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Because You Have Depended On Your
Own Strength
Isaiah 31:1-3 -- Woe to those who go down to Egypt for
help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the
Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD! Yet He also is wise and will
bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against
the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity.
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh,
and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, Both he who
helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will
perish together.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 -- Thus says the LORD:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in
his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands
and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,"
says the LORD.
It's difficult to turn anywhere today without seeing yet another
of man's monuments of praise to himself and the glory of his achievement.
"We've come so far. We've so much to be proud of. We've accomplished
more in this past century than all of man combined throughout the entire
history of this planet. There is nothing we can't accomplish, given
our concerted effort, skill and resources. Man is the preponderant
influence in all the universe. Who can thwart his mighty designs?"
Isaiah 25:11 -- And He will spread out His hands in
their midst As a swimmer reaches out to swim, And He will bring down their
pride Together with the trickery of their hands.
The book of Obadiah addresses the LORD'S prophecy against Edom,
a people of similar pride and aspiration. Like the man of today,
Edom's sinful arrogance was a boast against the LORD God.
Obadiah 3 -- The pride of your heart has deceived
you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'
It is from pride that
all other sin is derived. For it is from the belief that we know
what's best, not God, that we choose to follow our way instead of His.
We disobey because we believe knowledge, wisdom and authority should be
ours, and we the best qualified to direct the paths of our lives.
Eve sinned because she disobeyed God. She disobeyed God because,
in believing Satan's lie, she determined her own best interests would be
served by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil -- even though
God had forbidden it. She
believed she knew what was best for her, not God.
"I commit adultery,
fornication, murder, cheat, lie or steal because these options seem best
to me at the time. It
matters not that the LORD God, Creator of all things, has determined that
such actions are wrong. If they seem appropriate to me
at the time, I must do what
I
think best." When we disobey someone it is because we believe we
know better than the one we've chosen to disobey. In essence, what
any act of disobedience to God is saying is that "God doesn't know what's
best for me in this instance.
His choice for my life is inferior to mine.
Therefore, I shall go the way
I choose,
entirely irrespective of God's will, His laws, precepts and statutes."
It is boastful, arrogant insolence of the worst sort, the root of all sin,
the trip before the fall; that which precipitated the evil one's
downfall (chiefly Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:11-19), it is the surest
path to destruction a man can choose.
Proverbs 16:18 -- Pride goes before destruction, And a
haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:5 -- Everyone proud in heart is an abomination
to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.
Isaiah 2:12 -- For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall
come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up -- And
it shall be brought low --
To Edom, the LORD God declared: "Though
you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the
stars, From there I will bring you down." (Obadiah 4)
In the twenty- eighth chapter of Ezekiel, the LORD similarly speaks out
against the pride and arrogance of Tyre.
Ezekiel 28:1-10 -- The word of the LORD came to me again,
saying, "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:'" "'"Because your heart is lifted up,
And you say, 'I am god, I sit in the seat of gods, In the midst of the
seas,' Yet you are a man, and not a god, Though you set your heart as the
heart of a god (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret
that can be hidden from you! With your wisdom and your understanding
You have gained riches for yourself, And gathered gold and silver into
your treasuries; By your great wisdom in trade you have increased
your riches, And your heart is lifted up because of your riches),"'" "'Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:'"
"'"Because you have set your heart as
the heart of a god, Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you,
The most terrible of nations; And they shall draw their swords against
the beauty of your wisdom, and defile your splendor. They shall throw
you down into the Pit, And you shall die the death of the slain In the
midst of the seas."'" "'"Will you still say before him who
slays you, 'I am a god'? But you shall be a man, and not a god, In the
hand of him who slays you. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
By the hand of aliens; For I have spoken," says the Lord GOD.'"
The LORD God poured His wrath out on the city of Tyre because
they proudly thought themselves to be as wise as a god.
The Apostle Paul touched upon the wisdom of this world in his first epistle
to the believers in Corinth, where he wrote: Where
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of
this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (I
Corinthians 1:20)
I Corinthians 1:25 -- Because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
I Corinthians 3:18-21 -- Let no one deceive himself. If
anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that
he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with
God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness";
and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."
Therefore let no one boast in men.
The Apostle Paul adjures us to let
no one boast in men -- for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with
God. Likewise, the prophet Isaiah wrote:
Sever yourselves from such a man, Whose breath is in his nostrils;
For of what account is he? (Isaiah 2:22)
Jeremiah 17:5-8 -- Thus says the LORD:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.
For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good
comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt
land which is not inhabited." "Blessed is the man who trusts in the
LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted
by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear
when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be
anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit."
In an age when all we hear and see is how great we are, and how
much we've accomplished and can yet accomplish if only we cooperate with
each other, it's discomforting to realize that all such boasting is in
arrogant defiance toward God. We idolize men and women for achievement
in sports, entertainment, politics and the arts as if they
were our gods and all that we have is derived from them.
But, the word of God contends with the popular notion of this age that
"all we've accomplished is due to our own great wisdom, knowledge and strength."
Isaiah 26:12 -- LORD, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us.
I Samuel 2:9-10 -- (from Hannah's prayer) "It is not by strength that one prevails;
those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against
them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth." "He will give strength to His king and
exalt the horn of His anointed." (NIV)
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who
depends on flesh for his strength and whose
heart turns away from the LORD."
If ever this passage defined an age, it is the one in which we are currently
living. We not only turn from God and follow after our own devices,
but we arrogantly proclaim ourselves to be master of our own destiny.
"Who is this God that we should obey Him? We are the product of chance,
the evolution of the species. Our paths are those of our own choosing,
and no god will dictate or impose a morality upon us or our descendants.
We have stood on the moon, split the atom and designed genes. There
is nothing we cannot accomplish in time, no force we cannot subdue.
We prevail by our own knowledge, our own wisdom, our own strength.
Who can stand against us, or prevent us from someday ruling the stars?"
Job 40:11-14 -- (the LORD speaking to Job) "Disperse the rage of your wrath; Look
on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is
proud, and bring him low; Tread down the wicked in their place.
Hide them in the dust together, Bind their faces in hidden darkness.
Then I will also confess to you That your own right hand can save you."
The LORD God here incites the one who believes he can save himself
to humble the proud and crush the wicked -- for man, in all his combined
strength and wisdom, is incapable even of this.
Psalm 94:9-11 -- He who planted the ear, shall He not
hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? He who instructs
the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge?
The LORD knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile.
In the fourth chapter of the book which bears his name, the prophet
Micah mocks those who have relied on the strength of their own hands when
disaster suddenly falls upon them: Now why
do you cry aloud? Is there no king in your midst? Has your
counselor perished? For pangs have seized you like a woman in labor. (Micah
4:9)
Hosea 13:10 -- (the LORD speaking)
"I will be your King; Where is
any other, That he may save you in all your cities? And your judges
to whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'?"
The word of God declares that we are not to place our trust in
princes, nor in mortal man, but in the LORD our God. It
is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man. It
is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.
(Psalm 118:8-9)
Psalm 146:3-6 -- Do not put your trust in princes, in
mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return
to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God
of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them -- the LORD, who remains faithful forever. (NIV)
As the prophet Isaiah declared:
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small
dust on the scales; Look, He [the LORD]
lifts up the isles as a very little thing. (Isaiah 40:15)
Isaiah 40:17 -- All nations before Him are as nothing,
And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.
Isaiah 40:23-24 -- He [the LORD] brings
the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely
shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind
will take them away like stubble.
Clearly, it is not the LORD who needs us, but we Him. In
our arrogance and pride we fashion ourselves as masters of our destiny,
yet as God's word demonstrates: "All flesh
is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows
upon it; Surely the people are grass." (Isaiah 40:6-7)
Our only hope and salvation is in the LORD. Those who rely on the
strength of men, like the grass, will only wither and fall. But,
those who depend upon the LORD will never be shaken. |
