When we turn away from God seeking freedom to live life our own way, we are quickly enslaved to false gods and to our own stubborn desires (Jeremiah 13:9-10).
Pride, however, deceives us (Jeremiah 49:16) and corrupts our wisdom (Ezekiel 28:17): all our proud boasts are empty (Isaiah 16:6). Rather than seeking God or even thinking about him (Psalm 10:4), proud people act as though they themselves sit on God’s throne (Ezekiel 28:2), assuming that God is powerless to stop their plans (2 Kings 19:10-13, 22). Proud people have no interest in listening seriously to God and obeying what He commands them (Leviticus 26:18-19), because they have put their confidence in themselves (Isaiah 9:9-10). But instead of humbly thanking God for all these good gifts (Romans 1:21), we proudly refuse to respond to His kindness (2 Chronicles 32:24-25) and instead try to take for ourselves the credit for what God has done in and through us (Isaiah 10:12-15 37:23-26).
We take pride in our wealth (Deuteronomy 8:13-14) in our jewellery (Ezekiel 7:20) in our salary (Ezekiel 28:5) in our health and strength (Psalm 73:4-6) in our beauty (Ezekiel 28:17) in our power (2 Chronicles 26:16) in our successes (Psalm 140:8) and in our victories (2 Chronicles 25:19). Satan appealed to human pride in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:5), and throughout the Bible there are countless more examples of people taking pride in things rather than in God. Why would humans turn away from God? Part of the answer is pride: our desire not to praise God (1 Corinthians 1:31), but to boast about ourselves (Philippians 3:4-9) not to promote God’s name (Matthew 6:9), but to make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:4). The opposite of this is sin: turning away from God (Romans 3:10-12), so that we don’t reflect God’s glory any more (Romans 3:23). God made us “in His image” (Genesis 1:27): we are like mirrors, and our purpose in life is to turn toward God in love (Mark 12:30) and reflect His glory to the world (Psalm 115:1). This is because human pride directly undermines everything God created us to be. The Bible condemns proud men and women in the strongest terms (Proverbs 16:5).
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