I read Isaiah 23. In it, was Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre. Tyre was a major city on the coast, to which many ships from afar brought their goods to trade and sell. Tyre was held in high esteem by all around. (Isaiah 23:8). It had prestige and renown. Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? 8Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory,c to dishonor all the honored of the earth. (Isaiah 23:7-9)
When a city becomes so vaunted, the leaders of the city become proud. Hence the reason for Isaiah’s oracle against Tyre. (Isaiah 23:9). They attributed their success and fame to themselves, and not to God.
Empire State Building, view from the East River. EPrata photo
This situation reminded me of the scene in Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar displayed the same problem.
and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).
He attributed the city of Babylon’s success and fame to himself, and not to God. For his selfish boastfulness and pride, God determined to remove the kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar for 7 years, wherein he would live among beasts as a mad person and eat the grass of the field. When 7 years was over, God restored reason to the king and also the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar praised God for all His glory.
When we see the glittering towers of the city, its cathedrals, towers, strongholds, and castles, we tend to become proud of our accomplishment in building them. We admire the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Sears Tower, the Windsor Castle, the Taj Mahal… We enlarge our sea ports and construct airports and enjoy the trade and commerce merchants willingly bring to the city.
We applaud man’s ingenuity in building these majestic buildings, we love the fame and renown these landmarks bring to the city and we become boastful inhabitants. But we forget that we have no strength of our own, and no intellect, or ability unless God grants it.
EPrata photo
Tyre was razed in 332 BC when Alexander the Great conquered it. And Babylon, we know was felled in one night as described in Jeremiah 51:8 and Daniel 5:30.
If a prophet were to prophesy today, what oracle might be spoken about New York City? Los Angeles? Paris? Beijing? Tokyo? Ezekiel 38:20 prophesies a future day when all walls will crumble to the ground. This page shows how many times God said He will destroy a city for its pride and rebellion. We know He destroyed four Cities of the Plain in one night, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim.
The end result of pride, is destruction. This is reiterated in the New Testament, in today’s reading of Matthew 11. There is a section between verses 20-24 called “Woe to Unrepentant Cities” such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18). The verse applies to cities as well. The Isaiah verse we’d read yesterday is warning about this.
“Men are oppressing us with an overreach in their interpretation of a few verses”
These are statements I read and hear feminist women say when confronted with verses that affirm God’s plan for men to lead the church. These are not infrequent comments nor are they limited to a small group. The push to get women into the pulpit has heated up and is a massive groundswell.
But, do you notice some things about those statements?
1. They are similar to the conversation in the Garden when the serpent awoke the woman’s desire for more than what had been given, and for what she couldn’t have. Rather than focusing on all the bounty around her freely given and available without cost to her, the woman instead became desirous of the one thing she may not eat. Suddenly she thought that God was holding out on her and that He was not a Good and Perfect God. This is deadly thinking. It’s terrible sin, too.
It’s a similar vein with the usurping women who want the pulpit. The Lord gave women so many opportunities for ministry in order to glorify His name. Childbearing &childrearing is one- we have an opportunity to shape the minds and hearts of the gracious gift of children for His name. We can teach, perform administrative tasks, host, do mercy ministry, so many ways to work for Jesus. Yet, rejecting those, the usurpers want what is forbidden.
2. Gratitude. We have a God who includes sinful humans to share His name, to minister to Him, to come to his throne freely, to glorify Him with our work on earth, to be co-heirs! What a God! We should be grateful He wants us to do ANYTHING for Him, that He justifies us, sanctifies us, adopts us, is in union with us, rewards us, gives us His word, gives us His Spirit, gives us understanding of His word, and gives us LIFE. Being discontent and grasping for the one thing that He put out of reach is demonic in the extreme. It’s the Garden all over again. It is a desire worthy of spiritual death and banishment from His paradise.
