Deposed from the Throne

Daniel 5:20 – “But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:”

Pride is such a deadly sin and there are many different types of pride. Many people of God fall into various forms of pride. Sometimes, when things begin going well in times of prosperity, we tend to forget about God. We put Him on the shelf until we ‘need Him again.’ If that happens, then the best thing the Lord can do for us is to cause a need in our life to drive our hearts back to Him again. This is unfortunately what if takes to have us plead to God desiring to know why this is happening to us. I have learned this lesson (temporarily) the hard way many times.

Another prideful trap for believers is the sin of presumption. On my first two mission trips into the heart of Malaria-ridden Africa, I was never bitten by a mosquito or any other insect. I actually watched mosquitoes land on me and fly away while others around me were getting bitten repeatedly with bug spray saturating their bodies. So what happened on my third trip? My heart had gotten puffed up and I presumed upon God that He was always going to keep me from being bitten. That night, my first night back in Malawi, I slept without my Mosquito net only to be awoken several hours later with my blood itching all over my body from all of the bites I had taken while I slept deeply. I had numerous whelps all over me and had to take an ice cold shower to numb the burning and itching for about 20 minutes. Praise God for no Malaria, but I learned that lesson the hard way.

In the story about Nebuchadnezzar above, read in verse 21 about what all happened to him as the result of his pride and lofty heart: “And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven;”

He went through the ringer to learn his lesson, however there was a benefit to all of this suffering. Notice the last half of verse 21, “till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.” All the things that come upon us are not punishment, most are simply opportunities to learn from and be corrected by the Lord for our own good. Whom God loves, him He chastens. 

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