“Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them” (Exodus 18:11).

This is the first mention in the Bible of the sin of pride, and it appropriately refers to the primeval sin of the “gods”-that is, the supposed deities of the heathen.

Led by Lucifer, a great host of the created angels had rebelled against their Creator, seeking also to be “gods” like Him. Lucifer, later to be called Satan (i.e., “adversary”), thought he could become the highest of all. “O Lucifer . . . thou hast said in thine heart, I will . . . exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell . . .” (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Satan’s sin-and that of the other self-proclaimed “gods”-was that of “being lifted up with pride . . . the condemnation of the devil” (I Timothy 3:6). But they shall all, with him, eventually “be brought down to hell,” and the “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

This was also the sin of Adam and Eve, for Satan had seduced them with the promise, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).

It is also the sin of all humanists and evolutionary pantheists, from Adam’s day to our day, for they seek to do away with God and make “gods” out of “corruptible man.” They have “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:23,25).

But “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Our Lord of creation is “above all gods,” even in that “thing wherein they dealt proudly.” The sin of pride was the very first sin and is still the most difficult sin to overcome, but “God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5). HMM