Pride, Deuteronomy 8-9

I invite you to turn with me to Deuteronomy 8 for our lesson.

The book of Deuteronomy is mainly three sermons, a song and a blessing that Moses delivered to the people of Israel camped on the east side of the Jordan River; it was just before he died and they crossed over the Jordan to take possession of the land God promised them. Deuteronomy is basically Moses’ farewell speeches to these people he had lead out of Egypt and in the wilderness for the last 40 years.

In Deuteronomy 8 and 9, in the midst of Moses’ second speech, he warns them about a likely problem that will arise in their hearts when they’re settled and comfortable in the land of Canaan, a heart problem that commonly arises whenever people are blessed, successful and prosperous, and a heart problem Moses knows will destroy their relationship with God.

When We Are Very Susceptible to Pride

We live in a land that fits the description Moses gives in Deuteronomy 8:7. We live in a good land, a land with brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey [or at least all that’s available to us at our many grocery stores], a land where we eat food without scarcity, in which we lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper [or at least whatever building materials we want, they’re available to us]. It’s a land where we eat and are satisfied and build good houses for ourselves and our possessions are many. Moses knew that living in such a good land and becoming rich and prosperous and blessed of God, a circumstance the Israelites were soon going to enjoy when they conquered Canaan, is a circumstance that brings with it a great spiritual danger. In Deuteronomy 8:12-14, he says here’s what will likely happen, “when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” There’s a great danger of pride when you have much. In 8:17 he describes it this way, “You may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’” Do you ever think that? Do you ever look at what you have and where you are in life and think, “Look at all I’ve achieved, because I’m strong and clever and a hard worker and a go-getter. This testifies to my greatness.” President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 observed in the general American population the sort of thing Moses was warning the Israelites to watch out for when they were settled in Canaan. And I think these words of old honest Abe would be all the more fitting today, because I think America has only digressed spiritually from his day. Lincoln said, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” Here’s another thing Moses warns them about saying, Deuteronomy 9:4, “Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.’” Do you ever think that? “I have this, because I deserve it, because of my righteousness, because I’m worthy of it.” Our culture encourages us to think that way. McDonald’s says, “You deserve a break today.” Doesn’t matter what day it is, you deserve a break today because you’re that awesome. Mercedes Benz used to say, “You owe it to yourself to buy a Mercedes Benz.” How awesome are you? You deserve to drive one of these. Cover Girl (a makeup company) says, “You’re worth it.” You deserve all these good things… But Moses is warning the people that they are going to have all these good things, but it is not because of their righteousness, it’s not because they deserve it and they’ve earned it.

The Bible repeatedly warns us about the daze of pride whenever we have good things, like wealth or success or status or fame or knowledge or beauty or strength or talent or spiritual gifts, because they can easily make us think too highly of ourselves if we’re not careful.

Daniel 4 tells us about old king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the world dominating empire at the time. All that success convinced him he was greater and better than everybody else. In Daniel 4:30, he walked out on the roof of his palace and said, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” In other words, “Look at what I’ve done.” Remember how the Lord opened his eyes to the fact that he’s no greater than an ox. God took away his sanity and for seven years he lived away from the people, with the animals, ate grass like the ox, his hair grew long, his fingernails grew long, every morning he was drenched with the dew of heaven… for seven years until he acknowledged, “I’m really a nobody, God’s given me all this, He’s really in charge.”

II Chronicles 26 we read about king Uzziah of Judah who began his reign at age 16. In the early years of his reign, it says he sought the Lord and did right in the sight of the LORD, and as he did so, the LORD prospered him. He went to war with the Philistines and the Arabians and others, and had great military success. His fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He built up the land of Judah with fortified towers, and a large powerful military. The economy was flourishing under his reign. But then II Chronicles 26:16 says, “But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.” His strength and success and prosperity convinced him that he was so awesome and important that God’s laws didn’t so much apply to him as they applied to other people. He thought he could enter the holy place of the temple and offer incense even though God had said only the priests are permitted to do that. And if you know the rest of the story, he was burdened with the disease of leprosy.

