The Danger in Pride

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

THE DANGER IN PRIDE

2 Sam 19:40-43

40 When the king crossed over to Gilgal, Kimham crossed with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel had taken the king over. 41 Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him, "Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal the king away and bring him and his household across the Jordan, together with all his men?" 42 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "We did this because the king is closely related to us. Why are you angry about it? Have we eaten any of the king's provisions? Have we taken anything for ourselves?" 43 Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, "We have ten shares in the king; and besides, we have a greater claim on David than you have. So why do you treat us with contempt? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?" But the men of Judah responded even more harshly than the men of Israel.

NIV

What is this conflict between all the men of Judah and the men of Israel? Who has more shares in the king? He is known as the Lion of Judah, as he is from the tribe of Judah, and thus that tribe should be honored in some sense. But all of Israel has ten tribes and is far bigger and should have a greater stake in the king’s loyalty. Does this come down to which of us is the most important? Does this come to us having some competition about the size of our church, or how better our worship style is? Do we think we are more spiritual or simply better than others? It almost seems that the men of Judah are prideful about their humility, because they did not eat any of the king’s portions or take anything for themselves. “See how humble we are”, “See how we worship our king”. We wonder if we could become prideful of our humility, if, in fact, we are truly living humbly before our Lord and before others. We wonder if we humbly go about doing our good deeds in secret, or as Jesus put it, “be careful not to practice our acts of righteousness in front of others to be seen by them, if we do, we have no reward in heaven”. How do we do any good, especially as a united church, without others in the church seeing what we are doing, for they too are doing the same act of righteousness? But do we actually want others to see how much we do, or get some credit for what we do? “See how much we do”, “It seems we do a lot more than others”, and on goes our pride. The problem with pride is that it often leads to hurt feelings or feeling offended because we are not honored, but feel we are being taken for granted or unappreciated. If we are humble, then it does not matter if others give us praise, but only the God is pleased with our bowing before him, and giving him all the honor and praise that he has given us the strength to do what we do. The contempt the men of Israel felt from the men of Judah came from their pride in having ten shares of the king. Pride breeds contempt, humility breeds harmony. If we are commanded to live in harmony with one another and not be proud, we are also told that as we live in harmony, we will not be conceited, but love as brothers. Israel and Judah were brothers, all Israelites that were brought out of Egypt by the mighty hand of God. All of us believers have been freed from the penalty of death by the mighty hand of God. There is no difference, no pecking order, no hierarchy within the body of Christ; we are all children of God, all the same, and that means living with humility, without boasting, without pridefulness,  or without hurt feelings, because there is danger in pride.