Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Yesterday, we started reading Ezekiel's prophecies for Israel's enemy nations, and we

ended with a lament for Tyra, the wealthy city-state north of Israel.

One thing that shows up repeatedly in today's reading is the pride of the nations and how

God opposes that pride, even if that pride directly corresponds to gifts and skills he

has given them.

For instance, God affirms that Tyra is legitimately beautiful and its leaders are certainly wise,

but they've corrupted those good gifts through the pride in their beauty in wisdom and

wealth.

Then we read about Egypt, who is proud of its power and position.

People who take credit for their own strengths or who fixate on them too much steal the

credit that belongs to the giver of those gifts.

Can you encounter people who are like this?

Isn't it kind of repulsive?

I think that might be one reason why the self-esteem movement has backfired on us.

Telling everyone how awesome they are might solve one problem, but it creates another.

It bosters entitlement and arrogance, and before we know it, we've built a world of inseparable

humans.

Sometimes swinging the pendulum to the other end doesn't create the balance we're hoping

for.

Today, we opened in chapter 28 with prophecies directed at the leadership of Tyra.

It's unclear if these two sections are referring to the same person or not.

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