HEBREW WORD STUDY – PRIDE OF HEART  – GAVAH LEV   לב גבה  Gimmel Beth Hei   Lamed Beth   

Proverbs 16:5: “Everyone [that is] proud in heart [is] an abomination to the LORD.”

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”  C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis claims and I agree with him, that we are all guilty of pride. I recall when I signed my first book contract with one of the big five publishing houses. I was a one-percenter, I was that one out of a few thousand writers sending their book manuscript to an agent or publishing house who was offered a book contract where they paid you to publish your book and not you paying someone to publish your book, ie., self publish.  I was boasting to anyone who had the patience to listen to me that I was being published by one of the big five who owned the largest Christian publishing house in the world.  I pictured in my mind’s eye all my former classmates in Bible College and Seminary who were now successful pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders shaking their heads and saying: “Why Chaim, this is amazing, we thought you were just destined to be an ordinary small-town pastor of a church of maybe 25 people. How did such a thing happen?”  I would then respond, “Oh that is what happens when you spend three to four hours a day studying the Bible in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.” 

Halfway through the publishing process the publisher yank the contract, they did not like some of the things I was writing and I refused to compromise.  So there I was, I was shattered. I could hear everyone now talking.  “That’s alright Chaim, we knew you were not getting published by the largest Christian publishing house, we knew you would not be published by one of the  big five,  we knew the only books you would publish would be self-published books, you probably just made up the whole thing.”  

I went off alone and wept before God and asked why?  The Lord asks to be my why I wanted to be published. I replied that I wanted to get the message out about His Love as expressed in the Hebrew.  He kept pressuring me, “But why did you want to be published by one of the big five?  “Oh,” I said, “Why they could reach a much wider audience.”  Again, I felt God prompting me asking “Why?” I finally had to admit, I wanted vindication.  I wanted to be a success like all my former classmates and even many of my students.  I was tired of living a mediocre life as everyone figured I would.  I was going to by published by a major publishing house, top that you senior pastors, mission directors, conference speakers, the old Aspie came through after all.  Pride.  I could feel God respond by saying: “What do you care what people think about you, I created you for a purpose which may not please others, but all you need to think about is just pleasing Me.”  You know I learned?  He is the easiest one to please.

Proverbs 16:5: “Everyone [that is] proud in heart [is] an abomination to the LORD.”  The word proud in Hebrew is gavah. It comes from a Semitic root GV which is the word for locust as a reference to the swarming of locust that devours all the crops of the lands, the food source of the land. As it swarms through the field it gradually eats the life-giving food that a farmer was growing.  As I reflected over that experience of signing a book contract I realized that it was like a swarm of locust has entered my heart and was devouring all the spiritual nourishment that I was enjoying such that I could no longer hear the cry of the world with my heart, I could no longer see the pain of the world with my heart and I could no longer speak a prayer to the sorrow of the world with my heart. Was it the pride of my heart that caused an abomination to the Lord such that I began to hear, see and speak with my mind and not my heart?  The word abomination is ta’av which is something disgusting. So disgusting even Jesus could not be around it.

Isn’t it odd that the ancients associated pride with a swarm of locust? For that is what pride does, it swarms into your heart without warning and no matter how hard you try to fight it off, it keeps coming until it has stripped away all that spiritual nourishment from your heart.  Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. What will a man give in exchange for his soul.” Mark 8:36-37.  

I re-read a passage from my favorite author, C.S. Lewis in Chapter 8 of Mere Christianity, The Great Sin.  The great sin is, of course, pride. Quoting C.S. Lewis,  “According to Christian teachers the essential vice, the utmost evil is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere fleabites in comparison.”    “As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”  

Despite all my fancied spiritual insights, spiritual lifestyle, the enemy managed to sneak in with the greatest sin of all, pride.  How did I know I was proud?  Because that is the only reason I could think of for feeling bummed out over the cancellation of my book contract. 

I remember after the book deal fell through I sat out on my porch one morning and saw a little bird singing and dancing before me telling that the Spirit of God was near.  A squirrel came up to me begging for his morning peanut and when he twitched his nose at me I was no longer bummed out. These friends cared not whether I had a book deal or not, my Savior did not care either for I heard Him speak to my heart saying: “Welcome back.”