As Wise as a God?

“Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god…” 

Ezekiel 28:6

Ezekiel 28 exposes the deadly lie that overtook the king of Tyre—the belief that he was not merely powerful, but godlike. His success, wealth, and brilliance convinced him that he no longer needed the God who had given those gifts in the first place. Pride slid from confidence into delusion, echoing the serpent’s ancient whisper: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Walter Brueggemann calls this pride “the refusal to acknowledge creatureliness”—the illusion that we are self-made, self-sustained, and self-directed. Eugene Peterson adds that sin at its root is “the radical attempt to live without God.” Tyre’s fall did not begin at the moment of judgment; it began much earlier, when the heart stopped receiving life as a gift and started claiming it as self-generated glory.

A life lived as though God were unnecessary always ends in the same way—small, collapsing, and curved inward on itself. When God is pushed out of the center, the self must take His place, and that burden crushes every human heart. Pride blinds us to our limits, disconnects us from reality, and turns our gifts into gods that inevitably fail us. Patrick Miller warns that idolatry begins when life is organized around our own wisdom and desires, rather than the living God. And it is no coincidence that “self” is simply “flesh” spelled backwards; a life turned inward always withers. The fall of Tyre is not just ancient history—it is a mirror held up to every human soul that forgets its Maker.

Yet the gospel offers a far better way. The Holy Spirit exposes pride not to condemn us, but to heal us. He invites us into a wisdom that is “pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason”(James 3:17)— a wisdom that does not puff up the ego but frees us from the exhausting burden of trying to rule our own lives. Scripture reminds us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), because humility is the doorway through which all true understanding enters. When we let go of the illusion that we can sustain, direct, or justify ourselves, we return to the life for which we were made: a life anchored in God’s presence and upheld by His strength. Dependence on God is not weakness—it is the soul returning to its rightful orientation, the deep beauty of knowing we are beloved children of God our Father (Galatians 4:6–7), not self-made beings trying to hold ourselves together. In surrender (Matthew 11:28–29), we enter again the spacious life Christ intended—and in that yielding, we finally become whole.

Prayer 

Lord, keep us from the pride that turns our hearts inward. Free us from the illusion of self-sufficiency, and restore us to humble dependence on You. Give us wisdom from above and hearts that honor You as our true King. Amen.