Daily Bible Verse ~ Matthew 14:8-12

Posted On 2021-01-10

Matthew 14:8-12 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

Sin, fear, and pride kills! As we come to this story in the book of Matthew we find that John the Baptist is in prison. Because of sin, fear, and pride, Herodias wanted John the Baptist dead. So she devised a plan with her daughter to have him murdered.

One night at a party the daughter of Herodias danced for the king. In return for the dancing, the king said that he would grant the girl anything she desired. You guessed it, she conspired with her mother and the request was made. “I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter!”

Because of his oath, the king had John killed and the head was given on the platter. Sin, fear, and pride have great power in our lives. Proverbs 16 tells us that pride comes before destruction and Psalms 10:4 says, “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “ There is no God.””

Today I want to talk about the power of pride in the life of a believer.

John Owens, in his book The Mortification Of Sin, makes the statement, “be killing sin daily or sin will be killing you.” So as I read the works of our early church fathers and look at the scriptures that God has provided for our guidance and wisdom, I find it safe to assume that we must kill pride, the root of all sin, or it will destroy us.

I heard a preacher talking recently and he made this statement, “God has a way of exposing us through shameful sin to destroy our pride. He certainly could allow us to sin in other ways and get our attention through it, but the sins that are exposed to the people around us are the ones that cause us to humble ourselves before God in order to get right with him and the people we encounter.”

I can totally relate to this in my own life. I am by no means a member on the public stage and I have very few people that I expose my life to outside of the church and my work, but there have been times that God has used simple public sin to put me into a place of humility in my life. I encountered a public sin many years back that showed me I needed to increase the humility in my life and after a couple of days of reflection in this area I felt like God had changed my heart. I spent many hours during this time of correction from the Lord reading through Psalm 51.

Psa 51:2-4 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

The cry of David in this psalm is to ask God to create in him a clean heart. To blot away any of his iniquities and to repair his life from his sinful ways. In verse 2 he asks to be cleansed from his sin. He wants God to not just take an eraser and erase away the damage and sin in his heart, but he wants God to thoroughly wash him and cleanse him. A deep cleansing of the heart that only God can do. We can give the appearance on the outside that our heart is humble and good, but only God can work the deep cleansing we need on the inside to rid of of the nasty parasite of pride.

Digging Deeper:

Psalm 51:8-14; Galatians 6:3; James 4:10

Apply It:

Are you struggling with the sin of pride today? If you say ‘no’ then I might suggest that you are too prideful to recognize it. (Mar 7:21-23) If you say ‘yes’ then my encouragement to you is that you turn to the Lord today and ask Him to begin the cleansing work that you need in order to be humble and contrite before Him and the people he places in your path. Pride is a killer… It destroys careers, families, ministries, and people’s hearts. God uses the humble and opposes the proud.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I pray today for my heart and I lay down my will before you. Please cleanse me from my pride and selfish ways and give me a heart of humility. I long to be used by you and I pray that you will do a magnificent work in my life in the area of pride and humility. In your precious name, Amen.