A Portrait of a Proud Generation

Ingratitude

Proverbs 30:11 “There is a generation that curseth their father, And doth not bless their mother.”

There are people that are not grateful for what they have. Ingratitude leads to a host of other sins:

Covetousness Envy Complaining and Murmuring Stealing Lying Murder Adultery

Self-Deception

Proverbs 30:12 “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, And yet is not washed from their filthiness.”

These are people that convince themselves that what they do is okay even if they would not be okay with someone else doing it to them or someone they loved. There is a reason it is okay for them and reasons it is wrong for others.

ILLUSTRATION a good illustration for this is regarding tardiness. If I am late for work it is because my car broke down, my kids misplaced my keys, or someone turned my alarm off. I have a legitimate reason for being late,

The other person that inconveniences me by being late is irresponsible, rude, and inconsiderate of my time because they did not show up when they were supposed to.

In this verse it is referring to sin. When I commit sin there is a good reason for it and God will understand. When someone else sins then they need to suffer the consequences of their actions because sin is harmful and self-serving, irresponsible, and evil.

In the time of the Judges every man did that which was right in their own eyes. Certainly, there are people who live according to their version of right and everyone else is wrong. When we live this way we are self-deceived. We are sinners in need of a Savior and his help to change our ways and direct our lives to be lived according to the purity of Christ and not our own judgment of goodness.

Pride

Proverbs 30:13 “There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.”

Pride is the root of every sin. Pride leads to self-deception. I am better than everyone else. My words are better. I do everything better. When we get so caught up in looking for the ways that we are right we lose sight of things that need to be addressed in our own lives. We begin to think that we cannot be wrong. Our eyes are lofty. Our arrogance builds. Our resistance to change gets stronger. Our thoughts about our way, our life, and our best interests becomes law and we begin holding others to our standards that we have set and skewed to our advantage and referred to it as the right way.

When we get to this point only the two-edged sword of the Word of God can break us down, renew our minds, and humble our hearts.

Importance

Proverbs 30:14 “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, And their jaw teeth as knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, And the needy from among men.”

When we grown in self-deception and pride then we begin to think of ourselves as important, influential, and the judge of everyone else. We use the attitude of a bully, the game of gossip, and the respond with ruthless and unkind behavior toward anyone who challenges our own sense of importance to this world. This importance can be expected in a number of life situations and causes destruction everywhere we take our view of importance to the world.

The Bible describes it as someone with swords for teeth and knives. In other words, it refers to destruction. We seek destruction for anyone who challenges our importance. The verse refers to the poor and needy and speaks to the thoughts of the time period and thousands of years that followed that divided people into classes and made one more important than the other based upon the family they were born into, the clothes they wore, the place they lived, or the food they ate. The poor and needy were not important to those that devoured them and when we live in a place we feel important then we become the monsters that this verse describes.

We might not have this view in every facet of our lives. Sometimes people look for a place where they can be important and influential to help them with their problems of self-esteem in other areas of their lives.

As Christians we find our importance of who we are in Christ. We understand that we are important, not because of something we have done, but because God has adopted us to be his child through the sacrifices of his Son, Jesus Christ. We are nothing without Christ and with him we have great value. Our value is not because of who we are but because of who he is and what he has done for us. When we find our value in Christ we seek to be less important and lift him up to others in our daily living. By living as unimportant we are made, through Christ, to be important to him and to his work on the earth.