Humility and Pride

May I begin with a few lines from two poems by the English poet and anarchist, Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose wife, Mary, wrote a novel about Baron Frankenstein who created a 'monster' from parts of corpses.

The 1817 sonnet Ozymandias, features the fallen legs of an Egyptian pharaoh whose ruins lay in the sands of Egypt with the inscription, as in the poem:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

The 70-line poem of 1820, ODE TO THE WEST WIND, ends with these words (lines 5:63-69):

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth
The trumpet of a prophecy!

Were Shelley and Ozymandias men of pride - and not humility?
At this point I'm reminded of Nebuchadnezzar [605 - 562 B.C.]

Dan 4:37

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to abase.

shepal

Compare what David said in Ps 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD,

my strength and my rock (Redeemer; LXX).

In his repentance (Ps 51:15), David says:

O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

Was David a proud and arrogant man at heart, or was he humble? These words, surely, express the thoughts of a humble man! He was, as Scripture declares, a man after 'God's own heart'! - because he would do, in God's perspective, God's will (This was said by Samuel to Saul before David was anointed to be future king of Israel and before he killed Goliath [1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22]).

Perhaps we would all agree that a person who persistently does his own will would probably be seen as proud and arrogant. But would someone who persistently seeks to do God's will be seen as proud and not humble?

Num 12:3 tells us in an editorial comment:

(Now the man Moses was very humble,

more than all men on the face of the earth.)

These words express God's perspective!
Was Moses humble when he said in Dt 31:29:

For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the Way which I have commanded you; and evil shall befall you in the last days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands?

How would any of us feel about the man who made such comments to us? Would we think he was arrogant and self-righteous?

Now some NT examples which might challenge our notions of what humility is:

Mk 7:25-28

For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter

27 But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."

28 She answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."

The lady was assuredly humble; but do any of us see Jesus Christ as rude, insolent, proud? Might He not have appeared that way to an observer there?

Jn 2:14-16

He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

Today Christ could be arrested for assault, unruly conduct, damage to public property, disturbance of the peace - amongst other things. Was He humble here? And did those who thought they knew the Scriptures consider Him as humble?

The following example is denied by many scholars as being authentic because it is not mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). How great such mighty scholars are!

Jn 11:1-11

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." 4 When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." 8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. [What an interesting, unexplained parable, here!] 10 "But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I 'm going that I may wake him up."

Let's notice some of the things that were happening here. Mary and Martha had asked Jesus Him to visit Lazarus, His dear friend, who was critically ill. Jesus delayed coming knowing Lazarus and the family would be agonising as they waited. Was Jesus being gentle, kind, considerate, humble?

Jn 12:1-11

Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany

where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served

but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 4 Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said, 5 Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii

and given to the poor?" 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.

7 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 8 "For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." 9 Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus

Mt 23:1-5a Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit [have seated themselves] in Moses' seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men.

Their lives were hypocritical. None of us would have a problem in saying that the Pharisees were proud and arrogant.

Lk 11:45

One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."

["hubris", the most common NT word for pride, arrogance, insolence]. What was Jesus doing in saying this? On the other hand Paul admits to this arrogance and insolence (also blasphemy and persecution) in his treatment of the early Church, while he, as Saul, raged against them (1 Tim 1:13).

William Barclay, in writing about the linguistic and cultural background to this word in the NT says (NT Words, SCM Press, 1964; pp 125-133):

"Hubris is a noun which means wanton insolence: ... Its root meaning is the violent over-stepping of the mark, the insolence of triumph, and the pride of life that tramples underfoot the unwritten laws of gods and men. Hubris is the closest Greek equivalent for "sin" [hamartia]. Its most characteristic application was the insatiable thirst for power which drives a man or a nation headlong, as though possessed by a demon, on the path of unbridled self-assertion. ...[It is] ready to trample in violence over law and liberty to gratify lust and pride. The basic evil of hubris is that when hubris enters into a man's heart that man forgets that he is a creature and that God is the Creator. Hubris is the sin whereby a man forgets his humanity and makes himself equal with God. Hubris is that insolent arrogance which forgets the essential creatureliness of the condition of being a man .... The man who is governed by hubris is governed by passion and not reason. ... Hubris is committed in contempt of others. Speaking with deliberate attempt to insult and to give offence is hubris. ... But the most terrible thing about hubris was the pleasure it takes in inflicting injury ... wanton insolence, is the spirit which hurts someone in a cold, detached way, and then stands back to see the other person wince. ... it always involves deliberate humiliation of the person injured. ... The words [hubris, hubrizein, hubristes] consistently express insulting and outrageous treatment, and especially treatment which is calculated publicly to insult and openly humiliate the person who suffers from it. [See Rom 1:28-31] ... Hubris is the pride which makes a man defy God, and the arrogant contempt which makes him trample on the hearts of his fellow man." Was Jesus guilty of any of these things? Was He unkind, undiplomatic, brutal in His words about those who sat in high office? Could He be regarded as humble in every circumstance?

Mt 13:10-16

The disciples came and said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables? 11 He answered them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled [6:9-10], which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed [chosen to close!], Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.

Was it arrogant of Jesus to hide truth from many people? Why didn't He speak with absolute clarity & make himself fully understood as one might expect of a good teacher?

SO WHO DEFINES HUMILITY? WHAT IS HUMILITY? TOWARDS WHOM IS HUMILITY SHOWN? Biblical humility is not defined in the Macquarie, Oxford, Webster dictionaries!

