"These [in Berea] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." - Acts 17:11
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(17) "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
I cast you to the ground,
I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.

New King James Version copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The first recorded sin in all of God's creation involved pride. Not only was what Helel (commonly mistranslated as "Lucifer") thought about himself the overall cause of his downfall, it also corrupted the wisdom that should have kept him from falling. Pride blinded him to its own existence and to the impossibility of what he was trying to do! It set in motion a reaction to God that continues to today.

Beauty should not be confined to how Helel judged his outward appearance, because it is later expanded to splendor. God says of him, "You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty" (verse 12). He "had it all"—good looks, brains, skill, and power! And it got to him. His very gifts, his strengths, deceived him into misjudging his value in comparison to others, particularly God Himself.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:
Pride, Contention, and Unity



 

Topics:

Beauty

Comparing self to others

Pride

Satan

Self Deception

Self Exaltation




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