Ezekiel 28:5
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
By great wisdom and by trade the prince of Tyre increased his riches, and his heart was lifted up in pride because of those riches. The surrounding prophecy exposes his claim to divine status as false, declaring that he is only a man who will be brought down. That account of the prince also depicts Lucifer and his fall, where pride and sin arose amid the abundance connected with his activity and gifts, as his God-given glory and position led him to seek self-exaltation and the honor belonging to God.
Satan is the actual king of Tyre because he fully controlled that government, showing that he works through earthly rulers and nations as his agents. The verse refers primarily to Lucifer, the fallen angel, but it has wider significance beyond one being, describing a general movement to be witnessed in the last days. Lucifer's self-exaltation can still influence people in the present and the future, for Satan works today through human beings with the same subtle power he used in plotting rebellion among holy beings in heaven before the fall.
Great wisdom, when unsanctified, can be used by Satan to gain influence and cause confusion. That cunning work includes strange spirits and disguise that magnify small differences among God's people and hinder the work of saving souls. The verse therefore warns against uniting in any degree with those who advocate false theories and commercial enterprises opposed to the teachings of the Word of God, which absorb energies and means that should be given to the work of God for this time. Faithful study of it should lead truth seekers to walk in all the light given to God's people, so they are not deceived by the deceptions of the last days.