That’s how pride works. It rejects God’s wisdom. It refuses to listen, or to wait. It insists on its own terms. It listens to God with one ear while looking around for something else to see or something else to do. It can appear polite, even charming, but beneath the surface it’s seething and plotting. Pride may hide itself well, but it shows up in all kinds of places, whether with sticks, or emails, or chores at home. It might gather sticks when God says to rest, and it might leave them on the ground when God says to work. The evil is not in the doing or the not doing, but in the “high hand,” in raising an arrogant hand against God — in deciding we know better than him. That kind of pride might seem safe in small things, but pride is never safe. Do you feel the need to do a little more on your terms, rather than God’s — to work more hours than he gives, to clean that room more times than needed, to always immediately move on to the next thing — not because you really need to, but because you want to? We love the warmth of being noticed and affirmed for our work. We love being in control. Some of us love getting things done just a little too much. We refuse to listen, to wait, to rest. Faith works, but not on its own (Philippians 2:13). Not in its own strength (1 Peter 4:11). We work and rest in reliance on God — trusting his wisdom, obeying his word, battling our pride, and surrendering our way. Pride picks up sticks when God says to rest. Faith waits for the Lord, “more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). Faith puts on humility, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). Faith trusts in his good, wise, and loving plan, even when it isn’t the plan we would have chosen for ourselves.
Marshall Segal, Numbers 15:32-36