ABC Extra – Shattered | Pastor Zach's Blog

ABC Extra – Shattered

August 29, 2011 at 5:15 am Leave a comment

Last Sunday, I was pulling out of my garage to come to church. As I was backing out, still half asleep, I all of a sudden heard this loud “CRACK!” My head snapped to attention and I looked to my right to realize my driver’s side mirror had scraped up against the garage door frame. My garage frame was fine. My mirror was not. Half of it got shattered by the encounter. Apparently, the warning, “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” really is true. I had misjudged just how close my side view mirror and my garage frame really were…and it cost me.

This past weekend in worship and ABC, we tackled the topic of pride. As I mentioned in ABC, there are two different kinds of pride. On the one hand, there is positive pride. This pride flows from our creation in God’s image. Because we are created in God’s image, we owe each other respect and dignity. Such human dignity is positive pride. But then, on the other hand, there is also negative pride. And negative pride is when human dignity gives way to human arrogance. It is when the insistence that all human beings ought to be treated with respect and dignity gives way to the insistence that some human beings ought to have their egos stroked and their self-images inflated.

Because the Scriptural authors are keenly aware that humans tend toward arrogance rather than dignity, the vast preponderance of biblical references to pride are in its negative sense. This is certainly true when Solomon writes, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). “Negative pride,” Solomon warns, “comes with a high price – destruction.” The Hebrew word for “destruction” is shabar which, as I discussed last Sunday, describes a “complete collapse” or a “shattering.” Pride eventually and inevitably leads to a shattered life.

It is important to note the preposition Solomon uses to link pride with destruction: “Pride goes before destruction.” The Hebrew word for “before” is lipne which can be used in both a temporal as well as a spatial sense. In other words, if a person is prideful, destruction can and does indeed catch up with them chronologically. A person is prideful, and destruction then ensues. But pride and destruction are also close spatially. Indeed, the preposition lipne is often translated as the phrase, “in the face of.” Thus, prideful people stare destruction right in the face. They are closer than they might think to having their lives shattered.

Just like a side view mirror can be shattered in a close encounter with a garage frame, a person can be shattered in a close encounter with pride. This is why we are called to flee from it – because pride destroys. So you don’t want to get too close to it. You don’t want to stare it right in the face. Just verses before Solomon’s famous words concerning pride and destruction, he offers this sharp warning: “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5). When we insist on living proudly, God will not let us stand. He will humble us in our sin.

The Hebrew word for “pride” is ga’on, referring to someone who is “exalted” or “lifted up.” This is why Solomon writes, “A haughty spirit goes before a fall.” For a person who ga’ons himself will not be able to maintain his position of exaltation. He will fall. Conversely, God’s promise to those who humble themselves is that He will do the ga’oning for them – He will “lift them up” (James 4:10). And being lifted up by God is a much more secure position than doing the lifting up yourself. So wait for God to lift you. For when He does, it will be unto eternal life. And that’s enough to lift even a troubled soul in a humble – and sometimes humiliating – life.

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