"Son of man, mourn for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and give him this message: "You think of yourself as a strong. young lion among the nations, but you are really just a sea monster, heaving around in your own river, stirring up mud with your feet." (Ezekiel 32:2 NLT)
I’m still trudging through Ezekiel and all its judgments against the ancient world. It gets a bit bleary, reading each of the edicts against Israel and its neighboring nations. I want to throw my hands up and say “Okay, God, we get it!” But clearly the original audience did not. Despite warning after warning, they perpetuated in their self-sufficiency and idolatry, thus sealing their destruction.
This verse about Pharaoh in Ezekiel 32 caught my attention. It reads like the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song, doesn’t it? ‘You think you’re a lion but you’re really a sea monster.’ (paraphrased) Our muscle memory can fill in the next line; ‘Why you gotta be so mean?’ 🙂 God was getting the attention of a man who had consistently set himself up as a false god among his people. Pharaoh had also made an unholy alliance of protection over Israel; unholy because Israel was instructed to rely on God alone, not their unbelieving neighbors.
It’s safe to say that Pharaoh – both immediate and historic – had a long-standing tradition of pride. (Isn’t that what they label a family of lions?) He believed himself to be king of the jungle, so to speak. His rule stretched past his natural boundaries and he acted invincible. Pharaoh presented as a lion, but he’d be exposed as a sea monster, stirring up the mud and making a mess of his nation.
I recognize this prophecy from three thousand years ago and I know that Babylon long ago put Egypt in its place. In fact, just yesterday I was marveling over God’s words to Egypt (chapter 29) and how Egypt never truly has returned to the world stage since. Even still, I think there’s immediate application for us as readers today.
We remain subject to pride. Confidence in our skills, our wealth, our family name or holdings can promote us far beyond what our character can sustain. We puff up, believing our future secure because of our own intellect, ability, resources and connections. We parade about as sleek, fat cats, just sure that we have it all figured out. All the while, we are really sea monsters, ready to roll in the mud of our own making, crushing the people we were created to serve.
Peter Scazzero calls this the false self – the gap between who we are and who we work hard to pretend to be. The bigger the gap, the greater the fall-out when the truth is exposed.
We begin to close the gap when we come near to God in humility, when we have the courage to ask Him how He really sees us. Can you imagine how history may have played out if Pharaoh had heard this prophecy and humbled himself? If, instead of insisting his kingdom was invincible, he had taken a trip to the Temple and sat bare-hearted in the presence of the Living God? How many lives might have been spared?
Friend, the painful truth is that we are more sea monster than lion. Our inadvertent ability to disrupt and destroy is considerable. And the people closest to us are the ones we hurt the most when we inevitably flail about in consequence.
We pick away at the false self when we sit in honesty with our Lord and Savior. He is patient to pull back the scales and help us see what is real and what is simply make believe. When we begin to truly know who we are (sinners saved by grace alone) we can concede to what we are capable of and take preventative measures to guard against it.
"It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lamentations 3:26 NLT)
Lord, it is far more attractive to play-act that we are lions than it is to admit that we are sea monsters. But pretense eventually falters and the truth is revealed. We are weary of these false selves, they require so much energy to propagate. All this make-believe is exhausting. Please, today, grant us the courage to come to You and wait on Your revelation. May we humble ourselves in Your presence, admitting that we aren’t nearly as sophisticated as we try to appear. Begin to strip away the false self; the version of us that sets itself up against You. Apprise us of the potential consequence of continuing in our pride. Wash us clean in Your unfailing love and set us free from the opinions of others. Restore us to the image You originally created. We needn’t pretend any longer. Amen.