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 18th verse
of the 16th 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.
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.)
(I do not own the rights to this song.)
BE BLESSED!
