Blossoming Arrogance

There were a couple of verses in my reading today that seemed to capture some of what is going on in our culture and throughout the world.

First, in Psalm 10:4 the Psalmist tells us that the wicked are haughty, that every thought they have is that there is no God.  When we disobey God we are betting that He is not concerned or that He is not really there.  When you consider all of the issues that are gaining traction these days, the legalization of perversion, the legalization of recreational drugs, the continual slaughter of children in the name of the rights of people to have pleasure without consequences.  It is clear that those do not believe that there is a God.  In reality we do the same when we knowingly disobey.

Then in Ezekiel 7:10, at the end of the verse Ezekiel pens the phrase, “arrogance has blossomed.”  If that does not describe this world succinctly I am at a loss for what would do so more effectively.  Rather than fearing God the world is thumbing their collective nose at Him.  Ignoring or perverting His Word.  Replacing Him with gods who are no gods but slave masters who bind men and women in the pursuit of death in their name.  Or worse, perhaps, those who know they do not need a god at all but are completely self-sufficient in their understanding of the universe and how it came to be.  Blithely dismissive of any need for a creator of this unfathomably complex universe in which we live.

The opposite of this blossoming arrogance is fear.  Fear of God.  Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7; 9:10, remind us that fear produces wisdom.

We have to choose, haughty arrogance or wisdom.