Below
are the links to the 2 articles:
2.
Standing on the backs of others won’tmake you taller (I also encourage you to read my comment on
this article; the points are NOT reflected in this article)
Article verse
Hab
2:4 - "See, he is puffed up; his desires are
not upright-- but the righteous will live by his faith.
It started with
Satan
Satan’s
fall from Heaven was due to pride.
Isaiah 14:12-14 gave us the picture: 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
Ezekiel
28:12-18 is conflated with Satan. Satan
was most beautiful and perfect until Iniquity was found in Him. Iniquity birthed from pride. Satan wanted to be like God, be seated at the
High Throne, and be worshipped by all. He
probably was below One, and above all others, possibly, was the one who
orchestrated worship in Heaven; yet he wanted to equal God, if NOT above God.
Pride
reaches its high level when, it matters NOT, to you, what others (including God) think
of you; and what matters to you is what you think of yourself. When it is like that, it is you are placing
yourself above everyone else.
In
this regard, the author of Romans, in Romans 12:3, captured it well, warning us
NOT to think more highly than we ought, but rather
think of ourselves with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has
distributed to each of us.
Think
about it, that was what happened to Satan; he stopped bothering with what God thought
of him, rather he thought he ought be the one be worshipped by all (equaled
God, or even instead of God being worshipped).
When we say we are NOT bothered with what others think of us, it is
WRONG (pride), if that “others” included God. We must have, and have, the highest regard
for what God thinks of us. Micah 6:8 said of what is required of us; one of it,
is we are to walk humbly before our God.
Replication into
Man
Iniquity
birthed in Satan from pride; to me, the same was replicated into men, in the
Fall. The snare was the same; Gen 3:4-6 –
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the
woman. 5 "For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil." 6 When the
woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave
some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
See,
Satan was hinting to Eve, “You could do without God”.
Fellowship
consideration
“Well,
in that case, can I be ‘NOT bothered’ with what others think; I just give
regards to what God thinks?” If the
others are in alignment with God, you cannot just ignore them either. Remember, (1 John 1) if we are in the light,
we have fellowship with God and with other believers in the light. The yardstick of measurement has to be God’s
words, will and desires, though. Believers’
expectations of us, which are out of line with the yardstick, we can put aside,
after we have weighed against the yardstick, but it is only after exercising
sober judgment.
Romans
12 gives a good take of how we are to live it out in a community. The point is still we are NOT called into
isolation, but to live in fellowship in the light. Life is NOT easy in such context, for where
there are people, there is politics, and that is another thorny issue, and
wisdom is required. We don’t bow to men, but to God; but it is NOT we bow NOT,
to men and we bow NOT to anyone, NOT even God.
We submit to authority placed over us, by God. Unhappy with leaders, and there is no higher
authority? Take your case to God.
Agreement with God
The
straightforward and “easy thing to say” is to “Just do what God wills/desires
you, to do; submit, obey, and follow His prescription for you”; in other words,
be in agreement with God. It is the
right thing, but it is NOT necessarily easy to practise.
Hab
2:4 ends with “but the righteous shall live by faith”, but how is it contrary to prideful behavior or living? I often say, the simple definition of being
righteous is being in agreement with God, and so, the righteous are the ones supposedly
in agreement with God. The “in agreement”
is about what God wants done, and the timing thereof, too; and it is NOT mental
assent, it got to be lived out.
Why
the righteous shall live by faith; it is because we proceed and we are to
proceed (to live), from a “right belief”; NOT any belief, but a belief in the
words, will and desires of God. It is the norm that it is NOT “robotic”,
in that it is NOT all pre-programmed in every single step that we are to take,
and it is NOT executed entirely from facts.
And we do NOT have the full mind of Christ, like our mind has been hollowed
out and replaced by Christ’s mind! If
you have such a mind, let me know! To be righteous in living, it is by faith.
I
like this, that Ps Prentis said (in his blog entry - “Bowing at the Altar of
Self”):
“Listening to
God and doing what He desires takes away all pride and all self-worship. It
creates a person who loses himself in his work. His work is his worship because
God has called him to it. He doesn’t worship the work but worships by
working.”
Really,
worship is more than we singing songs and praising Him; we worship Him in doing
willingly and lovingly the works (including worship of Him) He has us do. But sad, too often, works has been erroneously
treated like leprosy, to stay away from (no thanks to overly grace preachers), with
a 10 feet pole, so to speak.
How is in agreement with God (being righteous), listening to Him and doing from that, by faith, takes away all pride and self-worship? It is because we know we are NOT the source of the whatever that people can be prideful about, God is; we merely follow His lead.
How is in agreement with God (being righteous), listening to Him and doing from that, by faith, takes away all pride and self-worship? It is because we know we are NOT the source of the whatever that people can be prideful about, God is; we merely follow His lead.
“Listening
to God and doing what He desires” is NOT necessarily easy!
But who says, when it is hard, we are NOT to do! If there is no hardness, from where would
come faithfulness and perseverance; and where would come character building.
The
one who is NOT operating from “the righteous shall live by faith”, Habakkuk said,
his soul is lifted up, or he is being proud.
And he who is proud, “uprightness” is NOT in him. To live by faith, one listens
to God and does what He desires (both listening and doing, call for faith); when
we are NOT doing that, we are saying we know better (than God); and this is
being proud, is it NOT?!
My
check of the Lexicon leads me to believe the right meaning to be assigned
(there are several meanings) to the “uprightness” {H3474} is, that which is
pleasing, agreeable; and obviously, pleasing and agreeability are from the
perspective of God. So, he who is proud
does NOT have that which is pleasing or agreeable to God, or he is NOT pleasing
or agreeable to God.
In
other words, Hab 2:4 could read as “Behold, he who is being proud (or prideful)
is NOT pleasing or agreeable to God; whereas, the righteous lives by faith or
in agreement with God”.
If it is the Lord's
will, we will live and do this or that
There
is, of course, time and season (Eccl 3); and so, while we must remain faithful
in our works for God, it is never we are indispensable (that is pride), or
that God cannot retire us off, or rotate us to any other thing or nothing (for
a season)! He is the Potter, we are the
clay; He will re-make or re-shape as he wishes (Jer 18:4-5; Rom 9:21).
The
Apostle James left us these words (James 4:13-16):
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go
to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make
money." 14 Why, you do not even
know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears
for a little while and then vanishes. 15
Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and
do this or that." 16 As it is,
you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
