Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed!

By John Stallings


Yes, that Humpty Dumpty. The Humpty Dumpty of Nursery Rhyme fame. He was pushed.

I believe he was pushed and I blame the parents. The parents of this young man knew full well he already had that somewhat odd last name, Dumpty. To offset this, do they give him a first name like, Johnny, or Billy or Steve or Michael? Noooo! They go and name him Humpty. Who names a kid Humpty? Now he’s Humpty Dumpty. We all know what happened to the “Boy named Sue.” He had to fight everywhere he went.

What on earth did these parents think would happen when the boy went to school with a name like that? What were they thinking? Didn’t they know how cruel kids can be? The first thing they’ll go for is a person’s moniker. No wonder Humpty sought solace on top of that big high wall. He had to have a little personal time to calm down and get the world off his back. But alas, bigoted and hateful people found out where Humpty was. They found Humpty one afternoon sitting on that wall and they pushed him. They pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall.

Now, in all candidness, I can’t prove that Humpty was pushed, but we can’t deny that there are people mean enough and violent enough to do just that. But this is only one possibility as to what happened to Humpty.

I want to take a fresh look at the nursery rhyme we’ve all known since we were kids.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

HUMPTY WAS SUCCESSFUL-ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Let’s look at this situation. What’s happening here? Although we don’t know much about Humpty, we know he was successful. He had risen to the top and found himself with time on his hands to sit and look back at all he’d accomplished. We know that the tell-tale sign that a man has been successful in the world of business is when they have the top office. If their office is on the top floor with a large window that overlooks the city…then they know they’ve arrived…they know they are truly successful in life.

Though everyone may not have a top office, there are others ways in our culture to measure success. A teacher will get a PHD and be recognized as the top teacher in the county. A man might reach a milestone in his business for selling the most of his company’s product annually. For others it might be an award given by superiors or peers.

If we’re being honest, most of us aspire to being like Humpty in this story at least in one respect. We want to be at the top and Humpty certainly was there. He could honestly say, “I have made it.” But as Humpty’s story suggests, the top is a very dangerous place to be.

But something happened. Something happened and Mr. Dumpty was unceremoniously dropped from the top and ended up at the bottom.

This happens a lot, doesn’t it? How many stories have you read of successful men and women who had risen to the pinnacle of their career…to the pinnacle of life itself only to have something to pull the rug right out from under their feet? Sometimes the person has no one to blame but themselves.

Just this week in our area there were two stories like that. One was the story of a venerable 68 year old hi-school football coach, [that 68 wasn’t a typo] a married man with five children who propositioned an undercover policewoman. The other one was a young policeman, highly decorated and respected, who was accused of fondling a woman outside a nightclub while off duty. According to the news report, the charges were serious enough that this young man will never be a law enforcement officer again.

And so it goes; people who made it to the apex of their professions only to come crashing down to the depths of misery and brokenness.

REASON FOR FALL A MYSTERY

We don’t actually know what caused Humpty to fall. Fixing blame for Humpty’s fall doesn’t fix Humpty. Too many of us spend time blaming all our problems on other people or circumstances. Maybe the wind blew Him off. Maybe he just lost his balance. But we can certainly speculate, especially when we have so many examples around us of men and women falling after making it to the top.

We look at men like Bernie Madoff, who bilked trusting people out of billions of dollars. Certainly at least one of his problems was greed. He makes “Wall Street’s” Gordon Gekko look like a Boy Scout. Is it bad decisions, or lack of any code of ethics or maybe a combination of all of these things? All these folk, including Mr. Dumpty were at one time sitting happily on top of his or her wall, enjoying life until something came along and knocked them from their perch and sent them crashing to the ground.

This wall Humpty fell off of was a high wall. It was probably narrow too. This leaves open the question; why would an egg, -that’s an EGG, be so foolish as to go up and sit on a high wall knowing how fragile his shell was, knowing how easily eggs break? Surely he didn’t think about the consequences.

Humpty should have stayed off that high wall. Maybe he just liked to tempt fate, who knows? There was plenty of soft white sand where he could have sat and been both comfortable and safe. There was soft hay and green grass where Humpty could have sat. It seems that Humpty was courting danger, playing Russian Roulette. We see that today don’t we?

Look at Tiger Woods. He’s a modern day Humpty Dumpty. He had it all and threw most of it away by being just plain dumb. How long did he think he’d get by with the lifestyle he was living? He lost his marriage and the best opinion of multitudes of people around the globe. I haven’t heard anything about his calling on the Lord for help so I suppose he’s looking to other resources to try to put it all back together. So far his performance on the golf course has been, for the most part, less than stellar.

