The Sin of Pride

By the time you read this the 2024 Presidential election will be over. One of the issues you run into with politicians is pride, something many of them, on both sides, struggle with. However, we also tend to pick up on things in others that we tend to struggle with ourselves. Pride seems to one of those “OK Sins.” Most people today do not consider pride all that bad, certainly not something for which God would destroy an entire nation. Sadly, this says more about our light views of sin than it does about God’s workings. In fact, most Christians today would argue that pride is even a sin worth fussing over. Pride is bad, but it’s not that bad, is it? Let me illustrate to you how we today have things all out of proportion concerning this sin. 

Here are two statements, each of which might fall from the lips of some well-meaning church member. Referring to another person, someone says, “He is a good man, but proud.” Such a remark hardly strikes our ears as inappropriate or shocking. We are all too willing to admit that goodness and pride may be companions within the same life. But consider this remark, “He is a good man, but a thief.” Immediately our moral sensibilities are outraged. Is it fair or right to say that someone can be both good and proud and not be good and a thief? 

As in all things, the question we should ask is, “What does the Bible say?” Proverbs 6:16-17 shows that the Lord hates pride. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”i Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.” Finally, in Proverbs 29:23 we read, “A man’s pride will bring him low.” 

In God’s sight, pride is one of the worst sins of all. Do you remember where pride began? It was with Satan — the father of all sin, the father of pride. It was pride that caused him to rebel against God and try to usurp God’s authority and position. It is and always has been pride that lies at the heart of the problems of the human race. Pride, when you get right down to it is nothing more than man saying, “I will be like the Most High God,” or “I can do without God.” In his commentary on Obadiah, J. Vernon McGee defines pride as “the attitude of life that declares its ability to live without God.” 

Someone has said this about pride: 

The pride that God loathes is not self-respect or a legitimate sense of personal dignity. It is a haughty, undue self-esteem out of all proportion to our actual worth. It is that repugnant egotism which is repulsive to both man and God. It is that revolting conceit which swaggers before men and struts in the presence of the Almighty. God hates it. It is an abomination unto Him, which means that it makes Him shudder. 

One of the most fascinating accounts in the Old Testament is the story of Jacob and Esau. These two boys, twins we are told, were born and as they grew, they couldn’t have been more different. They were different in appearance, in values, in ambitions, in likes, in dislikes, and in that which they loved. One was daddy’s favorite, the other was a momma’s boy. While there’s no one thing that you could pin the problem on, it is obvious from the Bible record that there were years of tension between the two. We learn from the account of the birthright that Esau sold to Jacob that Esau despised his birthright and all that went with it. We learn from the stolen blessing that Jacob was a deceptive man who was out for his own interests. 

Over time, two nations developed from the families of the two men. Little love was lost between the two nations, just as little love had been lost between the two brothers. While the book of Genesis does record for us that the two attempted to make amends, the fighting continued for years to come. It wasn’t fighting between brothers anymore; it was now fighting between nations. 

We know that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, but do you remember Esau? 

Genesis 36:1, 8-9 “Now this is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom … Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And this is the genealogy of Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir.” Just who is Edom? Edom is the nation that grew out of a string of ungodly marriages by Esau to pagan wives that God had forbidden the Hebrews to marry. 

Edom was the territory bordering Judah to the east and south. That is, it was to the east of the Jordan River and extended southward from the borders of Moab to the Gulf of Aqaba. On the eastern side Edom was bordered by the desert. It was approximately twenty to thirty miles wide and about a hundred miles long. 

The real importance of Edom was due to two factors. First, it was situated along the great trade routes between Syria and Egypt and could profit from this trade. Trade brought business, and the inhabitants grew rich on tolls extracted from the many caravans. The second factor was Edom’s natural strength and security. The central area is characterized by red sandstone cliffs that rise to heights of more than 5,000 feet above sea level. These are easily fortified. As a result of having made their home within this natural fortress, the people of Edom were free to wage war and levy tribute on others while themselves being relatively free of outside interference. 

Still later, Edom appears in the story of the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. When the people had come out of Egypt into the region of Sinai and wanted to pass on to the Promised Land through Edom, the Edomites refused to give them passage even though Moses promised to harm nothing and even pay for whatever water the people and their herds should drink (Numbers 20:14-21). 

During Solomon’s reign the Lord used an Edomite to punish Solomon for his worship of false gods. Who was it that tried to kill Christ as an infant? It was none other than Herod, an Edomite. The beginning and history of the nation of Edom is very fascinating, but I want you to look now at the last book of the Old Testament and notice something God says that is very interesting. Read with me Malachi 1:1-3: 

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD. Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. 

Now you might look at that and wonder about the Lord. Remember that He is the Sovereign Lord and King, and this is not the only time in Scripture where the Lord expresses His hatred of a people. The important thing to ask now is this: Why did God hate Edom? 

The answer to this question is found in the early verses of Obadiah. This is the only place in Scripture where we find an explanation of why God hated Esau. It was because of pride. 

Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?” Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. Obadiah 1:2-4 (emphasis added) 

None of us probably considers ourselves to be anti-God. I don’t know of anyone who would readily say that they don’t need God in their lives, but how often do our decisions and actions and attitudes reflect a spirit of pride? A great many children of God have pride of race. Many are prideful in their looks or money. Some are proud of superior intellect or Bible knowledge. Others are prideful of superior talent or ability. It is even possible for believers to be proud they have been saved by grace! Salvation is not something to make you proud, it is not even something to brag about. It is something about which to glorify God, and it is something that should humble you. 

Do you wrestle with pride? Is it possible that your pride has you deceived and now you can’t even see it? If so, you need to repent of your pride and your prideful ways. Instead, humble yourselves before God, and He will life you up!