Week of Monday January 20 – January 26
Hubris Hurts – Man as Instructor
Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. - Nahum 3:8-10 ESV
Arrogance is a harmful attitude. Scripture warns: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). The tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, serves as a cautionary tale of this sort of pride. John Meakin writes:
The Titanic thus embodied a spirit of invulnerability characteristic of the times. In fact, when at the beginning of her maiden voyage one of the deck hands was asked whether the ship really was unsinkable, he replied, “God Himself could not sink this ship!” It was an idle boast that would, of course, prove catastrophically hollow within a few days. Through a combination of fateful human decisions, unforeseen events and a curious twist of fate, the ship’s vulnerability was cruelly exposed and she sank in the space of two hours and 40 minutes, with the resultant loss of more than 1,500 lives. But the disaster was caused by more than the combination of these circumstances. “The ship was not destroyed by an iceberg alone,” James Cameron’s Titanic asserts, “. . . it was also destroyed by a state of mind.” The book speaks of “an unseen force that [would] ultimately lead to the era’s downfall . . . arrogance.”
The prophet Nahum calls out the city of Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria, which arrogantly believed it was unstoppable and invincible. However, in 612 BC, Ninevah found out the hard way that it was not. Only God is unstoppable and invincible when His judgment is set in motion.
Nahum points to the historical example of Thebes in verses 8-10. Thebes, a rival city of Nineveh located on the Nile River, had strategic geographic defenses and thought it had powerful allies. Consequently, the people of Thebes thought they were impregnable and invincible. However, when the Assyrian army attacked, Thebes’ defenses failed, and the city fell in 663 BC. In our passage, God challenges Nineveh by asking: “Are you any better?”
Nahum’s prophecy was not only directed at Nineveh; it also contained a warning for the nation of Judah. Judah had become proud, mistakenly believing that God would always protect them, regardless of its actions. Because of its arrogance, Judah couldn’t conceive that Jerusalem, which contained God’s Temple and had the promise of David’s eternal throne, could ever fall. Sadly, the people of Judah continued to rebel against God. As a result, the nation of Judah fell, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Temple was burned in 586 BC.
We would do well to reflect on the lessons from Nahum’s prophecy for ourselves today. Are we any better? Some believers may pridefully think that because America’s founding was informed by biblical principles, we are impregnable or invincible and therefore safe from and invasion. But consider this: If Thebes, Nineveh, and Jerusalem could all fall, then America could, too, especially if we don’t repent. In just the span of 150 years, the nation of Assyria went from revival (in the days of the prophet Jonah) to ruin. A generation later, the same fate befell Judah. Lest we treat the prophecy of Nahum as just another boring history lesson about the demise of some forgotten nation, let it serve as a wake-up call for America.
As Instructors, we have the responsibility of teaching our families important lessons of history. These include lessons about the rise and fall of nations, the reasons behind these events, and the role that pride plays in them. Even more importantly, we need to teach them about the significance of knowing the Almighty God who governs all nations and teach how to relate to Him with humility rather than arrogance.
- When you read your Bible, how often do you go beyond applying it to your own life and consider how its teachings apply to our culture and government?
- How are you instructing those in your charge about God’s sovereign hand in the history of nations, particularly the nation of Israel and our own nation, America? How well are you connecting biblical truths to current events in the news each day?
- Ask God to give you insight into how His Word applies to what is happening in the news, how to communicate that insight to those in your charge, and how to pray together in light of what He is showing you.
Hubris Hurts – Man as Instructor
Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall? Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains. - Nahum 3:8-10 ESV
Arrogance is a harmful attitude. Scripture warns: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). The tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, serves as a cautionary tale of this sort of pride. John Meakin writes:
The Titanic thus embodied a spirit of invulnerability characteristic of the times. In fact, when at the beginning of her maiden voyage one of the deck hands was asked whether the ship really was unsinkable, he replied, “God Himself could not sink this ship!” It was an idle boast that would, of course, prove catastrophically hollow within a few days. Through a combination of fateful human decisions, unforeseen events and a curious twist of fate, the ship’s vulnerability was cruelly exposed and she sank in the space of two hours and 40 minutes, with the resultant loss of more than 1,500 lives. But the disaster was caused by more than the combination of these circumstances. “The ship was not destroyed by an iceberg alone,” James Cameron’s Titanic asserts, “. . . it was also destroyed by a state of mind.” The book speaks of “an unseen force that [would] ultimately lead to the era’s downfall . . . arrogance.”
The prophet Nahum calls out the city of Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria, which arrogantly believed it was unstoppable and invincible. However, in 612 BC, Ninevah found out the hard way that it was not. Only God is unstoppable and invincible when His judgment is set in motion.
Nahum points to the historical example of Thebes in verses 8-10. Thebes, a rival city of Nineveh located on the Nile River, had strategic geographic defenses and thought it had powerful allies. Consequently, the people of Thebes thought they were impregnable and invincible. However, when the Assyrian army attacked, Thebes’ defenses failed, and the city fell in 663 BC. In our passage, God challenges Nineveh by asking: “Are you any better?”
Nahum’s prophecy was not only directed at Nineveh; it also contained a warning for the nation of Judah. Judah had become proud, mistakenly believing that God would always protect them, regardless of its actions. Because of its arrogance, Judah couldn’t conceive that Jerusalem, which contained God’s Temple and had the promise of David’s eternal throne, could ever fall. Sadly, the people of Judah continued to rebel against God. As a result, the nation of Judah fell, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Temple was burned in 586 BC.
We would do well to reflect on the lessons from Nahum’s prophecy for ourselves today. Are we any better? Some believers may pridefully think that because America’s founding was informed by biblical principles, we are impregnable or invincible and therefore safe from and invasion. But consider this: If Thebes, Nineveh, and Jerusalem could all fall, then America could, too, especially if we don’t repent. In just the span of 150 years, the nation of Assyria went from revival (in the days of the prophet Jonah) to ruin. A generation later, the same fate befell Judah. Lest we treat the prophecy of Nahum as just another boring history lesson about the demise of some forgotten nation, let it serve as a wake-up call for America.
As Instructors, we have the responsibility of teaching our families important lessons of history. These include lessons about the rise and fall of nations, the reasons behind these events, and the role that pride plays in them. Even more importantly, we need to teach them about the significance of knowing the Almighty God who governs all nations and teach how to relate to Him with humility rather than arrogance.
- When you read your Bible, how often do you go beyond applying it to your own life and consider how its teachings apply to our culture and government?
- How are you instructing those in your charge about God’s sovereign hand in the history of nations, particularly the nation of Israel and our own nation, America? How well are you connecting biblical truths to current events in the news each day?
- Ask God to give you insight into how His Word applies to what is happening in the news, how to communicate that insight to those in your charge, and how to pray together in light of what He is showing you.