Day 131 – Pride Is Abomination

‘Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished’. Proverbs 16:5

The subject of pride is very important and it is very difficult to teach. This is primarily because as this verse clearly states; it is a ‘thing of the heart’. More so, there is both positive and negative dimension to it. You are the only one that can determine if you are proud in the negative sense of it – although people might detect it through your behaviours.

The proud offends God by self-exaltation; offends other people by self-preoccupation and bring themselves problems with self-declaration. The delusion increases until one fancies oneself so high as to be invulnerable (Oba. 3). Hear what God says in Obadiah 4 to the proud in heart, ‘Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord’.

The Bible describes pride as an abomination to the Lord! Abomination is: ‘anything that offends the spiritual, religious, or moral sense of a person and causes extreme disgust, hatred, or loathing’. It is something which is morally disgusting. It is in the same category with the worship of idols (Deut 7:25-26; 17:2-5); sexual transgression (Lev 18); practice of magic, witchcraft, and engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14). Most of the Hebrew words translated “abomination” has the meaning of “impure,” “filthy,” and “unclean”- that which is foul-smelling and objectionable to a holy God.