I see people indulging in all sorts of evil not seeming to care about the harm it can bring to them and those who love them. Young people get with the wrong crowd in the wrong hangouts and go down the wrong roads.

Paul said, “Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thess. 5:22

Humpty probably said the same things many others have said; “nothing bad will happen to me. I’m different. Other eggs may be stupid but not me. Other eggs may be unlucky but not me.”


HUMPTY CALLED FOR GOVERNMENT HELP

Mr. Dumpty wasn’t one to stay at the bottom. He enjoyed the top and wanted to be rehabilitated, repaired and restored to his previous position at the top of the wall. Obviously he believed that government was the answer to all the problems of the world. Consequently that mindset caused him to first reach out for some government program to help him get things put back together. He called for the king’s horses and the king’s men. Not only did they come running, they all came. I’ve often wondered what the horses were expected to do, because they didn’t have opposing thumbs and couldn’t really have much luck with things calling for dexterity. But of course, they did get the king’s men there so we can give them credit for that. Anyway the story is that all of them came which is commendable.

Surely the leaders of his day with their connections, power and prestige would be able to help Mr. Dumpty and get him back up on the wall where he belonged. They sent case workers galloping out to see if they could help. But alas all the governmental programs and projects in place to help people get back on their feet didn’t work. Mr. Dumpty was still in shambles at the bottom of the wall with no repair in sight. In the end, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again. He had fallen and couldn’t get up. The poem makes it clear that there was no fixing what was broken. The king’s horses and men failed- all of them. They couldn’t fix Humpty.

One of the things that has  concerned us is that many residents of the White House have believed government to be the answer to everyone’s problems. I agree with Ronald Reagan, that “government is the problem.” Someone has rightly said; “a government that’s big enough to give you anything you want is also big enough to take away all you’ve got.” At present America is heading toward Socialism at breakneck speed and if we don’t get it stopped through prayer and at the ballot box our children and grandchildren will live under a dictatorship.

Many Americans are praying that with the recent election, we'll see changes for the better.

Imagine this; we've presently got things so backwards in this great country that the people are afraid of the government, especially on April 15th. This must be changed if we’re to survive as a republic.

MAN’S FALL IN THE GARDEN

God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve, dominion over all the earth. They were able to relate perfectly with God, to feel His nearness and communicate with Him. God sat our forbearers high on the wall with wisdom, power, knowledge and God-likeness. But something awful happened. It happened in Humpty’s story, and in Eden and also to all of us personally. In all three instances, we describe it as “a fall.”

Again, we don’t really know why Humpty went off that wall. Maybe the wall was slippery. Maybe he became distracted and tried to reach too far. In the poem the fall is a mystery but not in creation and not with us. Adam and Eve tried to reach higher than they were meant to reach. We can picture them on their tiptoes, reaching just beyond their grasp. God told them not to eat the fruit they were reaching for but the serpent told them it would be good. Eve of course ate first then gave the fruit to Adam and he ate.

Now we have the Fall-and the entry point of sin, failure and brokenness into creation. Now, we like Humpty find ourselves at the bottom of the wall, broken, shattered and fragmented. We lie there knowing that unless something drastic happens our fall will be fatal.

We’ve had our experiences with the king’s men too. Today they have names like Oprah, Sally, Montel and Doctor Phil. We call them psychotherapy, hypnosis or tarot cards. Maybe the king’s men are Ouija boards or self-help books. Some people think when Jupiter aligns with Mars and Venus everything will work out. Maybe the king’s men are bartenders who listen as people cry in their beer. Many have tried New Age religion or felt that quartz crystals would put them back together again. All of these are Band-Aids feebly attempting to heal our brokenness.

SOME THINGS CAN’T BE FIXED

Humanity has climbed and stretched and reached for more power, more money, more possessions, more weapons and more pleasure and we’ve come crashing down. Divorce is shattering homes at a record pace. Crime shatters communities and wars shatter nations. Our world today is fractured, fragmented, splintered and split apart.

The bad new is-“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men” couldn’t help Humpty, and they can’t help us. If we are looking through fleshly eyes there isn’t much hope these days. We have been a generation who took pride in our “can do” achievements and work ethic. Get a disease; there are drugs to cure it. Commit a crime and there are sharp lawyers to fight it. Wreck your car and there’s insurance to replace it. But unfortunately some things can’t be fixed. Once a deed is done it can’t be undone. Neither the king’s horses nor his men can fix some things.

