Why do great people fall?
It seems like we constantly see the greats of our time fall from grace when just the other day we thought they were invincible. We believed they could not be stopped, they were “the man.” They had it all together. They are sadly, a lot more like the rest of us than we give them credit for. We are all victims of the same dangerous enemy… ourselves.
In the story of the Exodus, plagues are coming against Egypt. And Pharoah is responsible. The Pharoah’s job as the King of Egypt was to maintain peace, and order and justice. But Egypt is seeing their great Pharoah fail at his one job. But why?
Why is this Phaorah repeatedly, failing at correcting his own mistakes?
Because Pharoah refuses to listen.
Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, the magicians said to Phaorah, “This is the finger of God(Elohim).” But Pharoah’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as Yahweh had said.
The “finger of Elohim” in this cultural context was not a good sign. That phrase signified that the god’s were out against you. It represented the harm or danger a god(elohim) was capable of doing.
Here the famous magicians who keep having magical battles with Moses and Aaron, are now at their breaking point. They recognize there is something greater than the magic they have, than the power they posses at work. And the scary part is, whatever this “greater power” is, it’s at work against them. Thus they go and tell Pharoah. They warn him. “This is not a power you should take lightly. Humble yourself, a mighty God is at work against you!”
But that line “Pharoah’s heart was hard and he would not listen” rings familiar for many of us.
Arroagnace, ego, self consumption plagues all of us. We all are capable of filling our lives, our heads with too much of ourselves. And as the wise Mr. Frank said in one of our recent Men’s groups. “When a thought is just in your head, you have the ability to fight it. But when it seeps into your heart, that is where the danger is because it will change who you are.”
Pharaoh did not care about the people he ruled over. He was a harsh slave driver, a King unwilling to turn away from his actions to save his own people. But why?
Because once you become the ruler, the greatest authority over your own life, when all the weight of the world rests on your shoulders and you actually believe you can handle it, that is where you will fall.
The athlete who believes he is the only reason the team will win in a game of basketball, is the player that is selfish, a ball hog, and that runs right over all the people in his way even his own.
The business man who consumes himself with having the highest seat at the table, is the CEO who misses the chatter at the bottom of the table, of the intern who actually is carefully watching for the downfall in order to take his spot whe the CEO ultimately falls out of position.
The Pharoah who refuses to acknowledge he is not the most powerful, and he must answer to someone greater, is the Pharoahs who is eventually swallowed up by the seas he cannot control.
Where are you at in your own life?
Are you the center?
Are you your own greatest authority?
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