The Perils of Pride

Hello! I hope and pray that this finds all of you in a good place – thanking God for His wonders and recounting His love and goodness. You are dear sisters in Jesus to faithfully pray for and give of your time and energy so that girls and women everywhere will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD (Psalm 40:3).

Let’s turn to Proverbs chapter 11 together so we can get wisdom that goes beyond the gold!

THE PERILS OF PRIDE

When pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 11:2

Aaron and Miriam had some issues. Pride and jealousy had blown into their thinking and inflated their egos. They were resentful of Moses’ popularity and asked one another, “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” (Numbers 12:2)

After all, their brother Moses wasn’t the only one involved in the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Aaron figured he was the only reason Moses took the first step in this whole journey. Can you hear the possible sibling putdowns as Aaron says to Miriam, “You remember how he begged God to send someone else to go talk to Pharaoh? And God pointed him to my gifts. God said that He knew that I could speak well!” (Exodus 4:13-14) Miriam had her own contributions she could’ve touted. “I’m a prophetess and do you remember how all the women followed me when we sang and danced after we crossed the Red Sea?” (Exodus 15:20-21)

What a drastic difference between the pride of Aaron and Miriam and the humility of Moses – a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3). Proverbs 11:2 says that when pride comes, disgrace will follow. Aaron and Miriam experienced the perils of pride in tangible ways when the LORD’s anger burned against them for speaking against His servant Moses. Miriam’s skin became leprous like snow, resulting in a seven-day confinement outside of the camp (Numbers 12:9-10, 14).

Sometimes we smoke screen pride. Like Aaron and Miriam, we complain about one thing (for them it was Moses marrying a Cushite woman), when the real issue is within ourselves. Sometimes our self-inflated superiority comes out with a rapid succession of “I, me, my” statements or “If I want something done right I need to do it myself.” No matter how we dice it, pride is pride and God hates it (Proverbs 8:13).

In his book, Humility True Greatness, C.J. Mahaney writes that pride has only one end: “Self-glorification. That’s the motive and ultimate purpose of pride – to rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him.”

Robbing God of His glory is a serious offense. The ongoing battle in our hearts and minds between pride and humility is real and perilous. May we wisely seek to have the attitude of Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6).

Wisdom Step: What segment of your heart contains vain conceit today? Respond to it in light of God’s holiness and Jesus’ humility.

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.

John Stott