By Kevin Harris, pastor of the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Wollongong, NSW
A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Proverbs 29:23
A man’s pride demotes him. It degrades and shames him.
Nebuchadnezzar was one of history’s proudest men. But God turned him to become beast-like. For seven years they put him out to pasture. He was base, an animal that nobody paid serious attention to. By the end of Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar could say, ‘Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase’ (v. 37).
Our text goes on to say that God exalts and promotes those who humble themselves.
No greater example exists than the Lord Jesus Himself. He who was deserving of highest accolades was willing to enter our fallen world, live in our midst, bear rejection, suffer shameful treatment, and ultimately submit to death in our place. ‘Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:9-11).
The point of the proverb is not just to teach us how God thinks and acts. It is to lead us to forestall His need to humble us. Notice who is supposed to do the humbling in 1 Peter 5:6 which says, ‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.’ The previous verse says we are to gird ourselves with humility. This command to self-humble is repeated in James 4:10.
Father, I humble myself before You today. You are God, exquisite in magnificence. Not only am I a created being, but I am a polluted sinner. For both of these reasons I lower myself before You. Help me to think realistically of myself today, and to think high thoughts of You and of others. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
This article was written by Kevin Harris Dapto pastor of Illawarra Community Baptist Church.