Thursday, February 24,
2022
“Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River
to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than
you. They live in cities with walls that
reach to the sky! The people are strong and
tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to
the Anakites?’ But recognize today that the Lord your
God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to
destroy them. He will subdue them so
that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has
promised. “After the Lord your
God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has
given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the
other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. It is
not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy
their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of
you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your
ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 9:1-5
Perched on the eve of conquering Palestine, the fledgling
Israelite nation was warned by God to keep perspective on the source of the
greatness they were about to experience.
God told them to not get puffed-up like a proud peacock over their
supposed goodness, or integrity; their victory was a gift.
Many nations and many people have written their own
brand of history. It is said the winners
of wars will tell the story of their own greatness, while truth goes
begging. Whether we like it or not,
truth writes its own story, without regard to any other version.
Scripture warns in many ways against pride. Solomon’s words tell it plainly:
Pride goes before
destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
Claiming personal greatness is a symptom of the pride
that goes before a fall. Pride is a bulldozer
paving the way down the slope of disaster. The history of God’s special people is
written over and again, with alarmingly similar results:
· First stamp: God’s great hand of favor clears the path for
their success.
· Second stamp: Within a few generations (sometimes less),
the truth is forgotten, and God’s greatness is claimed for the pride of a new
leader.
· Third stamp: God takes Israel to the woodshed (captivity,
plagues, etc.).
· Fourth stamp: Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3.
American history bears unmistakeable parallels to
Israel, of the way God blesses a nation.
That much is hardly questioned to my mind. The troubling part of that statement, is,
that we also bear the marks of the rubber stamp history of Israel.
There is a sense of entitlement
in the land today which smacks of the pride of privilege. It’s not just white privilege
that plagues, it is the endemic arrogance of any privilege. Ethnic privilege, perceived greatness,
dominant history, and any other sense of entitled platform is a house of cards
awaiting collapse. To borrow from James
Russell Lowell’s thinking about truth ever being led to the scaffold, and wrong
enthroned, in America, it seems, humility has been beaten with the shame brush,
and pride lifted to the throne. We are
living in a false myth!
For You Today
Matthew Henry wrote
a commentary on the entire Bible. When
it came to the Proverbs’ warning about pride, he gave us a Humility-101 kind of
last word in this simple sentence:
Therefore let us not fear the pride of others, but greatly
fear pride in ourselves.[1]
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[1] Matthew Henry Commentary on Proverbs 16:18
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