Well, God hates sin.

Period!

But in most of the “vice lists” (a litany of wicked deeds or attitudes) in the Bible, PRIDE is at least near the top, if not at the very top! (If you recall, Isaiah chapter 14 places “pride” as the root cause of Satan’s, Lucifer’s “fall” from heaven.)

Such (pride) is the case today as we consider (yes, again) the nation of Moab.

“We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.” Isaiah 16:6

In the King James Bible (Old Testament) the primary noun for “pride” (spelled “gaon” in Hebrew) is translated as follows: “excellency, majesty, pomp, swelling,” and twice “arrogancy.” 

And do note here that Moab is “very proud!”

The noun “wrath” (in Hebrew “ebrah”) essentially is “rage.”

And that last line, “his lies shall not be so,” simply means that the “lies” Moab has propagated will not  come to pass. Nothing he mouths is reliable! 

What “linkage!”

Pride almost always leads to lying! Because a proud man or woman feels (being so self-centered) that he or she is the final arbiter of what is true or false! (Sounds like post-modernism! The fallacy that truth is subjective, not absolute. That YOU decide what is true or right for yourself. That YOU determine your own reality!)

Yes, that’s pride.

Proverbs 6:16 and 17 … “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a PROUD look, a lying tongue …” Like I said, “at the top of the list!”

How is such pride conquered?

Proverbs 8:13 tells us. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”

The more one loves God, the more he hates pride!

The downfall of Moab, and many other nations I suspect, PRIDE!

One more verse this busy Saturday … “Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” 1st Peter 5:5

Wow!

I heard a Preacher define “pride” as: “My taking credit for something God has done in my life!” 

That one is worth remembering!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell