Friday: Further Thought ~ From Pride to Humility
Further Thought: From Pride to Humility
“The once proud monarch had become a humble child of God; the tyrannical, overbearing ruler, a wise and compassionate king. He who had defied and blasphemed the God of heaven, now acknowledged the power of the Most High and earnestly sought to promote the fear of Jehovah and the happiness of his subjects. Under the rebuke of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords,
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Nebuchadnezzar had learned at last the lesson which all rulers need to learn — that true greatness consists in true goodness. He acknowledged Jehovah as the living God, saying, ‘I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase’.
“God’s purpose that the greatest kingdom in the world should show forth His praise was now fulfilled. This public proclamation, in which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the mercy and goodness and authority of God, was the last act of his life recorded in sacred history”. — Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 521.
Discussion Questions:
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Most of us are pretty good at identifying pride ... in others. But when it comes to ourselves, we suddenly have cataracts over our eyes. We are pretty sure that Nebuchadnezzar was a proud boastful King because he was a heathen and he deserved what he got. He is an easy target.
And yet we often self-describe as "having the truth" and so on, in a way that divides our world into the "haves and have nots" And that is a very hard lesson to swallow. Is it possible that we Seventh-day Adventists should spend some time "eating grass". What would "eating grass" look like for us?
The Laodecean message applied to a church that through they had it all together, but whose main problem was dysfunctional vision. They could not see their true condition. They were proud and needed to learn humility.
Humility is a tough lesson to learn.
Little we hear about what the prophecies say about the last days Christian church's state. Perhaps because we do not like to hear of how proud we are about what we achieved. But we need to buy the true fire from God and become hot! Otherwise he will spit us out. Are we thinking about that? Or we are too busy living the way we think is best for us. Do we really want to live by the will of God? If we really want to be different and hot, not warm, we need to fill our hearts with the love of Jesus!
It is difficult to see my pride...especially through my “humility”...(Jer 17:9), until the Spirit of Truth is heard.
It’s far worse , when you know something but choose to ignore it.
That for me is what eating Grass would be for us, but I feel we take ourselves to the wilderness. Like Nebuchanezzar we can turn away from the Lord by giving our time and devotion to other things. I’m so thankful God is merciful.
Holy Spirit faithful guide ever near the Christians side.
Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Does this seem to you exaggerated?
If the question above is correct will it then be safe to say everyone in this universe have some sort of Pride. Pride can be exhibited in thousands different ways. Pride can be pass off as a “self conscious person”. So conscious that we refused what the Lord provided for us. Sometimes people wait for moments to get back at people who broke their pride. Sometimes for years to even the odds. I ask myself, how do people go hungry in a place where food abounds or have none to wear when there’re so much clothes? There are certain things in the Bible that stands out to for me. One such thing was how the Lord sends people with things to give to others despite not asked by others. Eg Job, Bible says Job 42:11-12 people gave him money, goal etc etc. Pride causes people to refuse things from others because of because.
Let us search our own hearts.
Pride sometimes lead to death.if to said God leave nedbuchanezzar with his pride he might end up killing his palace workers because of they lack wisdom of God.God want to prove him that he was the God of all universe,all powers belong to him ( GOD ).
There are some very ‘interesting’ key concepts raised and represented in today’s quote from Patriarchs and Prophets. I will only comment on one in detail to illustrate.
The quote notes that the once proud monarch now humble child of God “... now acknowledged the power of the Most High...”
Question: what comes to your mind when you think of God’s power? Do you think of God being bigger and stronger than anyone else? Is that the basis of His power? Because if that truely is the nature and character of God’s ‘power’, Nebuchadnezzar already reflected that kind of power prior to his conversion when he was the proud monarch - and even when he decreed that anyone who spoke anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would be cut into pieces and their houses demolished (Daniel 3:29).
And yet in Nebuchadnezzar’s declaration in Daniel 4:37, he only mentions God’s works being true/truth and His ways judgment/justice/just (depending on the translation you read).
I would propose that Nebuchadnezzar had come to learn the true basis of God’s power and that this is what was being expressed in Nebuchadnezzar’s declaration.
Have you ever considered what is the absolutely strongest or greatest basis of power that is possible? It is being anchored in truth - because truth is underpinned by reality and therefore cannot be changed no matter how hard you try. For example, consider how Satan works tirelessly to misrepresent and mis portray reality (eg, Genesis 3:4 for but one example). And while Satan can and does wreak a phenomenal amount of misery and destruction through doing so, he is not able to change truth/reality by even the most minuscule amount.
Thus, God’s “omnipotence” is potent because of truth - not because of sheer might and strength. Again, even though God’s power is infinitely mighty and strong, this is not the basis of His power. This is a dramatically different form of power than we are used to conceiving of God as possessing and ‘weilding’.
Could it be that we need to go beyond our typical understanding of terms such as power, fear and abase (just to name a few) that ‘automatically’ comes to our minds and instead seek to learn how God possesses and expresses these attributes/concepts in ways that are different/higher (Isaiah 55:8,9) than we typically understand?
If Sabbath School teachers are looking for an alternative option to going through the lesson day-by-day in class this Sabbath, how about looking at a couple of these terms and explicitly comparing and contrasting our typical and ‘automatically activated’ conception of these ideas with a more careful Biblical examination?
Question: what comes to your mind when you think of God’s power?
What comes to mind and truly impresses was about our God is His Capacity for Mercy! Nebuchadnezzar could have been struck down because he was given many opportunities to change. Yet, our powerful God taught him humility in a way only he would understand and then he reinstated him + better than he ever was!
I believe C.S. Lewis was well intentioned in admonishing the Christian to use self as a gauge for pride.
How angry you get when someone mistreats you or displays pride is a reflection of the level of pride in yourself is what he is essentially saying.
So let me ask you.
God states that He HATES a haughty look.
Does this mean He has pride why He gets angry?
God forbid.
As God as our example, we are implored to be angry at pride in all its forms but not to condemn the person, but to pray for them - to see yourself as better than someone grave issues is only to condemn self.
Brethren, if we retreat into silence and don’t speak out in fear that someone may think we are proud because someone behaviour’s is genuinely offensive than we will become collectively what C.S. Lewis is encouraging us not to experience - Mere Christianity.
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