To Encourage You

2 Samuel 1:19 “How the mighty have fallen!”

The Bible is full of examples of the great victories of the people of God. We read of Daniel in the lion’s den; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace; and David and Goliath.  They are wonderful stories of triumph.  But the Bible is also full of stories of great tragedy.  It is a book filled with laments; stories of what could have been and the sadness because they were not.  There are so many stories of squandered potential, shocking failures, and great falls from grace.  And the Lord wants us to know about them.  They are for our good that these accounts have been preserved. 

One such example is in the lament of David over the death of Saul and Jonathan.  Three different times David repeats the words above, i.e., “How the mighty have fallen.”  It’s the sad story of the history of Israel. It’s the sad story of the history of the world.  Time after time we see examples of those who have been blessed with some position of leadership.  They are gifted people, skilled in various ways, with the potential to do great good. And many in leadership have done great things. Saul was such a person. He was blessed with physical strength. He was a standout, physically speaking, and for that reason alone many in Israel looked up to him. He had been a great warrior. The women of Israel sang of him, “Saul has killed his thousands.”  In David’s lament he recounts how Saul’s leadership had benefited the people with wealth, for he had “clothed (the daughters of Israel) luxuriously with scarlet (and) put ornaments of gold on (their) apparel” (2 Samuel 1:24).  But he squandered it all in the end. He lost his crown, he lost his sons, and he lost his life because he refused to follow the Lord. 

We don’t have to look too far today to see the same thing. A few years back New York’s governor, a person that was held in very high esteem by many, was facing the end of his career because of the accusations of those who lost family members, in part, due to his decisions in managing Covid-19. On top of that were the accusations from various women in his life who had claimed that he had treated them in sexually inappropriate ways. We’ve seen how one of the most well-known Christian apologists in the world, one who was held in high esteem by many, irreparably fell because of the revelation of his secret life of sin.  Although he’s no longer alive to face justice, his failures have tragically tarnished and affected those who worked with him, as well as his wife and children.  Over and over again we have examples of how the mighty have fallen.  It’s one of the saddest aspects of the history of the world. 

It is in these stories that there is a warning for each and every one of us if we have a desire to finish well.  The Scriptures tell us that “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).  God would have us to know that there are many over the course of history who never thought that they would crash and burn. They thought that failure was beyond them. They were successful! They were wealthy! They had reached their goals! As they looked around them, they had the attitude of the rich man in Jesus’ parable from Luke 12, where we are told, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

So, how do we prevent this in our own life?  How do we keep from abject failure in the end? Again, we turn to the Scriptures. Listen to these words from 2 Peter 1:3-11: “(God’s) divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Did you hear that?  Did you see how it said that God has given us His very great and precious promises and that they’ve been given to us to escape the corruption that is in this world, the very corruption that affected Saul’s life so grievously and brought him to a bitter end.  But for those who will heed what God has said in these promises, promises that are found throughout His Word, and give their effort to ever increase and grow in the godly qualities that obedience to these words will produce, they will never fall.  However, if we are negligent, if we think we can go merrily through life without listening and obeying the Word of God, if we think that because things are wonderful in our life right now and that our life will wonderfully end, take heed to the example of Saul and so many others who have gone before. Look at the lives of the mighty ones, who trusted in themselves instead of God’s Word, and had such a sad and mighty fall. 

May God help us to trust what He has told us, words that He has given us for our own eternal good. May our focus in life be the glory of God, for it’s only in such a focus that we will hope to hear the wonderful commendation of our Savior at the end of our life, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have finished well.”