Originally written: September 29, 2015
Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
Daniel 4: 37
This week in my Daniel study it is all about pride. We are in Daniel 4 where King Nebuchadnezzar fails to heed God’s warning and is put through the absolute depths, while God trims that pride back to a stump before allowing him to grow again (if you can, go read Daniel 4!). I have been praying desperately that the Lord will teach me about pride and that I might listen so as not to have to trudge through a Nebuchadnezzar-like experience myself.
Lord, if there is any other way…teach me. Reveal my pride. Forgive me and help me to learn this lesson without having to go through the depths on this one.
And the Lord has answered: I can tell you the Lord is letting me know just how proud I am. I’m proud in my work, in my friendships and so very proud in my marriage (like when Brian comes home at lunch and gets a little frustrated with the kids. Here’s what I have to say on the matter: “Yeah, I know. Imagine being me—here ALL day with them!). Yikes!
Isn’t it crazy, though—I can even be so proud in my service to God and in my worship!? I can start calculating all the things I’m doing well and how so and so isn’t spending that much time with God… .
Woah!!!
The Lord has been working on my heart, revealing an abundance of prideful thoughts (even in my humility!).
How easy it is to be proud. But in my plea to not have to learn this lesson the hard way, God is humbling me in a most merciful and unexpected way—WITH THE IMAGE OF HIS AWESOME LOVE. I put it in all caps because I have been humbled this week by the way the Lord loves me in a way I could never reciprocate. There is nothing to be proud of here—only thankful and sincerely humbled (to the point of tears).
You see, this week in Bible Study we are looking at the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 12. I listened to a sermon our leader sent us called “Abraham and the Torch” by Tim Keller (check it out on YouTube—I’m telling you, so worth it!). The interesting part about it is that Abraham was not perfect. He was not sinless. He was human. He was like you. He was like me.
But Abraham believed God! Notice I didn’t say Abraham believed IN God—yes, he did. Yes, I do. But Abraham TRUSTED God’s promises and that every one of them would come true!
One of the books we are using to supplement our study is The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses by Chris Bruno. Here is his (much better than anything I could write) explanation:
“The last of the promises that God made to Abraham was the promise to bless all the families of the earth through him. But to be a blessing to others, Abraham had to receive a blessing from God first. And that is exactly what happened. As the promise was unpacked over time, God told Abraham that he would be ‘their God’ (Gen. 17:7-8).
The promise to be their God was not a light thing. With these words, God was promising to give the same blessings to Abraham and his offspring that he gave to Adam and Eve: he would live with them as their God and they as his people. But this raises a question: What would keep Abraham and his seed from messing up the same way Adam and Eve did? How could God guarantee that they wouldn’t break this covenant as well?
In Genesis 15, we find an amazing answer to this question. About one year before Isaac was born, God came to Abraham and gave him a strange vision. God asked Abraham to sacrifice several animals and cut the carcasses in half. Then God appeared to him in a vision as a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the animals.
While this bizarre scene might be incomprehensible to many today, in the ancient world, its meaning was clear. It was common for two partners who were entering a covenant to sacrifice and divide animals just as Abraham did. They would then walk between the animals together, as a way of saying to each other, ‘May I be like these animals if I fail to keep this covenant.’
But in the vision of Genesis 15, God walked through the divided animals alone. By doing this, he was binding himself to keep both sides of the covenant! He was not only committing to keep the promises himself, but was also committing that if Abraham failed to remain loyal and keep the covenant, he—God!—would suffer the consequences of that failure…” (Bruno 45-46).
And isn’t that the Gospel!? God came. And He did die. For me. For you. God walked through those pieces alone—he didn’t ask Abraham to do it.
Keller goes on to say, however, that Abraham recognizes what we all need to recognize—what my proud little self needs to hear: I CAN’T DO IT! I cannot uphold this agreement. I will fall short. And then we all need to hear the answer: God says, “May my immortality suffer mortality. May my power suffer powerlessness…” In other words, God says, I’ll die for you. And Christ did.
And I am humbled.
And it reminds me that I write to you so often about my faith. And I have people tell me that I’m so strong and that my faith is so impressive. BUT…here me screaming this through the page—I’M NOTHING WITHOUT THE LORD! I can’t love like God loves. I can’t keep my end of the bargain. Half the time, my actions portray that I don’t even believe God. Don’t mistake me, I believe IN God. But if I would just believe God more… .
Keller goes on to remind us of one of my favorite verses in the Bible:
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
(Mark 9:24).
And again and again and again, I am humbled. I asked the Lord to humble me this season of life in a way that would not reflect the horror of Nebuchadnezzar’s lesson. My feeble mind imagined it would still be a challenging time—a tough time—of learning. But the God in heaven has responded once again in a way immeasurably more than anything I could have ever asked for or imagined. He has humbled me by pouring out His awesome love like a waterfall into a dry pool.
Oh, God. Thank you.