It was a stifling hot day on June 25, 1876, in the valley that the Indian’s called “the greasy grass” after the narrow river that snaked its way through the hills and bluffs.
The Black Hills were sacred ground to the Indians that had lived there for centuries – so much so that they called those hills “The heart of everything that is!”
George Armstrong Custer had arrived here, not as much in pursuit of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne as he was the glory that had evaded him ever since the War Between the States had ended.
He had risen rapidly in rank during that war and became known as the “Boy General”, but those ranks were “brevets” – or temporary – and after the war he returned to being a captain.
It was hard to see much action in the west, and with a lack of battles in which to distinguish himself, his only promotion was to Lt. Colonel of the 7th Calvary. Out of respect for his war years, his men called him “The General”, but the lack of that official rank ate at Custer.
His court-martial and one year suspension without pay, his falling out with the scandal-ridden administration of Grant, his losing favor with Sheridan – and the ineptitude that the officers surrounding him had exhibited in fighting Indians left him yearning for that one big moment in time where he could etch his name in glory and fame.
So here he was at Little Bighorn, boasting that he and the 7th could whip all of the non-treaty Indians on earth. In that valley, on that day, he would get the opportunity to prove that he could do just that.
No one could ever accuse Custer of cowardice. He always led his men into battle. Though never great at battlefield strategy, his greatest strength was his bravery – it was also his greatest weakness.
Turning down the offer of 4 Second Battalion Companies that would have bolstered his fighting force considerably, and a battery of Gatling Guns that could each fire 350 rounds per minute, Custer led the 7th toward a fame that they would pay dearly for.
Rather than reconnoitering as he should have, he threw caution to the wind. When a veteran Crow Scout warned him not to divide his troops into 3 columns, he replied “You do the scouting and I will attend to the fighting!”
What his arrogance blinded him to was that a coalition of tribes, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and other iconic warriors, had decided that they would run no more. He would face the largest gathering of hostile Indians that any white man had ever seen before.
It was the most mishandled, poorly organized, and vaguely communicated battle plan in the history of the United States Army.
The air became thick with dust from galloping horses and the gunpowder from tens of thousands of gun blasts. The sounds of death were everywhere. The screams of men and horses writhing in pain mingled with the war cries of painted warriors.
By the time the sun set on Little Bighorn, the buffalo grass was streaked in crimson and the mutilated bodies of U.S. Cavalrymen lay motionless beneath the scorching sun. Custer had found his glory, and his name was indeed forever etched in history. It would be his last stand.
It shook the nation like nothing had since Lincoln’s assassination 11 years earlier. The great tragedy in this story to me is the brave men who died fighting a battle that was driven by ego and sabotaged by officers who hated Custer almost as much as they hated the Sioux.
One reason I love history is because the principles of God’s Word are clearly evidenced in the lives and events of the past.
The lesson of Little Bighorn can be found in Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 18:12 “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
It’s easy to look at Custer and Benteen and Reno and see the pride and ego that either led men to their death, or refused to go beyond the call of duty when their fellow soldiers were being slaughtered.
It’s not difficult to spot pride in others. What is much harder is to spot that pride in ourselves. “We know the disease,”Jaquelle Crowe writes, “but we don’t recognize the symptoms.”
107 times the Bible mentions pride, proud, or haughty. Pride is when we think ourselves better than others; haughtiness is elevating ourselves above others.
The Bible is full of not only warnings of pride and how it can corrupt us, but like Custer’s Last Stand, it gives example for all to see.
- It’s Satan wanting to be God.
- It’s Adam and Eve’s disobeying God.
- It’s Cain’s anger that God rejected his works-based offering.
- It’s King David numbering the people.
- It’s King Saul saving Agag as a battle trophy.
- It’s King Uzziah assuming priestly duties.
- It’s King Hezekiah showing off the temple riches.
- It’s King Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance about Babylon.
- It’s Herod accepting his status as a god.
We know pride is a disease – but what are its symptoms?
1. PRIDE CAUSES YOU TO OVERESTIMATE YOURSELF AND UNDERESTIMATE OTHERS.
“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.” C.S. Lewis
Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” And yet pride causes us to compare and to always place ourselves in a favorable light.
It was in by comparing himself with a publican that the Pharisee saw himself as superior, but his estimation of value was far from accurate.
Luke 18:11-12 “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”
When we view life through the lens of a prideful spirit, we place more value on ourselves and less value on others. We start writing our own press release, and we become our own PF managers.
C.S. Lewis said, “Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.”
If we aren’t careful we can become infected with pride and it will taint everything we do. We must be on guard on we will become soured and jealous men.
“If the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing my threshold, I do not shut the door, and in the power of Him Who works in us to will and to do, keep that door shut, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Amy Carmichael
2. PRIDE GIVES US A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT.
Pride whispers that we deserve to be on the receiving end. It makes us place expectations on others that benefit us. It elevates our wants above the needs of others.
The Elder Brother: Luke 15:28-29 “And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:”
Rather than rejoicing that his prodigal brother had come home, the elder brother whined about what he felt he deserved. He felt cheated. Entitled people are never happy no matter where they are. They live with their hands out – always ready to take what they think is owed them.
We need to careful about becoming entitled! We aren’t in this for the perks are we? Do we crave the spotlight and the applause? Or are we privileged to be servants of the King?
Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
3. PRIDE EXILES US TO INDIVIDUALISM.
- Pride magnifies the importance of me.
- It causes us to set ourselves up as the standard for others to attain. They must meet our approval.
- It forces us to live in an echo chamber – with people who agree with me or appear identical.
1Corinthians 4:6-7 “And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”
Prideful people can’t harmonize well with others because all they want to do is listen to their own voice. They don’t know how to blend.
Proverbs 28:25 “He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife…”
Proverbs 13:10 “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”
Social media is a safe way to set ourselves up as the authority in any given area.
“An empty wagon rattles the loudest.”
4. PRIDE PUTS DISTANCE BETWEEN US AND GOD.
Proverbs 6:16-17 “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look…”
Proverbs 16:5 “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.”
God hates pride because it convinces man that he is his own God. Because of that, it puts distance between God and His children. When we embrace something that is so repulsive to God, though He still loves us, it breaks our fellowship with Him.
Psalm 138:6 “Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.”
James 4:6 “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
1Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
5. PRIDE LEADS US TO PRAYERLESSNESS.
1Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.” Prayerlessness is our declaration of independence from God.
Psalm 10:4 “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.”
We’re not too busy to pray, we’re too preoccupied to pray!
“One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.”
Pride deceives us into thinking we can “do life” on our own—we’re capable, independent, unstoppable, self-reliant. We think that we don’t need God every hour – that we don’t need his help, grace, mercy, courage, and hope.
The Valley of the Greasy Grass is waiting. Like Custer, it will be where we take our last stand in our own ego-driven quest for glory.
That’s not how he intended to be remembered, but it is where his pride led him.
The Blog of Pastor Dean Herring 