For today's Pride Month study, I am going back to the Old Testament, and specifically, the Book of Proverbs (which is my favourite book of the Bible - I just love all the pearls of wisdom it contains. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole Bible, but Proverbs is a book I am particularly fond of). Here it comes:
"When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." (Proverbs 11:2)
A major reason why shame tends to follow pride is that pride tends to make people do stupid and foolish things. For example, a person's pride may make them think that they can drive recklessly without consequences - until they crash and injure or kill themselves. Or perhaps they might fall for a con because in their pride, they thought they couldn't be deceived (con artists can sometimes play up to vanity as well). Another way in which pride may cause shame is if somebody boasts about something and then the opposite happens. For example, in the 1970s English cricket captain Tony Grieg (who later became a commentator on Australia's Channel 9) bragged that he would make the touring West Indian team "grovel". The West Indies went on to win every Test of the series. By the last game, Grieg himself was "grovelling" to the West Indian supporters in the crowd! So at least he took his embarrassment with good grace, but the fact remains that in his pride, he made a fool of himself and was comprehensively humbled. Many false preachers, especially in the Charismatic movement, have made decidedly boastful "prophecies" and then been exposed as charlatans when they did not come to pass. Another example of pride preceding shame is when a person talks up their righteousness and then gets exposed as an adulterer or some such. For example, a few years ago in New Zealand we had a party called the Christian Heritage Party. It went through a few leaders, but its last leader before it broke up was Graham Capill. He was a great moral campaigner and once stirred up popular anger by calling homosexuals perverts. While this description was actually correct, Capill was subsequently exposed as a child abuser and convicted on several counts. So he was a pervert himself, just a different kind. Before his fall, there was a self-righteous air about him that was evidence of pride in his heart, and that pride certainly resulted in great shame for him.
One way in which pride has come before shame in my own life is that sometimes, I have had a tendency to be a "sore loser" in competitive situations. Instead of being gracious in defeat, sometimes I have behave petulantly. The core reason for this was pride, and specifically, wounded pride. And often on such occasions, I would be reprimanded (rightly so!), and thereby would feel ashamed and come down off my high horse. The point is though that pride motivated that disagreeable behaviour on my part and led to shame when people got angry with me (with complete justification). There have been times too when I have corrected somebody only to discover that I had misunderstood them or misread their comment. In my pride, I thought they just weren't very bright and needed my "wisdom", but I ended up looking the fool I was acting like.
Speaking of wisdom, notice who has it in this verse. Not the proud, but the LOWLY. The "lowly" are quite simply those who are humble in spirit. When people are humble (which comes after repentance of sins towards God), He graciously grants them wisdom. The lowly know what their limits are, and when to keep quiet. If they do speak up, they know how to speak with grace, even though some of what they say may be seasoned with salt. The lowly may sometimes be mocked by the proud, but they will never experience the shame that always follows pride sooner or later. The world might set great store by pride, but the wisdom that the lowly can obtain is of far greater value. In fact, in God's eyes, pride has no value at all. Solomon understood the value of true godly wisdom, and I'll close this post with his counsel about it:
"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." (Proverbs 4:5-9)
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