Seven
L E S S O N
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haughty eyes
Small Group Bible Study
The phrase “haughty eyes” can be translated as proud look or
arrogant eyes. It might be best to say that God detests pride
and arrogance. These are characteristics we often see in our
culture.
was successful because he “did what was right in the sight of
the Lord” (26:4). Success, however, always affects people.
Some people are humbled and grow more dependent upon
God. Others become proud and leave their relationship with
God behind. Uzziah did the latter.
The offspring of riches: Pride, vanity, ostentation,
arrogance, tyranny. | Mark Twain
Pride is excessive confidence in our skills, abilities,
accomplishments, position, or possessions. So, it’s safe to say
that we all have struggled with pride at one time in our lives.
Pride can be viewed as rebellion against God because it honors
the individual. Pride leads people to a wrong attitude about
sin. It also causes people to devalue others.
Pride alone is a sin and a gateway sin because it leads to other
sins. That’s why it is included in the list of detested attitudes
and actions. When God’s people harbor prideful attitudes,
they place themselves in God’s position. They act as judge and
jury. They ignore common courtesies. They are rude and
demanding. Pride allows people to think only about
themselves.
Some people believe pride is necessary to get ahead in life.
Pride or arrogance is a sign of power; it’s a right. They believe
God will excuse them for being prideful. Yet, God’s attitude
toward pride today is the same as in the Bible.
2 Chronicles 26:3-21
Uzziah. His name might sound familiar because he is
mentioned in Isaiah chapters 1 and 6. Uzziah’s given name was
Azariah (God has helped). He was 16 when his father was
taken into captivity following the war with Samaria. With his
father gone, he became the king of Judah and took the name
Uzziah ( Jehovah is strength).
At the beginning, everything was great. Uzziah allowed his
relationship with God to guide him as he led Judah. Uzziah
Do you consider yourself successful? How has
your success affected your dependence upon
God?
Why is it so hard for successful people to honor
God with their lives?
The path to pride or arrogance has some common elements.
As we look at Uzziah’s life, we will see where he made his
mistakes. It is to be hoped that we will apply the same
examination to our lives and identify some of our mistakes.
The Path to Pride
Take ownership of your accomplishments (2 Chronicles
26:6-15). This is a fairly long passage of Scripture, so let’s
condense Uzziah’s accomplishments:
• He won some wars
• He built cities
• He became famous throughout the land
• He built towers
• He fortified walls
• He dug wells
• He had livestock and servants
• He commanded an army
• He manufactured weapons
The Bible tells us that Uzziah became very famous. Don’t you
think he knew that? He got what he wanted and had servants
to care for every need. He was wealthy, influential—a rock star
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In what ways do you demonstrate arrogance or
pride?
with an inflated ego. If he were alive today, he would be an
icon. He would have nicer houses than anyone else and more
cars than he needed. He would be better known for his
vacations than for his work habits. People would jockey for
position to be his friend because being friends with Uzziah
would make ordinary people extraordinary.
What are two things you need to do to keep
pride in check in your life?
The Penalty of Pride
How do you know when people are proud of
their accomplishments?
Why do we want to be friends with people who
are impressed with themselves?
When we take ownership of our accomplishments, we make it
all about us. Whether we mean to or not, we squeeze God out
of the driver’s seat and make it look as if we are responsible
for everything that happened.
What’s the problem with that? Well, we aren’t responsible; God
is. God gave us our abilities, provides the opportunities, gives
us wisdom, and is active in every aspect of our lives. Deep
down inside, we know that’s true, but we like it when people
are impressed with us, don’t we?
The great corrupter of public man is the ego.
Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention
from the problem. | Dean Acheson
Uzziah accomplished a lot. He was a great leader, military man,
and businessman. You can see the shifting in his thinking. He
once was commended for doing right in the sight of God.
However, as his fame and fortune spread, he lost sight of his
dependence upon God. He had everything he needed so he
stopped living to please God.
This happens in our lives today. When the wheels are coming
off of our lives, we are quick to express our dependence on
God. However, when life calms down and things are going
good, we take back control of our lives. God becomes more of
a tow truck driver for our broken down lives.
This isn’t our intention. But pride is sneaky. Arrogance
develops under the surface of our lives and shows itself at the
most inopportune moments.
Pride erodes character (2 Chronicles 26:16-21). Uzziah’s
success was the beginning of his undoing. Like his father, he
became prideful. When he entered the temple to burn
incense, he took on the role of the priest. His arrogance led
him to believe that he could do anything he wanted to do. He
was in charge; he answered to no one.
Uzziah knew better than to take the role of priest. The Law of
Moses forbid such an act. Why would someone who had been
so faithful to God suddenly start doing things that violated
God’s instructions?
Pride never moves us toward God. In fact, it moves us away
from God. You would think that someone who had been so
close to God would recognize his newfound distance from
God. That’s the power of pride.
Pride distorts a person’s view of reality. Sins become little
bumps in the road; God takes
on an advisory role. The
individual begins to see little
difference between personal
decisions and godly direction.
Slowly, God slips into the co-pilot seat and the individual takes
over. Maybe you’ve seen the license plate above. Whoever
created it didn’t understand the relationship between God and
us. The Bible never assigns God to the co-pilot’s seat; He is
either the pilot or he’s not on the trip! Pride allows us to see
ourselves as co-leaders with God, but it places Him second-incommand.
Uzziah never intended to bump God down to second-incommand. But, as he reviewed his accomplishments, he
couldn’t help but feel good about himself. God had given
Uzziah a stage from which he could make God famous. Uzziah
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took the stage, enjoyed the spotlight, and left God waiting in
the wings.
