Why Some Great Men Fall. Part [10] 09/21/2025 (Morning thought)

1st Samuel 18:6 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. 7 And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

[Patriarchs & Prophets pp 717] All this tended to lessen David’s sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And instead of relying in humility upon the power of Jehovah, he began to trust to his own wisdom and might. As soon as Satan could separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength, he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of man’s carnal nature. The work of the enemy is not abrupt; it is not, at the outset, sudden and startling.

[Patriarchs & Prophets pp 717] It is a secret undermining of the strongholds of principle. It begins in apparently small things—the neglect to be true to God and to rely upon Him wholly…. The same is true of Solomon, who after a day of bright beginnings, where he prayed, and The Lord answered him by fire, he began to become puffed up in his mind, as if he did not need God anymore.

As the Lord increased material blessings to Solomon he started to chart a proud, self-serving course that was contrary to God’s revealed will; a course that would exalt himself in the sight of the people and in the sight of the surrounding nations. This he began to do when he started to violate God’s law on marriage, by appropriating hundreds of women, and concubines to himself. In other words, God’s doctrine of one wife per man would not pertain to him anymore, for in his mind, he was above the law.

1st Kings 11:But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. 2 Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, You shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

May The Lord add His blessing to the study of His word. God bless!

Why Some Great Men Fall. Part [9] 09/21/2025 (Evening thought)

2nd Samuel 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus, saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.

When David was down in the valley of the shadow of death, where Saul, and satan were on his heels night and day, he prayed like never before, and he humbled himself greatly before God, waiting on His word before making any move. But later on when The Lord exalted David to the highest position as king, he began to take to himself unwarranted liberties, which inevitably led to his downfall, so that he lost respect in his own family and across the nation as a whole.

2nd Samuel 12:8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. 9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

Patriarchs & Prophets pp 717] It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David’s fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were not without effect upon him.  According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were un-condemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject.

Leviticus 24:22 You shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.

May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!