God assigned men to lead Has church. He is allowed to do that, He’s GOD! If that is His design, so be it. We content ourselves with every bit of what He HAS given us to do, and we look forward with joy at the future with Him. If women complain, want more, strive for that forbidden fruit, they are being Eve influenced by satan. It is as simple as that.
If you are a woman who wants roles not assigned to you (preaching in church, teaching men) you should ask yourself why. Look at God as revealed in the Bible; holy, just, perfect. Look at yourself; sinner, polluted, depraved- and think why you are not content with what the Lord has given you. He has given us so much. Was God pleased to crush His Son on our behalf just so we could complain that we can’t stand in front of the church and preach? Did Jesus die a horrible death just so we can say what He has given us to do isn’t enough, we want more? Check yourself, woman.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18 KJV)
The past few days has been involved for me with discerning a false ministry, but one that has a quarter of a million followers. Her impact is huge and the negative reverberations of her well-hidden errors will go on to the undiscerning and naïve. For that I feel prayerfully grief-stricken and have a deep concern for young ladies in this ever-darkening culture over whom they follow and what dark webs they may get caught up in.
One thing that caught my attention that I have been pondering in the calming-down aftermath here in my little corner of the world, is humility and teachability.
The more popular a teacher grows, the more chance there is for him or her to become prideful. It’s just the way of human flesh. God knows this. It is exactly why He said for new believing men not to become leaders, due to the temptation to become conceited-
and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6).
But the moment people start noticing our ministry is just the moment we need more humility.
So now I can hear the replies in your mind. ‘But I don’t HAVE a ministry!’
My reply to young ladies, married ladies, mothers, older ladies, is that we ALL have a ministry. It might not be codified. It might not have a name. It might not be a 501(c)3. But we do have a ministry.
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(1 Peter 2:5).
We are all priests, working for His name in the spheres in which He has placed us. No matter if the sphere is large or small, we work for His name, aware that our every move, our entire being, is for His name.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1).
The young unmarried woman is a ministry – by example – of her modesty and chasteness and eagerness to learn. The married woman is a ministry – by example – of her unity with her husband and presentation of her marriage as a parable of what the Gospel is like. The mothers are a ministry – by example – of literally presenting your bodies as a sacrifice of praise to Jesus who knit the baby in your womb. Raising children is a worthy calling for both the mother and father. The older woman is a ministry – by example – of ministering to younger women. Grandchildren. Ladies in church and elsewhere. Our own raising of children may be complete (if the Lord had granted it) but there are others to minister to, encouraging them in the admonition of the Lord and exhorting to share the beauty of Jesus.
We all have work to do. We’re all in a ministry.
Now. I was also thinking of a certain someone in a ministry who said people are accusing her of the following: “I am even being called dangerous, legalistic, ungodly, and a false teacher.” She said people are saying those things of her. She is a person who does have a formal ministry. It has a quarter of a million followers, she’s been interviewed widely, she wields a great deal of influence.
None of that matters. None.
What matters is, are we ministering in such a way that the holy and spotless name of Jesus is being upheld by our teachings and our lifestyle? Ministry is about the outworking of doctrinal truths applied to our lives, in His name, for His name. Are we doing it well?
It does a person good to occasionally review one’s life, one’s ministry, one’s teachings. Are we still on the center line of doctrinal truth? Are we speaking and behaving in such a way that would bring glory to Jesus, or bring reproach to Jesus?
You know, we are told to examine ourselves, more times in the New Testament than we think.
2 Corinthians 13:5 – Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
Galatians 6:3-4 – For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting, but to himself alone, and not to another.
2 Peter 1:10 – Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choice of you;
1 Corinthians 11:28 – But a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Matthew 7:5 – You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye!
If we are told to examine ourselves so much for that variety of reasons, why ignore the fact that we are to examine ourselves when we are doing ministry? No! Let it not be so!
