The earliest version of the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" was written in 1797 by Samuel Arnold. The first lines read, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." The higher the wall, the greater chance of significant injury from a fall. Humpty Dumpty is commonly portrayed as an egg, and considering his fragile condition he may have been better suited for a downy nest. Once Humpty fell, irreversible damage was done. There was no putting him back together again.
The well-known nursery rhyme has been around for centuries, but catastrophic falls for people and nations is nothing new. This morning I read from Ezekiel 31, a passage where God spoke of how He had elevated Assyria as a towering cedar of Lebanon, the envy of the trees of Eden. God had provided a tall, strong trunk and an ample water source to nourish the tree and cause it to grow. Ezekiel 31:10-11 reads, "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height, 11 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." God would make the nations shake at the sound of Assyria's fall - not because they had become mighty and were envied by others - but because the heart of the nation had been lifted up with pride.
When God lifts up a nation or elevates your status, a constant test is presented: will our hearts be lifted up with pride or will we choose humility? Humpty Dumpty it seems wasn't afraid of heights, and the Assyrians delighted in being the envy of nations. They were lifted up with pride, and God brought the nation crashing down for their wickedness of pride. God is not threatened or envious by the height of nations, for it is He who lifts them up. Jeremiah 18:5-10 says, "Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it."
God's power extends over all nations and over every soul which comprises them. Though He was the Son of God, Jesus humbled Himself and took the role of a slave. For this reason God exalted Jesus above all others (Phil. 2:5-11). Pride for any reason leads to ruin, and the soul which vaunts itself God is able to abase. The man who hears Christ's words and does them will be established and endure, but those who hear Christ's words and pay them no mind will have a great fall. Pride always comes before a fall, but God will exalt the humble.
The well-known nursery rhyme has been around for centuries, but catastrophic falls for people and nations is nothing new. This morning I read from Ezekiel 31, a passage where God spoke of how He had elevated Assyria as a towering cedar of Lebanon, the envy of the trees of Eden. God had provided a tall, strong trunk and an ample water source to nourish the tree and cause it to grow. Ezekiel 31:10-11 reads, "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height, 11 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." God would make the nations shake at the sound of Assyria's fall - not because they had become mighty and were envied by others - but because the heart of the nation had been lifted up with pride.
When God lifts up a nation or elevates your status, a constant test is presented: will our hearts be lifted up with pride or will we choose humility? Humpty Dumpty it seems wasn't afraid of heights, and the Assyrians delighted in being the envy of nations. They were lifted up with pride, and God brought the nation crashing down for their wickedness of pride. God is not threatened or envious by the height of nations, for it is He who lifts them up. Jeremiah 18:5-10 says, "Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it."
God's power extends over all nations and over every soul which comprises them. Though He was the Son of God, Jesus humbled Himself and took the role of a slave. For this reason God exalted Jesus above all others (Phil. 2:5-11). Pride for any reason leads to ruin, and the soul which vaunts itself God is able to abase. The man who hears Christ's words and does them will be established and endure, but those who hear Christ's words and pay them no mind will have a great fall. Pride always comes before a fall, but God will exalt the humble.
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