Proud People as Trees Tumbling
Pride month is a reminder that "there is no peace for the proud."
See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low - Isaiah 10:33
June is called PRIDE Month as if PRIDE is honorable and good.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), a renowned U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, a former United States Secretary of State, and the man for whom Webster’s Dictionary is named, defined pride in his 1828 dictionary:
Pride - (n.) Inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.
God tells us in the Bible that He despises pride and will bring down the prideful person. GOD calls pride “the way of evil” (Proverbs 8:13)
Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Jesus spoke these words to arrogant politicians and prideful religious leaders. Flagrant sinners can be fragrant to society but a stench to God.
Pride is at the root of all sin and goes before a sinner’s fall and destruction (Prov. 16:18)
Pride says to GOD: “I don’t care what You have to say; I’ll do life my way.” For this reason, without brokenness that humbles, there is no hope for the proud.
Do you not know wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: ‘Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God’ - I Corinthians 6:9-10
Those who are sexually immoral and proud, proud idolaters, proud adulterers, proud homosexuals, proud thieves, proud drunkards, proud slanders, and proud swindlers will one day find themselves broken and humiliated.
People as Trees
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers - Psalm 1:1-3
A tall tree is called a proud person.
GOD brings down the proud, but HE exalts the humble. A proud person with no thought of GOD on how to live their life, with lofty airs and contempt for others, is a person whom GOD will humble.
He humbled proud King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Kingdom (609-539 BC).
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a tall tree broken in half by a ROCK
that came from heaven. The prophet Daniel was called to interpret the dream and told King Nebuchadnezzar:
“Your Majesty, you are that tree. You have become (proud)” - Daniel 4:22
Daniel told the king that the King of Kings, the God of Creation, would break Nebuchadnezzar’s pride. A couple of years later, Nebuchadnezzar went insane, eating grass like a cow outside the city walls, and lost his kingdom.
The Good News from Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation led to the king’s conversion. Nebuchadnezzar himself tells us that because of his brokenness, he reached out to “the one true GOD” and surrendered his will and life to GOD’S (see Daniel 4).
GOD will not let the prideful stay proud. God always brings down pride, but He exalts (raises) the humble after true brokenness (see The Great Theme of the Bible).
Listen to the prophet Ezekiel, a Jewish priest turned prophet captured by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC, describe WHY God breaks the proud:
All the trees of the forest (the people of the world) will know that I bring down the tall tree (the proud) fall, and I make the low tree (the humble) grow tall. - Ezekiel 17:24
A Warning
In this month of PRIDE, when proud people celebrate the immoral actions of man as if GOD approves, it’s important to remember what the Bible says about pride.
I encourage you to read a posthumously published article on “The Bible and Homosexuality,” written by a Christian homosexual who died of AIDS in 1989.
Parents who think love embraces, affirms, and promotes proud rebellion against GOD must know it’s not loving to remain silent about an impending cliff where your loved one may soon fall to their destruction.
It is possible to love and accept the proud person while calling out the pride.
Pride can destroy a church, a convention, and a nation as much as it can destroy a person, a relationship, and a family.
GOD is in love with humble, broken sinners. It’s only proud sinners that He despises.
It takes brokenness, repentance, and humility to reach the Tree of Life and live.
Watch this meaningful and moving four-minute video about trees in the Bible.
Thank you for caring enough for human souls to put yourself out there on the firing line with this powerful piece, brother. And thank you for including King Nebuchadnezzar's remarkable and uplifting story as a reminder that we have a God of the second (and third and seventh and seventieth!) chance.