The Power of Pride
No matter what their role
in the Christian community,
leaders must be on guard against the human
and often subtle tendency
to be prideful and even arrogant.
Here now is Gene Getz:
In this particular section of Jeremiah,
we see the power of pride.
It's an incredible illustration.
Here's what we read.
We have God's promise of
protection to the remnant--
those who stayed.
Those who were not taken into captivity.
Those who lived outside of Jerusalem.
There were many people that still were there
after Nebuchadnezzar came in
and they burned the city of Jerusalem
and took a number into captivity.
And so they came to Jeremiah,
who by the way, was released, remember?
The chains were taken off.
He was actually chained--
that the chains came off.
And the captain of the guard,
Babylonian leader, said: You're free.
So Jeremiah is free.
He's there.
But he stayed in that area.
Obviously, he lived in that area.
His family lived in that area.
And notice, they said:
Should we go down to Egypt?
They came and they asked:
Shall we go down to Egypt?
Now one of the reasons they asked
is they were starving.
They were not able
to take care of themselves.
Things were in a shambles.
They were fearful.
And that's understandable.
But notice what Jeremiah said,
after he went to the Lord--chapter 42:
He said to them,
"This is what the Lord says,
the God of Israel to whom you sent me
to bring your petition before Him:
'If you will indeed stay in this land,
then I will rebuild and not demolish you,
and I will plant and not uproot you,
because I relent concerning the disaster
that I have brought on you.
Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon
whom you now fear;
don't be afraid of him'--
this is the Lord's declaration--
'because I am with you to save you
and deliver you from him.' "
In other words, that group that was left behind
in their desperate situation
were tempted to leave the land
and go down to Egypt.
By the way, that sounds like some of the
other biblical stories in the New Testament.
Leaving the land and going down to Egypt.
Abraham did that, by the way,
in the Old Testament as well--as an escape.
And it was a mistake, evidently
because he got in all kinds of trouble.
Because he didn't stay in the land
and trust God in the midst of that famine.
But here you have another
illustration of this.
And God says: No.
Stay there. I will take care of you.
I'm no longer wrathful because of the evil
that happened here.
I'm relenting.
I want to have compassion on you.
Unfortunately, these leaders didn't listen.
After all that Jeremiah had said.
After all the things he had prophesied.
After all these things came true.
Notice their response:
When Jeremiah had finished speaking
to all the people all the words
of the Lord their God--all these words
the Lord their God had sent him to give them--
then Azariah son of Hoshaiah,
Johanan son of Kareah,
and all the other arrogant men...
That's a powerful statement.
...all the other arrogant men
responded to Jeremiah,
"You're speaking a lie! ..."
I mean they're talking to a man
who went to prison because he told the truth.
They're talking to a prophet
who went into a pit of mud
because he told the truth.
And they're accusing him of telling a lie.
"...The Lord our God has not sent you to say,
'You must not go [down] to Egypt
to live there for a while!'
Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you
[Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you]
against us to hand us over
to the Chaldeans [or the Babylonians]
to put us to death or
to deport us to Babylon!"
And of course, the key phrase in this
whole paragraph is "arrogant men."
What happened?
They went down to Egypt and they all died.
They were slaughtered
because they didn't follow the will of God.
They didn't obey. They didn't respond.
They rejected the words from Jeremiah.
As I thought about this, I thought:
You know, we have illustrations of pride
throughout history.
In fact, when I think of the rulers of this world,
I can't think of many
who haven't operated out of arrogance.
I think of the king of Babylon.
Think of Nebuchadnezzar.
I think about the 90-foot
huge monument he built to himself.
And I think about the fact that
he ordered that if you didn't bow down
to that monument, you're going to die.
And that's where Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego refused to do it
and they went into the fire furnace.
There was a line they couldn't cross in Babylon.
But what drove this man?
It was arrogance.
I think of Saddam Hussein.
And if you went to Babylon,
not too long before he was deposed,
I don't know what it's like today.
But there was a huge, huge picture
of Nebuchadnezzar where Saddam Hussein
was rebuilding the city of Babylon
in southern Iraq.
And to the right of the huge gate
going into this complex
was a picture of Saddam Hussein.
I've seen those pictures.
Saddam Hussein was going to become
the Nebuchadnezzar of the world today.
That was his goal.
As you look about at the leaders of the world,
what drives them?
The power of pride.
Arrogance.
So many times.
We have an illustration of arrogance
in a church in the New Testament.
John the apostle wrote a little letter.
It's called 3rd John.
Just one chapter.
And this is what he said:
I wrote something to the church
but Diotrephes, who loves to have
first place among them...
Now folks this is a leader in the church.
...who loves to have first place among them,
does not receive us. ...
And John was an apostle.
...This is why, if I come, I will remind him
of the works he is doing,
slandering us with malicious words. ...
Attacking the apostle John,
who after all these years in his 90's,
had been this faithful servant. He says:
...And he is not satisfied with that!
He not only refuses to welcome
the brothers himself, but even stops those
who want to do so
and expels them from the church.
Diotrephes, what was the basis of his actions? Pride.
I remember I went through
a terrible situation as a pastor
on one occasion, where a group of
individuals rose up against me.
Found out later it was really a plot
because I was getting too close to their sin
in that particular situation.
I remember a man who came to me
in that midst of that situation.
He's now with Jesus.
And he said: Gene, there is a Diotrephes
in this church.
And later we discovered
who that Diotrephes was.
Who basically had to orchestrated
a lot of what took place.
The evil that took place.
For what purpose?
What was the motivation?
Arrogance.
Pride.
We have an illustration of a man
who was humbled in the same church.
His name was Demetrius.
And John wrote about him.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil
but what is good.
The one who does good is of God;
the one who does evil has not seen God.
Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone,
and from the truth itself.
And we also testify for him,
and you know that our testimony is true.
Wow, what a statement about a godly man.
There are people in this world
who follow Diotrephes.
And here John is speaking
particularly to those of us who are leaders.
But then he gives us this
beautiful illustration of Demetrius.
A man of God.
A man of humility.
A man who followed the example of
Jesus Christ where Paul wrote
that we are to follow Him.
Jesus is our example.
Let this mind be in you
which was also in Jesus.
Who though He existed in this world--
though He existed in the form of God,
did not cling to that position
but He laid it aside. Humbled Himself.
Became a man and even went to the cross.
Imitate Jesus Christ.
So here's the question for Reflection and Response:
Why are pride and arrogance
often the core issues that cause
even spiritual leaders
to make disastrous decisions that are
so destructive to the cause of Christ?
Well to answer that question,
I'm going to go to the apostle John,
once again, who gave us some very wise words.
They came directly from the Holy Spirit.
And it's something that we all need to
be aware of even as believers. John wrote:
Do not love the world or the things
that belong to the world.
If anyone loves the world,
love for the Father is not in him.
For everything that belongs to the world-- ...
Now here's the answer really,
I think to the question:
...the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride in one's lifestyle--
is not from the Father,
but is from the world.
And the world with its lust is passing away,
but the one who does
God's will remains forever.
Let's remember this Principle to Live By:
No matter what their role
in the Christian community,
leaders must be on guard against the human
and often subtle tendency
to be prideful and even arrogant.