Turning From Pride

--- This is week five of our women's Bible study called A Time of Turning. In the book of Judges, the remainder of the book of Judges gets darker, more ominous, even morbid. And so this is what we have to look forward to. But in the midst of this, God still delivers Israel when they cry out to him. God still wins, although there's a moral sickness that has invaded the people because they turn from God and because they turn to idols. And in fact, I titled this week's lesson in your study guide, Turning to Pride. Pride is an ultimate form of idolatry. I think when you elevate yourself to the place that God should have. And it's very evident in these chapters. Now, I just reached out to the dictionary for a definition. I'll throw it up on the screen for you. This is what the dictionary says about pride. A feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. That's what the dictionary says. And in the same way that none of us think that we have a problem with idols, very few of us think that we have a problem with pride as well. But we'll see that maybe we do. And even our hero Gideon from last week disappoints us in this lesson as he has turned to pride. We find out that he won the battle, but he lost the war. So, five chapters assigned as you did your study. You met six of the 12 judges in these five chapters. You met Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. Five of them you probably barely heard of until before this Bible study. Jephthah, maybe you heard of. I was thinking to myself, if I was in the Bible, if my life was chronicled in the Bible, I would want to be a minor judge because they get one or two verses. And that is not nearly enough time to do anything wrong. You know, it just is what it is. That is how I would like to be in the Bible because the major judges, they get lots and lots of verses. We find out that they are flawed people. They fail just like we do. So, I would like to be a minor judge. One interesting note in this lesson is that there were 58 verses dedicated to this guy, Abimelech, who wasn't a judge at all. He was a fake king. 58 verses when there was 59 verses dedicated to all six judges. So, we have to add him into our study because he factors prominently in this passage. So, I'm making an outline for us, and I want to say this. This is a verse-by-verse Bible study, but that means that you are studying it verse-by-verse. Because if I read all of these verses, that's all we would get done this morning. So, for one thing, you already studied verse-by-verse. And for another thing, if you want to hear a verse-by-verse study of this, go to our website through the Bible with Pastor Paul, and you can augment your study with that. But this is more of a devotional Bible study. So, here's our outline. This is what you can expect for today. We're going to look at Gideon. I titled that one, Success Goes to Your Head. Look at Abimelech, When Your Enemy is Within. And we're going to look at Jephthah, When You Speak Before You Think. And since this is a devotional Bible study, I'm also going to interject a chart throughout our study this morning. And I've titled this chart, Turning From Pride. In fact, that is the title of our lesson for our purposes, because that's what we want to get out of it. Turning From Pride. And there will be seven application points that we will find in that. So, I want to start with a psalm. Psalm 40, I'll put it up there so you don't have to flip in your Bible. Psalm 44, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. Or maybe we could say, Blessed is the man who does not turn to pride. There is a blessing that goes with that. So, let's get started. The first character is Gideon, which we titled When Success Goes to Your Head. If we had ended Gideon's legacy last week at the end of Chapter 7, we would have said, Bravo, high five, we love this guy. But there's a Chapter 8, and it makes a lot of sense when we read Chapter 8. Or I should say, it would have made more sense if we had ended at Chapter 7 to find him in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. But we got Chapter 8, and then we look at Hebrews, and we go, Really? He's in the Hall of Faith. Okay, God knows things that we don't know. But his descent into pride disappointed us about Gideon, didn't it? We're disappointed with him, but it should also sober us about the temptation of pride. So, there's four people groups that Gideon interacts with in this chapter. The first one is the men of Ephraim. And so, Gideon, remember, he's just had this big success with the Midianites. And then the men of Ephraim, they accused him fiercely, which reminds us it doesn't matter how many good things you have done. There's always somebody that's going to complain about what you did. This is human nature. And so, they accused him fiercely. And Gideon responds to them with a lot of diplomacy, which isn't all bad. The Bible tells us, a soft answer turns away wrath. But basically, what Gideon did is he flattered them that they were so great. And he kind of subdued their criticism. It's like, You don't need to criticize. You guys are so great. Now, again, that doesn't sound terrible, except Gideon missed an opportunity to give glory to the Lord in this. God was the one who had whittled the army down to 300 people. And the Ephraimites were like, Well, how come we couldn't fight? Well, that wasn't Gideon's call. It was God that had done that. And so, Gideon missed an opportunity to give glory to God. So, here's point one on our chart, our chart called Turning from Pride. Never miss a chance to give glory to God in our lives. Never miss a chance to give glory to God. This fertilizes humility in our lives when we give glory to God for what he has done. And so, the next people group that Gideon comes across is the men of Succoth and Peniel, because he's all tired and exhausted. And he comes through their territory. And he stops, and he asks each one of them for provisions in their turn. And what do they say to them? They basically say, Are you winning? Because we'll help you if you're winning. But if you're not winning, we don't want to help you because loyalty is dependent on who's