“Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes… Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts” (Isaiah 3:16,17).
TEXT — Isaiah 3:3-26
Message
Man’s pride always brings him down. James Tillis, a former heavyweight fighter, learned that quickly, too. On his first day in Chicago, Illinois, he proudly declared, after setting his two cardboard suitcases down in front of Sears Tower, “I’m going to conquer Chicago”. However, he was defeated in a fifteen-round bout where he not only lost the world title but also saw his pride bruised.
Pride also played a role in the downfall of Judah. Today’s text is a prophecy about the calamities that would result from Babylonian invasion and their captivity. This distress would come upon Judah because of their backsliding and profanity. The daughters of Zion were particularly singled out for their pride and worldliness, which would bring them into such a humiliation that would contrast sharply with their former fine state.
God promised to take away all the props that fuelled their pride. Haughtiness and a proud disposition attract God’s wrath and judgment. While it is not sinful to desire something that will make life convenient for us, it is ungodly to make a god out of those things God has graciously permitted us to have. Houses, good jobs, well-paying careers, homes filled with healthy children and bank accounts enriched to make life easy for us are in order if used for the glory of God.
God should have our highest affection. We must, therefore, make Him, not ourselves, the centre of attraction in our lives.
We simply incur wrath and judgment upon ourselves when we get carried away by pride, self-centredness and profanity. If you have been caught in the web of pride, today, you can humbly repent and penitently seek the Lord for forgiveness.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
