Pride leads to . . .

 

2 Chronicles 26; Zechariah 9; John 12; Revelation 13

God gave me a lesson about pride long before I became a Christian. I was about sixteen, dressed to the nines and strutting around the house in high heels and thinking how good I looked. Then I tripped and fell. When I got up, I looked to see what tripped me; it was a little piece of straw. I remember thinking that I was just a farm girl with no claim to being so snooty. Sadly, pride didn’t end there — I needed many more lessons and still do.

Uzziah was about the same age when his father Amaziah died and he became king. The Bible says he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem . . .

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. (2 Chronicles 26:4–5)

The chapter lists his many accomplishments and says his fame spread far for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. But then, “when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.” The chapter ends with a description of his failures, a confrontation from eighty priests, and how he became angry and leprosy broke out while he was in the temple of the Lord. He was rushed out of there and exiled to separation until he died. Pride leads to failure.

Zechariah speaks of the pride of the nations that go against His people. Tyre and Sidon heaped up possessions but God strikes them down. Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron are stripped of their power. God “cuts off the pride of Philistia” and brings to ruin all those who have oppressed His people. Pride leads to failure.

Jesus has reason to be proud, but He was not like that king nor am I like Jesus. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem did not involve a white stallion but a young donkey. Those who sought after Him heard Him say:

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:23–26)

He knew that glory and pride were not partners. Instead, for Him glory would come after death, after humiliation and yielding. True honor from God would come at the price of His life. Unlike those who refused to confess faith in Him because they feared being tossed out of the synagogue, He did not love the glory that comes from humanity above the glory that comes from God. (see John 12:42-43)

In Revelation, God describes evil in the form of two “beasts” that He allows to work deception until they hold all people captive to their deadly plan. Whatever this signifies, the rest of the book reveals that Jesus wins and that all the pride and power that comes against Him and against those who love and follow Him will not prevail. Pride, even at its greatest height, will be brought down. No matter how great the foe, Jesus is greater. He proved it, not by using their methods but by humbling Himself . . .

Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6–11)

APPLY: Have this mind . . . His mind — think like Jesus. Yield. Let Him do whatever He wants in me and with me, always a challenge to a vainly ambitious person.