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I wrote a column 7 Crowns of the Believers, which became one of the most viewed articles on my own website. I'm not sure why so many people have been curious about the crowns. I noticed on Amazon there are not that many books about the believers' crowns, so I did a lot more research on the subject. I was astounded at what I found. I wrote a book which will be published soon (and I do hope you'll consider buying it!). There are more than seven crowns. I am sharing an excerpt from my book with you today...

Crown of Insolence

Chapter Six

No discussion of crowns is complete without discussing the Crown of Insolence. Yes, believers can wear this crown. It could be physical doom to the wearer, though. Doom as in very possible physical death. More on that in a moment.

The crown denotes characteristics that signal the spiritual hosts of evil that there is a definite weakness in the wearer. For example in Isaiah 28, wherein is the first mention of the crown of pride or insolence. Again, the Hebrew word is ‛ăṭârâh that compares with the Greek word stephanos (wreath). The Hebrew word translated insolence, pride, arrogance is gê'ûth (gay-ooth') and means majesty, lifting up, pride. It is the same as ga'ăvâh (gah-av-aw') that means arrogance, haughtiness, swelling.

I am a very proud grandmother. I have my brag book of pictures (even one of my granddaughter at four weeks old in the womb!), which I show off with little or no provocation at all. My chest swells with pride every time I even think about my precious grandbabies that I had prayed to come from God for years on end. Finally, He answered my prayers, and that fills me with rejoicing at His mighty goodness and graciousness to grant my petition for grandchildren. I didn’t do anything except request.

That is a different sort of pride than that exhibited by the people of Samaria.

Samaria is synomonous with Ephraim. Ephraim was the second son born to Joseph in Egypt. Joseph’s father, Israel, was dying and chapter forty-eight of Genesis tells the story of how Israel blessed Ephraim rather than Manasseh with the first-born blessing. Joseph thought because his father’s eyesight was so bad, he had made a mistake so he tried to take his father’s right hand from Ephraim’s head (crown) to put it on Manasseh’s head. Israel replied, “I know what I’m doing, Joseph.” He told him that he adopted both of Joseph’s sons born in Egypt. They would have equal status with Reuben and Simon, his own first and second born sons. Manasseh would develop into a great people, but Ephraim would be greater and would enrich the people of the earth becoming a multitude of nations. Israel used the Hebrew word gôy, which has been translated Gentile. Israel then prophesied the results of the scattering of Ephraim. That scattering, of course, was because of their idolatry, which God called adultery.

Ephraim had settled into a mindset of insolence so corporately broad that it brought down condemnation from on High. God, through His prophets, addressed the problem.

Samaria is described as a faded crown or a garland that is a play on words. Samaria was a city built on a hill that was surrounded by lush, fertile valleys that were approximately seven or eight miles wide. These valleys were surrounded by other hills so that from atop one of these hills the city looked as if it were a crown.

The Samaritans were thoroughly corrupted. The derogatory term, crown of insolence, stems from how the Samaritans took great pride in the work of their own hands (much like Cain did with his offering of grain). They were drunk with their pride and drunk with the wine including all the attached evils that come with that kind of lifestyle. Reiterating Isaiah 28 Amos 4:1 says: Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, “Bring wine, let us drink!”

When I was district sales manager for the Berry Company, selling yellow page advertising for BellSouth, one of my sales representatives came laughing into my office. “Gina, you’ve got to hear this!” She sat down and told me that her sister at the attorney general’s office had received a phone call from a very irate citizen. The woman was furious that her car license plate read COW 006. The woman said, “Listen, I am a rather large woman, and I do not want to drive around town in a car that declares I’m cow number six!”

I can readily sympathize with the woman. No one likes being labeled, much less being labeled a cow or other term meant to berate or belittle. The department of moter vehicles takes great care to remove all those derogatory words for license plates, I’m sure. There was no intent to mock or deride.

God was not mocking the people of Samaria, either. He is decisive about the consequences of this blasphemous usurping of His benevolent crown of goodness and abundance of crops by thinking their own work had brought in this profusion of crops. This contrasts starkly with the LORD of Hosts who is the Crown of Hope and the Crown of Glory in verse five, which is of course an allusion to Christ.

God is very clear about His feelings toward pride. He used Obadiah to warn Edom of their foolish pride, “the pride of your heart has deceived you” (1:3). Amos wrote, The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, declares the LORD, the God of hosts: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it" (6:8). John wrote in his first letter, For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world (2:16).

(Read more in my book, The Crowns of the Believers).

"Voice of Inspiration" from Andy Castro

Pretzel Love-Psalms 91:14