"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility" (Proverbs 18:12 KJV)
It is not too hard to know the next thing that will happen in a man's life. The future many times is not too difficult to discern. What will happen to a person can be understood from where he is. Also, by what he is doing, the next events of his life can be predicted.
Life is largely governed by a principle of cause and effect or seed time and harvest. So, things don't just happen many times; as they say, "something happens for some other things to happen". Our text for today gives us one of such examples.
When a man is proud or haughty, you can tell that he is about to be destroyed. It is an "on the spot diagnosis" for a candidate of destruction any day. Jesus said when we humble ourselves, God would lift us up, but when we exalt ourselves God would bring us down. Paul said that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and we hear all the times that pride goeth before a fall. Very simple.
Any man you see today who is humble and lowly in his approach to life is already a candidate for honour. It may not come so fast but when it comes, it will be very heavy. To humble yourself is to invite honour from God.
So, the future is not hard to know after all, all it takes is to see what a person does now and you can tell where he or she is headed.