HUMBLE
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Humble and humility are not the same word. At least not used in the same way. The word humble itself can de an adjective, noun, adverb or verb. The root of both of those word ‘hum’ says it all, as in ‘ho-hum’ or ‘humdrum’ ,, meaning nothing special. I think a humble person knows he’s nothing special.
Here in 2 Chronicles 7:14 ‘humble’ is a verb. A self inflicted action word. Humble themselves.
I think it is fascinating that God used the verb humble as the first of 4 verbs to get the people to the point where He would hear them from heaven. (God’s words not mine). We know that God will resist you if you are not humble (proud), and He usually won′t use you. I have found that God uses, and helps the humble a lot more than He does with the proud.
I don’t like religion because it is always about people elevating themselves over others. Religion from what I see is always competitive. Like seeing who can get in the most brownie points with God. A competitive person is not a humble person. Humility is an attribute of God. I think we are all going to be surprised and ashamed, when we see Jesus face to face. That is probably going to be the reason why God will be wiping our tears from our eyes as it says in Rev 21:4
Remember the old Chuck Smith saying? ‘If it’s not in context, it’s pretext.’ The Bible is it’s own commentary. I have taught from commentaries for decades,,,, I quit doing that. I just prefer teaching from the Word. If someone is gracious enough to give me twenty minutes of their precious time, I just want to tell them about Jesus, reading from His infallible word. I don’t want to plagerize some dead guy′s sermon, nor talk about opinions, people or politics. I just want to tell people about the love of my life, Jesus Christ, and how thrilling He is to follow.
To understand 2 Chronicles 7:14 (which is a popular political quote nowadays) you need to know what 2 Chronicles 7:13 says. It’s talking about God’s curse on Israel for sinning.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “When I shut up the heavens,So that there is no rain, or command locust to devour the land or send a plague among my people…”
(Ringing any bells yet?) It’s about a sinful nation that God is straightening out. A sinful nation, a sinful city, a sinful person, a sinful Dean Peters.
Then God goes on with 2 Chronicles 7:14 which is an ‘If’-‘Then’ verse. Almost like a mathematical formula. Religious people like formulas. Set patterns, rites, tradiciones, busy motions, etc. removing the need for a close encounter with God and an intimate relationship with Him. They want visible steps to get from A to B while us crazy, spirit filled, faith people believe that faith can only be held in the invisible because once you see it, it doesn’t require faith anymore. More than once I personally misread what God wanted me to do, and took a step of faith in the wrong direction. I got thumped for it. But I’m learning.
If He can avoid it, God never reprimands people and leaves them miserable. I say God is good all the time. If He did stuff like that, He wouldn’t be so good. If your pastor reprimands the congregation every Sunday so harshly that everyone leaves church feeling bad, change churches asap! Your pastor is not being led by God. He’s not representing God’s character. God always shows a way out, if you humble yourself. Humbling yourself means hearing what you need to hear, and then following the instructions given to get you out of that mess.
Paul, David, all of them, even when they came down hard on people always gave an if-then. Look at Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians. The 1rst one was pretty hardcore. The 2nd one was all lovey-dubby. King David’s Psalms, another example, many started out hard but ended softly. God maybe sounds hard at first, but is soft at the end. Like any loving father. I remember calling Winnie Joy into the room to give her a spanking. She entered and had that horrified racoon look on her face and I just burst out laughing. No spanking either. A father never leaves things at a harsh tone with his loved ones.
The letters the the Corinthians and the Psalms, as the other 66 books of the Bible are all God breathed, revealing God’s character to us. His nature is to always give a way out and a hug of encouragement as long as it doesn’t interfere with His justice, righteousness and integrity.
The religious will tell you when you are having problem such as with changes in weather, cicadas and COVID to do the following; pray, seek God, and repent. But that is NOT what God said. If you are not humble to begin with, none of that matters. Praying, seeking and repenting are useless if you are not sincere. You can not be sincere if you are not humble. Impossible! You can pray, seek God, and repent of a specific sin and still be proud. Not good enough, because pride is sin as well. Humble yourself first.
