Fourteen years into King Hezekiah’s reign in Judah, invading troops of an Assyrian king named Sennacherib swept through the region and set their sights on the city of Jerusalem. After mocking Hezekiah, and more directly, the God of Hezekiah, 185,000 soldiers in Sennacherib’s army were annihilated by the “angel of the Lord” in one night. This event was a capstone to Hezekiah’s notable life and service to God. Hezekiah restored true worship in Judah, including national observance of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. But pride has a way of tripping us up. We can discover from his example how any of us, though grateful for God’s intervention at one time, can later when everything goes smoothly then run adrift and be lifted up with pride.
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near unto death, and he prayed to the LORD; and he spoke to him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favour shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 32:24-25 NKJV). He was grateful to God for the extension of his life and this gratitude carried over when the nation was threatened by the Assyrian invaders. Both he and his people at that time humbled themselves in the face of this wrath and God answered with a miraculous deliverance.
“Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (verse 26).
One of the most celebrated kings in Judah’s history, after two miraculous events in his life, then fell prey to a condition of human nature that can trap us all. Despite healing and protection from invasion, he allowed a sense of pride in his accomplishments to blur his judgment. Grateful and flattered that the Babylonian king (about six months later) had sent good will messages to him after hearing he was ill, Hezekiah fell before a pride of ownership by showing foreign idolaters the treasures of Jerusalem. When the prophet Isaiah heard what had happened he came to enquire, and to reproach the conduct of the king (2 Kings 20:12-19). Scripture teaches that pride will bring us down, and that God in fact ‘Resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ (James 4:6). This is why we should evaluate what place pride plays in our lives, especially at Passover time. The apostle Paul revealed this at Corinth. There he found the congregation keeping the Lord’s Passover, but with divisions, factions, squabbling and even feasting at the memorial of Christ’s death. In short, there were many things going on that showed a lack of humility, or great pride among some of the membership.
“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep (are dead). For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (I Corinthians 11:27-32 NKJV).
There were those in the church at Corinth who were fighting with each other about who should lead or be the most important, and even how they should celebrate the Passover itself. They did not see anything wrong in doing so, and did not come prepared for the evening by self-examination. And for this pride God had allowed many in that congregation to become weak and sick, and some who had not come to repentance were allowed to die. Pride prevented some of these people from examining themselves and therefore they ate and drank judgment upon themselves!
Has this sort of pride ever lifted up our hearts so that we are pretty pleased with ourselves and our status before others, and even with our relationship with God? No one can feel good about themselves when examining or judging themselves, and certainly after such self-scrutiny, believe they are better or more important than anyone else. Living God’s Way in a pride-filled attitude is to take the Passover symbols unworthily, and may cause some of us to be ill and even die.
What provokes pride, then? The best description I could find in researching this subject was given by Klyne Snodgrass in his book, Between Two Truths: “What is the origin of pride? Pride emerges from the legitimate and necessary desire to show that our lives have value. That is why we use the word positively, for example, in saying we take ‘pride’ in our work. We mean that we have shown we can do something of value. Pride becomes twisted, however, because we think that a personal asset or accomplishment gives us more value. Pride is the result of thinking that our concerns, desires and accomplishments are more important than those of other people. We are not content with value, but desire superiority. Pride is no longer a feeling of accomplishment, but an estimation of ourselves as more valuable than someone else. Life then becomes dominated by the attempt to prop up that estimation.”
Pride is about self-estimate—an overly high self-estimate! Depending on whether that self-estimate is based on reality or fantasy; we might think that we are better than we really are. How does pride rear its ugly head in our lives? Consider the subject as if in the terms of a dinner menu at the imaginary ‘café’ The Stuffed Ego where: “Pride and vanity saturate the atmosphere with self-indulgence, a fitting ambiance for discriminating diners—self-satisfaction guaranteed. “Hors d’oeuvres include savory gossip: malicious tidbits marinated in criticism; tasty morsels of ridicule and condemnation rolled in unrepentant tongue. “Choice of entrée: Flaming Arrogance or Char-broiled Superiority served on beds of seasoned condescension. Served with salad of mixed grievances with guilt dressing, and complimented with a vintage of full-bodied judgment. Conversation is peppered with appetizing speculation: ‘Who is worthy of love?’ ‘Who deserves punishment?’ ‘How is retribution to be exacted?’ Responsibility for alienation is ignored and conspicuous hostility is unexplored.
“Dessert of Rich Conceit is excessively sweet. Nausea may occur. Food poisoning is possible. Indigestion is inevitable.” Which of us has not indulged in such a meal at some time? The menu items stem from a self-estimate that believes it is better or more highly esteemed than anyone else. This sort of pride, undetected and unrepented of, will make us sick and bring us low. Thus, when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church he stated that avoidance of this fate requires self-examination, and thereby embarking on a substantial reduction in self-estimate.
To show up at their Passover service to eat the bread and drink the wine, which represents the body and blood of Christ, with a high self-estimate or pride-filled attitude was to eat and drink God’s judgment to themselves. That was a wrong pride. The only way to save ourselves from this pride is to do what Hezekiah did about 2,700 years ago when he humbled himself before God. Humbling himself meant lowering his self-estimate and getting rid of the pride that lifted up his heart. It means he had a good look at how weak and imperfect he really was, and realized how his life was really in God’s hands. We too have to learn this lesson, and hopefully without sickness and near death experiences. James, in the 4th chapter, emphasizes what is illustrated here: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (verse 10).
Now is the time for bringing down self-estimates and ridding ourselves of hurtful pride. This is gained by self-examination. We then cannot help but be humble in the sight of our God. Only then can we hope to be part of the fall season picture of the World Tomorrow and Kingdom of God.
