Why Some Great Men Fall. Part [11] 09/22/2025 (Evening thought)

Ecclesiastes 2:1 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

This has caused some to question God’s goodness in blessing him with so much wealth. Indeed, it is a very sad commentary on our sinful nature, that God has to think twice as it were, before blessing us. The same was true of King Saul, who at first seemed to be so humble, and willing to be led by God. But when he ascended the throne, he also became puffed up later on, so that the God of heaven could not even speak to him anymore.

1st Samuel 15: 10 Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, 11 It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night. 17 And Samuel said, when you were little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel?

Therefore, our case study will involve Gideon, whom God chose as the instrument to deliver His people from the Midianites. Like David, like Saul and like Solomon, Gideon started off his mission, pretty humble, with a small view of himself, and being ever so careful to consult with God before making any move. The following passages show how little Gideon thought of himself, and how the angel of God had to encourage and goad him into the heroic act that would place him in the hall of fame with other Bible heroes.

Judges 6: 11 And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

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

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!