The Proud and the Humble

 DEVOTION

JUDDES

THE PROUD AND THE HUMBLE

Judges 9:46-57

46 On hearing this, the citizens in the tower of Shechem went into the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith. 47 When Abimelech heard that they had assembled there, 48 he and all his men went up Mount Zalmon. He took an ax and cut off some branches, which he lifted to his shoulders. He ordered the men with him, "Quick! Do what you have seen me do!" 49 So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelech. They piled them against the stronghold and set it on fire over the people inside. So all the people in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, also died. 50 Next Abimelech went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. 51 Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women — all the people of the city — fled. They locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. 52 Abimelech went to the tower and stormed it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, 53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull. 54 Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say, 'A woman killed him.'" So his servant ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home. 56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the men of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.

NIV

How evil can one man become because of pride, selfishness, that motivated him to burn women and children to death while they were taking refuge in a temple to their false god El-Berith. Of course, it was still a false refuge because the temple or stronghold had no power to save them. The LORD, God Almighty, is the only true refuge, fortress, and strong tower.  After burning all those in the temple of Shechem to death, he advances on to besiege another city where all the men, women, and all the people of the town, which would include the children, fled and locked themselves in a tower and climbed onto the roof. Here is the end of Abimelech, where the LORD exacts his revenge on a man who has turned his back on the LORD and done despicable things. For a man who believes he is a warrior, a fighting man of strength and courage, to be harmed to the point of death by a woman was too much for him; he had his man thrust a sword into him. How pride ruins the very fabric of a person's character. How horrible to be under the influence of such pride that motivates that kind of selfish ambition to exact revenge on the townspeople. Of course, they also were worshipping a false god, so that no one paid any attention to the LORD and thus were not able to take refuge in Him. Nevertheless, pridefulness is our lesson, as we know the Lord is displeased with it. When we are prideful, it shows we consider our strength to be in our abilities, education, knowledge, talents, skills, wealth, or whatever else we think is due to our own efforts. Pride turns to boasting in ourselves, always making sure others know about our achievements or accomplishments both in the world and in the church. We believe God humbles the proud and lifts up the humble. However, the motivation to be humble should not be so that God would lift us up, but rather because God desires humility over pridefulness. The Apostle James quotes a proverb, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. Jesus tells us to learn from him, for he is gentle and humble in heart, and if we are gentle and humble in heart, we will find rest for our souls. Opposite to that would be the prideful will not find rest for their souls. We think the prideful would always be striving to find more to boast about, never content, but always looking for the next level of achievement, the next level to boast about, such as Abimelech, never finding rest, however, death knocked on his door, but not in his soul. Because we humble ourselves, God will lift us in due time. There will always be the proud and the humble.