Proverbs 16:5, Leave Pride To The Proud!
October 19, Proverbs 16:5
Isa. 45:1-10; Ezek. 28:2 “Heed the warning – Pride goeth before a fall.”
Leave Pride To The Proud!
It began as rebellion among the angels, but will have its end in the regions of the damned! Pride is the supreme evil! It even hides under the pretence of the humble look (Mt. 6:16). It is always placed among the worst sins in the Book of Proverbs. It “tops the charts” of the Seven Abominable Things God hates (6:17). It is up there with adultery (6:29), and even with perjury (19:5). It is so perverted that the proud can thank God they don’t resemble the adulterer or perjurer (Lu. 18:11)! How proud they are of their pride!
1. It’s a Parade. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. “Pride is a peacock, all strut and show.” How hideous is its voice in the ears of the wise! What a fine bird hatched in a barnyard! God exposes man’s foolish pride and advises Job to look on everyone that is proud, and bring him low (40:12).
a. There is National Pride. It has its place as, for instance, in seeing one’s country win “gold” in the Olympics. Yet even there, nasty politics intrude, and true sport has become sullied in the interests of “national pride,” “patriotism,” the Fatherland – right or wrong! Unscrupulous leaders, to promote personal lust for power, will use national pride. How many lands have been scenes of the most dastardly and cowardly killings of “the innocents,” all in the interest of “our land,” “our race,” “our tribe,” even “our religion,” in a word, “ethnic cleansing”? Romanism and the World Council of Churches have been guilty of supporting revolution under the guise of “national pride.” The poet Dryden, in Absalom and Achitophel, said, “Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.” Even more scathing is the comment of Samuel Johnson, writing to an Irish Bishop, “Patriotism, is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” It is the madness of many for the gain of a few.
b. There is Personal Pride. No doubt, this is the main, but not the exclusive, thrust of our proverb today. Is it not this one sin that fuels all the others? What havoc has been wrought by pride of birth, of wealth, of authority, of genius, of talents, of literary or professional attainments, of fashions. The list is endless. Perhaps you, dear reader, can add your own special pride, or you have been the victim of the pride of others. Is not a proud man always a foolish man? William Cowper wrote, “Beware of too sublime a sense of your own worth and consequence.” O, don’t forget the worst personal pride of all, namely, spiritual pride, self-righteous pride (1 Cor. 4:6-7)! The pride that apes humility is the most satanic of all pride. This has been treated in previous proverbs. Thomas Brooks called spiritual pride “a white devil.” It is so pervasive that it may be called “the universal passion”. Don’t forget God’s abhorrence of this evil. Pride means haughtiness, and is related to the word for the loftiness of the locusts, not a flattering pedigree!
Thought: Pride is satisfied with nothing less than supremacy over man.
Prayer: Lord, help me to remember, “There but for the grace of God go I.”