Humbling

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers, know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Powerlessness is a humbling reality. To watch as lawlessness takes hold of our institutions and our streets is gut-wrenching. To know that good men and women are losing everything because of the few. Courageous police officers are losing the honor due them because of soulless actions of the few. Entire communities are branded in the hearts and minds of others as images of the few are captured on cameras and ‘go viral’. In the midst of all of this, others are commanding action and protest. Labeling and branding those who don’t join. Why?

The passage above speaks in memory of when God chose to humble his people. To bring them down in their own sight. To help them realize they were but men. What was the method he chose? Starvation. He would deny them the idolatrous idea that they could provide for themselves, that they were the ones in control. He wouldn’t even let them have a map as they wandered in the wilderness, choosing instead to make them follow at his beck and call (Exodus 40:36). God provided for them. God fought for them. God led them. They were nothing, so much so that at one point he basically says they are a bad batch and he should start over with Moses! (Exodus 32:10)

The beloved story of the Prodigal Son hits its turning point when the son has been humbled completely. A famine had taken what hope he had. His stomach drove him to repent and turn again to his father. It is not a new method to Gods treatment of men. (Luke 15)

It is humbling to watch as what you hoped would be words of peace and hope are quickly cast aside, and what you meant as joke or casual comment to lighten the conversation is taken as an act of war. Eventually you are tempted to the sin of sticking your head in the sand. The sin of failing to continue to point to Christ. Jesus tells us in Mathew that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). In Revelation chapters two and three, he tells us “the one who conquers” will receive the prize. In chapter two verse ten this is defined as being “faithful unto death”.

The purpose of the denial of food in the desert and the provision of daily bread through manna, was that his people might learn that we don’t live by bread alone, but by the word of God. That “his people who are called by his name might humble themselves”. Let us not believe the “religious right” have the power to effect change in the hearts of the American people. The Gospel of Christ has this power. Let us persist with patient endurance, telling of Christ’s Virgin Birth, Sinless Life, Atoning Death, Burial, Resurrection and Imminent Return that he might conquer the hearts of those we love. Continue to bring the focus on the Son, the center of creation.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO