Reflections: Humility, not humiliation

We as people of the world have come to where history is rewritten by speaking a new narrative.  It is not necessarily restricted to a particular race, nation or political party.  Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, wrote in an article in 1941, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”   

We have become like Israel whom God described in Jeremiah 2:12 – 13. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

We don’t study the word of God as much as we once did.  We are not like the Berean’s who searched the (Old Testament) scriptures to find out if the things they were told about Jesus Christ and salvation were true. (Acts 17:11)  We have heard so many new narratives written and accepted as truth:  God helps those who help themselves; Cleanliness is next to godliness; I can do all things; Money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10); Ask for anything in My name (John 14:13 – 14); All things work together for good (Romans 8:28); Judge not (Matthew 7:1 cf 1 Corinthians 2:15).  We are not always diligent to search out the scriptures to find what they are really saying.  We have dug out cisterns for ourselves.  We have rewritten the narrative.

In the movie, “The Queen,” (Helen Mirren, cast in the starring role) had to speak to her nation regarding the death of her daughter in law, Diana.  Someone remarked to her about her humility under fire to which she replied, “You confuse humility with humiliation.”  Sometimes before we gain humility, we must suffer and endure humiliation.  “They count them happy which endure.” (James 5:11). The passage gives Job as an example of patient endurance. Jesus learned obedience by what he suffered.  (Hebrews 5:8) Although Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death—even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:8)

We are called to humble ourselves.  1 Peter 5:5-7: “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”  

By humbling ourselves we not be humiliated in the story from Luke 14:1, 7–14 where a person goes to a banquet and takes a position near the host only to suffer humiliation by the host requesting he sit somewhere farther away because the seat he chose for himself was already designated for someone else by the host.  This is confirmed in the wisdom of Proverbs 25:6-7:  Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here’, than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.  

How much better for us to be like Moses in Hebrews 11:25-26: Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 

(Cathy Bayert is pastor of Greybull Baptist Church.)