Don’t Forget Who Butters Your Bread
Check out the great article posted on Paul Chappell’s website – The Pastor’s Perspective – “Where’s the Tolerance”
Today’s Passages – Ezekiel 28 – 31; Proverbs 8
(Second Milers also read – Colossians 1 – 4; Memorize – Psalm 85:6)
“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. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” – (Ezekiel 28:14-15)
These passages of Ezekiel can certainly be mysterious. I have been studying the Bible now for over twenty years, and there is still much about this particular Book that I do not fully comprehend. I do appreciate the fact that as I grow and continue reading these truths that the scales on my eyes are slowly being removed, and my understanding increases. However, I will never understand it all. In fact, I have discovered that the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t understand. Thus with my increased learning comes the realization of increased ignorance. Does that make sense? I’m not sure if I fully understand what I just said.
Anyway, in chapter 28 of Ezekiel we first read about the “Prince of Tyrus”. Tyre was a nation that had a long history with Israel. At some points in their history, we know that they were close allies with the people of God; but it is clear from these chapters that they had become bitters enemies to the Israelites; and it is also clear that they were a people that did not worship Israel’s God. Ezekiel writes much about the judgment of God upon His own people, but here we see that God also judges the nations that surrounded Israel. Tyre was one of these nations. Tyre seems to have been a very prosperous nation that thought that they had no need of God.
An interesting thing happens when we get to verse 11, however. Here Ezekiel is told to take up a lamentation against the “King of Tyrus”. The Bible then begins to describe this king. Notice the description given in vv 12 – 14:
“… Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 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. 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.” – (Ezekiel 28:12-14)
It is fairly clear to me that God is no longer referring here to any earthly ruler, as perhaps He was in the beginning of the chapter. It is apparent that the individual being discussed here is none other than Lucifer himself. Now we can understand better why the nation of Tyre was having the problems that she was having; because she was really under the control of Satan. Notice that when Satan controls a nation, He allows you (at least for a while) to worship yourself. In those early verses of chapter 28, it mentioned a couple of times that the earthly ruler of Tyrus considered himself to be a god. Satan’s game plan really hasn’t changed much through the years. He told Eve that she could be “like God”. In Isaiah 14 Satan said about himself that he would “be like the most high”. One of Satan’s tactics is to offer us the throne of our own lives. I know that’s my problem. Inside, I want to obey God, but there is also a part of me that wants the dominion.
Notice very carefully though what it says in v 14 about Who gave Lucifer all that he once had: “I have set thee so”. Somewhere along the line Satan forgot Who buttered his bread. He is just a created being like the rest of us. He has no powers to create in himself. God set him up, and God will someday take him out.
How about you? Have you forgotten Who it is that butters your bread? Everything you are, and everything you have is from God. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and don’t forget Who it is that butters your bread.
Posted in Devotions by Phil Erickson with no comments yet.