Once our reputation is ruined, and relationships are destroyed, all the knowledge of science, all the discoveries and insights and military victories can’t put us together.

Skill and education are good. They are gifts of God. But they are still “king’s horses’ and they can’t fix fallen souls. All the technological experts and medical personnel; all the attorneys and politicians and academic professors can’t put us together again.

SO WHAT HOPE DO WE HAVE?

The first 39 books of the Bible are actually, in a sense, “king’s men.” The early patriarchs, the Law of Moses, and the prophets of old represent a great attempt to put man back together but even the Law failed to achieve this purpose. Finally God sent His Son, the King himself and He did what all the other king’s men couldn’t do.

Ephesians 2:15 says,-He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances that he might create in Himself one new humanity in place of two, thus making peace and might reconcile both groups to God in one body on the cross.

Romans 8:3 says, -For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do; by sending His own Son…

The problem with the Law was that it worked on the outside of us. It tried to patch us up with first aide cream and tape. Jesus came to make us new creatures and that’s what the gospel is all about.

Humpty took a risk, made a terrible mistake and suffered the consequences. The Bible says, -The wages of sin is death…Romans 6:23.

Romans 3:23 says, -For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The “king’s horses have failed and the king’s men have failed.” The only hope is the King Himself.

Humpty didn’t plan to smash on the ground at the foot of that wall. He didn’t plan to lay there in that painful condition all day long while the horses and men tried to fix him. And he certainly didn’t plan to be broken into a thousand pieces and let his yoke soak into the dirt.

KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR
There was a king in the Old Testament who had a great fall, but unlike Humpty, after a time of something that I can only describe as beyond terrible, he was restored to the top of his wall. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. We read about him in the book of Daniel. He was the king over Babylon, then the world’s greatest power.

Talk about a fall; because of his arrogance, God took away his position, his power, his resources, even his sanity. This man was reduced to grazing in the fields like an animal for seven long years. But unlike Humpty, Nebuchadnezzar had no king to call on. Humpty could call the king’s men but Nebuchadnezzar was the king.

God gave this man twelve months to repent of his sins and turn to Him but Nebuchadnezzar refused. Then, he like Humpty Dumpty came crashing down off his wall of position, fame and power. One moment at the top, the next moment, he couldn’t tell you his name. He went barking mad.

In an instant of time this king bent over, slumped down and started walking on his hands and feet like a dog. He spent his days and nights, naked, eating grass while his hair grew out and covered his body like fur. His fingernails became long like a bear’s claws. He went from a man to an animal in the blink of an eye.

For seven long horrible years Nebuchadnezzar lay at the bottom of the wall broken, battered and out of his mind. The condition he was afflicted with is a documented medical condition called Boanthropy. It’s extremely rare but it still happens today. But one day, in the midst of his insanity he looked up towards God and begged for mercy and God in His infinite love extended to him grace and restoration.

God heard the cry of this poor man and restored all that he’d lost…his sanity…his position…his power…his resources and his palace. God picked this old king up and put him back on the wall. But this time the man wasn’t the same. In fact he became greater than he was before but the pride and arrogance were gone and in its place was humbleness, respect and true worship for God. Humpty fell from his wall never to go back again. Nebuchadnezzar fell from his wall but was raised back up through the redeeming grace of God.

Everywhere you and I look these days we’re surrounded with modern day Humpty Dumpty’s, men and women who rose to power and fell to the bottom again.

You will probably remember Chuck Colson, one of President Nixon’s most trusted advisors. Colson had it all…he had power…he had prestige…he had money and he had the ear of the president of the most powerful nation on earth. He lived on top of the wall.

Then Watergate happened. Colson made some bad decisions, took some illegal actions and ultimately went to federal prison. How art the mighty fallen. But Colson didn’t stay there. In prison he called out for help, but he didn’t call for government help; that had already failed him. Colson placed his trust and faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. God restored him to prominence, but it wasn’t to the West Wing of the White House, it was leadership in the Prison fellowship ministries, a place where he could help other prisoners find hope in Christ.

Here’s the truth, if we move away from God, the further we go the worse things will get for us. Conversely, the closer we stay to him the better things will be for us.

If you’ve drifted away from the Lord, and are following your own plans and desires and trusting in yourself more than Him, this would be a good time for you to come back to Him.

Take the broken pieces of your life to the King and allow Him to show you the wholeness that can come through struggle and that through struggle, transformation can blossom in your life.

Humpty could find no help, but you and I can. Just for the asking we can have a new life through Christ.

Blessings,


John