July-September
“Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: but if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 11:7–10).
In our previous issue of the Youth Messenger, we began this series on the life of Solomon. We read about how Solomon began his reign as king in the fear of God and that the Lord greatly blessed him with wisdom, wealth, and widespread influence.
But what happened to this once-honored man of God? We read that “King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites."
"Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about” (1 Kings 11:1–3; 3:1).
“Pride, ambition, prodigality, and indulgence bore fruit in cruelty and exaction. . . . From the wisest and most merciful of rulers, [Solomon] degenerated into a tyrant. Once the compassionate, God-fearing guardian of the people, he became oppressive and despotic.”—Prophets and Kings, p. 55.
“The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice” (1 Kings 11:9).
“So complete was [Solomon’s] apostasy, so hardened his heart in transgression, that his case seemed well-nigh hopeless.”—Ibid., p. 75. [Emphasis supplied.]
“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me” (Ecclesiastes 2:4–7).
“From the joy of divine communion, Solomon turned to find satisfaction in the pleasures of sense.”—Ibid., p. 76.
We had mentioned in our previous Youth Messenger article that the first two reasons for Solomon’s downfall were
Women (promiscuity).
Business transactions made without the fear of God.
Now let us look into the third reason:
• Indulgence,
• pride, ambition, and
• self-confidence.
We are told in Scripture that we are to be “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:5, 6).
It must be more than ironic that it was Solomon who wrote that there is pride before a fall. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
Yet “all the drinking vessels of king Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver; it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon” (2 Chronicles 9:20).
“The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. . . . The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalm 10:2, 4).
Solomon knew the theory of humility; he had written much about it in the book of Proverbs. But Solomon and pride go together. From God’s law he knew the theory of the greatness of the Almighty and humanity’s inability to please the Lord by works.
Pride was the cause of Lucifer's downfall.
“The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!” (Obadiah 1:3–6).
This problem has existed since the dawn of human history in the experience of Adam and Eve:
“When the woman saw that the tree [which was in the midst of the garden] was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:6, 7).
When our first parents sought to be like gods to know (i.e., experience) the difference between good and evil, pride blinded their hearts and eyes as they listened to the voice of Satan and ate of the forbidden fruit—and by this sin of pride and rebellion they threw the whole human race into chaos.
Again we see this pride of ambition in the lives of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram as recorded in Numbers 16. When blinded by the sin of pride, they aspired to have the office of the high priest. God destroyed them in His wrath by opening the earth and they went down alive and perished. Oh, what a sin pride is that it makes a human aspire for that which God in His sovereignty has withheld from him or her!
Do you aspire to a great place in life, motivated by the pride of your depraved heart? “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 45:5). Cry unto God to break this pride of ambition and seek the face of God in repentance.
The Bible also speaks of the pride of position which is sin against God. In the time of the exodus, the proud king of Egypt, Pharaoh, said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2).
Pharaoh’s arrogant defiance of his Creator is revealed in his demanding question: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?”
The human race in all its pride is saying the same thing today:
a. Who is God that I should obey His voice?
b. Why should I bow to His authority?
c. Why should I deny self anything?
d. Why should I ask for help?
e. I don’t need God!
Oh, what a sin pride is, that it makes you stand out against God and say you will not bow to His supreme authority.
Not only does pride lead to rejection of God—often we do not even realize that it is controling us. Gradually pride takes over until it conquers without us even being aware of our slavery to our own ego.
“As inclination gained the ascendancy over reason, self-confidence increased, and [Solomon] sought to carry out the Lord’s purpose in his own way. He reasoned that political and commercial alliances with the surrounding nations would bring these nations to a knowledge of the true God; and he entered into unholy alliance with nation after nation. Often these alliances were sealed by marriages with heathen princesses. The commands of Jehovah were set aside for the customs of surrounding peoples.”—Ibid., p. 54.
Like their king, Judah was filled with pride and self-sufficiency, as later described.
“Thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan” (Isaiah 2:6–13).
While this passage condemns Israel for their pride, it describes the actions of Solomon as king. Let us take a warning from seeing how subtle and destructive this form of pride can be!