Judgement of the Proud, Pt. 2

Verse: 

"I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, I will give it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations.  He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves.  I have cast it out.  Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, have cut it down and left it out."

Ezekiel 31:9-12

Thoughts: 

Day 2 of my prayer time and journaling is wrapping up.  I'm finding that it is harder to decide what I want to do than I thought it would be.  As I mentioned yesterday, the answer to a spiritual "funk" is prayer and getting into the Word, but the actual actions of how to do this can be harder to accomplish than one would think.  Contemplating it for a moment though, is this because I'm more interested in "setting up a strategy" to accomplish this rather than let God lead me?  Am I taking it in my hands on how to best approach God rather than letting the relationship develop naturally?

With that thought in my mind, I just jumped into Word again.  I just picked up where I left off yesterday in Ezekiel.  This is the portion of Ezekiel where there are a lot of judgments and lamentations still being thrown around on nations around Israel.  I can remember that I've read these before and by reading I mean blitzing through them as fast as I could.  After all, they all basically say the same thing and I don't really know where any of these places are or what they did to Israel to make God mad, right?  I'm sure there was some fighting and idol worshiping, but that's about where my guesses stop.

However, slowing down, I came across the passage in Ezekiel 31 talking comparing Pharaoh and Egypt to a mighty cedar of Lebanon.  I've seen this passage used in a book to compare Jesus' parable of a mustard seed growing into a mighty tree, but I don't see that as being accurate.  What jumped out to me was again a comparison of pride and the dangerous of letting it swell up inside of you.

Ezekiel 28 pointed out how a prideful heart can lead to you comparing yourself with God.  You essentially turn yourself into a God.  In the alliteration of the cedar tree in Ezekiel 31, we find that allowing others to heap praise on you produces this inflated sense of pride.  After all, all of the trees in Eden (which we assume was the most beautiful place on Earth) envied the cedar of Lebanon.  This is why Jesus would later mention that the humble are to be blessed.

Now all in all, this kind of runs in common sense to most of us.  No one likes a boastful, prideful person (although in our current political climate, they sure do seem to "respect" one).  We almost always prefer a humble individual because they work better with people (although it is often seen as a sign of weakness).  It is exciting and reassuring to see the same themes carried through seemingly random passages of the Old Testament too.  It shows more and more that God is steady and consistent throughout the ages.

I haven't found anything earth shattering that I didn't "know" already, but on Day 2, I'm at least finding that I'm getting excited about being back in the Word.

Prayer:

Prayer: