Prejudice and Pride

Sunday, 4th February 2007

I am sure many of you out there must have realised by now that I am a big fan of Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church, and to the extent that some of you have started to warn me that I be careful not to make him into my "idol".

Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, because this is indeed a timely reminder that the focus should be always be on the Message of Jesus Christ and not on the messenger. Satan is always finding ways and means to trip up the believer (as depicted in Screwtape's letters to his nephew Wormwood, which is a brilliant book by C.S. Lewis by the way -- thanks, Pastor B for the recommendation!).

What I have slowly begun to realise is that whatever is meant to be a blessing from God, Satan will do his utmost best to turn that very thing against God's people. We read in Exodus 16 about how God provided the Israelites with manna from heaven (which was meant to be their daily bread). Some of them behaved like kiasu Singaporeans and tried to tar pau for the next day, just in case they bo gau chiak. Well, when they took it out the next morning, they were horrified to find that it had gone rotten and was infested with maggots (Ex 16:20)

Having been exposed to the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross has been the biggest breakthrough in my spiritual journey. Like a beggar who has discovered gourmet food, I have been very enthusiastic about telling others about it. Yet, the lesson I am learning is that what one treasures as a valuable diamond, can instead be considered to be a worthless stone by others, to the extent of it being even seen as an offensive piece of dung! Like myself, some receive this doctine with gladness and gratitude. Yet there are others who are prejudiced against what they consider to be an "over-emphasis" on grace and the finished work of Jesus.

Through this episode, God is also reminding me is that it is futile to "force things down people's throats". It again goes back to WWJD -- "what would Jesus do". Jesus is a perfect gentleman who never forces anything upon anyone. When I examine myself, I realise that there was an element of spiritual pride, because it did appear to some that this beggar was trying to tell the other "beggars" that he now had all the answers, well-meaning as he was. For this, I am truly sorry and seek the forgiveness of all whom I have offended.

Like that book by Jane Austen, prejudice and pride seem to go hand in hand...

This brings to mind a book I read many years ago (I forget the title now, so those who remember, please email me to let me know). The author of that book mentioned that there were 3 incidents recorded in the Bible which King David did that displeased the LORD.

The first two (which are inter-related) were committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging for her husband Uriah to be killed in the frontline of battle (as recorded in 2 Sam 11). The third (which is lesser mentioned, but equally significant nonetheless since the Holy Spirit saw it fit to be recorded) was him taking pride in how large his army of mighty men had grown, and asking his generals to take a census to count them (2 Sam 24).

In that book, the author mentioned that the sin of pride has greater consequences than the sins of adultery and murder. As a result of adultery and murder, 2 lives were lost, ie. that of Uriah (2 Sam 11:17) and that of the child produced by David and Bathsheba resulting from their unholy initial union (2 Sam 12:18). But as a result of David's pride, 70,000 lives were lost! (2 Sam 24:15). This fact was reinforced by Rev Wee Boon Hup recently when he said that it is actually God Himself who opposes the proud! (James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5)

Whenever we go through a trial and satan puts worries and anxieties on us, we can always confess that "if God is for us, who can be against us?" or "He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world". However, if satan trips us up by putting pride in us and making us think too highly of ourselves, then we are in super big trouble because God Himself is now against us during those moments of pride!

This is consistent with what happened to David: the death of Uriah and the baby were somewhat the natural consequences of sin, but the death of the 70,000 was carried out by the Angel of the LORD himself! (2 Sam 24:16)

Like Pastor KL said in a sermon he preached sometime last year, pride is something that one is usually unable to see himself; it usually takes others to point it out to him. So once someone points it out to us, confession and repentence need to take place el pronto, so that our relationship with our LORD is restored again, and He is once again "on our side", and we are "on his side", as it were.

Dear Heavenly Father, please remind me at all times to guard my heart and mind from the sin of pride, because I do not want to be in the enemy's camp as a prisoner-of-war. When a brother or sister points this out to me, please help me to be quick to repent and humbly seek forgiveness because you oppose the proud but gives grace to the humble, and I will then once again be back in the territory of friendly forces.

Let's end this blog on a positive note. Ultimately, God works for the good of those that love Him, and called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). Even though we may offend others intentionally or unintentionally, God can still bring something good out of it (Gen 50:20), just like what He did with Joseph in Egypt.

So what good did God do from the incident of the 70,000 men that perished? When David repented of his sin of pride, the angel of the LORD withdrew His hand. At that moment, He was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and David was asked to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord there. This is the passage where David made the famous quotation, "I would not offer anything that cause me nothing", so he bought the threshing floor sacrificial oxen from Araunah. Subsequently, this also became the place where Solomon built the temple :-)

2 Chronicles 3 : Solomon Builds the Temple
1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.