Today we live in a society of entitlement in which many live with the idea that the world owes them something. Therefore, they deserve special privileges. They feel that they should have the right to things they did not earn. Though we look at entitlement as something more prevalent in our contemporary society, it is not new. The root of entitlement is ingratitude and humility. Where did it get its start?

Welcome to our new series. In it, we will address an age-old concern that we all have: the concern for sin, evil, death and what happens after we die. Is there hope after death? When God created us humans, he intended for us to live forever in a loving relationship with him. But this relationship has been broken by sin.

Here, we address the origin of sin, and we look more closely at death and dying. But, instead of looking at death in a negative way, we look at it in the context of hope, the promised hope based on what Jesus did for us when he died and came back to life again.

From the Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide 2022 Quarter 4: Sabbath.School

See also Hope Sabbath School and 3ABN Sabbath School

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Inviting the Holy Spirit’s Presence

God Most High, though we do not deserve your love, your mercy and grace, you give it to us. Give us a heart of thankfulness and gratitude. In Jesus Name Amen. 

Entitlement is not new it is rooted in ingratitude. Ingratitude is the foundation of entitlement. It is a spirit of ungratefulness. It leads us to grumbling and complaining. Ingratitude is the opposite of gratitude or thankfulness.

Thus, the basis of entitlement is ingratitude. It lives off the premise that I am special and deserve things to be given to me exactly how I want them and when I want them.

Ezekiel helps us better understand the spirit of entitlement and ingratitude and in Ezekiel we see who is the originator.

Ezekiel wrote most of this book in end-time symbolic language. Therefore, most of the symbols show what will happen in the time of the end. Ezekiel also wrote about persons, animals, or objects and local events in in his day. He used them to show us a deeper spiritual reality.

In Ezekiel 28:1–10, we read about the king of Tyre. In Ezekiel’s day, Tyre was a rich, prosperous port city by the Mediterranean Sea:

1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because your heart is lifted up, And you say, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, In the midst of the seas,’ Yet you are a man, and not a god, Though you set your heart as the heart of a god

3 (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you!

4 With your wisdom and your understanding You have gained riches for yourself, And gathered gold and silver into your treasuries;

5 By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, And your heart is lifted up because of your riches),”

6 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god,

7 Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you, The most terrible of the nations; And they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, And defile your splendor.

8 They shall throw you down into the Pit, And you shall die the death of the slain In the midst of the seas.

9 “Will you still say before him who slays you, ‘I am a god’? But you shall be a man, and not a god, In the hand of him who slays you.

10 You shall die the death of the uncircumcised By the hand of aliens; For I have spoken,” says the Lord God.’ ” (Ezekiel 28:1-10)

Here, God speaks of the king of Tyre as a rich and proud leader who was merely a man who had the nerve to claimed to be a god.

We see in Ezekiel 28:2 and 8 that this king brags that he sits on the throne of the gods with the seas around him.

But how does God respond? God says that he, the king of Tyre is only a man.

Then interestingly in Ezekiel 28:12–19, the king of Tyre transitions to an analogy or a parallel to describe the original fall of Lucifer in the courts of heaven.

12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.

15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.

16 “By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.

17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.

18 “You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you.

19 All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; You have become a horror, And shall be no more forever.”’” (Ezekiel 28:12-19)

Ezekiel 28:13 tells us that Lucifer lived in Eden, the garden of God and upon the holy mountain of God, according to Ezekiel 28:14.

He was one of the covering Cherubs. The covering Cherubs have four wings that they spread over the throne of God. This was Lucifer’s position in heaven.

So, his home was in Eden, the garden of God upon the mountain of God. He had the position of being one of the covering Cherub that covered the throne of God.

Then, in Ezekiel 28:15: we read one of the most significant things that the Lord says about Lucifer:

“ ‘ “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” ’ ”.

In other words, God made Lucifer perfect. But at the same time, God also gave him free will which was a product of his perfection.

Hence, Lucifer’s perfection included the potential for evil, the potential to do wrong. Lucifer, like the rest of the angels, was given the freedom to choose.

Lucifer chose to do evil. He chose to sin.

The point here is that Lucifer was created perfect. This perfection included his ability to choose freely.

He abused that perfection by misusing his free will. The result is he became corrupted. He became entitled. He was ungrateful. He showed ingratitude.  He considered himself more important than he was.

Lucifer was no longer thankful to God for

making him and honoring him above all the angels. Lucifer felt he was entitled to more praise and honor. He wanted to receive more recognition than he deserved.

Now the question remains, how did this happen in the heart of a perfect creature who lived in a perfect universe? The

answer is: It is a mystery.

Under inspiration Ellen White writes: “Sin is a mysterious, unexplainable thing. There was no reason for its existence; to seek to explain it is to seek to give a reason for it, and that would be to justify it. Sin appeared in a perfect universe, a thing that was shown to be inexcusable.”—Ellen G. White, The Truth About Angels, p. 30. 

How do we avoid this sin of entitlement which is rooted in ingratitude? Paul offers us the solution. It is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “in everything give thanks”!

Thus, when we find ourselves in hard times,  when we feel like having a pity party in the place of gratitude, do the opposite, sing songs of praise and gratitude, give thanks!

Entitlement and ingratitude are tokens of Pride. Pride is encouraged and is commonly sought after today, but is it all that it claims to be? Find out in Day 5: The Price of Pride