It’s easy to see pride in the Bible isn’t it? We see it in people throughout Genesis all the way to Revelation. Pride comes before destruction. This week Chris examines pride that brought down an empire in Daniel 5. There we have King Belshazzar throwing a party for himself and friends while his kingdom is falling apart. He is drinking wine and praising the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. He’s even using the vessels from the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem to show that he has authority of them. That’s when the hand appears. It writes on the wall and eventually Daniel is brought in to interpret the writing.

We’ll see how Daniel didn’t miss an opportunity to recenter the history of Babylon around the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’ll also see how God deals with pride. And hopefully we’ll learn how this sin, often a deadly sin, can destroy anyone if they do not humble themselves into the correct position before God.

Chris moves on to Daniel 11 where Daniel prophesies about Antiochus Epiphanes and the Antichrist. One happened soon after Daniel 11 and one is yet to come. We see a common thread between these key players: pride! But as we’ll hear, pride takes down kingdoms in the past and kingdoms in the future because of its wrongful place before a holy and righteous God. It’s a good reminder for us all!

As Zvi and his wife Naomi were walking one day a group of women stopped them and asked Zvi if he observed the Sabbath. Zvi told them he obeys many commands in Scripture but this one he does not. The women were baffled. They asked why he did not go to the synagogue to pray. This gave Zvi an opportunity to share how we do not need to pray in front of people but instead we are able to pray directly to God just as Hannah did in the book of 1 Samuel.

The Friends of Israel Today and Apples of Gold theme music was composed and performed by Jeremy Strong.