The Danger of Thinking Too Much of Ourselves

Scripture Verses that Caught My attention today: Ezekiel 12:1-3 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 Mortal, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; 3 for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, mortal, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight; you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

Observation: Sometimes we are not wise enough to take note of our situation.

Application: This morning on the radio it was noted that a long-time Texas prison warden had retired and that he had presided over the executions of a great number of inmates. Somehow that story led to a discussion among the show’s hosts about what they might like, if they were on death row, for their own last meal.

Today’s lesson from Ezekiel has a similar theme. If you had to leave where you live now, with only what you could carry on your back, what would you take with you? This is what Ezekiel means by an “exile’s baggage.”

Interestingly, just yesterday I started reading a book by Jim Collins entiled, “How the Mighty Fall.” It’s basically an analysis of why some purportedly great companies eventually die. He notes that often times the pride and hubris (I’ll admit that I had to look this word up in the dictionary cause I didn’t know for sure what it meant.) of the leaders ultimately leads to the fall.

It appears to me that these kinds of leaders are very similar to the type of people that God, through Ezekiel, is referring too when he says that they have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

Rebellion, of course, takes many forms. And sometimes it’s even necessary. But the rebellion described in Ezekiel has at its root a whole bunch of hubris: an extreme arrogance that includes being out of touch with reality and an overestimating of one's own competence. Thankfully it’s a condition that God, sooner or later, can work through a number of channels to readily fix, sometimes with an exile's baggage.

Prayer: Dear Lord, keep us from having so much pride in ourselves or our organizations or what we sometimes mistakenly think of as our churches or even our political parties that we somehow lose our grounding in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Scripture Readings today included: Ezekiel 12-14 and Revelation 5)