You have undoubtedly heard the saying, "Pride goes before a fall". That is one of the many expressions in the English language which comes from the King James Bible. However, it is a slight misquote. The verse from which this well-known idiom comes is our key verse for today's Pride Month post. Without further ado, here it is:
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
So as you can see, the idiom "Pride goes before a fall" is an edited version of this verse. It's really the first two words and the last three, while missing out the rest. But now let's examine the Biblical verse. The word destruction is often associated with eternal damnation (see for instance 2 Thessalonians 1:9; also Jesus talks of the wide gate and broad way leading to destruction, as opposed to the strait gate and narrow way leading to eternal life, so destruction certainly signifies damnation in that context). However, it can also mean something along the lines of ruin in this life (see for example 1 Timothy 6:9). But whether destruction is ruin in this life, or eternal ruin (depending on context), it is clear that it is a direct consequence of pride. A man or woman who is proud, and who lives by that pride, will end up in destruction, most likely of the eternal kind unless they repent of it. In the Day 3 post, I wrote a bit about Haman, the wicked Persian leader who wanted to kill all the Jews in the empire because one man refused to bow to him. He ended up being hanged on his own gallows. Pride certainly went before destruction in his case. The Philistine giant Goliath was also full of pride, and thought that a young David coming to fight him was a no-contest. David, however, was not relying on his physical strength alone to defeat Goliath. In his pride, Goliath trusted in his size, weapons and fighting prowess. But David trusted in God: "Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands." (1 Samuel 17:45-47)
Notice that David was not taking on Goliath for his own glory. Had he been motivated by his pride, as his oldest brother Eliab falsely accused him of, he would have been crushed like a bug. But David was doing this to teach both the Israelite and Philistine armies a few things about God, in particular how He can deliver us and does not need carnal weapons to do so. David was motivated by God's glory, not his, and so God gave him the victory with a simple stone fired from a slingshot. (God often uses the seemingly weak and foolish to humble the proud and mighty.)
An example in the New Testament of pride going before destruction is Herod in Acts 12. "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." (Acts 12:21-23)
Herod was so full of his own importance that he was happy to be worshipped as a god. For this, he faced a devastating judgement. He went from pride to destruction in a matter of minutes! Incidentally, one thing this passage shows is that God is not pleased when we idolise politicians or celebrities, and give them worship that is due to Him alone. And no, this is not because it wounds His pride, because God has no pride, as I wrote about yesterday. But politicians and celebrities are fallen people like ourselves and are moreover created beings. Only our most holy and righteous Creator is worthy of worship. No sinful man or woman is. In any case, when you put people up on a pedestal, it only serves to inflate their pride. And that pride then finishes up in destruction. Small wonder that so many actors, rock stars and so on die tragic deaths before they reach old age. Their pride, fuelled by the foolish worship of their fans, propels them towards destruction in both this life and the next.
Pride and destruction are quite general concepts in the Bible. Pride is a root cause (even the root cause) of pretty much every sin. For example, a man who commits fornication or adultery will be motivated by sexual lust, but there may also be an underlying pride in his sexual prowess or his ability to avoid detection. A woman who is obsessed with clothes and make-up (beyond the normal feminine interest in such things) is motivated by vanity, which is a form of pride. Someone who collects a lot of things will be motivated by covetousness, but underlying that will be pride in completing sets, owning rare objects and so on (I should know, I have been that person). Destruction refers to great ruin, especially eternal ruin in which the body and soul is destroyed in Hell. However, a "haughty spirit" and "a fall" are more specific things. A haughty spirit is a by-product of pride. If we picture pride as a tree, we could say that a haughty spirit is one of the fruits it produces.
Someone who is haughty is usually a person who thinks extremely highly of themselves. They tend to be imperious, have a sense of entitlement and look down on others. Goliath was not only full of pride, but he had a haughty spirit. And that not only goes before a fall, but destruction in general: "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility." (Proverbs 18:12) So haughtiness, like other sins, is a heart issue. And if you have a haughty heart, that will manifest itself in your spirit and eventually, it will lead to a great fall and eternal destruction if it is not repented of. But the opposite of haughtiness is humility. And what does that result in? HONOUR. Most importantly, from God, but also sometimes, from man. Joseph (the Old Testament one) and Daniel were promoted to high honours in the courts of pagan kings because of their humility. They did not seek those honours, but were given them because those kings sensed the spirit they had. "And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" (Genesis 41:38) The Babylonians were not quite as discerning as that pharoah, but nevertheless saw that Daniel had an excellent spirit, which they also described as "the spirit of the holy gods" (Daniel 5:11). Someone who truly has the Holy Spirit indwelling them will be humble (most of the time at least - if they get proud, which born-again Christians can still do sometimes, God will chasten them). A person with a haughty spirit, however, is very seldom a child of God. (If a saved Christian gets haughty, God will soon deal with them.) Some of the haughtiest people around may well be professing Christians, but in nearly every case they will be false converts.
There are all kinds of ways in which a haughty person can "come a cropper". Haman for instance had to honour the man he despised. Goliath, the man who trusted in his mighty weapons and thought no one could defeat him, was felled by a simple slingshot. Another example of someone with a haughty spirit was the Pharaoh of the early part of Exodus, the one who made all the Israelites living in Egypt slaves. When Moses and Aaron told him of God's command to let His people go, the haughty Pharoah responded, "And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." (Exodus 5:2) And what was the outcome of Pharoah's haughtiness? A succession of fearful plagues, the departure of the Israelites and ultimately, the loss of the entire Egyptian army. It was the fall of a mighty empire that never rose to the same heights again. If Pharaoh had chosen to be humble and released the Israelites at the first time of the asking, the history of Egypt could have been very different and far happier.
In our modern day, there are numerous examples of people who thought too highly of themselves suffering a fall of one sort or another. Often, this fall will be from grace as some secret sin or other is brought to light. Sometimes, you might see a news story about someone who got a bit too cocky about something and suffered a major setback or serious injury. For example, I once watched a video about a pilot who was warned several times about bad weather where he was going, and told that he should not fly into the area where the bad weather was. But in his pride, he thought he would be able to get out of trouble if he flew into poor conditions. Well sure enough, he did fly into some very poor visibility in tricky terrain. Forced to fly at lower and lower altitudes to see anything, he eventually crashed into some trees, and that was the end of both his flight and his life. If only that pilot had listened to the weather warnings and chosen to either not fly or fly somewhere else with better weather, he might still be alive today. But because he was proud and haughty enough to think he knew better, he ended up in a literal fall from the sky and with destruction of his aircraft and life.
Many people are like that pilot in that they refuse to listen to warnings from the Bible. In their pride and haughtiness, they think, like the Pharaoh, "Who is God, anyway?" They think they know better than Him, and so refuse to repent and be saved. But their lofty attitudes will lead to a great and terrible fall: "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." (Isaiah 13:11)
The proud are on the broad way to destruction, while the humble (who are saved) are on the narrow road to eternal life. The haughty will eventually fall in one way or another. If you don't want to be humbled, humble yourself in repentance towards God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to save your wicked soul. Pride and wickedness go together like a hand in a glove. And they ultimately result in the greatest fall of all - the final fall into Hell after death.
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