January 25–31

This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.

 

Lesson 5: “From Pride to Humility”

The story of Nebuchadnezzar’s fall and restoration is a good object lesson on the dangers of pride as illustrated by these quotes from the lesson:

We are all fallen human beings, dependent upon God for our very existence. Any gifts we have, any things that we accomplish with those gifts, come only from God. Hence, how do we dare to be proud, boastful, or arrogant when, in reality, humility should dominate all that we do?

Perhaps what’s so dangerous about pride is that it can lead us to forget just how dependent we are upon God for everything. And once we forget that, we are on dangerous spiritual ground.

What things have you accomplished in your life? Can you take pride in them without being proud? If so, how so?

The very fact that this story is in the Bible, however, leads me to think that it is about much more than just the change in one man. It was about more than just his arrogance and how God changed him. I see in it a great lesson about the sovereignty of God and how we must acknowledge that. 

After all, the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar was orchestrated by God as punishment for the apostasy of Israel, and the apparent conversion of a foreign leader seems like it would be a mere footnote to that story. 

In fact, in Isaiah 43, God tells how He will bring down Babylon and punish her for the mistreatment of Israel—even though God Himself brought about the captivity. So why is this story of Nebuchadnezzar included? 

I see in this story how God warned Israel, through this pagan king, that they must have respect and honor for the God of heaven. They had fallen away from God and from worshipping Him and had lost a sense of His majesty. By humbling the ruler of the known world, He is reminding Israel of who He is as well as bringing about a change in a powerful ruler.

Nebuchadnezzar’s pride was a mirror of the pride and fall of the nation of Israel which kept them from worship of the One True God. After all, they had the Law; they had the prophets; they were the Chosen People; and until this defeat by Babylon, they had been blessed by God and were a prosperous nation.

Their fall, the captivity, and future promised restoration is mirrored by that of Nebuchadnezzar. Just as he learned to worship their God, the one true God, they are reminded that they must also come back to worship Him when they are freed and restored to their homeland.

As the lesson points out, we are all in danger of falling into pride, and Philippians 2:1-11 is a straight-forward command to give God the credit. After all, we are all fallen, sinful humans, and all of our goodness is from the grace of God. 

Jesus came to be our substitute, to die for our sins; but there is a lot in His life that is also a good example, as Philippians 2 illustrates. He gave up so much more than we ever had, or will have, to die for us, so Paul is urging us believers to follow that example. Even our faith in Him is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit. In that, we have nothing of worth to offer and no basis for pride and bragging.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8, 9). 

As fallen human beings, though, we often fall into pride anyway, and the lesson does well to ask:

“What things have you accomplished in your life? Can you take pride in them without being proud? If so, how so?”

Taking pride in accomplishments without being proud happens when we remember that all is from God, not ourselves. By remembering why we needed a Savior in the first place, we are better able to give Him all the credit.

When we do accomplish things, it is easy just to accept the congratulations from others without passing the thanks on to God, but those instances are a wonderful opportunity to bring praise to God and to share Him with others.

Following this line of thought, we see this in the lesson:

A theme seen in this chapter, as well as in some preceding it, is the sovereignty of God. Why is this such an important topic to understand?

That is a good question, but the rest of the paragraph can lead us right back into pride: 

What role does the Sabbath play in helping us understand this crucial truth?

I realize that this is supposed to remind us of the Adventist doctrine of the Sabbath that is supposedly based on creation by a Sovereign God. Inside the Adventist worldview, however, mentioning the Sabbath takes the reader right back into what he or she does for God. It becomes all about how I “keep” the Sabbath, am a vegetarian, and don’t swear. I don’t kill, lie, or covet, and so on.

These things that are lifted out of parts of a Law that is the Old Covenant, not the New, bring a sense of accomplishment and pride at our ability to “obey the Law”. But that was the very downfall of the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned. Their outward behavior was, for the most part, quite commendable, but He said that on the inside they were full of evil and sin.

To follow the thought of the lesson, when you take pride in your ability to “keep the Sabbath” and even in your special knowledge of the Sabbath, it has become all about you and your ability to be good, even if you are giving God the credit for that behavior. It becomes all about the outward self and not the inward change that is all from God.

In reality, the day that you go to church is not the issue; rather it is an issue of giving the glory to God, not to ourselves for how good we look on the outside. †