The Purpose of Humility

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to you.

One of the things that is important to remember on holidays is that not everyone sees holidays in a festive or joyful manner.

For many, holidays are a painful reminder of loved ones who are gone or somehow distant, and of unfulfilled dreams and desires.

Mother’s Day is certainly no different.

What I often do, particularly on Mother’s Day is I remind believers as to how special, distinct, and particular that God’s creation of woman truly is.

A close and thoughtful examination of Scripture will show you that, when God created the world, and after He created Adam, the world was perfect, yet something still was not good.

Let that sink in for a second:

In a perfect, sinless, death-free, disease-free, politics-free, crime-free, no-need-for-money world, something wasn’t good.

What wasn’t good? Well, creation was not yet complete, that’s what.

So what did God do?

He created woman.

God’s creation of woman is so much more than what is stereotypically, and sometimes errantly and disrespectfully assumed, that woman is just a complement to man.

God’s creation of woman stands as the completion of humanity and God’s final act of creation before He would rest.

Woman was God’s creative “grand finale” so to speak.

Many of us have been to concerts, movies, and live theater, and in all cases, the best is saved for last, so to speak.

The producers and performers want to leave the stage on a high note, with a well known and beloved song, with a satisfying conclusion.

Well, for God this was the creation of woman.

And for those of us who are married, have you thought about the fact that God so treasured His daughter that you are married to that she was represented in Eve as God’s final act of creation, which was the completion of creation?

What a privilege and gift that God bestowed to me when He allowed me to marry His daughter, Rebecca. And He gave me another of his daughters, Miriam, to care for as my earthly daughter.

Men, I hope you recognize that in your relationships, families, and so on.

Speaking of grand finales, I saw the new Avengers Endgame movie, and, in my view, it lives up to the hype.

And of course, the big deal when it opened in theaters was, “Don’t spoil the ending.”

Well, when it comes to God’s work of creation, all of it was spoiled, beginning, middle, and end, when sin entered the world through the disobedience of God’s created humanity.

Now, we are continuing in our Called series, looking at the life of Elijah, and we will be in if you want to turn there in your Bibles.

And today we will actually see only the first part of a narrative in Elijah’s life. Next week, we’ll see how it ended up, but this first part looks at what it took for Elijah to rest in God.

Here’s a sermon spoiler, it took humility on Elijah’s part to truly rest in God.

You see, (purpose of humility)

Humility kills pride, which allows you to receive God’s perfect love, which then casts out all fear.

One of the ways that humanity has been spoiled by sin is seen in our seeming inability to truly rest in God.

When we are restless, when are constantly busybodying in our own lives, we are allowing our fears and pride to direct our steps, not God.

Our fear says, “we can’t trust God,” and our pride says, “well then, we can trust ourselves.”

And we become restless.

Going back to the book of Genesis for just a second, we can see how the fall impacted negatively our willingness to trust God enough to rest in Him.

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

For men, our rest is thwarted in that the things we do will not provide us with the honor and significance that we desire.

Part of God’s image that He gave to the male, in a unique way, is the desire for honor. To know that our life has a made a difference of value and worth.

And when we do not feel or otherwise receive that kind of honor, we are restless.

We don’t trust that anything we do matters, and we work all the harder to try and produce the significance from our work and strength instead of seeking it from our God and King. No humility. No rest.

Genesis 3:16 ESV

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

For women, sin spoiled their rest by unsettling their willingness to trust others. And when you don’t trust people, you don’t rest well. And when you don’t trust people, you depend more and more on your own strength and your own ability, which feeds your pride, which leads you away from humility before God.

Where this verse talks about the woman’s desire is contrary to her husband but he will rule over you, does not mean servitude, nor does it indicate a lower part of creation. After all, we just established how that is not the case. What it means is that, in relationships, the female will not start from a place of trust.

So men, because of sin, do not start from a place where they feel honored.

And women, because of sin, do not start from a place, spiritually speaking, (which plays itself out physically, relationally, emotionally and otherwise), of trust.

Now, put this in a marriage (or any relationship) for example. One person doesn’t feel honored, so they withhold their love. The other person doesn’t feel like they can trust their spouse, so they withhold honor.

I have done a fair share of marital and family counseling and so much of the discord in the home can be traced back to the curses in the Garden.

What we will see in Elijah’s story is what God had to do to get Elijah to a place where he would, in fact, rest in God.

I wanted you to see some of the spiritual factors that you may be battling right now if you are perpetually restless.

And I want you to see now, through Elijah’s life, how critical it is to allow God to bring you to a place where you can rest in Him.

And I am going to use examples of mothers and women today, since it is Mother’s Day.

But I do this not to pander to a holiday, but to help us understand what those we love may be going through, and how we can help them feel safe, secure, able to trust, and, through humility before Jesus, be able to rest.

