July 6

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride. — Dan 4:37 BSB

Of all the sins that lie open before the eyes of God, pride seems to be one that especially stirs his holy displeasure. Its outward expressions have often drawn down God’s judgments. Pride cost Sennacherib his army and Herod his life; it opened the earth to swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and caught Absalom in the branches of an oak tree. Pride filled Saul with hatred toward David and tore ten tribes away from Rehoboam. Pride drove Nebuchadnezzar away from people, making him live like an animal, eating grass like an ox, with hair like eagle’s feathers and nails like birds’ claws.

Pride has not only cut off the wicked from the earth but also caused great harm among the family of God. It kept Aaron out of the Promised Land and made Miriam a leper. It stirred David to sin, bringing a plague that killed seventy thousand people. It led Hezekiah to lose his treasures and descendants to Babylon and cast Jonah into the belly of a whale, and, in his despair, into what felt like the very belly of hell.

Pride is the source of all conflict, the certain precursor to a fall, the instigator of persecution, a trap for the feet, a chain around the body, the core of deceitfulness, and the grave of all honesty. Pride is the opposite of love—it is never patient, never kind. It always envies, constantly boasts, is always puffed up, and behaves disgracefully. Pride seeks only its own good, is easily angered, continually thinks evil, rejoices in wrongdoing, and never rejoices in the truth. Pride bears nothing, believes nothing good in others, hopes for nothing good, and endures nothing. It is restless and miserable, tormenting itself and others, the ruin of churches, the fuel of strife, and the extinguisher of love. May we have the wisdom to see it, the grace to despise it, and the victory to overcome it. May we experience the truth of this verse from Deer’s hymn:

“Your garden is the place
Where pride can not intrude;
For should it dare to enter there,
Would soon be drowned in blood.”