March 9, 2013 … Pride So Often Leads To A Fall

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 68

Passage of the Day: 2nd Samuel 24: 10 [NLT] …  
10 But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him. And he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly and shouldn’t have taken the census. Please forgive me, LORD, for doing this foolish thing.” 
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Contextual Study of today’s passage: 2nd Samuel, Chapter 24 [NLT] … Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage #1: 2nd Samuel 24: 1-3 : [Pride goes before a fall; doesn’t it?] …[NLT] …  
1 Once again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the LORD told him. 2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of his army, “Take a census of all the people in the land—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—so that I may know how many people there are.” 3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God let you live until there are a hundred times as many people in your kingdom as there are now! But why do you want to do this?” 4 But the king insisted that they take the census, so Joab and his officers went out to count the people of Israel. 

Reference Passage #2: Proverbs 16: 17-19 : [Beware when things lead to easy-chair choices. ] …[NLT] …  
17 The path of the virtuous leads away from evil; whoever follows that path is safe. 18 Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. 19 Better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud. 

Reference Passage #3: Proverbs 3: 5-6 : [God’s providence tests our pride.] …[NLT] …  
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths. 

My Journal for Today: Oh so often when life leads us into, what I call “easy-chair choices,” we default to human pride and WHAMMO [!!!], the hammer of God’s tough love leads to our fall. That was the lesson King David had to learn, as described into today’s highlight passage; and he learned it bigtime … in that 70,000 of his countrymen died because he pridefully decided to count God’s people to see how many soldiers he had, … rather than just to do a count, following God’s command. You can read about it in the last chapter of 2nd Samuel, linked above for your study.

And it’s so true that God’s good providence and things going well in our lives can often lead us into the test of Proverbs 16: 17-19, copied above. It’s the old adage that pride goes before a fall, isn’t it? And I’d almost bet – if I were a betting man – that you have (as have I) experienced such a test of our prideful nature and maybe even the fall which resulted from a drift into making pride-filled or puffed-up choices. And here I go, quoting Proverbs 3: 5-6 again. Why can’t we just live by the latter truth rather than, as did David, letting our pride lead us to follow the human path of Prov. 16: 18.

David, as a conquering King, couldn’t just let God’s reason for counting the people be enough. God very likely just wanted to show David how blessed he was, along with God’s people, for their growth and power; but David reverted into counting the people to see how many soldiers he would have for future battles. But God didn’t let this anointed King’s conscience get away with that prideful decision; and David’s conviction led him to confess his sin; … which led to the plague on God’s people which yielded 70,000 dead.

So, how about let’s meditate on this story and these truths from Proverbs today and learn the lesson that God simply cannot and will not put up with pride; and let’s also learn the lesson of Proverbs 3: 34 (you look that one up!) … that God resists the proud but gives His grace to the humble.

Let’s learn the lesson and live by it in order to avoid the ultimate fall which WILL result when we let our pride and arrogance supersede our humility. Let’s recognize that it all comes from God and we can do nothing without Him [yeah, … I’ll bet you’re remembering Jesus’ words right now from John 15: 5, aren’t you?].

My Prayer for Today … Lord, I can do NOTHING without You. … Amen