Pray

1 Kings 19:1–9 ESV

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. 9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 4: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job 5) Elijah and Jezebel (19:1–9a)

1–3a On his arrival at Jezreel, Ahab recounted to Jezebel all that Elijah had done. The words are significant (v.1). Although Ahab had witnessed God’s power in the famine and in the consuming of the sacrifice and the sending of the rain, before the imposing presence of Jezebel he could but attribute it all to Elijah, even blaming him for the death of the prophets of Baal. Her reaction was predictable. She sent a message to Elijah, giving him twenty-four hours to leave Jezreel or be killed (v.2). The threat was effective; Elijah ran for his life (v.3a).

Probably Elijah had played into Jezebel’s hand. Had she really wanted Elijah dead, she surely would have seized him without warning and slain him. What she desired was that Elijah and his God be discredited before the new converts who had aided Elijah by executing the prophets of Baal. Without a leader revolutionary movements usually stumble and fall away. Just when God needed him the most, the divinely trained prophet was to prove a notable failure.

It has often been asked how a man could experience such divine provision, perform such great miracles, singlehandedly withstand 450 pagan prophets and the king himself, and yet cower before feminine threats. It must be remembered, of course, that Jezebel was anything but a “mere woman.” She was of royal blood and every bit a queen. She could be ruthless in pursuing her goals (21:11–15). Her personality was so forceful that even Ahab feared her and was corrupted by her (16:31; 21:25). Both the northern kingdom (16:32–33) and the southern kingdom, through the marriage of her (step) daughter Athaliah to the royal house of Judah (2 Kings 8:16–19; 11:1–20; 2 Chronicles 21:5–7; Ps 45), experienced moral degredation and spiritual degeneracy through her corrupting influence.

Yet Elijah was not without blame. God’s subsequent tender dealings with his prophet were to bring his spiritual problem to light. His God-given successes had fostered an inordinate pride (cf. vv.4, 10, 14) that had made him take his own importance too seriously. Moreover Elijah had come to bask in the glow of the spectacular. He may have fully expected that because of what had been accomplished at Mount Carmel, Jezebel would capitulate and pagan worship would come to an end in Israel—all through his influence!

Whereas the great spectacle had failed to melt Jezebel’s icy heart and, worse, she would take his life, his pride was shattered, and he became a broken man. What Elijah needed to learn, God would soon show him (vv.11–12). God does not always move in the realm of the extraordinary. To live always seeking one “high experience” after another is to have a misdirected zeal. The majority of life’s service is in quiet, routine, humble obedience to God’s will.

3–9 When the fleeing prophet had reached Beersheba some ninety miles to the south, he dismissed his servant (vv.3–6). There was no need to jeopardize his life further. In his extreme dejection, Elijah wished only to be alone. Nor, for that matter, could he be safe in Beersheba, for Jezebel’s influence could reach even this southernmost city. Accordingly Elijah turned still further southward, journeying out into the desert (v.4).

Taking refuge under the scant shade of a broom tree, Elijah prayed for death (cf. Job 10:18–22). He, the mighty prophet, had stood for God as boldly as any of those who had gone before him. Yet here he was, alone and seemingly deserted in this desert wasteland, the very symbol of a wasted life. Yet God would tenderly nourish and lead his prophet to a place where he would get some much needed instruction (cf. Moses, Exod 2:15–3:22; Paul, Gal 1:15–17). After a forty-day trek, Elijah found that he had been drawn by divine providence to Mount Sinai, the sacred place of God’s self-disclosure (v.8).

After arriving at Mount Sinai, Elijah located a cave and fell fast asleep (v.9). He may have been in a spot more sacred then he realized. The Hebrew text says, “He came there to the cave,” possibly the very “cleft of the rock” where God had placed Moses as his glory passed by (Exod 33:21–23)

This is what God brought Elijah through in order to bring him to a place where he would quiet himself, and rest in God and listen to Him.

If God had to do this with Elijah, it stands to reason He would need to do this with us too.

And as we just read, Elijah was not sinless in his life. He cowered to fear, pride, and restlessness in how he fled for his life even after having been directly used by God in a miraculous way.

Humility kills pride, which allows you to receive God’s perfect love, which then casts out all fear.

Story 1 Video (7 minutes)

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Story 2 - Mom (5 minutes)

Humility kills pride, which allows you to receive God’s perfect love, which then casts out all fear.

Where does God need to lead you so that you will humble yourself before Him?

What will God have to bring you through in order to humble you in that way?

Whatever the journey, don’t let go of Him.

He has forgiveness. He has repair. He has light. He has life. He has a purpose.

And He gives all those things to you as He humbly gives you Himself.