So it is with the human race. We have great scholars, great scientists, but nobody's aware that the scenario of time is that all this is going to fall and God must bring us down and judge us. The same is true in our individual lives. Somebody may be brilliant, a great teacher, a great researcher, and yet we all live as those who are blissfully unaware that the clock is ticking and that the time is coming when we stand before God and give an account of our lives. Even the brilliant are made foolish, and the comments of Obadiah extend even to that. What's the cause of all this?
The nation looked to its wise men, and it trusted in its mighty men. There is a special fear that comes from seeing those we trust in to be overpowered and to completely fail us. If ever any great shock hit us, these were the ones we turned to for consolation. It is easy to put our trust in men. Those we turn to when the edifice of our lives is shaken. Those who follow some cult are perhaps faced with questions they cannot answer. Their response is to remind themselves that there are others whose knowhow and authority they can rely on, who understand these things much better than they do, and that is enough. But when these champions fall, courage collapses. Thus the Philistines ran away when Goliath fell to David.
Modern secular man has dispensed with God, and when faced with things he cannot explain he reassures himself by telling himself that every problem will be solved by combined human wisdom. He has placed his trust in man instead of in God. But if human wisdom fails and science is nonplussed, the hearts of men are distraught. There is panic, which can be read on faces. So it will be when God judges the world. ‘And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. 26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken’ (Luke 21:25-26).