WHEN EMPIRES FALL AND CHRIST REMAINS
History loves to speak of Napoleon Bonaparte—the brilliant strategist, the restless conqueror, the man who rose from obscurity to shake the foundations of Europe. His armies thundered across continents, his ambition reshaped nations, and for a moment it seemed as though nothing could resist the sweep of his will.
Yet even the greatest earthly empires eventually crumble beneath the weight of time. Waterloo came, exile came, silence came—and the man who once dictated the fate of kings died on a lonely island, surrounded not by armies, but by memories.
And it is here that a quiet devotional lesson rises: every kingdom built by human hands, however dazzling, is fragile. Every throne not founded upon God’s righteousness eventually topples. “The nations rage…but the Lord sits enthroned forever” (Psalm 9:7). Napoleon learned what Scripture has always proclaimed—that power fades, glory tarnishes, and strength erodes when it is rooted in self rather than in the living God.
Yet there is another side to this history. Late in life, Napoleon reflected on the contrast between his empire and the kingdom of Christ. He said that while he built his influence on force, Jesus built His on love; while he relied on the sword, Jesus relied on the cross; and though his own empire collapsed, Christ’s kingdom was spreading through the hearts of men and women across the world.
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires,” he famously remarked, “but on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for Him.” Even the fallen general recognized that the Carpenter of Nazareth rules where armies cannot march.
Napoleon’s rise and fall become a mirror for our own ambitions. We chase our little empires—career, control, reputation, earthly success—and often forget how quickly they can crumble. But the Lord Jesus builds a kingdom within us that cannot be shaken. What He establishes by grace cannot be undone by time. What He wins through His blood cannot be lost through our weakness. “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom” (Daniel 7:14).
So let the story of Napoleon stand as both a warning and a comfort. It warns us not to build our lives on sand—not on pride, not on power, not on the applause of the world. But it comforts us with this lasting truth: the King we follow will never be dethroned, His mercy never exhausted, His reign never challenged by the rise and fall of earthly powers.
When the dust of history settles, only one name endures.
BDD
