Daniel 5:20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.
Mornin’ Neighbuhs! Another beautiful day is in the offing. Hope it’s not like yesterday, interspersed with slashing rain, strong winds and some terrible thunder. Instead of the usual intermittent strikes of Thor’s mighty hammer, it was long, loud, thunderous claps all together. Some prideful fool must have gotten the Lord’s dander up. (smile) Who knows eh? But as promised, we’ll continue talking about selfish pride. Yesterday we saw the Lord’s reaction to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar’s unholy pride, and how He dealt with them. Today, let’s begin with Isaiah’s vision of Satan’s fall from grace. ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?’ (Isa.14:12-17) Isaiah uses Lucifer as the real power behind the pagan kings. And in this concocted version of Satan’s fall, he mirrors the same thing happening to them. As per the scholars, ‘Lucifer’ is the Latin term for the morning star, and Isaiah’s prophecy decrees that just like the morning star quickly disappears before the rising sun, in like manner, Satan, the angel of light, will be banished to eternal darkness when the Son of God comes. Oh my people, just like Satan tried to rise above God and was cut down to size, the same misfortune will befall his followers. And we don’t have to look far to find explicit examples of evil intentions and false pride being routinely dashed to the ground, for our God is no respecter of persons. Just look around at our current world, where both actual and wannabe dictators abound. The powers that be are greedy, oppressive and full of themselves. They pay no attention to God but try to wipe out all pockets of resistance, including Christianity. They believe that with all the wealth and power at their disposal, they are invincible, and entitled to do whatever they so desire. At some stage though, they are all rudely jolted out of their imagined omnipotence. And it’s usually because of one little seed called selfish pride that begins as an acorn, but when well fed and watered, grows into a mighty oak. Oh my people, when we allow false pride and self-importance to get out of hand, we usually end up taking a very devastating fall. We end up like Humpty Dumpty of nursery rhyme fame, who sat on the wall and had a great fall, and sadly, nobody could put poor Humpty back together again. And Friends, that doesn’t apply only to despotic rulers, but to every living soul, regardless of socio-economic standing, for in us all is an inherent, though sometimes dormant feeling, that we’re better than the rest. And although it may at times be true, we can’t allow it to get the better of us, we need to keep that pride under strict control. Pride is a treacherous feeling that we have to fight against our entire lives, for it crops up unexpectedly in so many different ways, forms and times. The lowly man is certainly not exempt from the sin of pride though we’re using powerful monarchs here as examples. And so after Belshazzar and his cronies finished drinking from God’s holy vessels, ‘and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.’ (Dan.5:4-6) Yes my Friends, that’s how swift our God’s reaction can be! And in Belshazzar’s frightened, trembling state he cried out for his astrologers and wise men to come and interpret the vision, offering material possessions and political office in return. But obviously none of them could do it since they were not in tune with the message’s sender; the Most High God Jehovah. And isn’t it strange that it was the queen, his mother or grandmother, since his wives were partying too, who came in and told them about Daniel. That’s the Lord’s hand at work mih people; all part of His master plan. And we saw how Daniel came in, refused the king’s rewards, then told him about Nebuchadnezzar’s audacity in glorifying himself and not God. ‘And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, and thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.’ (Dan.5:22-23) Yes people, in this modern, materialistic age, the adoration of inanimate objects and of worldly possessions are placed above the reverence of God. Please remember the first commandment: Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve and worship. It’s a sin of which many of us are guilty. Then Daniel continued: ‘And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.’ (Dan.5:25-28) Please remember too mih breddren, we shall all pay for our wrongs; from the highest to the lowest, in God’s good time. ‘In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede took the kingdom; being about threescore and two years old.’ (Dan.5:30-31) Oh Friends, please, don’t let us be weighed in God’s balances and found wanting nuh. I implore us to glorify the Most High God Jehovah and not men, else we’ll eventually pay a very steep price for that dumb move. Much LOVE!…he who hath ears to hear…..let him hear… he who hath ears to hear…let him hear…he who hath ears to hear…let him hear…
