The Striking Contrast Between the Proud and the Righteous (Part 1) -- Habakkuk -- Lesson 8

Do you know someone who is proud, arrogant, or haughty? Maybe you live with someone who could be characterized as proud. Maybe you are the one who struggles with pride. Struggles with pride? That might sound odd to some. After all, pride has been elevated to a virtue in our society. In fact, one site from a quick google search brought this up: (While in the same article mocking Christianity’s understanding of the virtue of humility…) The virtue of pride is a commitment to achieve self-esteem by taking credit and responsibility for acting on one’s judgment, in accordance with principles… Pride results in being able to look at one’s accomplishments and say both “I did it” and “It is good.”
 
But what does God say about the proud? Obviously, the proud don’t care, so this is for the humble! God says the proud are wicked. What the world is proud of is an abomination before God’s eyes. What today’s society has deemed a virtue, God says is evil. 
 
The contrasts between the wicked and the righteous found throughout Scripture are meant to encourage the believer. At first glance, verse 4 of Chapter 2 in Habakkuk might seem out of place. Not so! The difference between the proud one and the righteous in this verse is the crux of that which makes up the great but unseen spiritual divide between heaven and hell, Light and Darkness, God and Satan. In this world, believers who find themselves in difficult circumstances when they don't understand what God is doing can rest on these two simultaneous truths: The wicked will be punished according to what they deserve, but the righteous will live by his faith.
 
The Lord says in Isaiah 2:11-12– The proud look of man will be abased (He will wipe that smug look right off their faces!) and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. And in Isaiah 13:11–Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.
 
The Bible describes only two types of people. Let that sink in for a moment with all the dissension and division in our world today.
 
It is God, never man, who gets to make that distinction. God says there are the righteous and the unrighteous. The saints and the aint's, as someone once said. Both are sinners; however, only the righteous have had their sin covered by the precious blood of the Lamb of God who died to reconcile them to God. That one who is saved by grace through faith in Christ is seen as righteous by God having been clothed in Christ’s righteousness (the only righteousness that is able to stand in the presence of holy God). That righteous or just one lives by faith in God. He will be kept by God because God is faithful even when he is not.
 
The proud, wicked, unbelieving one trusts in himself leaving God out of his life. He doesn’t want God in his life…except in name only…so why would he ever believe he would live with God eternally? Why would he even want heaven when he doesn't want anything to do with God, His people, or His ways? 
 
The one small text we will look at today encapsulates the hope believers need to keep their focus on the eternal. The Bible gives us more passages of contrast between the two than we would ever need to rightly find ourselves in one of these groups. We want to see those contrasts in the next portion of our text in Habakkuk through a series of woes upon the wicked.
 
The bottom line of this whole chapter is this: The proud one trusts in himself; the just lives by his faith. And that one continues in faith. How is it that so many professing believers live just like the world? Many have falsely believed that faith was a one-time thing giving them a get-out-of-hell-free pass. Once supposedly "saved" by making a profession of "faith" (raising a hand, saying a prayer, walking an aisle), they falsely believed that they could then go on living as ruler over their own lives. On the contrary, faith is a way of life for the true believer as he or she is dependent upon God for everything! And that true believer has been granted, according to 2 Peter 1:3, by God’s divine power, everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 
 
We will be looking at the five woes against the proud Chaldeans and in a broader context those the Bible defines as the wicked of all ages. It may take several blog posts to finish all there is to see. What we must see is that the wicked unbeliever is characterized as proud. The practical results of that heart of pride are seen in the woes.
 
Habakkuk 2:4 – “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” 
 
This specific verse obviously alludes to the Chaldeans in its context. However, because we see what God says about the proud throughout Scripture, these are general principles that must be applied to all those who are proud. 
 
“Not right” is better interpreted upright. It’s not straight. Interestingly, this word can also be translated as pleasing, to lead straight along, and direct as in Proverbs 3:6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. God directs the path of the righteous on a straight path. The soul of the proud one is twisted and does not please God; he or she delights in the things God hates. Psalm 27:11–Teach me Your way, Lord, and lead me on a level (straight) path because of my enemies. Psalm 23:3–He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name. Psalm 5:8–Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before me. Jesus said He is the way to the Father; the unrighteous want only to walk their own way. Like the staggering drunkard we will look at, the proud one cannot walk the straight way even if he tries, for he is not on the path leading to life but that one which only leads to death and destruction.
 
When I think of proud people in the Bible I think of Nimrod, Pharaoh, Nabal, Saul, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Herod, the Pharisees, Judas, the Antichrist, and others. It begins to paint a picture for us when we think of some of these characters. Some words that describe those who are proud in the Bible are: haughty scorner, scoffer, rebel, enlarges his desires—never satisfied, cursed, (habitual) liars, boastful, self-righteous, dealing perversely without cause, puffed up, oppressive, knows nothing (yet thinks he knows it all), stirs up strife, flatters with his tongue, an abomination to the Lord, contemptible, slanderer, and the list could go on and on. That was page one out of sixty-six of a list of Scriptures on pride!
 
Further reading: 
Job 40:11-12; Psalm 49:16-20; Daniel 4:30, 37, 5:20-23; Luke 18:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Peter 5:5. 
 
John 3:36; Romans 1:17; Galatians 2:16; 3:11, 12;Hebrews 10:38; 1 John 5:10-13; Isaiah 30:15.
 
What further insight can be gained from these passages? Knowing what God’s Word says about those who are characterized by their pride, how can you apply it to your life. How does it help you?