- Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty. – Proverbs 18:12
It is an old and common saying that “coming events cast their shadows before them.” The wise man teaches us that a haughty heart is the precursor of evil. Pride is as clearly the sign of destruction as the change of mercury in the barometer is the sign of rain, and far more infallibly so than that. When men have ridden the high horse, destruction has always overtaken them.
Let David’s aching heart show that there is an eclipse of a man’s glory when he dotes upon his own greatness (2 Samuel 24:10). Observe Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty builder of Babylon, creeping on the earth, devouring grass like a beast, his nails grown like the bird’s claws, and his hair like eagle’s feathers (Daniel 4:33). Pride made the boaster a beast, as once before it made an angel a devil. God hates high looks and never fails to bring them down. All the arrows of God are aimed at proud hearts.
O Christian, is your heart haughty this evening? For pride can get into the Christian’s heart as well as into the sinner’s; it can delude him into dreaming that he is “rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” Are you glorying in your graces or your talents? Are you proud of yourself and your spiritual experiences?
Be careful, reader—there is a destruction coming to you also. Your flaunting poppies of self-conceit will be pulled up by the roots, your mushrooming graces will wither in the burning heat, and your self-sufficiency will become as straw for the dunghill. If we forget to live at the foot of the cross in deepest lowliness of spirit, God will not forget to discipline us for our good. A destruction will come to you, O unduly exalted believer, the destruction of your joys and of your comforts, although there can be no destruction of your soul. Therefore, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
