Problems with Boasting

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." (Proverbs 27:1-2, NIV84)

People boast

• To get attention
• To impress others
• To get praise
• To inform people how great they are
• To intimidate others
• To put others down
• To compensate for insecurity

But boasting is a sin

• It is presumptuous to boast about what we are going to do when we don't know the future (Prov. 27:1; James 4:13-17)
• It is arrogant to boast that you are better or more important than others (Rom. 12:16)
• It is ungrateful not to acknowledge the assistance of others and act like you did it all by yourself (1 Cor. 4:7)
• It is deceptive to stretch the truth or to lie about what we did (Eph. 4:25)

Sennacherib boasted to the people of Jerusalem through his messengers. His boasts were intended to impress the people with his military accomplishments, intimidate the people of the city, exalt himself above both King Hezekiah and the Lord, and to declare what he would do to the city if they did not surrender. He was arrogant, blasphemous, and presumptuous. The people he insulted would survive while his own sons would kill him, the God he blasphemed would be glorified, and 185,000 of his soldiers would die during the night before he could march against Jerusalem or lay siege to it (see Isaiah 36-37).

"This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NIV84)