The Humbling Hand
October 25, 2021 | Wisdom | No Comments
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time.”
Life-changing. Soul-impacting. Heart-gripping. This verse was all of these things for me. I tread carefully into this post because it is a post about one of the most tempting topics in Scripture—humility. I prayerfully come to this post and hope that nothing that is said has any roots in pride masquerading as humility (what a conundrum). It was right around the final six to nine months of my time in the Army that the Lord pricked my heart with this verse. I was in a season of flux and discernment. I had plans for college, ministry, and life. None of them evil or misleading, I was sincerely striving to seek what the Lord wanted for me. It was around January of 2018 that I began to get an unsettled sense in my soul. (I mean that literally and practically; emotion, thoughts, and desires were becoming unsure about my plans.) This was something I only talked to my dad about. I didn’t want to come across like one of those young preachers that was trying to get out of going to Bible College, that wasn’t my desire. For about six months (during this time, having surgeries on both my arms and living with my pastor while recovering) I battled back and forth with what I was feeling. But the Lord was using this verse, 1 Peter 5:6 in a real way to teach me something…
{1 Peter 5:6}
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Humble: Human Responsibility
We often think of the word humble as an adjective, a word that describes someone or something, but in this verse, it is a verb. There is an action that is designated to mankind’s responsibility. Throughout Scripture, there seems to be an undesignated line between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Charles Spurgeon once said, “There is a will of God, and there is a will of man, but I dare not draw the line where the two meet.” This being said, for the sake of a discussion on humility, I have found in Scripture only two ways that a person can be humbled—either they humble themselves, or they are humbled by God.
“Humbling ourselves is only accomplished through seeing ourselves as we are in light of who God is.”
God expects this from us. God desires this from us. He actually calls us to it throughout the New Testament as we are called to live Christlike. Humbling ourselves is only accomplished through seeing ourselves as we are in light of who God is. In other words, because God is high and holy, we must see ourselves as light and lowly. This is illustrated by Isaiah, Paul, John, and countless other prophets and people throughout the Scripture when they saw a glimpse of God in His glory. I would submit to you that the major issue we have in struggling to humble ourselves is that we view God through a human lens rather than viewing man through a godly lens. That brings me to the final two sections of this post. I believe there are two major attributes of God that 1 Peter 5:6 teaches us that assist us in this humbling process.
{Proverbs 24:16; 2 Corinthians 12:9; James 1:2, 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6}
“…we view God through a human lens rather than viewing man through a godly lens.”
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Sovereignty: A Source of Rest
I believe the sovereignty of God has been used in the wrong way.
When you heard that phrase, “the sovereignty of God,” what was the first thing that popped into your mind? Did you picture a lofty deity who sits on a throne completely removed from our world and the cares thereof? Did you picture God with a scowl toward humanity for their choices? Or did you picture a God that has everything under control; peaceful, transcendent, in solace, not given to the emotional storms that you and I face, but simply … controlled? The sovereignty of God points us to a loving Lord who cares so much about us that He has guaranteed us that nothing will ever happen outside of His allowance and approval.
Peter presents this wonderful attribute of God as a primary motivation and reason for us humbling ourselves. If you take notice of the flow of the verse, it is not God Himself that Peter exhorts us to submit under—it is His hand. This implies control, a firm grip, a pointing guide, and a tender touch. James adds some insight to this when he says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.” Not only do we submit to God’s hand of tender control, but we also submit to His unveiled sight. Take a minute here to grasp this… His eyes see everything. They see into your soul. They see in the darkness. They see everywhere at once. They see all of time at once. They see the beginning from the end, turn it around, and play it backward. They see every mistake you’ve ever made. They see every mistake that you will ever make. They see the pain that will come. They see the joy that will come. God’s sight has zero limitations to it.
Between God’s hand that is like the hand of a sovereign shepherd and his sight which has no veil or limitations, why do we struggle to trust Him? Wait a minute, trust? I thought this was about humility. It is. When I humble, submit, or lower myself under someone else, I am placing trust in that person’s position, but more importantly, their character. I am trusting who they are.
{2 Chronicles 16:9; Matthew 11:28-30; Romans 8:28; James 4:10}
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Good: It’s Who He Is
God is good.
I want you to ponder, meditate, and chew on that thought outside of the cliché that it has become. Think about those three simple words. Let them resonate within your soul. God is the subject, is would be the verb, and good would be the adjective. He is the embodiment and definition of all that is good. Let that sink in. Without this truth getting deeply understood and solidified in your heart, you will always struggle with the sovereignty of God. You will hit those rough seasons and go into one of two modes.
- You will fight God. You will be angry with Him because “How could a loving God bring something so bad into my life.”
- You will try some misconstrued submission tactic that turns into a calloused, cynical “get over it” mentality.
Each of these is dangerous and is combatted by who we see God presented as in Scripture. I will be clear; this is so thoroughly understood with a solid study of Systematic Theology. When you see God as presented in the entire narrative of Scripture, His goodness is undeniable.
Peter makes this clear in our verse today as well, though. After he tells us to “humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God”, He then reveals the purpose of God’s heart in this desire of His. Peter finishes the verse with, “that he may exalt you in due time.” I believe there is danger in falsely approaching this verse out of context and presenting it as if God guarantees to give you some level of prosperity or prominence in the world. But I also believe there is a balance to this clear and simple promise. God promises to take care of you.
Why?
Because He is good.
{Psalm 100:5, 135:3; James 1:17}
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I believe that the principles in this verse and that I have pulled out for the sake of this post are illustrated by men and women throughout Scripture. The major three that would come to mind are Joseph, Daniel, and Jesus. I encourage you to read the next verse in the passage as it highlights the two attributes that we have discussed thus far. 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him {resting in sovereignty}; for he careth for you {all that He will do is good}.” (Brackets added.)
There may not be another verse that more thoroughly infiltrated and impacted my entire being like this verse, and I want to be very clear that I have not attained some mark of humility. I will say though, that when we decide to humble ourselves and truly make a deep mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical choice to walk under God’s hand, He will exalt us and take care of us. So, whether we are rising or falling throughout the seasons of life, we can rest in the knowledge that it is all under His mighty hand. Thank you for reading. I love you all, and God is good.
Until we write again…..
In, for, and because of Christ,
V.S. See
humility, sovereignty, submission