Watch out! It’s a trap. Do you see the fine twine? It is set low to the ground, and it’s nearly invisible in its surroundings. If you aren’t looking for it your foot will get caught and you will stumble. Many unsuspecting travelers have been ensnared, tumbled, and never risen again.
What is this tripwire? Pride.
“Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall”
(Prov 16:18, Unless otherwise stated:
Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Used by permission. All rights reserved).
The words translated as “pride” throughout the Bible have the idea of “lifted up.” It might surprise you that this can be a good thing. For instance, God should be elevated. When a word could be rendered “pride,” a translator might use “excellence,” if it is talking about God. They do this in Exodus 15:7.
“And in the greatness of Your excellence
You have overthrown those who rose against You;
You sent forth Your wrath;
It consumed them.”
The wordplay is that God is lifted up, and He overthrew those who lifted themselves up against Him. That’s the problem. Pride is when anyone thinks of themselves more highly than they ought. If we are self-confident that we know all we should, we know nothing that we should know (1 Cor 8:2). Then, thinking that we see just fine, we are blind (John 9:39-41).
How do we make sure we don’t fall into this trap – the condemnation of the devil (1 Tim 3:6)? Paul warned that we should be careful when we think we are standing, or we’ll fall (1 Cor 10:12). It takes humility to admit that we don’t have everything figured out. This humility is essential for the Lord to put us into His kingdom and lift us to the right place (Matt 18:1-5; Jas 4:6).
“… all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time…”(1 Pet 5:5-6).
We need to walk wisely, looking all around for the traps. To see them we’ll have to strive to learn the will of the Lord (Eph 5:15-17). He’s shown us what He has in mind through the Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Cor 2:11-13). When we walk in His Word, it is a lamp to our feet, and the light it sheds on our path helps us see what would otherwise trip us (Ps 119:105).
“Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud” (Prov 16:19)
-Van
