Pride

January 3, 2007

Pride is an interesting emotion. It is listed as one of the seven deadly sins, but should it be?

As a husband and father I have a lot of pride in what I do. I am proud of having a job and trying to take care of my family, I take pride in my work that it is well done. As a father of more children than I like to count, I am proud of both the growing and the grown up ones. I am proud I have taught them the ways of God so when they are old they will not depart from it. No, I think pride is a good thing sometimes.

Now if one of my children was to come to me and say, 'dad, you had nothing to do with this, I have done it myself, you were no help to me at all,' Iprobably would cringe a little bit. I would not be proud at that point. And if they were to curse God in the process, well I would be ashamed.

I wonder if that is how God felt when it comes to today's reading.

Genesis 11:(NIV)
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

I wonder what God thought about them doing what they were doing. They were trying to reach God. Isn't that something that we each do at least once in our live so that we can become Christians. I think God may have been pleased with them for doing that, if they had the correct motives. I know as a father, when my children do something that brings them closer to me, I smile and have a proud feeling.
But their motives were incorrect. They wanted to make a name for themselves. They did not want this monument to be to God but to themselves. They were saying 'look at me, look at me', like a spoiled brat at the grocery store that did not get the candy he wanted and the parents try to hide their faces. Like the parents will hopefully punish the child, God had to step in and remind the people who was boss. They were not the ones in charge, He was. God was not proud then.
Are our lives something that God can take pride in or are we trying to say look at me, I am in charge and we do things my way? Will we have to have a tower of Babel experience?

Read through the Bible in Historical Order
Today:
Genesis 8:1-11:32
Tomorrow
Job 1:1-5:27