Let us all, those in formal ministry and those who quietly or informally minister, examine ourselves to see that we are doing and saying things that are pleasing to God. If people are saying to us or about us that we’re dangerous, legalistic, ungodly, or a false teacher the question remains: do we love Jesus first or do we love ourselves first? Our entire attention and focus must be on His name. If I am doing anything that is dangerous or false or legalistic, upon hearing such accusations, is my pride such that I never take the charges seriously and go examine myself fairly? Never let it be so!
Pride is the first sin and the most serious. It is the root of all other sins. God speaks in His word many times about pride. Here are a few,
Proverbs 8:13 – The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.
Proverbs 11:2 – When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 16:5 – Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.
Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.
It is humbling to publicly repent of something done in sin or taught incorrectly in His name. It is humbling to eat crow. But pride should not be so strong that it prevents us from kneeling down and saying “I was wrong. Forgive me.”
I’ve seen some public teachers do it. Far from making me think less of them, I think MORE highly of them. I myself have been open about my mistake of following Joel Osteen at the start of my Christian life (before I had a blog, thankfully). Also of my newspaper eisegesis and looking at signs according to the news, early on in my blogging career. I was excited to finally have had all the answers in the Bible as to why the world was the way it was, and I’m not apologetic at that first rush of relief and joy and my worldview shifted so rapidly. But I am thankful the Spirit grew me out of that and I didn’t persist and become wayward in doctrine or hopefully not lead others astray.
If you are receiving congratulations for a job well done in ministry, great, but don’t let it go to your head. If you are receiving charges of falsity or error, stop, take a breath, consider the source, and examine yourself to see if it is so. The spotless name of Jesus is paramount to all we do in ministry, and yes we all have a ministry.
Do I think more highly of myself than I ought? Of course I do! Just like Peter. Here’s Peter-
Peter: When Jesus asked the disciples if they want to leave Him too, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68)
Peter again: But Peter repeatedly said insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Mark 14:31).
We are warned not to think of ourselves too highly. There is only One who truly knows us inside out, and that One is Jesus. He knows what is in every man. (John 2:23-25). We may think we know ourselves, but we do not.
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)
Barnes Notes says of the Romans verse, "Not to over-estimate himself, or to think more of himself than he ought to. What is the true standard by which we ought to estimate ourselves he immediately adds. This is a caution against pride; and an exhortation not to judge of ourselves by our talents, wealth, or function, but to form another standard of judging of ourselves, by our Christian character"
The humility we are supposed to cultivate is for the good of the church. As believers walk with the Lord individually, we also walk with Him in unity. We are a congregation, and the local unit of believers comprising the church should reduce themselves in thought rather than elevate themselves for the good of the one anothers. This is because spiritual pride is deadly in the church.
Peter was given great insights by the Holy Spirit. Peter also thought he knew himself, but Jesus knew Peter would deny Him within hours, and with curses, too. James and John wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in the kingdom. Jesus asked them if they were able to drink the cup prepared for Jesus and they said without hesitation, “We are able.” The two of them were thinking of themselves more highly than they ought.
We should not think too highly of ourselves. We don’t know ourselves as well as we think we do.
When pride comes, then comes dishonor; But with the humble there is wisdom. Proverbs 11:2
We know the first sin was pride. It happened in heaven and it was horrific. Satan, Lucifer as his given name is said to be, was made beautiful and blameless in all his ways (Ezekiel 28:15). Then he sinned because he was proud of his beauty. (Ezekiel 28:16-17a). His wisdom was corrupted. Satan lost his place in heaven. (Ezekiel 28:17b).
Satan, still called Lucifer, was angered because of this, and he made five vows. Foremost, he said in his heart that he will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:13-14).
Then satan set out to enact his evil plan. His sin was pride, but he enacted his sin through another sin: GOSSIP and SLANDER. Lucifer became Satan the accuser and tale bearer.
Satan is a title that means “one who resists”. The name, or the title, depending on which interpretation and book of the Bible is using it, also means accuser. (Revelation 12:9–10). Satan accuses God and he accuses God’s people. In the famous scene at the beginning of Job, satan is seen accusing Job of only being righteous because God has blessed him. In Genesis 3, satan is subtly accusing God of being dishonest in His dealings with Eve. (Genesis 3:1-5).
