I like to think that I am immune to this vice, and have the virtue of Christ, but that's not realistic nor accurate. We live in a world where satan, the source of pride, entices us humans with what John calls the pride of life. What is that exactly? What is so prideful about life? I thought life was good or if we choose: evil. Well, satan is an angel once at the throne of God with Christ and the other archangels praising the Father on His throne. Ezekiel described satan as an anointed cherub and was considered perfect when he was made and ordained as the morning star, but he had pride and trusted in his own beauty and intelligence and power. Because he was proud of himself, he thought he could rule better than God, so enticed a third of the angels to take the throne with a betrayal and a coup, but to no avail. There's a proverb that says: "Pride goes before a destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). This is surely true for the enemy and any prideful person; for the enemy was exiled from God's throne to fall to the earth. That was how he could entice Eve in the garden.
The serpent appealed to the woman's pride that she would be like God and not die when she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When this happened, our ancestors gave up dominion to the enemy to rule because of their pride. A whole lot of consequences happened to Adam and Eve including the sting of death. Many years later, Herod the tetrarch was so proud of himself for his speech, after killing the apostle James, that the people thought he was a god, but never gave glory to the true God so an angel struck him and he died and was eaten by worms. Goliath pride himself of his stature and his warrior skills until he was beheaded by a shepherd boy with a sling and a stone.
There's all sorts of things to be prideful about. Naaman the Syrian was prideful of his rivers in Syria until he was convinced by a servant to go to the Jordan, as Elisha said, to be healed of his leprosy. Uzziel, the king, was proud of his office as king and thought he should be a priest, so he went into the temple with a censer for incense, but to his shame, he was rebuked by the rightful priests and became a leper till he died living the rest of his life in shame. Uzziel proved the proverb: "First comes pride than comes shame, but to the humble is wisdom." Nabal was prideful of his wealth that he scorned David's servants for the good deeds they did to protect Nabal's livestock--with no reward. If it wasn't for his wife, Abigail, Nabal and his men would have died by David's hand, but the understanding wife convinced David to not do it and blessed David and his men with food and wine for their labor. What happened to Nabal? He had a feast in his house and got drunk. When he learned the truth from his wife, his heart became a stone and God smote him. There's pride in one's race like the Egyptians that wouldn't eat with Joseph because he was a Hebrew, and that pride led many generations later to a Pharaoh with so much pride in his race that it took nine plagues and the death of the first born by God to let the children of Israel go.
Those are just a few examples of pride, and the consequence is evident. Pride can also make you not teachable like King Saul against the Amalekites. Saul heard the instructions by God through Samuel but because Saul thought he knew better than God because of pride in his ways, He didn't do what God said to do. God said to do an herem to everything in the city of the Amalekites because of God's promise to Moses that he would have war with Amalek from generation to generation because of what they did to Israel in the wilderness by attacking the weak and the infirmed. Saul killed the Amalekites, but spared Agag the king and the spoils for offerings to God, but this was not what God wanted. God wanted to do right for Israel, but Saul didn't do it. Because of Saul's pride and stubbornness, he lost the throne of Israel as king, and many generations later, an Agagite name Haman tried to get revenge against the Jews through the King of Persia. If it wasn't for Esther and Mordecai, the Jews would have been massacred. God saved the Jews through humble Esther, but it wouldn't have ever been needed if King Saul wasn't so prideful and just obeyed God.
Jesus said that whoever humbles himself shall be exalted, and whoever prides himself or exalts himself shall be abased. That's what happened to King Saul and so many others. If we are not careful, O reader, we could be abased because of our pride--me included. I pray we learn these lessons about this vice, and make war against it to not do it again. On my next blog, I hope to talk about the virtue of humility.
