In this and last week’s readings, two passages show the dangers of pride. One describes Edom, the nation that descended from Esau and the other, the fate of King Uzziah, a good and godly king initially, but one whose pride God judged with leprosy.
C.S. Lewis described pride as “the essential vice, the utmost evil. He went on to say, “Pride is essentially competitive….Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” It was not enough for Edom to see Israel punished, they wanted to crush the survivors. It wasn’t enough for Uzziah to have great wealth, victory and blessing, he wanted to do the job of the priests.
Following are the examples and then some thoughts and application.
The Biblical examples of pride for Edom and Uzziah
Obadiah 1: 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
4 Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,”
declares the LORD.
2 Chron. 26:3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. 4 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. 5 He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success. . . . . . .16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in. 18 They confronted him and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God.”
19 Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the LORD’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. 20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had afflicted him.
21 King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and excluded from the temple of the LORD.
Application to us
We might think we’d never be guilty of such things. . . .but what is our attitude when we hear on the nightly news that a political person we don’t like has slipped in the polls? Or that a disaster has happened to a celebrity? Or if we hear gossip that is particularly awful about someone we don’t like?
Do we ever become impatient with the work the Lord gives us to do and wish He’d make somebody else do it? Do we ever take pride in the blessing of life and forget that NOTHING comes to us because we deserve it, but because God is gracious in his blessings?
How often we need these reminders:
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. (Prov. 6:16-17 KJV)
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov. 16:18 KJV)
Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jer. 9:23, 24, KJV)
We never have reason to be proud when we remember we are servants only and always. But we are incredibly blessed because we are servants of a Lord who loves us and delights in that love. In His love and service, not in our pride, we can rejoice.