Pride?

Ray: The First time pride is mentioned in the Bible, it is mentioned in reference to the Jews. God warned them that if they did not obey his commandments incredible calamity would befall them and that they would be dispersed among all nations.

Leviticus 26 – 14 “But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you will not do all My commandments, but that you break My covenant:” 16 “I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning fever, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies; those who hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when no one pursues you.” 18 “And if you will not yet for all this listen to Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; … 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Proverbs 16:18 also warns;

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

It seems that pride is a warning in the Bible that there is something wrong with us.

Original sin came to the earth as a result of pride. It started with the pride of Lucifer.

Isaiah 14 – 11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: The worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 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! 13 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: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

This sin was followed by the sin of Adam in eating of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. The temptation that Adam respond to was the offer to become like God. (Eve was tempted first). (Gen 1-3) Mankind would never have experienced death if we had not succumbed to pride.

We in Canada have a lot to be ashamed of. We are involved in a holocaust of killing of babies in their mothers wombs. Many more have been exterminated than Hitler is credited for. One of the ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not murder”. How blind we are that we do not consider this murder when we violate the womb.

The world wide flood would not have occurred if it were not for mans pride. God gave a symbol of his wrath in the flood that still exists today. It is the rainbow. God told us that he would never again in his wrath against us apply a worldwide flood. We are reminded of both God’s wrath against our pride whenever we see a rainbow and we are also reminded of his promise but he linked to that promise that he would instead destroy man with fire. So the rainbow reminds us also of future judgment by fire whenever we see the rainbow.

The bible gave us a picture of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman as something that helps us to understand our relationship with Him. God offers us the opportunity to be the Bride of Christ in the New Testament. Similarly In the case of the Jews they are offered the opportunity to be the wife of God in the Old Testament. But we are guilty of Adultery and Fornication in our society. Again we violate one of the ten commandments. “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. Jesus said to even look upon a woman with lust is to commit adultery in our heart. Fornication is a catch all phrase for sexual acts outside of marriage. By Jesus’ definition all of us have violated this commandment.

The Bible is emphatic in its message that all have sinned.

Romans 3 – 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It is not right to single out any one single type of sin over any other. The Bible is clear that anyone that breaks any of God’s commandments is guilty of sin. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible gives a comprehensive list to make it clear that we have all sinned and fall short.

1 Cor 6 – 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals (Gk: arsenokoítēs, men in coitus), 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor those who verbally assault, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

As you can see. No one escapes God’s judgment. Anyone that wishes to point the finger at one sin in that list has several fingers pointing back at themselves.

But God gave the solution to sin in the very next verse of 1 Cor. 6. If you continue reading it says the following;

1 Cor. 6 – 11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, and you are sanctified (made holy), and you are justified in the name of the LORD Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

You have a choice. You can celebrate PRIDE and wave a rainbow banner that reminds us of God’s judgment (God created the rainbow to remind us of his judgment in the world wide flood and that His next judgment would be by fire.) or you can chose to humble yourself to the one that humbled himself even to the point of death. The Lord Jesus Christ both knew no sin and he did not exhibit pride. Rather than joining in, in Pride celebrations which are occurring in Canada this time of the year you could humble yourself and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life and to make you the kind of person he wants you to be.