I Timothy 6:17, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited…” “Tell the rich people in your congregation, Timothy, that they must be very careful not to think they are superior or more worthy or more important because they have wealth.”

I Timothy 3:6, in giving the qualifications for elders in the church, Paul says you must not appoint a new convert as an elder in the church. Why not? He says, “so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.” Rising quickly to a position over others, to a position of honor, is another circumstance in which it would be very easy to think too highly of yourself.

I Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” Or at least, very often, knowledge makes arrogant. For some reason when we know stuff others do not know we tend to feel superior to them.

II Corinthians 12:7, Paul said, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [Paul’s talking about how the Lord showed things to him that were not shown to other people, how he was even caught up to the third heaven and to paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak. Paul was given insight and knowledge into spiritual things like no other. And he says], for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me – to keep me from exalting myself!” See, whenever we’re blessed with good things, if we have knowledge or talent or wealth or anything like that, there’s a great danger of pride. So God let Satan afflict Paul with this problem he calls a thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, to keep him humble.

Well, I know some of us have high paying jobs. Some of us drive pretty nice cars. Some of us have a lot of property and our own business and people underneath us in the work place. I know there is a lot of talent among us, musical talent, woodworking talents, artistic talents. Some of you young people I know have great athletic strength and skill and endurance. We have a lot of teaching talent here. And we have some very educated people, some even with degrees in theology. And we also believe we have friendship with God. I think if Moses were here today he would say “Be very, very careful that you don’t become proud because of what you have or what you can do or what you know or who you are.”

What’s wrong with thinking you’re really something and “My power and the strength of my hand and my cleverness achieved this” or “It’s because of my righteousness and my worthiness”?

Well, there are several things wrong with pride.

In Isaiah 42:8, God says, “I will not give My glory to another…”  Seems to me pride is doing just that, isn’t it?  It’s giving God’s glory to another, to yourself. It’s giving self-credit where God deserves the credit. That’s one thing wrong with pride.

Pride destroys devotion to God and your prayer life, because you don’t sense your need for God. It prevents you from carefully listening to God’s word because you think you’re wise enough; you’ve got things figured out, you’re good enough, and you don’t have much to change. It prevents the worship and praise you owe God, because if we’re prideful we don’t realize how much God has done for us.

Pride also erodes our character. It makes us stubborn and self-promoting and self-serving.  A prideful person walks into a room of people thinking, “Well, here I am. Notice me. Let’s talk about me. Let me impress you with me.”  A humble person walks into the room and says, “Ah, there you are. Let’s talk about you. How are things going? How can I help you?” Pride is behind greed and jealousy too, because you think you should have more and be above other people. Pride is behind getting angry when you are not acknowledged or honored or get your way, you feel you deserve to be respected and served over others. And since it causes a lot of anger, it will also cause strife in your life. So pride destroys the character God calls us to.

Pride is behind a lot of stupidity. I hate to admit it, but it’s why us men won’t ask for directions or read instruction booklets, even though we have no idea where we are or how to build the thing. It causes some people to talk with confidence and make bold assertions and even argue about matters they’ve never studied or don’t have any experience with. It causes some people to refuse to admit when they’re wrong, even when it’s obvious to everyone else they’re wrong.

So for many reasons, and as the Scriptures say very often, God is opposed to the proud,

The Antidote for Pride that Moses Prescribed

The antidote for pride that Moses prescribed for the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8-9 was that of understanding and never forgetting certain realities God taught them throughout their last 40 years in the wilderness. And these realities I think are just the same for you and me.

One of those realities is that they are absolutely dependent. We are dependent, not self-sufficient. Only on our tax return are we not a dependent. Moses reminds the people how, for forty years, God’s been feeding them, giving them water, He’s kept their clothing and sandals from wearing out, he’s been protecting them from their enemies… In other words, “Everyday, God’s been taking care of you, you’d be dead if it weren’t for Him.” And that goes for all of us; we are all dependents more than we realize. Paul says in Acts 17, “…He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things… in Him we live and move and have our very being.” Every cell of your body operates according to His commands. We do not sustain ourselves. We are sustained everyday by God.

