LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
When Ornament Becomes Arrogance
"Because they turned the glory of their ornament into pride, and made of it the images of their abominable idols, therefore I made it a thing of abomination to them" (Ezekiel 7:20).
One of the main claims that God makes to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel is this. That which God gave them in grace, and which distinguished them from other peoples, man has turned into pride.
When does pride come into the heart of the child of God? When he forgets what he was like before he was beautified by God, when he forgets where he was when God received him in mercy.
The gifts of God are so precious, and so transform a man's life, that he who yesterday was a lost pauper, today is a son of a king; he who yesterday was on the dunghill, today is seated with the princes. The present magnificence makes one forget the destitution of yesterday. Then, in that burst of madness, in that delirium of the enlarged heart, the believer thinks that he is what he is by his own merit, that he has always been like that, that he owes nothing to anyone.
God has adorned His children, and He has done it beautifully. What a difference there is between before and after knowing the Lord! Those who yesterday were destitute, today are well off; those who yesterday were solitary beings, without direction or destiny, today enjoy the recognition of many. Those who yesterday were destitute men, with no possibility of being fixed, today look truly honorable.
Now they look up to the greats of the world, and want to imitate them. They surround themselves with a false elegance, with an absurd paraphernalia, which does not manage to hide their poor origins. The ornament of God has become, in them, pride. And so they fabricate idols that they worship and force others to worship. They found organizations, create systems, design great works that perpetuate their name. And then it becomes a sacrosanct fetish that no one can touch, that no one must question.
Laodicea -Ezekiel's Israel- is a monument to pride, a catafalque of spiritual realities. What it had yesterday (humility, spiritual richness, true revelation and service) is dead today. Only the name and the ashes remain. At best, it becomes a vain and sad museum.
When Ezekiel wrote these words, the fate of Israel was already cast. The Babylonian captivity had already begun. And now Ezekiel reviews the 'why', never to be repeated again in history. However, history repeats itself, again and again, until today. What Israel did wrong yesterday, Christianity does wrong today.
Great works, much lavishness, great outward appearance, vain and dazzling tinsel, but little or nothing of spiritual reality. Ah, if only we could return to the simplicity of the early days, to the living emotion of the first love! Many today would like to do so, but they cannot: they are slaves of their own works, they are prisoners in their own jails. Jerusalem is captive.