Proverbs 16:18 Commentary and Bible Study

The remarkable feature of this proverb is that it reverses the normal order of cause and effect. We might expect Solomon to say, ‘Pride leads to destruction, and a haughty spirit brings about a fall’, but the way he has chosen to express this is far more powerful. He starts with the effect – destruction, and moves back to the cause – pride. By putting it like this he stresses the inevitable consequence of pride. It is as if one were to say, Do you sees that oak tree? Well, before that oak tree there was an acorn planted in that place. You cannot have one without the other. In the same way, even though you cannot see it, where there is destruction, and especially eternal destruction, there was certainly pride that went before it. However, although Solomon puts it this way round, the lesson he intends to teach is about the danger of pride, and this is his powerful warning: that it always leads to destruction. Put this way, we see destruction and ask, What could have brought that about? The answer is pride. A man or a woman has been destroyed shockingly. What can account for this, what can make sense of it? The destruction here is a breaking as of a vessel which cannot be reassembled, or a wall that collapses and cannot be repaired. The Lord will not allow pride to exist in his creation and to go unpunished. Every act of pride and every haughty spirit is an exaltation of man above his proper place. He lifts himself up above what God has made him to be, and attempts to add to himself what God has not given him. There is no end to this process and pride knows no limits. It is not restrained by what is sensible or even by what is possible. The dust of the balance is quite capable of imagining itself to be the highest mountain peak, and even man presumes himself to be equal with the Lord. Pride is incurable and God must oppose every proud spirit, and bring down each one to destruction. There will be no exceptions to this and so destruction will come to all, destruction from the Lord. God has many agents at his disposal and he is not in any hurry to act, but nothing will finally escape his judgment.In the context of guidance, we can say that the proud spirit excludes itself from any help from God. The seeker after guidance certainly wants God to be for him and not against him, but to start with pride makes this impossible.