This verse tells us more about satan’s accusing and slandering activities.
In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; (Ezekiel 28:16).
What trade? There is no merchandise in heaven. The trade referred to here is from a word meaning merchant, likely a spice merchant, going hither and yon, out and about, selling. But the word is from a root word meaning gossip monger, trading on gossip, going hither and yon, here and there, tale- bearing. Proverbs 20:19 uses the same Hebrew word, rakal, as in the Ezekiel verse,
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
So satan the accuser was proud. He thought he deserved to be higher than God, and went about here and there slandering God and tale-bearing to the other holy angels in order to accomplish this.
What were the other angels’ reaction?
“Pish”, they all said! “Look at God, just LOOK at Him, on His throne with the train of His robe filling the temple! We were there when He created everything and it was very good and we shouted for joy! Get behind me satan!”
No.
A third of the angels believed satan’s lies and slander. They, who were holy and blameless, and who saw the face of God, and observed His works from a first row position, believed satan’s slander.
If they did, how about us in our sinful flesh, under heaven and not in it, and only too willing to hear slander about someone else? What are the chances for us? We’re sitting ducks for believing lies, gossip, and slander – all of satan’s abundant trade.
Satan’s first sin was pride. He said and believed these things in his heart. But how did his sin come out? How did he act upon it? Slander/gossip/tale-bearing. If you (or I) go about up and down, hither and yon tale-bearing, we are acting satanic. Think of pride sitting upon a magic floating carpet that’s going here and there. Or the wind that is carrying the milkweed seed.
This activity is the action upon which pride is carried out. When we slander or gossip, we are putting ourselves in the same position as satan did when he did it. Do we want to mimic satan?
In our Bible Reading Plan we’d read Isaiah 23. In it, was Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre. Tyre was a major city on the coast, to which many ships from afar brought their goods to trade and sell. Tyre was held in high esteem by all around. (Isaiah 23:8). It had prestige and renown.
Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? 8Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory,c to dishonor all the honored of the earth. (Isaiah 23:7-9)
When a city becomes so vaunted, the leaders of the city become proud. Hence the reason for Isaiah’s oracle against Tyre. (Isaiah 23:9). They attributed their success and fame to themselves, and not to God.
This situation reminded me of the scene in Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar displayed the same problem.
and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).
He attributed the city of Babylon’s success and fame to himself, and not to God. For his selfish boastfulness and pride, God determined to remove the kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar for 7 years, wherein he would live among beasts as a mad person and eat the grass of the field. When 7 years was over, God restored reason to the king and also the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar praised God for all His glory.
When we see the glittering towers of the city, its cathedrals, towers, strongholds, and castles, we tend to become proud of our accomplishment in building them. We admire the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Sears Tower, the Windsor Castle, the Taj Mahal… We enlarge our sea ports and construct airports and enjoy the trade and commerce merchants willingly bring to the city.
We applaud man’s ingenuity in building these majestic buildings, we love the fame and renown these landmarks bring to the city and we become boastful inhabitants. But we forget that we have no strength of our own, and no intellect, or ability unless God grants it.
Tyre was razed in 332 BC when Alexander the Great conquered it. And Babylon, we know was felled in one night as described in Jeremiah 51:8 and Daniel 5:30.
If a prophet were to prophesy today, what oracle might be spoken about New York City? Los Angeles? Paris? London? Ezekiel 38:20 prophesies a future day when all walls will crumble to the ground. This page shows how many times God said He will destroy a city for its pride and rebellion. We know He destroyed four Cities of the Plain in one night, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim.
The end result of pride, is destruction. This is reiterated in the New Testament, in today’s reading of Matthew 11. There is a section between verses 20-24 called “Woe to Unrepentant Cities” such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18). The verse applies to cities as well. The Isaiah verse we’d read yesterday is warning about this.
the-end-time.org 