Everyone knows that the lion is the king of the jungle. And they are very prideful. In fact a group of lions are called a pride. One day the lion being filled with pride decided to make sure all the others knew it. He was so confident that he by-passed the smaller animals and went straight to the panther.
"Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion pride fully asked. The panther replied, "Why you are, of course" The lion gave a mighty roar of approval.
Next, he pride fully asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, mighty lion”
Next on the list was the elephant. The lion pride fully faced the elephant and addressed his question, "Who is the king of the jungle?"
At first, the elephant ignored him. So the lion roared, “Who is the king of the jungle?” Now this particular lion did not know scripture very well so he hadn’t read Proverbs 13:10 “Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.” The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk.
Nor had the lion read Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” The elephant whirled him around in the air five or six times and slammed him into a tree. Then he pounded him onto the ground several times, dunked him under water in a nearby lake, and finally dumped him out on the shore.
As the lion--beaten, bruised, and battered--struggled to his feet in front of all the other animals I would guess he wished he had read Proverbs 11:2 “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
The animals watched as the lion stood before the elephant and waited to see what his reaction would be. He looked at the elephant and whined, "Look, just because you don’t know the answer is no reason for to get mean about it!" He hadn’t read
Proverbs 29:23 “Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.”
Let’s talk about pride and what it is. In Hebrew pride had mean meanings that was best explained as examples. Pride was much like an ocean wave. Pride was akin to a surging wave breaking over rocks with force and pounding the shore. It was a picture of waves in the midst of a storm. Relentless and damaging. It was a type of pride that was destructive as each prideful moment becoming greater. The word also referred to a tallness, like a lush bush that was growing upward. Pride grew steadily everyday, ever reaching new heights of self-exaltation, climbing to block out the sunlight from all the other plants under its branches. It was destructive also, robbing the other plants of their nutrition.
In Ezekiel we see a picture that many scholars believe to be Satan before his fall. The Bible says he was the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. He was in Eden, the garden of God. His clothing was adorned with every precious stone all beautifully crafted just for him and set in the finest gold, given to him on the day he was created.
He was ordained and anointed to be the mighty angelic guardian of Eden. He had access to the holy mountain of God
and walked among the stones of fire. He was blameless in all he did from the day he was created until the day evil was found in him.
What was that evil found in him?
Ezekiel 28:17 “Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.”
Satan, whom God says was a model of perfection, full of wisdom, and exquisite in beauty, allowed pride to enter into his inner being. This pride became destructive, desiring to destroy God’s relationship with his creation so that he could gain worship. This pride grew like a bush, blocking out the truth from man and leading him to sin, thus robbing him of his spiritual nutrition
Where did this pride come from? It was placed there by God as a test. So God will test us?
Moses wrote to the children of Israel, Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.”
Yes, God will test you to expose your character, your weaknesses. He does it to expose your failings, to humble you, so you will repent. He exposed Satan’s weakness of pride. But rather than repent he became prideful in his beauty and in his role of the guardian of Eden, thus his wisdom became corrupted. Because of this, he was banished and thrown to earth.
Pride is a weakness common to all men. It can be a barrier between us and God. That is why James wrote in James 4:6, “ And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”
Pride, in itself, is not necessarily evil. We take pride in our children’s accomplishments. That’s great. When the master says, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” the master says it with pride. But the dangerous pride is the self seeking pride.
In Greek, pride was described as boasting, bragging, rejoicing in your own accomplishments, seeking glory for yourself. The dangerous pride is what we refer to as “tooting your own horn.” It is elevating yourself above others around you. It is having a critical mind toward the accomplishments of others. It is believing that you know it all and anyone who disagrees with you is either blind or dumb. This type of pride leads you to believe that you can accomplish things on your own and begins leading you down a dangerous path of less dependency on God.
Paul warned us of this danger in Romans 12:3 “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”
Notice Paul took no credit for his authority over the church in Rome. He gave God the credit for the privilege of leading them. And his warning to them is a warning to us. “Don’t think you are better than you really are.”
And as you sit here this morning and perhaps visualized someone that you hope is hearing this message or wish someone could hear this message, you have already violated that warning. Each of us is no better than anyone else in the eyes of God.
Let’s now talk about the man whose pride almost cost him dearly. 2 Kings 5: 1 “The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.”
I have always heard that the word “but” means everything that was just said is no longer relevant. Naaman was a great commander. He was greatly admired. He was a mighty warrior that had many great victories. However, none of that mattered because he had leprosy.