winning here. And, of course, that makes Gideon mad. And with the men of Succoth, he promised that he would come back to them and flail their flesh, which he did when he came back through. And to the men of Peniel, he says, When I come back, I'm going to tear down this tower of yours. Because they were afraid to express loyalty to him because they didn't know if he was going to win. But when he came back to the men of Peniel, I don't know if he tore down his tower or not, he killed them. He killed them all. These were his kin. This wasn't the enemy. So, on our chart, turning from pride, number two, for our sakes, always leave retaliation to God. This, again, fertilizes humility in our lives. Someone makes us mad by how they have treated us, how they have snubbed us. And we need to learn the skill, walking away and leaving revenge to the Lord. We would have liked to see Gideon do that in this lesson. Third group he runs into, well, it's these two kings, Ziba and Zalmunna. And Gideon finally captures them. And he says to them, Where are the men that you guys killed at Tabor? And they turn around and say, Oh, those men, they look just like you. And Gideon says, Yeah, they were my brothers. And if you had saved them alive, then I would have saved you alive. Which, again, sounds somewhat noble, except that wasn't Gideon's call. He had orders from the Lord to destroy the enemy. But instead, he is writing his own agenda because of his personal experience. Saying, Well, if you wouldn't have killed my brothers, then I wouldn't have killed you. It wasn't up to him. So, point number three, turning to pride in our lives. Don't let personal experience alter your understanding of God's will. Don't let personal experience alter your understanding of God's will. Doing that fertilizes pride in our lives. Victims make poor decision makers. And our enemy is always trying to get us to believe ourselves to be victims so that we will write our own agenda and do according to what we think is right in the situation. And then the next people group that Gideon interacts with in this chapter is the men of Israel themselves. And after Gideon had killed these two kings of Midian in verse 22, the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us, you and your son and your grandson. Also, they want to begin a perpetual monarchy for you saved us from the hand of Midian. And that's why we want you to rule over us. And Gideon again misses another opportunity to correct them and give the glory to God. So point number four on turning from pride for us, beware of flattering words. Flattery fertilizes pride in our life. There's always going to be someone around ready to tell us how great we are. And the men of Israel told Gideon, you saved us from the hand of Midian. There's always going to be someone in your life that'll tell you how awesome you are. We need to be careful at those points because that fertilizes pride in our life. So let's read a little bit about what happens. Then we're in chapter eight verse 23. Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you. No, no, no. And my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. And Gideon said to them, but come to think of it, let me make a request of you. Every one of you give the earrings from his spoil for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered, oh, we will willingly give them. And they spread out a cloak and every man threw in at the earrings of his spoil, which it tells us weighed 1700 shekels of gold besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian and the collars that were around the necks of the camels. All right. So Gideon says, no, no, no, no. I won't be your king. And then he turned around and lived just like a king. Point number five on turning from pride, recognize that wealth is deceptive. Do you remember that definition of pride from the dictionary I shared at the beginning? Part of it said a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's possessions. Our stuff can fertilize our pride in life. Rare is the person who can live with great resources and keep a humble heart. Not impossible, but rare. And so it's a warning for us. Back to Gideon. If this stuff wasn't enough to make him feel like a king while maintaining this thin veneer of humbly refusing to be the king in verse 27, it says Gideon made an ephod from the stuff and put it in his city in Ophrah and all Israel poured after it there. Don't you hate that word? But it gives a good context of how they wanted it, wanted to be, worship it. And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. And yet, even though things get this bleak, God is faithful in the midst. Verse 26 or 28, maybe I wrote that wrong. Midian was subdued before the people of Israel and the land had rest for 40 years, all the days of Gideon. So even in the midst of a nation and a person turning to pride, God is patient. God is forbearing. And he gave them rest for a season. Until we get to Abimelech, these 58 verses that we have to talk about that I titled When Your Enemy Is Within. So during the cycles of sin that we have studied in the book of Judges, what happens? Israel turns away from God. God strengthens the hand of an oppressor. Up until now, it's been someone from the outside, an army from the outside, to inflict pain upon them so that Israel will have a moment of grace where they turn back to God and God delivers them. This time, God raises up an oppressor from within, from the inside. Abimelech, the way I see it, becomes the oppressor to Israel. He was not a judge, but he was a king. In some regards, he was the first king of Israel, self-appointed king. And it's ironically interesting that Gideon said, no, no, no, I won't rule over you and my son won't rule over you. And then his son ruled over them, even though it was a very small territory. It was just Shechem. So again, we're remembering here, like Israel isn't united in a way that Abimelech was the king of all of Israel, like Solomon was. No, no, no. This is the region around Shechem. So let's find out about this Abimelech. Verse 30, Gideon had 70 sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son. And he called his name