I Shall Be Filled; She Is Laid Waste

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home › resources › literature › I Shall Be Filled; She Is Laid Waste

Keraza Magazine issue 23-24, June 2016

When of old, Tyre was exalted over Jerusalem and subjugated her (through God's permission, for His children to repent), God spoke to Ezekiel the Prophet concerning her: "Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, 'Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.' Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I am against you, O Tyre,'" (Ezekiel 26:2-3). Actually, the logic of "I shall be filled; she is laid waste" is an evil diabolic logic which became a lifestyle for many, not only on the level of nations, but also for individuals in their daily lives, and on the level of groups in their relationships with each other.

This sick logic causes the person to feel safety only when the other is brought low and weakened. This one does not feel good until he is sure that the other is not good. It is a false sense of vain fulfillment stemming from servility of the other's void, a fallacious gain based on the losses of others. The opposite also applies for all who take up this slogan where, "I shall be filled; she is laid waste. I will lay waste since she shall be filled." As if life is a scale where one side does not move up unless the other side moves down.

This is the logic of the tyrannical persecutor and the arrogant oppressor. It is the logic of any country that rises to demolish another country, every nation that gains prosperity by destroying another nation, every rich person who adds to his riches through the poverty of others, every man who feels manly by debasing his wife, every colleague who builds his success on the failure of his colleague, every father who feels his authority by mastering his son, and every Pharisee who builds his pride upon the lowness of a publican.

It is a wicked passion that attacks the natural man, but the spiritual man has the methodology of the Baptist saying: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). The fullness of the spiritual is a true fullness derived from the Holy Spirit, while the fullness of the natural man is relative as it is based on comparing himself with others. The evil one alone is titled the destroyer, and he only comes to steal, kill, and destroy, because his kingdom is based on destruction and his food is the demolition of others. All who think that they increase when others decrease, and decrease by others' increase, are from the evil one, and have in truth been weight on the scales of the Holy Spirit and been found wanting. He thinks that he is rich, has become wealthy, and has need of nothing, and does not know that he is wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).

Oh, Holy Spirit of God, Oh, that You would teach us of what spirit we are. Oh, as you examine our ways and attitude purify them for us, and re-harmonize them to the rhythm and laws of love, so that our motto becomes: "I am filled if my brother is full; I am weak if he becomes weak; I stumble if he stumbles; and I rise if he rises."

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States