What God did through Uzziah should have produced an
attitude of gratefulness and humility. This is what happens in a
person’s life when God maintains control. Unfortunately,
Uzziah grew increasingly impressed with himself. This is a
dangerous road to travel.
How do you keep from taking back control of
your life?
What are some early warning signs that
arrogance and pride are starting to develop?
Every decision we make has consequences. Uzziah’s decision
to enter the temple and burn incense would cost him greatly.
The priests—eighty of them—stood in defiance of the popular,
charismatic king. The priests knew that honoring God was far
more important than pleasing the king. They tried to protect
Uzziah from his own stupidity.
Rather than come to his senses, Uzziah got angry at the
priests. The king had an opportunity to recognize his mistake
and stop before carrying out a really bad plan. Uzziah,
however, wouldn’t be denied—yet another consequence of
arrogance. The king believed that he was entitled to anything
he wanted. No one would deny him and live to tell about it.
I need a larger room for my
group.
I need to lead my group to
start new groups.
I can’t be in a group unless
childcare is provided.
I’ll do whatever it takes to
grow spiritually.
It’s all about me.
It’s all about God.
We might think that pride is something we keep on the inside,
but the Bible makes it clear that pride eventually shows. In
Uzziah’s life, his pride resulted in leprosy; our consequences
might be different.
What price are you paying for the pride in your
life?
Now What?
Aren’t we a lot like Uzziah? We can easily become more
focused on what we want than on who God is. We become
demanding. We make our commitments conditional upon our
demands being met. It happens in churches. Think about
some of these real life comparisons:
Humility says…
Pride always has consequences. Uzziah’s life changed when he
immediately broke out with leprosy. Leprosy was any one of
several serious skin diseases. Today, leprosy refers to Hansen’s
disease—a disease that was not diagnosed in biblical times.
The leprosy appeared on Uzziah’s forehead, therefore, the
priests all saw it. In those days, lepers were kept outside the
temple. Any leper who entered the temple area was to be put
to death (see Numbers 18:7).
Uzziah’s leprosy overpowered his royal privileges. As a leper,
he could not appear in public. He was forced to move from
the palace and live in quarantine. He could no longer rule the
land, so his son, Jotham, took his place.
Who in your life loves God and you enough to
warn you when your pride and arrogance get
out of control?
Pride says…
Take a look at verses 19-21. Uzziah became angry because the
priests tried to talk some sense into him. Arrogant people get
very defensive of their sin. They easily rationalize their bad
decisions. Things that had horrible consequences in the lives
of others will be inconsequential in their lives…so they think.
Pride makes smart people stupid.
In this lesson, we’ve seen the devastating effects of pride on
someone who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” In
our culture, Uzziah would have been a high profile leader, a
churchgoing man, perhaps a deacon or a small group leader.
People admired him. He was famous. His house was
spectacular. He had money. He was, in his own mind,
invincible.
Have you been there? Have you started reading your own
press clippings? Are you posting tributes to yourself rather
than investing your resources making God famous? We’ve all
done it. We’ve all thought more highly of ourselves than we
should.
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Because pride bumps God to second place (at best), it is one
of the deadly sins. Maybe it won’t lead to physical death, but it
will kill your reputation, destroy your witness, and leave you
for dead spiritually.
The Path to Pride
• Read and discuss 2 Chronicles 26:6-15. Use some or all of
the following questions in your discussion:
➡ How do you know when people are proud of their
accomplishments?
Our world wants us to believe that it’s all about us and,
honestly, we like it that way. As a result, we become arrogant
and demanding. We then become rude and disrespectful to
others. We start believing the rules that apply to everyone else
don’t apply to us. That leads to carelessness. Destruction is
just around the corner.
We see peoples lives become train wrecks all because pride
and arrogance went unchecked. We see spiritual leaders lose
their influence because they elevated themselves above God.
These sins are deadly because they affect the one who sins and
the ones influenced by the individual. There likely are “dechurched” people for whom we are responsible. They used to
be active. They used to attend our groups. But when they saw
pride in our lives, they stopped believing God was who we
claimed.
We need leaders who will keep God in the pilot’s seat. We
need leaders who are far more concerned with reaching
people than they are with filling their room or their group. We
need leaders who produce leaders. The option is the leper
colony. The choice should be simple.
Coaching Lesson One
• Read Proverbs 6:16-19 and briefly summarize the
introduction to this study.
• Ask: What is your definition of pride or arrogance? Call for
responses.
• Read and discuss 2 Chronicles 26:3-5. Briefly describe
Uzziah’s rise to the throne. Use the following questions:
➡ Do you consider yourself successful? How has your
success affected your dependence upon God?
➡ Why is it so hard for successful people to honor God
with their lives?
➡ Why do we want to be friends with people who are
impressed with themselves?
➡ In what ways do you demonstrate arrogance or pride?
➡ What are two things you need to do to keep pride in
check in your life?
The Penalty of Pride
• Read and discuss 2 Chronicles 26:16-21. Use some or all of
the following questions in your discussion:
➡ How do you keep from taking back control of your
life?
➡ What are some early warning signs that arrogance and
pride are starting to develop?
➡ Who in your life loves God and you enough to warn
you when your pride and arrogance get out of
control?
➡ What price are you paying for the pride in your life?
Now what?
These lessons aren’t easy. They are like looking into a mirror
and seeing ourselves for who we really are. This is what Bible
study does. If we look in God’s Word just so we’ll feel better
about ourselves, we’ll be content with shallow studies and
meaningless conversations. Use the following questions to
wrap up the session.
• How does pride interfere with your relationship with
God?
• Does it bother you enough to make some changes? If so,
what changes will you make? If not, you need to think
seriously about the authenticity of your relationship with
God.
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