Mornin’ Neighbuhs! Another beautiful day is in the offing. Hope it’s not like yesterday, interspersed with slashing rain, strong winds and some terrible thunder. Instead of the usual intermittent strikes of Thor’s mighty hammer, it was long, loud, thunderous claps all together. Some prideful fool must have gotten the Lord’s dander up. (smile) Who knows eh? But as promised, we’ll continue talking about selfish pride. Yesterday we saw the Lord’s reaction to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar’s unholy pride, and how He dealt with them. Today, let’s begin with Isaiah’s vision of Satan’s fall from grace. ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?’ (Isa.14:12-17) Isaiah uses Lucifer as the real power behind the pagan kings. And in this concocted version of Satan’s fall, he mirrors the same thing happening to them. As per the scholars, ‘Lucifer’ is the Latin term for the morning star, and Isaiah’s prophecy decrees that just like the morning star quickly disappears before the rising sun, in like manner, Satan, the angel of light, will be banished to eternal darkness when the Son of God comes. Oh my people, just like Satan tried to rise above God and was cut down to size, the same misfortune will befall his followers. And we don’t have to look far to find explicit examples of evil intentions and false pride being routinely dashed to the ground, for our God is no respecter of persons. Just look around at our current world, where both actual and wannabe dictators abound. The powers that be are greedy, oppressive and full of themselves. They pay no attention to God but try to wipe out all pockets of resistance, including Christianity. They believe that with all the wealth and power at their disposal, they are invincible, and entitled to do whatever they so desire. At some stage though, they are all rudely jolted out of their imagined omnipotence. And it’s usually because of one little seed called selfish pride that begins as an acorn, but when well fed and watered, grows into a mighty oak. Oh my people, when we allow false pride and self-importance to get out of hand, we usually end up taking a very devastating fall. We end up like Humpty Dumpty of nursery rhyme fame, who sat on the wall and had a great fall, and sadly, nobody could put poor Humpty back together again. And Friends, that doesn’t apply only to despotic rulers, but to every living soul, regardless of socio-economic standing, for in us all is an inherent, though sometimes dormant feeling, that we’re better than the rest. And although it may at times be true, we can’t allow it to get the better of us, we need to keep that pride under strict control. Pride is a treacherous feeling that we have to fight against our entire lives, for it crops up unexpectedly in so many different ways, forms and times. The lowly man is certainly not exempt from the sin of pride though we’re using powerful monarchs here as examples. And so after Belshazzar and his cronies finished drinking from God’s holy vessels, ‘and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.’ (Dan.5:4-6) Yes my Friends, that’s how swift our God’s reaction can be! And in Belshazzar’s frightened, trembling state he cried out for his astrologers and wise men to come and interpret the vision, offering material possessions and political office in return. But obviously none of them could do it since they were not in tune with the message’s sender; the Most High God Jehovah. And isn’t it strange that it was the queen, his mother or grandmother, since his wives were partying too, who came in and told them about Daniel. That’s the Lord’s hand at work mih people; all part of His master plan. And we saw how Daniel came in, refused the king’s rewards, then told him about Nebuchadnezzar’s audacity in glorifying himself and not God. ‘And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, and thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.’ (Dan.5:22-23) Yes people, in this modern, materialistic age, the adoration of inanimate objects and of worldly possessions are placed above the reverence of God. Please remember the first commandment: Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve and worship. It’s a sin of which many of us are guilty. Then Daniel continued: ‘And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.’ (Dan.5:25-28) Please remember too mih breddren, we shall all pay for our wrongs; from the highest to the lowest, in God’s good time. ‘In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede took the kingdom; being about threescore and two years old.’ (Dan.5:30-31) Oh Friends, please, don’t let us be weighed in God’s balances and found wanting nuh. I implore us to glorify the Most High God Jehovah and not men, else we’ll eventually pay a very steep price for that dumb move. Much LOVE!…he who hath ears to hear…..let him hear… he who hath ears to hear…let him hear…he who hath ears to hear…let him hear…
SCRIP-BITS 