It's tough to adjust to old age. Not only can I no longer do all that I use to do, but I can't do anything as well as I use to do it. I once heard a famous journalist describe retirement as the realm of former somebodies who have now become forgotten nobodies. He went on to say, that contentment in retirement was dependent  upon one's ability to accept obscurity. While some succeed at growing old gracefully with integrity, most fight it by futilely pretending that old age is inconsequential and that they themselves are impervious to it. Enter Joe Biden. 

If Joe Biden had retired to the seclusion of one of his Delaware mansions, where he would not only have been surrounded by family, but also cared for by them, he would be a sympathetic figure, seen today, as Special Counsel Robert Hur described him, as a doddering old man with a poor memory. However, instead of retiring, Joe Biden rose to the heights of hubris, declaring himself to be the most qualified man in the world to occupy the most powerful office on earth. In addition, he boast and brags that he has single-handedly saved our country and built it back better than it has ever been before, despite all of the incontrovertible evidence that our representative republic has actually unraveled rapidly during his appalling presidency.

Joe Biden reminds us of another world leader, an ancient one, who once ruled over the most powerful kingdom in the world. His name was Nebuchadnezzar, and the powerful kingdom he reigned over was Babylon. Like Joe Biden, Nebuchadnezzar rose to the heights of hubris. While walking in his palace one day, he haughtily proclaimed, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built...by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty" (Daniel 4:29-30). Such arrogance angered the Almighty, who quickly brought Nebuchadnezzar down from the heights of his hubris to the depths of humility. God immediately struck the ancient king with lycanthropy, a mental illness that caused him to believe himself to be a wild animal (Daniel 4:31-33). Thus, Nebuchadnezzar was no longer seen by the ancient world as a mighty despot, but as mentally deranged.

Jesus warned us that all who exalt themselves will be abased and all who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). How can Joe Biden’s fall from the heights of his hubris to the depths of humility, thanks to his cognitive impairment being exposed to the whole world in last Thursday night’s presidential debate, not remind us of Nebuchadnezzar? Once again, God has reduced the world’s most powerful and arrogant man to a pitiful and appalling mental patient.