At
this time Babylon, with its hanging gardens, is a “great” nation.
Why does such success make change or repentance difficult? How does
this relate to Jesus’ word about the rich entering the kingdom of
God (see Mt 19:24)? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition,
page 1228).
“Watch
out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”
(Matthew 16:6).
There
is a saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. Nothing is more common and more dangerous and more
fraught with peril than the experience of success. This is because
we have a driving inner need to claim credit and worthiness
ourselves. This from the get-go is delusional and only gets worse
with compounding events. Perhaps the first thing to sink from sane
awareness under this fevered mentality is an appreciation for eons of
precedent – the indispensable contribution of what has come before
us and vitally sustains us now. And as for the future, we too often
assume our meager achievements will be definitive and will preclude
and supplant future efforts and contributions for generations to come
(the grandiosity of a Hitler comes to mind). Nothing of human
productivity can possibly accomplish this—this is solely within the
spiritual province and will of the Almighty. So, all who have met
with success need must fall to their knees in prayer for deliverance
from the dead hand of prideful stupidity. With a sense of desperation
and raw need, they must fling themselves upon the mercy of God for
deliverance from the poison, insanity, absurdity, and myopia of human
arrogance.
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