Thoughts from the book of Isaiah-31

The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. (Isaiah 23:9)(NIV)

Those who are proud, God will humble, sooner or later and more so those who rebel and challenge him. Tyre, Babylon, Assyria and many other nations were humbled by him.

In Psalm 2, the Psalmist sings,
Psalm 2:1-5 NIV
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,  “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”  The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.....

Isaiah the prophet says,

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. (Isaiah 40:15)

Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. (Isaiah 40:17)

Nations are just as dust on the scales and like a drop in a bucket.....and man himself......what is he?

In the Psalms, we repeatedly read......

.........Each man's life is but a breath.(Psalm 39:5)

.........each man is but a breath. (Psalm 39:11)

Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. (Psalm 62:9)

Man is like a breath....... (Psalm 144:4)

Isn't it wonderful that God is mindful of this "but a breath" being.

So why do men boast, if they are "but a breath?"

Boasting and bragging is not for a believer. James writes in his epistle....

As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:16)

But, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." (2 Corinthians 10:17)

May God grant us more grace.