PRIDE: THE CHRISTIAN’S GREATEST ENEMY
(LESSON 2)
THE NATURE AND REALM OF PRIDE
2 CHRONICLES 26:1-22 (New Living Translation)
1 All the people of Judah had crowned Amaziah’s sixteen-year-old son, Uzziah, as king in place of his father.
2 After his father’s death, Uzziah rebuilt the town of Elath and restored it to Judah.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.
4 He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his father, Amaziah, had done.
5 Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.
6 Uzziah declared war on the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built new towns in the Ashdod area and in other parts of Philistia.
7 God helped him in his wars against the Philistines, his battles with the Arabs of Gur, and his wars with the Meunites.
8 The Meunites paid annual tribute to him, and his fame spread even to Egypt, for he had become very powerful.
9 Uzziah built fortified towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the angle in the wall.
10 He also constructed forts in the wilderness and dug many water cisterns, because he kept great herds of livestock in the foothills of Judah and on the plains. He was also a man who loved the soil. He had many workers who cared for his farms and vineyards, both on the hillsides and in the fertile valleys.
11 Uzziah had an army of well-trained warriors, ready to march into battle, unit by unit. This army had been mustered and organized by Jeiel, the secretary of the army, and his assistant, Maaseiah. They were under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.
12 These regiments of mighty warriors were commanded by 2,600 clan leaders.
13 The army consisted of 307,500 men, all elite troops. They were prepared to assist the king against any enemy.
14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones.
15 And he produced machines mounted on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to shoot arrows and hurl stones from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.
16 But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord’s Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar.
17 Azariah the high priest went in after him with eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men.
18 They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is the work of the priests alone, the descendants of Aaron who are set apart for this work.
Get out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor you for this!”
19 Uzziah, who was holding an incense burner, became furious. But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead.
20 When Azariah the high priest and all the other priests saw the leprosy, they rushed him out. And the king himself was eager to get out because the Lord had struck him.
21 So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was excluded from the Temple of the Lord. His son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the people of the land.
Isaiah’s emergence as a prophet occurred during the reign of Uzziah. He must have received the news of God’s judgment of the king with amazement. At the height of his fame, prosperity and power Uzziah was stricken with leprosy.
What could he have done to provoke such a sudden execution of the judgment of God? What kind of passion could have incited Uzziah to behave so presumptuously and arrogantly? What could have caused him to fall from the heights of fame, prosperity and power to being forced to live the latter years of his life as a shut-in in a leper’s house? The answer to each of these questions is pride.
The Word of the Lord leaves no doubt whatsoever as to what is God’s position in respect of pride. The following verses indicate clearly that pride is offensive to God:
Psalm 101:5
“Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.”
Proverbs 6:16-17
“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.”
Isaiah 2:17
“And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.”
Isaiah 13:11
“And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”
Matthew 23:12
“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
James 4:6
“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
As Augustine of Hippo, an early Christian theologian observed, “There is hardly a page of scripture on which it is not clearly written that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.”
The Bible uses different words to describe the pervasive spiritual disease called pride. All of them however, have a connotation of height, rising, exaltation or being lifted up. A proud person therefore is one who has a high estimation of himself, one who lifts himself above others. This concept of self-exaltation forms the basis of our working definition of pride. Pride may be defined as “An exaggerated sense of one’s own importance and a selfish preoccupation with one’s own interests.” It is an attitude that says, “I will promote my interests and protect my rights at your expense.”
Pride is the governing principle of the kingdom of darkness including the world of those who are not saved. It causes strife in the home, the workplace, the political arena and the church. In Proverbs 13:10 we read the following: “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” The New Living Translation renders the verse as follows: “Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.” It is pride that incites fierce competition amongst people in every area of life.
Pride motivates women to attempt to out-dress each other as they compete to be “the fairest of them all.” Pride motivates men to compete with each other over their abilities, possessions and physiques.
Pride enkindles and fans the flames of lust that drive a sexual deviant straight down the spiral of degradation. For example, a promiscuous individual feels a self-exalting exhilaration when he or she adds a new person to their list of conquests. A rapist feeds his monstrous ego by subduing and humiliating women.
Pride is the motivating factor in respect of much of the violence that plagues our society. A wounded ego causes a man to murder his wife and her lover. Members of rival gangs and political parties become involved in brawls, drive-by shootings and killing of innocent persons in retaliation of previous attacks by their adversaries. Pride provokes the escalation of inflammatory verbal assaults which often leads to fights, resulting in serious injuries and death. Much unnecessary hostility occurs simply because persons try to save face and gain an advantage. Without a doubt, pride has caused more problems, conflicts, suffering, and heartache on this earth than any other human passion.
There is a common factor in each of these scenarios: people are either trying to exalt themselves at the expense of others or they are doing their utmost to protect themselves from others who would do so at their expense. Every aspect of it smells strongly of the ugly, offensive and selfish attitude of “taking care of number one.”
The Origin of Pride
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15).
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee” (Ezekiel 28:12-17).
While it is clear that these two passages of scripture refer primarily to earthly monarchs, as you read them you get the impression that there is also an allusion to the devil in both. The use of the word “cherub” in the Ezekiel passage definitely suggests that we are dealing with an angelic creature.
The fact that Satan wants to control nations and their leaders is clear from 1 Chronicles 21 and Daniel 9, and Matthew 1:8-10 indicates that he has delegated authority to dispose of the nations.
It is apparent that before the creation of man, a rebellion occurred in the heavenly realm when the angel Lucifer attempted to overthrow the God who had created him.
What was it that brought about the downfall of this once shining angel? What was it that so corrupted and blinded him? The Bible is very clear: “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness” (Ezekiel 28:17). The Message renders the verse as follows: “Your beauty went to your head. You corrupted wisdom by using it to getworldly fame.”
Pride was the sin that transformed Lucifer, a mighty and beautiful angel into a cursed devil! We must bear in mind that Lucifer was not created with a propensity to sin. Unlike us, he did not have to struggle with a sinful nature. Ezekiel 28:15 confirms this: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” If the iniquity of pride could have found its way into the heart of a perfect, glorious angel then how much more is it possible for it to happen to us who were shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin according to Psalm 51:5?
The very same proud, arrogant, high-minded attitude that caused the king of pride to be cast out of heaven is the predominant mindset of this world. The kingdom of darkness is governed by pride. The devil uses pride as his greatest ally to corrupt and bring about the destruction of human beings. His design is made easier in that a natural fondness for pride is resident in the heart of every human being.
The Kingdom of God is vastly different! This realm is governed by the One who earned the right to govern by saying, “Not my will but thine be done.” The dominant mindset of those who faithfully follow this One is humility and lowliness of mind. Such persons prefer the desires of their Lord and the needs of others above their own.
In Philippians 2:1-11 we read the following: “If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever,so that all created beings in heaven and on earth — even those long ago dead and buried — will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ,and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father”(the Message).