The Danger of Pride
“He’s not bowing down. He’s showing me no honor,” he thought to himself.
“You see that man over there? Go over and remind him of what he’s supposed to do when he sees me.”
In the book of Esther, we are introduced to Haman. Haman had received the promotion that he had worked so hard for. It was the promotion that “advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him” (Esther 3.1). And with the promotion came respect and homage paid toward him. The only problem for Haman is that for a man filled with pride and self-worship, others bowing and paying homage to him became a silent poison that would move through the veins of his soul until it was too late.
Day after day, Haman would leave the king’s gate to the bowing of heads, except for one.
“MORDECAI!” Mordecai would not bow before him. In fact, “when they spoke to him day after day… he would not listen to them.” “And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury.” How much fury? Enough fury to go before the king and convince him of his need to destroy the whole Jewish people. His pride led to hatred; his hatred led to a devilish plan of genocide.
In his commentary on the book of Mark, David Garland writes, “Pride changed angels into devils, Augustine said, and Satan uses pride as a favorite device for separating us from God and from God’s help.”
God says it this way: “When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11.2). But do we recognize pride in ourselves? To know that disgrace comes with pride should cause us to pause and ponder deeply about the condition of our souls. And the fact that “everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the LORD” (Proverbs 16.5) should move us to come before him humbly and ask him to uproot any seed of pride that is beginning to spout up within us.
Here are a few other Proverbs that instruct us on this topic of pride:
“Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” - Proverbs 18.12 (CSB)
“The lamp that guides the wicked—haughty eyes and an arrogant heart—is sin.” - Proverbs 21.4 (CSB)
“Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” - Proverbs 26.12 (CSB)
“A person’s pride will humble him, but a humble spirit will gain honor.” - Proverbs 29.23 (CSB)
And look at this list of things that God hates.
The LORD hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers. - Proverbs 6.16-19 (CSB)
The first one on that list of “the detestable” is arrogance (i.e., pride).
God hates pride, but do we? Do we detest the pride that is in us? Do we long to see it uprooted out of us so that we can live in humility before the Lord and others? Last place is never celebrated, and yet isn’t that where we are called to be if we live out of a place of true humility, not because winning is bad but because it doesn’t matter as much to keep score? And if we are living in true humility, then we aren’t looking to be celebrated anyway. Paul reminds us of this:
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. - Colossians 3.17 (CSB)
Haman lived for himself. He lived for the applause of others. He lived to be honored by everyone around him. And those who would not pay him the “proper homage” needed to be harshly dealt with (kind of sounds like the “cancel culture” of our society today).
But what do we do? How do we battle and put to death our pride?
Humility is the solution to our pride.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. - James 4.10 (CSB)
This is our responsibility. But how do we do it?
I think the step that needs to happen to move toward humility instead of being driven by pride is to recognize who God is. This is non-negotiable. Why? Because when we are confronted by God with who God is, we realize that we’re not that impressive. When I’m not impressive, others become more important.
James’ words above point us to our responsibility in this. We are called by God to humble ourselves before God. And yet, because God loves us, he will humble us if we will not humble ourselves. And he humbles us by whatever means necessary, even if that means through humiliation. But why?
“He's shaping your character to be like Christ's. He'll do whatever it takes to make you Christlike in all areas of your life. He'll take your childlike faith and stretch you to trust Him with your very life. He'll take your selfish heart and mold it to be sacrificial in every way. He'll take your pride and strip you down to absolute humility. He'll take your secret sins and expose them so you might be made holy. He'll take your life of ease and show you the hard road of complete and total dependence. The Holy Spirit wants to create within you holy character” (Blackaby, Henry; Blackaby, Mel, “Experiencing the Spirit”).
So as we continue to walk this journey of life with Jesus, may we learn God’s lessons by looking at the life of Haman - recognizing what not to do and what not to be like. May we stay far away from self-promotion and, instead, live solely to boast in Jesus. Jeremiah says it this way:
23 This is what the LORD says:
The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the LORD, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the LORD’s declaration. - Jeremiah 9.23-24 (CSB)
