a grasp; the ruin, material or moral, which is fitly described as "death." They "go down to the pit."
Let us learn:
1. To guard our power and our success by cultivating the spirit of humility and of gratitude.
2. To gain the approval of our Lord by employing our position and our privilege to bless our neighbors, so that we may win his smile and not suffer his reproach.
3. To humble our heart, if it should be lifted up, that we may gain God's mercy and not endure the penalty of our sin.—C.