I think the best word to describe humility is honesty. Being honest with yourself and with others. Prideful people lie to themselves, and as a result, to others to maintain their self image. A humble person sees themselves exactly as they really are.
We have to humble ourselves. That means swallowing our pride. Don’t be proud that you are humble. That doesn’t work. You have to see yourself for who you are. Don’t get offended. Love. Look for God and be grateful for everything. Look at the Canaanite woman who wanted Jesus to heal her daughter. She ate a lot of crow from Jesus. Was Jesus being bad? No! God is good,,,,,,, when? All the time! Jesus was teaching her to be humble enough to to receive a miracle.
Here’s Jesus, walking along with His staff of disciples after a long day.
Out came the woman. She was from Syrophoenicia, a place that means ‘exalted palms’,,,, in other words, a fancy schamntzee place…. Like a West LA, Beverly Hills, Upper Manhattan type. People from Syrophoenician were called Canaanites. They were probably proud.
Matt 15:22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil
Did Jesus stop? Nope! Was He good? Yep! All the time,,, He’s soooo good!
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
She wouldn’t stop. She didn′t care that she was being ignored. She was desperate. She was talking to Jesus (praying) She was seeking Him (if pestering counts). So annoying that His staff wanted to run her off. It was a too much, kind of embarrassing! This woman wasn’t a Jew, she was a heathen. Jesus ignored her. That alone would have made 90% of the people turn away in disgust. Saying stuff like ‘WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARY ARE YOU? ARE YOU EVEN A CHRISTIAN?? SUPPOSEDLY THE CHURCH CARES ABOUT PEOPLE, BUT NOOOOOOOO, GUESS NOT!!!’Then they would stomp off with NOTHING except their pride still intact. But what good is that if your daughter is still sick? Who won? People tell me sometimes that they’re poor but proud. I tell them that Jesus can help them with both of those conditions. There is nothing good about poverty or pride.
I think Jesus probably ignored her though because she called Him ‘Son of David’ knowing that she was faking it. She wasn’t sincere. That was a jewish phrase/tradition from the Old Testament proclaiming the coming Messiah. Canaanites didn’t believe in that. (*It’s like when we are giving out Christmas presents, all the parents tell me they’re evangelical Christians. I know they aren’t but we love their kids and we always give all of them presents, JWs, Marianas, Santarias, Muslim, doesn’t matter,,, We love them, people don’t need to lie….)
The Canaanite woman was copying what she heard the religious people say. It was a rite, a tradition, but not from the heart. Nothing more than a mathematical religious formula that she was trying to use to help her daughter, just like saying ‘abracadabra’!
Was God still good? Always. He never stops being good!
Matt 15:24. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus finally is talking to her, but the answer seemed like it was ‘no’ at first (but it wasn’t, He always said yes to healing, eventually). Is God still good? All the time!
Matt 15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Now she’s humbled, but persisted. She knew she didn’t have the right formula. She knew He was Lord and she was not. She was desperate. She felt guilty. She was a heathen. Who knows what happened in the home to make the daughter demon possessed. People don’t just catch a demon because they went outside in the cold without drying their hair. It comes when you do something that invites it in. Now the woman is broken….. humbled
Matt 15:26. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Ok. Now at least Jesus was fully engaged…. But He just called her a dog. There would go the last 10% on that one…. Can you imagine?? The newspapers, tv news, the press? The social media??? But instead of getting mad, and storming of ,,, again with nothing, she swallowed her pride even more and said;
Matt 15:27. Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
BINGO!!! When God humbles us, don’t argue…just say ‘Truth Lord’! She humbled herself, she prayed (talked to Jesus), she sought Him out although it took a while, and we know that she really repented because whenever someone truly repents it’s only because they’ve been truly humbled…..
Matt 15:28. When Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
So,,,,, when you are praying for America, or your wife, or you kids, humble yourself first, then pray, seek and repent and God will hear you and heal you
With much love in Jesus
Dean and Winnie Peters
Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Managua Nicaragua