Abimelech, which means my father is king. So here's the guy saying, no, no, no, I won't rule over you. And he has a son and names him, my dad is the king. Isn't that interesting? The double mindedness going on. So let's find out the spiritual situation in Israel. Verse 33, as soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal barith their God. And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side. And they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jeroboam, that is Gideon, in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. Going to Judges chapter nine, now Abimelech, the son of Jeroboam, went to Shechem to his mother's relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother's family, say in the ears all the leaders of Shechem. Now, which would be better for you, that all 70 of the sons of Jeroboam rule over you or that one rule over you? And by the way, I'll give you a hint as to the proper answer. Remember, I am your bone and your flesh. So there's no indication in here that the men of Shechem wanted or needed a ruler. Abimelech just comes with his propaganda campaign and says, say in the ears of everybody, wouldn't I be the best candidate to rule over you? And we know how propaganda works. If you say something frequently enough and you say it loud enough, it, people will believe the disinformation. And so this propaganda stuff worked and Abimelech stole the election. Verse three, their hearts inclined. Did I say that? Oh my word. Verse three. Verse three, girls. We're in the Bible. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech. They voted for him. They gave him 70 pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith and Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows. And the first thing they do is they get rid of the opposing party. Verse five, when his fathers, he went to his father's house at Ophrah and he killed his brothers, the sons of Jeroboam, 70 men on one stone. That's how they, that's how he set up his rulership. So point six, turning from pride. Don't kill people. No, I think we got that one down already. So don't eliminate, don't feel like you have to eliminate all opposing opinions. This gives pride too much power in our life. When we feel like we have to turn around and squash everyone who thinks differently, maybe they are right, but pride will always tell us no, they're not right. They must be canceled. Now there is an exception to this because we just studied Titus, right? And remember that the elders were to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, and they were to rebuke those who contradicted it. So when you've got an authoritative word like the Bible, then you do need to make sure that people hold to it. But I'm talking about the normal things that go on in our lives that build up our pride. And we think we want to just shut out anyone who has a different view than us. All right, verse five, Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubael. Now remember Gideon's got two sons left. Well, I guess we don't know this yet. I'll just keep reading. Otham, the youngest son of Jerubbael, was left, for he hid himself. And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth Milo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem." Now, remember, Abimelech is ruling a small area, and yet what is going to happen in his rampage is going to be just as bad as an opposing army coming in and an invading force. Abimelech was a man driven by pride and ambition, and the leaders of Shechem voted for him. And God allowed them to be represented by who they chose, which is what the parable of the trees shows us that you studied, and I'm not going to read through. Here's how it played out. Gideon had these two sons left, and Jotham, the one legitimate son, he climbs out to Mount Gerizim, and he bravely spoke this parable about a forest of worthy trees, each having something noble to offer, and yet who themselves got together and chose the worst possible candidate to rule over them, this bramble Abimelech. And in verse 19, Jotham says, if you then, he's talking to the men of Shechem, if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Gideon and with his house this day, which they obviously had not, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, and here comes the prophecy, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Bethmilo, all you who put him into power, and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and Bethmilo and devour Abimelech. And this prophecy is exactly what happened. Abimelech rules for three years. It tells us in verse 23, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, because when leaders established, when something's established through pride, loyalty is usually absent. And so we have this, I'll summarize this narrative about along comes this Gael character who challenges Abimelech, and they're like two bullies fighting it out back and forth. And at the end, Abimelech turns on his own people. He kills people in the country, he kills people in the city, and then he sows the land with salt so that it is unproductive, so that their livelihoods are ruined. And the remaining people run to the one refuge that is left, this tower of Shechem, okay? And they're in the tower, and Abimelech says to everybody, hey, go get a bunch of brushwood, bramblewood, and look at verse 49. So every one of the people cut down his bundle, and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women. These were the people Abimelech wanted to rule over. And he kills them. He sets the tower on fire. And so fulfilled the prophecy that Jotham spoke, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem. And then Abimelech continues his rampage to Thebes, and I had to chuckle a little bit when the men of Thebes thought, oh, let's use the same strategy that the men of Shechem used. Let's go into our tower. It's like, I can't figure that out, but that's what they did, and so Abimelech shows up, and he's gonna do the same thing. He's gonna burn down their tower. But it tells us in verse 53, a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and he crushed his skull. And of course, Abimelech had enough resources left to say, oh, this is gonna be an embarrassment to me that a woman killed me, and he tells his armor bearer to thrust him through, which he did, and he died. And so once again, a woman delivered Israel. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And I wonder, again, had Israel sunk so low that there was a lack of male initiative, or was she just one heck of a gal? You know, she could catch and pluck a chicken and have it ready for dinner, or throw a millstone off of the tower. Maybe it was just that she was great. But verse 56, thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his 70 brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal. Now, to wrap up this section on Abimelech, the way I see it, Israel had turned to pride. They were whoring after the Baals. They did not remember God or honor him for everything that they had done, that God had done for them. And so God delivered them to an oppressor, even an oppressor from within their own midst, Abimelech. And he let them have their choice. And then in the chronology, you had these short bios of Tola, Jair. I hope you're doing your chart, because some of these, especially today, we're not really gonna go through all of the minor judges. In verse six of chapter 10, it tells us that Israel, again, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreth. And if their collection of gods wasn't enough to satisfy them, look at who all they connected, the gods, or collected, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, the gods of the Philistines. It says they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. They had sunk so low that in verse 14, look at how God responds to them. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of distress. Let's see how they're gonna treat you. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, oh, sorry, we have sinned. So do to us whatever seems good to you, only please would you just deliver us today? So they put away the foreign gods from among them, and they served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. And so as per our cycle of sin, it's time for God to raise up an oppressor, so he reaches out to the Ammonites. He goes outside this time, and he causes the Ammonites to come and oppress Israel. Verse 17, the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead, and the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah, and the people said to one another, hmm, I wonder who's the man that God's gonna raise up this time to fight against the Ammonites. He shall behead over all the inhabitants of Gilead. So as we conclude our lesson in chapter 11, we start the story of Jephthah. And now I included him in this episode. I know it made for a long reading for you, but I saw this continuous theme of turning to pride and stubbornness. And who wants to do that three weeks in a row? So I thought we should do it all together in one week. So Israel has this underlying vice of pride and stubbornness, and so God is allowing them to be represented by men who have the same vice, pride and stubbornness. And Jephthah will have an appearance of worth, but he's gonna crush the innocent and spark a civil war. So Judges 11, verse one. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but just like Abimelech, he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah, and Jephthah's wife also bore him sons, which kind of sets up a person to be in conflict, doesn't it? Makes you wonder, did he have something to prove? And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, you shall not have an inheritance in our father's house for you are the son of another woman. And Jephthah fled from his brothers and he lived in the land of Tob. And just like Abimelech, worthless fellows collected around him. So his own brothers, his half brothers, they had no need of him until they had need of him. And then they reached out to him. Verse six. They said to Jephthah, come and be our leader that we may fight against the Ammonites. Why did they say that? He was a mighty warrior. He had the skillset that they needed. But Jephthah said, well now, did you not hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Now why have you come to me when you're in distress? And look at this diplomacy. The elders of Gilead said, well, that's why we turn to you now. Like talk about not answering a question. Love it. That you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head. And Jephthah's holding all the face cards in his hand. And so he says to them, all right, if you bring me home again to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head. And they said, great, isn't that what we said? That's perfect. And so Jephthah spoke all those words to the Lord at Mizpah. And so, summarize what's going to happen. Jephthah and the king of the Ammonites send some messages back and forth. And the king of the Ammonites says, Israel stole our land and we want it back. And Jephthah sends a message back and says, Your history books are revised. Here, let me send you a corrective copy because what you're saying isn't right. And then he also gave a jab at Chemosh, their god, and said, You know, why didn't your god provide you the land all these 300 years? And then he also said to him, and by the way, after 300 years, it's a little late to say this land is our land. So, you know, he has some points. But of course, you know, the king of the Ammonites isn't going to listen to those kind of points. And so they have a clash. Verse 29, we're reminded, as per the judges, even though they are flawed failures, verse 29, it says the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah because this was God's battle. And God was going to do something to show himself strong to Israel. So Jephthah passed through Gilead and Manasseh. And right here in this next verse is where we really see the pride sweep over Jephthah. And we wonder with this vow that he is about to make here, we wonder, is he truly begging God for a victory? Or is he self-confident, knows he has the victory, and he just wants to put an exclamation point on the victory that he believes is going to happen? Let's read it. Verse 30. Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and he said, If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. And the Lord gave him victory. Verse 34. Behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and he said, Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low. Now wait just a minute. All she did was come out of the door of the house. This was not her fault. And maybe his inflection wasn't the inflection I put in it. But nonetheless, the scripture says, You have brought me very low. You have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot take back my vow. Now just hold it right there. Why not? Why not can you take back your vow? Why cannot you be the one who suffers harm for what you've done? Why are you throwing your daughter under the bus? This is a sad, sad thing. And I know as we read this, I know for some of you, for women listening to this, this is a big trigger in life. You have experienced this. You have been the one where someone was supposed to protect you. And not only did they not protect you, they abused you. And they called it your fault. And we read this and we just want to stop and weep and say, These are your people, Lord. What has happened in Israel? But this is what happens when people turn from God, when a nation turns from God, turns to idols, and turns to pride. We get this. Think about the juxtaposition with where we started this from. AXA, Chapter 1, Othniel has this lovely daughter who he thinks so much of and he says, Nobody gets her except a mighty warrior. You prove yourself to be an amazing man, you can have my daughter's hand in marriage. So from the beginning of Judges, which was probably right about the time that Joshua was still around, to where we've come now, now we have this. And it is sad. The book of Judges is supposed to make us mourn. It is supposed to make us sad. But I didn't want to do this three weeks. We don't need three weeks of sad. I threw it all into one week. But this is what it is. So look at our chart, turning from pride. The last and the most important one for us is a humble person will take the blame, absorb the consequences, and be willing to say, I was wrong. We wanted Jephthah to do that. We wanted him in this moment to take the blame and say, yeah, that vow was kind of stupid. If there's any consequences to that vow, let them be on me, myself. That's what we wanted. But, of course, we have no power over Jephthah, but we have power over our life. And this application, I think, is the most important one of all seven, is to be able to say, I was wrong. Pride says, I said it, and that's the way it's going to be. And humility says, I said it, maybe I shouldn't have. Let's revisit this. Maybe I was wrong. In our marriages, those are the three most important words. They'll go farther than I love you. I was wrong. Right? Have you found that true? So if we want to turn from pride in our life, we should remember this story and remember that a humble heart takes the blame. Maybe you have a friend or a relative or someone who can never admit wrong. Have you ever had someone in your life, and you realize over time, they never say, I'm sorry, I forgot that, or I'm sorry, I did this. And I don't know what's going on in their life that they can't say those words, I did it wrong, or I'm sorry, I disappointed you. But it's a very important skill for us to possess. It's important to teach our children to say, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I forgot to do that chore, whatever. So the daughter got a two-month camping trip in the hills with her friends, and then Jeff the did according to his vow, tells us. Chapter 12, Jeff the faces the men of Ephraim. I'm going to make this really short. But they seem to be frozen in time. They're still mad that they didn't get to be part of the fighting. They've been mad all five chapters. But they're mad that they weren't called to battle. And they come to Jeff and say, we're going to burn your house down. And Jeff the goes, I called you guys out, and you didn't answer. It's not my fault. And you have a lot of nerve coming around. But the end of the situation is that 42,000 men were killed in a civil war. 42,000. Now, do you remember where we started with Gideon? He had an army of 32,000 that God whittled down to 300. We thought 32,000 was quite a bit. This civil war killed 42,000 men in Israel. This is the legacy of prideful leaders. And it is sad, and it should not be in Israel. Pride and stubbornness. So I think we identified some valuable lessons through our chart on rooting out pride in our own life. But the biggest lesson, I think, to me, for these passages in Judges, is that these Judges, we can clearly see, were all flawed. They were all mortal. They were all temporary. And even though God, by His grace, used them in God's unfolding story of redemption, we're still looking for the better Judge. We are still looking for the perfect Judge. The perfect King to come on the scene, who will do all of these things perfectly. So in my Through the Bible reading, I was in Zechariah. I just want to share with you Zechariah 9, starting in verse 9. And think about this. Think about the mess that we're in, in the book of Judges. And think about the perfect Judge that we are awaiting, the King.

And if there's anything the book of Judges should bury in our heart, is righteousness is coming at this point. The righteous Judge is coming. And He is humble. He is not bound up with pride and with stubbornness. So what does that mean for us in His kingdom as His people? We are treated well by a God who deals with us humbly. He is a Judge, but He does not deal with us with pride and stubbornness as we see it. here. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for these lessons. And Lord, the most important thing for us is to assess our own sense of idolatry in our hearts when we make ourselves that idol. And that is pride in our life. So Lord, would you work in us that we would adapt your humility, Lord, in the things that we do, the people that we talk to in our homes, in our marriages, Lord, that we would reflect your character of humility. I ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.