The first NT use of the word meek, humble is in Matthew 5:5 [cited from Ps 37:11]:

Blessed are the meek

For they shall inherit the earth.

The meek are going to receive everything? That seems a paradox! A contradiction?

Ps 37:11

But the meek shall inherit the earth,

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

According to the Theological Wordbook of the OT there are 3 words most used which are translated as humble, gentle, meek, lowly: ana (& anaw), kana, shapel.

[TWOT, Vol 1, p445] "No thoroughgoing distinction is possible between kana and the two other words ana and shapel which are most commonly translated as 'be humble'." The two most common NT words are "praus" and "tapeinos"
The first time both words are used in the NT is:

Mt 11:29

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle

and lowly

in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

So we must conclude that humility is learned from Jesus Christ!
We're to walk as he walked! (1Jn 2:6)
Hence in everything we do, or might do, we must be inspired and motivated as Him!

Was Christ's humility towards God first, or to men? Did the religious leaders of the synagogues He attended, including the Temple, think they had Him humble to them? Did they want Him to be humble before them? Indeed they did! So do we notice what Scripture is teaching?

Man's view of humility is that another should submit to the will of the one demanding humility! If the human demand for humility is not met, then the other is seen as arrogant! "If you don't do it my way, you're arrogant!" Only God, who is perfect, who is good, who is righteous forever, whose mercy is boundless, can say such things!
Jesus Christ - without fail - always did the Will of His Father - that is, He was always humble before the Will and Way of God! As Christians we are to follow Christ's example and in the process, by God's grace, become perfect as the Father in heaven is (Mt 5:48).

OT examples defining humility and pride:

Num 12:3

Now the man Moses was very humble more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

Why was Moses regarded as humble? Towards whom was he humble? Whose will did he, with all his might, strive to fulfill? Whose way did he follow? This is how and when humility is defined! God and His Word define spiritual conditions!

Notice the contrast with the Pharaoh Moses confronted:

Ex 10:3

So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: 'How long will you refuse to humble

yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

SO IF ANYONE DISLIKES ANOTHER PERSON AND WANTS CONTROL OVER ANOTHER PERSON, LET THE PERSON GO FREE AND FREELY WORSHIP GOD!

After the dedication of the Temple the LORD appeared to Solomon [c.964 B.C.].

2 Chr 7:12-18

the LORD appeared to him one night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a Temple for sacrifices. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if My people, who are called by My name, will 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. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this Temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will always be there. 17 As for you, if you walk before Me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe My decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.' [See also 1 K 9:1-9]

After Ahab's wife, Jezebel, had been eaten by wild street dogs, as prophesied by Elijah, Ahab had quite a change of heart: [Ahab ruled about 872-848 B.C.]

1 K 21:28-29

The word of the LORD came to Elijah, saying, 29 "See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house."

In 701 B.C., the emperor of Assyria, Sennacherib, came to besiege Jerusalem with 185,000 troops. All perished at the hands of the angel of death as is recorded in 2 Chr 32, 2 K 19, and Isa 37. Then Hezekiah [715-686 B.C.] got such a boil that he was going to die from it, but was healed and his life extended. Later, Babylonian envoys came on a diplomatic mission; he showed them all his wealth and power and in consequence brought the anger of God upon himself.

2 Chr 32:24-26

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. 25 But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 26 Then Hezekiah repented

] of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord's wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, became the longest ruling king of Judah [686-642 B.C.] [See also 2 K 21]

2 Chr 33:9-13

Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. 10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people [through several prophets], but they paid no attention. 11 So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. 12 In his distress he sought the favour of the LORD his God and humbled [Heb kana] himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God. When people come to know God they repent and are blessed

Let's notice the prophetess Huldah's response to the grandson of Manasseh, Josiah, who was born about 10 years after Manasseh died. Hilkiah, the priest had found a Book of the Law in the Temple and it was read aloud to Josiah [c 622; 640-609 B.C.].

2 Chr 34:24-28

This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people--all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. 25 Because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods and provoked Me to anger by all that their hands have made, My anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. 26 Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: 27 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before Me and tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. 28 Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here. So they took her answer back to the king.

Ps 25:8-12

8 Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. 9 The humble [Heb anaw] He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. 12 Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.

Am I overwhelming you with Scriptures? I hope so! Why? Because when we are overwhelmed - as Paul was, as Solomon, Ahab, Manasseh, Josiah, Hezekiah were - by the greater grasp of God's Word and Way - we turn to God in repentance, submission, and our godly humility becomes the humility which is the gift of God. It is then not the self-imposition of a false humility towards men and an arrogance towards the eternal God who teaches us how to live godly. Living daily as Christ shows, is what God wants of us!

Ps 147:1-6

Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. 2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. 4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. 5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. 6 The LORD lifts up the humble [anaw]; He casts the wicked down to the ground.

Col 3:12-17 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies [bowels of compassion], kindness, humility [from Gk tapeinos], meekness [from Gk praus], longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom and teaching; and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

May I parody some of Shelley's words in conclusion:

Proclaim Your living Words across the world
Like the Pentecost wind giving new birth
For holy saints to evangelize the earth!
Scatter abroad My LORD Your gracious Word,
To derelict mankind, that two-edged Sword
Which trumpets forth Your prophecy!
Thus may Your precious saints
Proclaim to all their deadly sins
And manifest Your impassioned amnesty --
That purpose - that Plan - that Your saints live!