Moses, Miriam and Aaron

Negative pride is an unclean spirit. Aaron (means: lofty; mountain of strength) and his prophetess sister, Miriam (means: rebellion; bitterness) were garbed in the spirit of pride in their trials against their young sibling, Moses. They tasted shame from God who had made Moses their leader. Achan, (meaning: he that troubleth) why did you have to purloin that which your hands must be kept away from? Knowest thou not that thou troubleth thy own soul when thou stealeth? When you are walking with God be extra careful. The children of Israel walked side by side the LORD their God from Egypt through the wilderness and misbehaved several times by their thoughts, utterances and acts. About one million of about 2.4 million that left Egypt died in the wilderness, not seeing the Promised Land. As a Christian you are walking with God, be careful, therefore, for Satan, your adversary, is very jealous of your positional state.

It started with the spirit of presumptuousness in the trial of King Saul in his answer to the bleating of the domestic animals; and the failure opened the atrocious door of hatred against an anointed David. Saul failed in the trials woefully. When it came to the lust of the eyes and of the flesh and the heart David did not take his eyes off beautiful Bathsheba. The muscle between his legs i.e. his flesh forced its way into the woman, another man’s wife. David’s brutish heart was tried, it failed, asking for the murder of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, whose military patriotism to Israel should put King David to shame, to whom he owed an unreserved apology plus a very huge compensation. But David had in reserve something in his heart. He knew how to approach God in sincerity of the humbleness of heart. The contriteness of his apologetic heart was always from the genuineness of heart and never theatrical. This is why God Himself made the eureka testimony of Psalm 89:20, “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him”. Be like David and be a winner.

Satan knows our weak points and he works assiduously to achieve his nefarious goals even against our determined will. Solomon, the wisest of all men, failed. “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. v5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. v6) And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father. v7) Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. v8) And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. v9) And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice”, [1Kings 11:4-9]. Solomon did the unthinkable. Let everyone manage his trials lest he gets into trouble.

Elijah was tired got the troubles he faced; would you?

“…I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away”, Elijah whined in 1Kings 19:14. God’s answer in 1Kings 19:18, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him”, puts it clear that the prophet had not managed his troubles well enough. Daniel was not a Babylonian. He came to Babylon as a voiceless slave. His high office of a Prime Minister was a rarest privilege, prestigious and which placed him in high regard. When the trials of his faith came to badger him at every front, the Bible says, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime [Daniel 6:10]. Like his three contemporaries, who defied the threatening furnace of Nebuchadnezer, Daniel would rather offend a superbly world powered monarch but spiritually irascible than to break God’s law.

For every action we take, no matter how exalting of the Lord it is and of very pleasing to Him, as far as it is offensive to an authorized political power, there are consequences. We should be ready for the upshot of our decision, no matter how righteous the resolve is. I do not know which one is fiercer: the terrible furnace or the hungry, extremely brutish pride. (…to be continued…)

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Read the 4th part here

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