Pride – The Touching of HIS Glory

Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall”

One of the things that so easily captivates and eventually rules mankind is pride.  It’s often comes or manifest in us due to personal successes, achievements, wealth and educational wisdom/knowledge.  We easily make known our degrees, universities attended, awards or tangible items during conversations with others.  And even in ministry; we share how large our congregations or fellowships are.

Pride causes one to think of him/her-self only.  Isn’t this what the tempter convinced Eve to do in Genesis 3:1-5  “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which Yehovah Elohim had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath Elohim said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die: For Elohim doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as go elohims, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” --------Oh, how seductive pride is!

In Proverbs 16:18 the word “before “ could be substituted/replaced with the word “face”. For in the Hebrew “before” in this text is –paniym or pa-nem  with a root word of panah which means face, turn toward or show signs.” In other words “ pride is the face of destruction”!

A reason YHVH wanted the Torah to be in our hearts is to help us to live and be guided by divine inspiration instead of our emotions, egos and intellect.  Deut 11:18 “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul….....Deut 30:14 “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

The other thing pride is – the absence or replacement of HIS GLORY. It leads to destructions! 

Deut 30:15-18 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love Yehovah Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and Yehovah Elohim shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other elohims, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.”

When we remove HIS presence- HIS Torah from our hearts we are destined to do what Adam and Eve did.  They put themselves first in place of YHVH.  They went before or became the “face” of YHVH.  They in essence touched HIS Glory by no longer giving YHVH proper credit and by forsaking HIS Instructions which led to destruction.  I wonder where would we be today had Yahushua repeated the actions of Adam and Eve when the tempter came to him in Matthew 4?  Instead, Yahushua repeatedly said to the tempter “it is written”.  Why? He was putting YHVH before his personal circumstance.  This is right after being filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) when he could have easily shown the tempter who he was.  He put YHVH first, unlike Adam and Eve who put themselves first!  Oh Bless HIS NAME! 

Selah’