YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

Sir,

Last week I wrote about how pride is one of the seven deadly sins and how the Almighty God views and abhors it.
Today, I want to us to look at some harrowing accounts and examples of how men of pride in the past fell to disgrace and to nothing after being ruled by pride which made them think they were infallible and could do things their own way, get away with them and run roughshod on God’s laws, without thinking about how God hates pride.

The most famous of all examples of how men fell foul of God’s wrath through the sin of pride was none other than King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia found in Daniel 4.
God’s prophet Daniel warned him about his wayward ways of trusting in his own might and wisdom and of God’s lack of pleasure in his shenanigans Nebuchadnezzar looked out across the great city of Babylon and said in his pride:
“Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty...”
Listen to that: “By the might of my power! “

He forgot that it was the sovereign God ‘who raises and brings down kingdoms, elevates and brings down arrogant people who trust in their own in power, etc.’
Nebuchadnezzar failed to thank God for his success and for the might of his Kingdom. He pompously announced to all his citizens that it was through his own strength and might that Babylonia was such a powerful world empire.
As the King spoke, a voice came from Heaven:

“Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.”
At that instant, King Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men and ate grass for seven years like an animal!
Lesson: God is able to humble and bring to disgrace those who walk in pride.

One, for instance, can have all the powers to oppress people, make them slaves, abuse their God given human dignity, but one day the God of Heaven will take action and hear the cries and prayers of His oppressed Creation who are  oppressed by those in power. We know that ‘power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely.’
Power corrupted King Nebuchadnezzar and the God of the heavens was not happy. He had to teach this pompous king a lesson or two.
God inspired His prophets to write down the writings so that we can avoid the pitfalls of relying on our own might and wisdom and forget that all these are a gift from God.
Example 2: Belshazzar - grandson of the same Nebuchadnezzar. Whereas Nebuchadnezzar later acknowledged and repented from his sin after seven years of punishment and after his Kingdom was restored to him, his grandson Belshazzar was not so lucky.

Pride in his might and power made Belshazzar take golden utensils looted from God’s temple to serve idolatrous men and women, wine during a state banquet.
Strange words appeared on the wall and Daniel interpreted them for the shocked king. His Kingdom was to be taken away from him that very night and exactly that very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.”
Lesson: Belshazzer did not learn from the way God humbled his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar and for this, God had had enough and he was slain.

Some of us do not learn from how great men in the past came to their demise because of their sheer arrogance, how those who oppressed people, lorded it over others, came to a bitter end.
This ought to be a lesson that we can oppress people and deny them their basic human rights but the day God takes action, there will be wailing, gnashing and grinding of teeth as the God of vengeance unleashes His ferocious power.
History has numerous examples of such pompous people and leaders who were so lofty and forgot that the God of the Heavens was not turning a blind eye on  how we conduct ourselves given positions of power in communities, at work, in governmental structures, churches etc., and how we exercise that power.

Let us look at a list of past and present leaders who, through pride, oppressed, and killed people and how they came to a bitter end.
1.Germany’s Adolf Hitler: He is probably the most famous and it’s a well known fact of history how he persecuted, exterminated and murdered millions of Jews and this fact of history will remain indelible in the minds of men until the Coming of the End of this Age.

He inevitably came to his end and awaits judgement in the resurrection.
2.Russia’s Josef Stalin: History testifies that he sacrificed 27 million of his people during World War II. As is the case with all creation, death beckoned to him and he died and he, too, waits for judgment.
3.Current Syria’s butcher of his people - Bashar al-Assad: Over 150 000 have died in Syria’s civil war and there is no end in sight.
Bashar’s arrogance and pride is preventing him from letting go of power at the expense of thousands of his countrymen who have died and have fled to neighbouring contries as refugees. His end is on the horizon. Remember, God brings down and raises kingdoms?

4. China’s Mao Zedong: He was notorious for starving his country. His aggressive form of communism lead to the starvation of millions in his country and pride and not bowing to pleas of hunger from his people could not deter him.
He met his end.
5. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein: It is said that He exterminated his people and committed ethnic and sectarian genocide. He was the first to use chemical weapons of mass destruction on his own Kurdish people.
He invaded Kuwait for selfish reasons but he met his death like a mouse because of...pride.

6. Herod the great: He killed many young male children just because he felt threatened by the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment for the killing of innocent children awaits him.
The list is endless but these are examples for us humans to learn the lesson that you cannot mess around with God’s creation and get away with it. It is said, “You reap what you sow.” How true!

Lucky Nxumalo
MANZINI

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: