The essence of human conceit is our ambition to be gods of our own little worlds. In the beginning, Satan tempted Adam and Eve with the notion of being ‘like God’. That was Satan’s ambition and he needed to use human beings as a footstool to achieve this. Ironically, we were already made in God’s likeness, but Satan was tempting the first human beings with the ambition to independence and autonomy (self-rule). It was a very deceptive move because we simply do not have the resources in ourselves to rule our own lives. When we came out from under God’s authority, we became vulnerable and this gave Satan the opportunity to rule over us in the place of God. In order to gain even a remote sense of autonomy we have to create a small enough universe for ourselves over which it is possible for us to exercise some control. We therefore create little lifestyle kingdoms that are like cocoons in which our lives become incarcerated. This is how Satan keeps human beings bound up. The description of the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28 could be a description of Satan himself. The ambition of the King of Tyre to be a god originated in the evil mind of Satan and is an expression of Satan’s agenda. As a result, we human beings are obsessed with trying to achieve autonomous control over our lives. But we were never meant to carry the weight of our own lives. Our lives belong in God’s hands, and it is only in his hands that we are truly free.
Commit your life into God’s hands.
Read Ezekiel 28
