By looking at Ezekiel 28, we can see how the power of the heart can lead someone down the wrong path. In this chapter, God comments on how the sagacity and wisdom of the prince of Tyre helped him accumulate vast wealth: “With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.” (Ezekiel 28:4) There is no shame or condemnation in the activity of wealth accumulation. However, the problem resulted from how this activity impacted his heart or how he chose to respond to others from the new sense of accomplishment. The prince of Tyre chose to interact with others from a standpoint of pride: “By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 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.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. 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. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 28:5-10) The consequences of arrogance and self aggrandizement is death, which is buttressed in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” This is an ironclad law in the Kingdom of God. Achievement is great but the trick is not letting it turn you into thinking you are better than others. The fact this sentiment exists in the heart is exactly why the consequences are dire. The feelings within the heart moves our lives. And if those feelings are filled with pride, our relations with God and our fellow beings will be marred with this sin and thus lead us onto death.
Pride Brings Ruin
