God Hates and Punishes Pride (2) - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
Proverbs 16:18-19 NKJV; Proverbs 29:23 NKJV

God Hates and Punishes Pride (2)
Throughout Scripture our great God shows us that He hates pride and deals with it most severely. Examples in God's Word show us how individuals brought catastrophe upon themselves and many others because, in their pride, they set themselves to resist God.

In Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go." God showed him who He, the Lord, was by sending ten plagues upon Egypt, the last of which cost the lives of all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians.

When David in pride had all the fighting men of Israel numbered, in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, God sent a swift plague upon Israel that was so severe that in three days 70,000 men of Israel died.

When King Sennacherib of Assyria was about to besiege Jerusalem, he sent a proud, boastful, blasphemous letter to Hezekiah, king of Judah. In Isaiah 37 and 2 Kings 19, we see Hezekiah spreading out the letter before God in the temple. Following this, God sent a single angel who destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, causing Sennacherib to go back to Assyria in disgrace.

In Daniel 5, Belshazzar, Babylon's king, used vessels taken from God's temple in Jerusalem for his drunken party. That very night Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians, and Belshazzar was killed.

What a contrast between these men and Him who humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, the death of the cross! Countless millions have received eternal salvation through His great work.

-- Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.