God is Out to Humiliate Everyone (A lesson from Isaiah)

I have been reading, studying, and meditating on the book of Isaiah. I’m getting ready for a sermon series based on the glorious truths in this marvelous book. Along the way, I hope to also share some of what the Lord is showing me in blog posts.

As I began to read Isaiah, I was quickly reminded that a recurring theme in this book is that God is working against human pride in order to humble us. This is seen early on in Isaiah:

Their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their hands, what their fingers have made.

So humanity is brought low, and each person is humbled. Do not forgive them!

Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and from his majestic splendor.

The pride of mankind will be humbled, and human loftiness will be brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

For a day belonging to the LORD of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up-- it will be humbled--

against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up,

against all the oaks of Bashan,

against all the high mountains,

against all the lofty hills,

against every high tower,

against every fortified wall,

against every ship of Tarshish,

and against every splendid sea vessel.

The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

The idols will vanish completely.

(Isaiah 2:8-18 CSB17)

This reminds me of something I heard a preacher say at a renewal service more than twenty years ago. He said, “God is out to humiliate everyone.” He didn’t mean that God was mean or that God wanted to harm us. He meant that God works to make us humble. The preacher purposely said it in a way that is a bit shocking so we would remember. And in my case it worked.

Why does God care so much about making us humble? It turns out He has a lot of good reasons to oppose our pride!

Pride consists in us having too high a view of ourselves, our importance, and our opinions, compared to other people and, even more importantly, compared to God. Pride is one of the deepest roots of sin. It goes down deep and feeds many types of sin and evil. Not only that, our pride interferes with us getting the help from God that we so desperately need. God loves us too much to leave us in our pride. So, yes, God is on a mission to humble us. It is a painful, but necessary step in saving us and in transforming us to become more Christlike.

Here are seven thoughts about pride and humility from Isaiah:

1. Pride and Idolatry are linked together

In the Isaiah passage above (Isaiah 2:8-18) an extended discussion of God humbling people is bracketed by two mentions of idols. In Isaiah 2:8, before God humbles everyone, the land “is full of idols.” After God’s work of humbling people is complete, in Isaiah 2:18 we read, “The idols will vanish completely.” There seems to be a connection between God removing human pride and getting rid of idols.

I can see how idols and pride can be connected. We all need help in life. We need protection, comfort, provision, guidance, and more. The one true God loves us and is ready to provide these things. But He does not provide them on our terms. He is not a genie that comes out of a magic lamp to do our bidding. When we encounter Him, we must humble ourselves and seek His will, not ours, and do things His way, and in His timing. In our relationship with the one true God, He is in control, not us. Trusting God and His ways is not compatible with our stubborn pride. So, what do people do? They create false gods (idols!) that they think they can control to meet their needs. In Isaiah’s day, this might involve making a sacrifice to Baal, or setting up an Asherah pole. Our modern idols include greed and materialism, substance abuse, pleasure, and more. These false gods cannot truly meet our needs, but we feel like we can control them (although they end up controlling us). So, God has to humble us. He causes our idols to fail and at the same time turns our pride to humility. At that point, we have an opportunity to turn to Him in our desperation and discover that His ways are better after all. He is full of grace and mercy for those who humbly seek Him.

2. Seeing the Glory of God helps to cure our pride

Our pride causes us to have a false view of ourselves. We imagine ourselves high and lifted up above other people and even above God. We might not explicitly think this way, but we act as if this is true, choosing our own ways and priorities instead of God’s. Throughout Isaiah, we are presented a view of God as the One who is truly and rightly on “a high and lofty throne” (Isaiah 6:1). When we see our God for who He really is, this vision causes our stupid pride to melt away.

3. Pride hurts other people

Isaiah gives us pictures of the harm we do to each other when our hearts are proud. Here is one  example:  “The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the young will act arrogantly toward the old, and the worthless toward the honorable” (Isaiah 3:5). When we learn to have Christlike humility, we learn to “consider others as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). It’s not that other people really are more important than you, but rather that you treat them as if they are more important. Jesus Himself did this. He is the only person who ever lived who really is more important than everyone else, yet by humbly serving others and sacrificing His own life, He treated us as if we were more important. If Jesus, the King of Kings, humbly served others, how can we refuse to do the same?

4. God is the only rock we should trust

Pride leads us to trust in worldly security. Humility leads us to trust in God. In Isaiah 26:4 we are told to, “Trust in the LORD forever, because in the LORD, the LORD himself, is an everlasting rock!” In the next verse we are told why, “For he has humbled those who live in lofty places-- an inaccessible city. He brings it down; he brings it down to the ground; he throws it to the dust.” Some people feel that they are secure, that they live in “an inaccessible city,” because of some worldly form of security they are trusting in. In Isaiah’s day this may have literally included living in a city with walls located up on a hill that made it extremely difficult for an enemy army to attack. In our day, people trust in all kinds of things for security: big IRAs, bank accounts, their intelligence, guns, position, powerful friends, a good family, etc. But ultimately all forms of worldly security fail. Whether through sudden and unexpected disaster or through the slow work of age and decay, everyone is eventually brought “down to the ground.” The only One it makes sense to trust in is the Lord. He Himself is the only “everlasting rock.”

5. Humility leads to joy

“The humble will have joy after joy in the LORD” (Isaiah 29:19a CSB17).

The God who works to humble us is the same God who loves us. When we finally humble ourselves under his mighty hand, we find His blessings and something unexpected: joy!

6. Humiliation does not last forever (but joyful humility will)

“Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or humiliated for all eternity” (Isa. 45:17 CSB17).

In this life God sometimes allows us to experience painful humiliation. He has good reasons for doing so. Sometimes it is to humble us. Other times, He uses our willingness to suffer for the gospel to spread the good news. Either way, while we will have a Christlike humility forever, the painful aspects of humiliation are not eternal.

7. God looks favorably on the humble

What kind of person receives God’s favor? The last chapter of Isaiah tells us, “one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isa. 66:2b CSB17). What could be more important than having God’s favor? Both James (James 4:6) and Peter (1 Peter 5:5) were inspired to remind us that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Nothing could be worse than being opposed by God and nothing could be better than His grace. God help us to be humble, not proud!

God works to keep even the best Christians humble

You might be tempted to think that the painful, but necessary, work of God allowing unpleasant things in a person’s life in order to keep them humble is only for failing, bad Christians. Well, in a way that is true, since in some ways we all fail and we are all bad (compared to Christ, and He’s the standard!). But the Apostle Paul is evidence that even those Christians who God used in some of the most amazing ways to spread His truth and love, perhaps especially those Christians, need Him to allow painful thorns to keep them humble:

“Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself” (2 Cor. 12:7 CSB17).

Conclusion

Pride is terrible. It leads us into all types of sin and error. Thankfully, our God is really good at knocking down pride. Often, the process hurts. But in the end, for those who trust Him, it is all worth it. Those He humbles the most He often uses the most for His glory. He humbles us because He loves us.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .