Pride blinds a person to Truth

Isaiah 3:15-4:1

In my family, growing up to be prideful was not a good thing, and as we got older and had children we would hear mother say to the grandchildren how proud she was of them.  If we questioned her statement, her reply was that it was good pride, but that is not what the Lord was addressing in these verses.  Isaiah refers to the proud daughters of Zion, but if you will turn back to Isaiah 1:8, it is clear he is addressing the city and the people of Jerusalem and even the snobbish women of that city.  Many a wise person has shared insights on what pride will produce in the life of a person, look at these quotes from C. S. Lewis, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”  And, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Lewis was such a great thinker, and yet one wiser and smarter than Lewis is King Solomon whom Scripture tells us is the wisest of men.  Look with me at Proverbs 16:5, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5, ESV)  Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Shall we look at one more verse from Proverbs, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 26:12, ESV)

As stated above, these proud women of Jerusalem are representatives of the city and it’s people, and these Isaiah is addressing will suffer great loss in appearance, in wealth; for a military siege is coming.  It sure seems that the war will reduce the number of men, and there will not be enough men to go around for the women.  So they will agree to have one single man to make seven of them his wives, and he does not even have to provide for them.

What was happening is best summed up in Psalm 10:4, “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”  Pride blinds a person to truth, and they begin to believe the voice in their mind, that voice comes often from the one who has come to destroy.  It is channel One, the deceptive channel; it will lead a person and a nation to live independent from the authority of God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice