AbaloneKid PRIDE GOES BEFORE A FALL WE PRAY! Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall."
The Divine power, made known in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, forms a strong tower for the believer, who relies on the Lord. How deceitful the defense of the rich man, who has his portion and treasure in this world! It is a strong city and a high wall only in his own conceit; for it will fail when most in need. They will be exposed to the just wrath of that Judge whom they despised as a Savior. After the heart has been lifted up with pride, a fall comes. But honor shall be the reward of humility. Eagerness, with self-conceit, will expose to shame. Firmness of mind supports under many pains and trials. But when the conscience is tortured with remorse, no human fortitude can bear the misery; what then will hell be? We must get knowledge, not only into our heads, but into our hearts. Blessed be the Lord, who makes us welcome to come to his throne, without money and without price. May his gifts make room for him in our beings." Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible (Proverbs16 & 18 )
John 13:6-9 "No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (John 13:8).
Peter's refusing to be washed by Jesus serves as a remarkable picture of the human need for the cleansing Jesus offers and the sinful pride of those who reject Jesus' cleansing ministry. At first glance it does appear as though Peter's expostulation arises out of his own sense of unworthiness before Jesus. But when you look a bit closer, you can see that it is really the expression of intense personal pride. Peter is offended by Jesus' actions because he knows that if he were a teacher, he would never consider stooping to wash someone's feet because it would be beneath him.
This is a revelation of the sinful pride of our own hearts, which often cloaks itself with a guise of humility, when we are really insisting on our self-sufficiency. We do not want to admit to anybody that we need anything. That is what Peter is doing here. He doesn't want to acknowledge his need to be washed, and, especially, of letting Jesus do this menial act for him. It humiliates him. And so he stands as an example of the pride in our own hearts that resists Jesus' ministry to us.
One of the remarkable things about the gospel is that it is always bringing us down to the lowest point. We must stand in utter humiliation in order for God to minister to us. All human pride must be brought low before Him before we can receive what God wants to give us from His hand. And that is where we struggle. We don't like to be delivered to a place where we have nothing to offer. We want to ADD something. Peter is a clear picture of this. Then when Jesus explains to him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me, Peter immediately capitulates to the other extreme: Lord, if that's the case, then by all means--not my feet only but also my hands and my head! In other words, he asked for a bath! From The Writings of Ray Stedman
AND THIS WASHING BY OUR LORD CONTINUES IN HEAVEN ABOVE FOR OUR SINS!
GREAT PRIDE WAS FOUND IN SATAN AND THUS THE SIN OF SELF GLORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A NATIONS PRIDE WILL BE JUDGED: TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN MUCH IS REQUIRED!
Jeremiah 49:16
"As for the terror of you, The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, O you who live in the clefts of the rock, Who occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as an eagle's, I will bring you down from there," declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 51:7
"Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad."
Jeremiah 50:12
"Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert." (SEE ALL JEREMIAH 50-51) What was the procuring and provoking cause of this destruction. It comes from God's displeasure; it is because of the wrath of the Lord that Babylon shall be wholly desolate (v. 13), and his wrath is righteous, for (v. 14) she hath sinned against the Lord, therefore spare no arrows. Note, It is sin that makes men a mark for the arrows of God's judgments.
An abundance of idolatry and immorality was to be found in Babylon, yet those are not mentioned as the reason of God's displeasure against them, but the injuries they had done to the people of God, ISRAEL, from a principle of enmity to them as his people. They have been the destroyers of God's heritage (v. 11); herein indeed God made use of them for the necessary correction of his people, and yet it is laid to their charge as a heinous crime, because they designed nothing but their utter destruction. 1.
What they did against Jerusalem they did with pleasure (v. 11): You were glad, they rejoiced. God does not afflict his people willingly, and therefore takes it very ill if the instruments he employs afflict them willingly. (Perhaps at this very time we face the same consequences of our Nations policies dividing Israel and appeasing their enemies)
Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord.
The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, false god's, legal murder, and sin filled conduct, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures. Matthew Henry (18 October 1662 -- 22 June 1714) was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister. *Note: Ruin is not far off from those that lie under the guilt of wrong done to God's people. Chaim https://www.youtube.com/user/AbaloneKid