Then Moses wants to impress the reality that all they will have, they will have received as a gift, not achieved on their own or earned by their own merit. Deuteronomy 8:10, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.”  It’s a gift. 8:18, “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth…”  And that goes for everybody who has wealth, He gives us the power to get wealth, He gives us the strength, the ability, the opportunities, He allows us to get whatever needed education, etc. 9:1, “Hear, O Israel!  You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ [In other words, there is no way you could take them on your own.] 3 Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over [that is, over the Jordan] before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.” Moses wanted them to understand that all they have and all they can do is because of God and not them.

Writing to the Corinthian Christians who had a pride problem (because they had knowledge, they had spiritual gifts, some of them were wealthy, etc.), Paul sought to puncture their inflated view of themselves with a question. Paul asked the Corinthian Christians in I Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive?  [It was a rhetorical question. He was just reminding them: all that you have, your wealth, your talents, your knowledge, your bodies, your energy, the privileges, the opportunities you’ve had, the circumstances you’ve been through and the people in your lives who have helped mold you into who you are, all that you have received, God has given it to you. It’s a gift. And then Paul asked them,] And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”  You only have a right to boast about what you have if you actually achieved or produced it on your own. But that’s not the way it is, it’s all grace, we do not deserve it, yet everything has been given to us.

One more reality that Moses wanted them to hang on to while in the Promised Land was that it is not because of your righteousness that you have.

God doesn’t distribute gifts necessarily according to our worthiness. Some really despicable characters have been very wealthy, very talented, very good looking, very famous… Deuteronomy 9:4-7, “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess…” So it’s not that you’re worthy of this good land, it has to do with the wickedness of these nations and the promises God made you.

Abraham describes us

In Genesis, I think Abraham described it well, he was having a conversation with God about what He was going to do with Sodom, and about how many righteous people in the city of Sodom it would take to spare the city. In the midst of the conversation, Abraham said (Genesis 18:27), “Behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” And I think Abraham had the right perspective because there was a time when there were no human beings, there was God, the heavenly hosts (the angels), this beautiful creation full of animals, and everything was fine without us. And God didn’t really need us and the angels didn’t really need us and the animals would have gotten along fine without us. But then God decided to take some dust, form it into a human body and breathe the breath of life into it, and man became a living being… And that “dust” should be thankful to have eyeballs and a mouth and hands and feet… because it was just dust, it didn’t deserve any of it, but God gave it these things. That “dust” should be thankful if it has one tree to eat of, let alone a whole variety of trees. That “dust” has nothing to complain about. That “dust” should be overwhelmed with gratitude for all that it is and all that it has, because dust it was and dust it would be if it weren’t for the grace of God. Abraham understood that and I think he also understood that he should even be less than dust, he should be a pile of ashes if he got what he deserved; because God gave that pile of dust intelligence and free will and too often that dust has decided to be insubordinate to its creator and ungrateful, and God has every right to incinerate us when we’re disobedient to Him… But by God’s grace, we’re not ashes.

To what is a “pile of ashes” entitled?

Is a “pile of ashes” entitled to praise and recognition and honor, to be entertained and served, to have a spouse, a three bedroom house, a car, friends and family. All of this is so beyond what we deserve, and we ought to overflow with gratitude toward God.

It’s interesting in Deuteronomy 8-9 how many times Moses says, “Remember” and “Do not forget”. 8:2, “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you…” 8:11, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God…” 8:18, “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth…” 9:7, “Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness…” And then in the whole rest of chapter 9 Moses reminds them how unrighteous they’ve been since the day God brought them out of Egypt. Moses reminds them, how on several occasions God was going to wipe them off the face of the earth. God said, “Moses, I’ve had it, I’m going to kill the whole lot of them and make you into a great nation and bring your descendants into the promised land.” But because Moses interceded on their behalf, God spared them. How often in our lives would God have every right to just wipe us out, had it not been for the blood and interceding of Christ?

Moses says, “Remember, remember where you’ve come from, remember your sin, remember where you’d be if God hadn’t intervened and brought you out of that.”

So I need to remember constantly because it’s so easy to become prideful with how blessed we are. To God be all glory and praise. Amen.

– James Williams

 

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