MAY 22: AVOID ARROGANCE

Steve Smartt is pastor of Moultrie Baptist Church in St. Augustine.

While in seminary, I studied one whole semester in the Book of Jeremiah. I remember thinking about halfway through that there seemed to be absolutely no good news for the people of Judah. It was as though they just couldn’t get it figured out and, as a result, became the scourge of the earth. The consequences of sin, however, were not limited to Judah alone. The sin of the Babylonians included an arrogant demeanor against God, expressed in their rejection of His unique glory and their treatment of His people. At the core of their sinful behavior was their defiant conceit.

God had raised up the Babylonians to accomplish His will for judgment against Judah. Nevertheless, their wickedness was not to go unpunished. Even within God’s providential measures, fallen humanity must bear the responsibility for sinful behavior. Turning the attention now to their own judgment, chapter 50 of Jeremiah is a prophecy against Babylon for this conduct and begins by highlighting the foolishness of their arrogance (50:11-13).

By identifying the city of Babylon as their “mother” being disgraced in the unrestrained appetites of the greedy heifer and the lusting stallion, Jeremiah portrays the foolishness of the Babylonian’s rejoicing over Judah’s defeat. The folly of their arrogance against the sovereignty of God would reduce the nation to shame and desolation. They would bring upon themselves their own due judgment.

If you’ve seen the movie trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings,” you must remember Frodo being trapped in the spider’s web as he blindly followed Gollum’s deception. His foolish trust in his own judgment was the setting of his own trap. Likewise, in the foolishness of the Babylonian’s arrogance is the folly of their walk into the trap that lies before them. Without even realizing it, they placed their trust in themselves and ignored God’s supremacy by exalting their own weakness. As a result, they were trapped from the very beginning. Accordingly, to defy the Lord in any area of our lives is futile arrogance and will result only in our demise.

To add to this folly is the fatal consequence that results. Although, as reported by the United States Department of Transportation, the average amount of time saved by running a red light is fifty seconds, running red lights is the number one cause of car crashes in American cities. The annual cost to our society is $7 billion in damages, medical bills, and time lost from work. With so great a risk, and so little benefit in return, why is the yielding to the temptation of false confidence so great? Yet the sin of arrogant defiance brought Babylon to ruin (50:29-32). While the nation of Judah may have seemed the scourge of the earth, their judgment was minimal compared to the final devastation that would be brought to the Babylonians.

This word of judgment against the arrogance of Babylon should cause each of us to look closely at our own lives to determine the nature of our attitudes and behaviors. In what ways have we expressed arrogance toward God? Have we genuinely surrendered to His sovereignty and offered our wills in submission to His?

Our prayer should thus be as these Puritan statements: “O Thou Most High, it becomes me to be low in thy presence. I am nothing compared with thee; I possess not the rank and power of angels, but thou hast made me what I am, and placed me where I am; help me to acquiesce in thy sovereign pleasure... Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin.”