THE FALL OF THE PROUD!!!

WHAT IS TO FALL?

To fall is the end result or the outcome that comes upon those who lift themselves up, thinking they have acquired what they have or they are by their own power or knowledge. Mark you! There are those who are proud in nature but they haven’t achieved anything yet for heaven’s sake. And to such, one may ask himself or herself; “If now they are humbled and they lift themselves, then what will happen when God exalt them? Such are the ones who would wish others to lie down as they walk on top of them! In many occasions or in some cases, others become proud because of the inheritance they may acquired from their departed loved ones and family members. They have never in anyway hustled in life to know exactly what it means  to acquire wealth in the first place; and due to the grace they received, they become proud men and women in the society. David became the best king and a man after God’s own heart because he was a hustler from his childhood, to his youth and before receiving the full throne as a king. He was a shepherd, a fighter, a warrior, a musician and above all, he humbled himself and seeks God with all his heart. (Later David would commit two grievous sins that would blemish his perfect record but he did humble himself before His God and he did pay the consequences of his sins dearly). His son the preacher later had to write this to us (Prov. 16:18-19) “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. I don’t really understand what happens to men when they are exalted. It’s like salvation; we begin so well in the spirit and that first love of commitment and dedication to the things of God, but not too long for many of us. We begin very well in the spirit and gradually defect little by little and eventually a haughty spirit enters and that’s how we fall and the enemy gets the opportunity to destroy us completely. In this post “(TURNING AGAINST THE TRUTH")…. I had advised servants of God not to force anyone to give their lives to Christ because when one is in the world, he belongs to the devil and the devil being the master here.  And when one gives his or her life to Christ; it means that he has defected to his master of darkness to join another master of light and the fight begins from there. So if it is not the conviction from the Holy Spirit, the fight become severe and because this soul is not ready to bear the scourging of the thorns, they surrender back to their master. This takes me to an assignment that all of us as believers need to do, “May we take our time and pray for this newly converts in the kingdom of God so that God may give them the grace and strength to endure, overcome and stand firm.

THE FALL OF THE PROUD ACCORDING TO EZEKIEL

When Assyria became like cedar in Lebanon, he lifted his heart which led to his fall and destruction (Ezek. 31:10-12) “Therefore thus says the Lord God; ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and his heart was lifted up in its height, therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness. And aliens, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it down and left it; its branches have fallen on the mountains and all the valleys; its bough lie broken  by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone from under its shadow and left it.” Ezekiel compares the pride of Egypt to that of Assyria. Assyria he said was like a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches, the top of which would rich into the clouds. It was higher and its branches were longer than all the other trees in the field.  All great nations lived under the shade of Assyria, and that was the picture Egypt had of itself.  Its heart was haughty and its head was high in the clouds. It is often difficult for a person or a nation, filled with pride because of successful achievements to face reality. Because of its haughty spirit and contempt for Israel, God said He would permit Egypt to be defeated in battle. Egypt would be destroyed like a tree that had been cut down, and all of its branches would lie on the ground to be trampled under the feet of animals (V. 13-14) “On its ruin will remain all the birds of the heavens, and all the beast of the field, will come to its branches- ‘So that no trees by the waters may ever again exalt themselves for their height, nor settle their tops among the thick boughs, that no tree which drinks water may ever be high enough to reach up to them. ‘For they have all been delivered to death, to the depths of the earth, among the children of men who go down to the Pit.” It does not matter how great a cedar of Lebanon might be among all the trees of Eden. When destruction is due, it will definitely fall and be no more (V. 18) “To which of the trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord God.”  God told Ezekiel to take up lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt and to say to him thus says the Lord, (Ezek. 32:2) ‘You are like a young lion among the nations, and you are like a monster in the seas, bursting forth in your rivers, troubling the waters with your feet, and fouling their rivers.” Yet in all this proudness of heart, destruction and fall awaits him (V. 3-5) Thus says the Lord God, ‘I will therefore spread My net over you with a company of many people, and they will draw you up in My net. Then I will leave you on the land; I will cast you out on the open fields, and cause to settle on you all the birds of the heavens. And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth. I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valley with your carcass.” He goes ahead and says (V. 9-11) ‘I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. Yes, I will make many peoples astonished at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.’ “For thus says the Lord God; ‘The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. By the swords of the mighty warriors, all of them the most terrible of the nations, I will cause your multitude to fall.”

GOD RESISTS THE PROUD

The proud has and will never have an inheritance in the kingdom of God as James charged us (James 4:4-6) “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” In another verse he says, just like desire when conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it full-grown, brings forth death (James 2:15). Pride is a sin and the wages of it is death my beloved (Rom. 6:23)”For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Herod when he lifted up himself he was struck dead by the angel of God (Acts12:21-23) “So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, set on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.”  King Uzziah on the other hand lifted himself and meddled in the things of God that does not concern him causing his death as a leper (2 Chr. 26:16-20) “But when he was strong his heart was lifted up. To his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of God to burn incense on the altar of incense. So Azariah the priest went in after him, with him were eighty priests of the Lord- valiant men. And they withstood king Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the Lord." And because he did not want to listen to them, and because destruction had knocked its door, he became furious and angry at them. “Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was hungry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the Lord, besides the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous; so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him.” These are the outcome of proud men and their fall. King Uzziah became a leper and he dwelt in isolated house till his death while his son Jotham was over the king’s house judging the people. 

SCOUNDREL NABAL

For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! These were the words of Abigail the wife of Nabal to David, as David was on his way to destroy the household of Nabal (1 Sam. 25:13) “Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.” One may ask, ‘why did David gird himself with four hundred men to go and destroy Nabal and his household?”  The answer is here (V. 4-7) “When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten young men ; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity; ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel.” But the scoundrel Nabal because of pride, he did pay evil for good (V. 10)”Then Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”  The story is bit longer that I can’t write it all here but let me finish with the key words (V. 37-38) “So it was in the morning, when wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. Then it happened, after about ten days, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.”

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”