There was a young Hebrew slave girl that told the King of Aram about a prophet who lived in Samaria that could heal Naaman of his leprosy. So the king sent Naaman to visit him.
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”
Elisha was not avoiding Naaman because he had leprosy. Elisha simply saw no reason to show this man any sort of abundant praise. Naaman had come for a cure, God had related that cure to Elisha, and Elisha had sent a messenger to relay it to Naaman. The cure involved washing seven times because seven is the number of perfection. The cure involved washing in the Jordan because it was the river in the midst of the Holy Land. 2 Kings 5:11 “But Naaman became angry and stalked away. ‘I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!’ he said. ‘I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me!’”
Naaman’s pride flairs up. He feels like he is not getting the respect he deserves. He imagined Elisha coming out of his house and bowing before him. Then, while waving his arms, call upon God and demand that Naaman be healed. Instead, he sends a him a mere servant.
Not only that but he was to wash himself in the nasty Jordan River! He could have done that at home. He declares “Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. Naaman is heading home.
Let me tell you about llamas. In South America, to keep a herd of llamas corralled, they don’t need a fence. All they need is one rope circling around the herd to keep them enclosed. Just by placing it at a height beneath the head and base of the neck, the llamas are secured in this makeshift pen. Rather than stooping beneath the rope, the proud llamas stand tall, but remain captive.(taken from E.R. McManus’ Uprising, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003, p.61)
Naaman was a llama. Rather than stooping to wash in the dirty Jordan River, he would stand tall with his pride intact and remain a captive to his leprosy.
The story continues 2 Kings 5: 13 “But his officers tried to reason with him and said, ‘Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, “Go and wash and be cured!”’”
Now Naaman must overcome being an impala. The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. (Illustration by John Emmons) It was time for Naaman to overcome his pride and jump.
2 Kings 5: 14 “So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child’s, and he was healed!”
Naaman went looking for a cure to his leprosy and got a complete makeover. Naaman was a warrior, an army commander. He would have been weathered beaten. His skin would have been like leather from exposure to sunlight. Maybe his leprosy was a type of skin cancer. Now, not only is the leprosy gone but also his skin has become like that of a young child’s. Naaman looks thirty years younger. I think it took seven dips to rid him of his pride. With each dip he felt the cleansing power of an almighty God that he never knew. Each dip humbled him before that God. Each dip brought him closer to a loving and forgiving God. Each dip stripped him of his pride.
2 Kings 5:15 “Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.’”
Notice how Naaman now returns to humble himself before Elisha. Before he was angry that Elisha had not come forth to humble himself before Naaman. Before he was a warrior. Now, stripped of useless pride, he lowers himself to the role of a servant.
Elisha refused the gift. To accept would have been showing pride in his own accomplishments. He knew that his accomplishments came from God. However Elisha had a servant who took advantage of the situation. With greed and pride in his heart he deceitfully took the gift offered by Naaman. Not only did he receive the gift he also received Naaman’s leprosy.
Let’s talk about giraffes for a minute. In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe:
The first things to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. A few minutes later, the plucky newborn is hurled forth, falls ten feet, and lands on its back. Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position, he considers the world for the first time and shakes himself.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over the calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels.
When it doesn’t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts...Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up! In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they’d get it too, if the mother didn’t teach her calf to get up quickly and get on with it!
Source: In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond Publisher: JJM Communications. ISBN Number: 1579191223
Naaman had leprosy. Naaman went to great lengths to find a cure. Naaman had to forgo his pride and do what he felt was unreasonable. Why? So he would remember how to get back up when his pride brought him down. So he would remember that there is no God in the entire world except in Israel.
You know, God allows us to be knocked down sometimes so we can remember how to get back up. Sometimes we allow our pride to intervene in remembering who God is and what He has called us to do. Sometimes we think our accomplishments come from us being the best at what we do and forget that we can do nothing without God. So He allows the world to occasionally give us a good, swift kick as a wake up call.
Naaman could have decided to allow his pride to overcome his need for a cure. Elisha’s presumed snub could have led to a conflict between Israel and Damascus. Naaman’s pride could have led to his own destruction, disgrace, and humiliation. His pride could have stopped him from doing a simple task. But wisely, he obeyed God. Remember what his officers told him? “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’”
Most religions teach a system of earning the grace and mercy of their deity. You must abstain from certain things or pray a specific number of times daily. Jesus offers a salvation that is free, no catches. It was paid for at the cross. Naaman was not asked to do something difficult but rather something simple. Mankind is not asked to do something difficult but rather something simple. Push aside their pride, believe in Jesus and confess He is Lord. A simple message that we can all take to the world.
