Amazing Grace - Prov. 16:18 - Pride Goes Before a Fall

This is Namma for Christ with the 95th inspirational message dated Saturday, November 12th, 2016. The title of this message is, “Amazing Grace - Prov. 16:18 - Pride Goes Before a Fall”.  The scripture comes from the 18^th verse of the 16^th chapter of the book of Proverbs - where King Solomon reminds us that, “PRIDE GOES (or COMES) BEFORE A FALL”:

Proverbs 16:18

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Recently, I looked up the “saying” of “Pride goes before a fall” and this is what it stated: “People who are overconfident or too arrogant are likely to fail.” This saying was adapted from the scripture as listed above.

It also means - “If you’re too conceited or self-inflated, something will happen to you to make you look foolish.”

This idiom (of “pride going before a fall”) is also displayed many times in Biblical stories. One account can be found in the fifth book of Daniel in regard to King Belshazzar.

The scripture for the story is as follows:

Daniel 5:1-6

New King James Version (NKJV)

Belshazzar’s Feast

5 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. ² While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.³ Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

⁵ In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. ⁶ Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

  The story proceeds as follows - by the King asking for his wise men, magicians, and sorcerers to interpret “the meaning and the words of this hand”. The Queen, his wife,  then tells King Belshazzar to call for Daniel (who had interpreted dreams for his (late) father, Nebuchadnezzar):

Daniel 5:11

New King James Version (NKJV)

 

¹¹ There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

  Daniel is then called. Daniel reminds King Belshazzar of what happened to his father. Daniel then interprets the dream and he informs King Belshazzar that his end will soon come – that “God has numbered his days” (see below scripture):

Daniel 5:18-31

New King James Version (NKJV)

 

¹⁸ O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. ¹⁹ And because of the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down. ²⁰ But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. ²¹ Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.

²² “But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. ²³ And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. ²⁴ Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.

²⁵ “And this is the inscription that was written:

MENE,MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.

²⁶ This is the interpretation of each word.

MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; 

²⁷ TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting;

²⁸ PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹ Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Belshazzar’s Fall

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. ³¹ And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

In summary – Belshazzar’s PRIDE went before his FALL!

As a lesson for us, as Christian believers – let’s stay humble before the Lord. Matthew 23:12 reminds us:

Matthew 23:12

 

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹² And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

 Let us cling to God’s “Amazing Grace” and be reminded that “it is by God’s Amazing Grace that we have been saved”:

Ephesians 2:8-9

New King James Version (NKJV)

 

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Please enjoy the below beautiful and anointed song, “Amazing Grace”, as sung by the late Whitney Houston.

(I do not own the rights to this song.)

BE BLESSED!