Proverbs 16:5

Better Choose to Be a Proud Person

The Choice is Yours

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.
–Proverbs 16:5

Everyone, the whole, all of those in this group, without exception, that is who God is talking to in this proverb.

Proud can have two meanings, one is positive and the other is negative. When talking about God, this word exalts God, puts Him upon high to His eternally elevated position, where He belongs, and it emphasizes that He always acts justly from Heaven.

When positively talking about people, a proud person is one who prefers the things of God; a person who is proud of God. But a proud person, as used in this proverb, is a person who puts their own will above God’s will.

God is condemning an arrogantly proud person, a person who asserts their own will above God’s will, a person who consciously and continuously chooses to do what they want to do, even if it goes against God’s will.

This proud person will put his or her self in the place of God, elevating the person to the exulted place of God. This person will choose to walk through life making up their own rules, picking and choosing what they want to believe about God that fits their lifestyle.

The opposite of this type of person is a person who walks in faith, a person who hears the Word of God and reacts properly to what they hear. There is always a fork in our road. At any time, we can go in God’s direction or in our own direction, the choice is always our own choice to make at any time.

“An abomination to the LORD.” What is an abomination to the LORD? An abomination to the LORD is something God keeps far away from Himself. An abomination is someone God fully excludes from His Kingdom and from Himself.

A person who is an abomination to God is someone abhorrent to God. A person abhorrent to God is a person God sees as disgusting. God detests an abominable person.

Assuredly, I always thought assuredly meant it is going to happen for sure, which it does, but it also means more than something that is inevitable. Assuredly here means it is completely in God’s power. God is promising He is going to do something by His own hand.

Assuredly, God is promising the future of a proud person will be executed by God Himself and the person certainly will be subject to the power of God, one way or another. Our future is completely in God’s hands.

Furthermore, assuredly means all history is in the power of God’s hands. God has been directing circumstances throughout time for the purpose of salvation for the righteous and destruction of His enemies.

“Assuredly, he will not go unpunished.” Who will not go unpunished? The proud person who puts his or her will above God’s will, God Himself will punish that person.

But the righteous, the righteous will go unpunished. To go unpunished is to become free from what is undesirable because the righteous person gets cleared of all guilt, acquitted; freed from all penalties.

To go unpunished is to receive God’s forgiveness, cleared of all guilt; pure and innocent in the eyes of God! All charges by Satan against us get dropped by God and we become spotless like Jesus, the Spotless Lamb who took our place on the cross.

“And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” –Revelation 12:11