Creator, Father, King #38

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what drove Adam and Eve to disobey God in the Garden of Eden? Yes, they were deceived by Satan, but they were not innocently duped. They bore responsibility.

The exchange between Satan and the couple in Genesis 3 is telling. Satan deceitfully told them that by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would “be like God” (verse 5). Verse 6 says that Eve “wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.” Adam did so too.

At the root of original human sin was pride.

What’s It Mean?

What is pride? Biblically defined, pride is the desire to please or exalt ourselves rather than God. It’s thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to.

Ultimately, Adam and Eve displayed great arrogance when they ate the forbidden fruit. Not content with their privileged status as God’s beloved image-bearers, Adam and Eve proudly desired even more knowledge, power, and prominence in creation.

Pride festers deep within every human being. Whether we’re gifted in academics, art, music, sports, or other endeavors, we can all fall prey to thinking too highly of our God-given talents. Worse yet, we all have proudly desired in our hearts to “climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14), wanting to run our lives independent from God.

But as today’s verse confirms, pride always precedes disaster. Scripture consistently reserves some of its strongest language to speak against human conceit. In Isaiah 13:11, God says, “I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty.” (See also Proverbs 8:13, Isaiah 2:11, and Proverbs 6:16-19.) Sometimes, pride’s consequences happen in this life. It’s God’s way of trying to turn that person toward repentance. But for the person who continues to willfully rebel, eternal consequences await.

The antidote to pride is humility—giving glory to God and considering others better than yourself. “As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6).

The best example of humility, of course, was Jesus Christ. The sinless Son of God came to earth in human form to suffer in our place so that we could be redeemed. Pride destroys, but Jesus saves!

Now What?

Learn more about the amazing humility of Christ by reading Philippians 2:3-11.

Did You Know?

If Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-19 truly are descriptions of Satan’s original downfall, then Isaiah 14:13-14 and Ezekiel 28:17 show how pride seemed to be the predominant offense.