Popping The Proud

The LORD detests the proud; they will surely be punished.

Proverbs 16:5

DO YOU REMEMBER what it’s like to blow up a balloon? You huff and puff with all the wind you can muster, forcing more and more air into the colorful rubber. After a while you pinch the neck of the balloon to check your progress, noting how much larger and rounder the balloon has become. If the size of the balloon doesn’t match your expectations, you pull in another gasp of air and get ready to blow again.

Of course, eventually you’ll get to a point where the balloon doesn’t have room for any more air; it’s full. If you keep blowing, the balloon will start to swell dangerously. It will become hard and thin—and eventually it will pop right in front of your face.

The same is true of the proud.

So many people in our culture become overinflated with their own sense of self-worth. They huff and puff about their virtues and achievements and accolades. They gulp in flatteries and shallow praise, reveling in their own importance.

Sooner or later, however, they pop. When people stretch beyond the limits of reality, they always experience the consequences of their vanity and prideful actions.

When this happens, we must remember that God—not karma, not the universe, not society or any kind of cultural standard—is the source of their punishment. God has promised to punish the proud, and he will always do so.