…[clothe yourselves with] … humility …
Summary: In the grand scheme of things, understanding a word like “humility” requires us to have an understanding of how we measure our own self-importance.
When I think of humility, I always think of Moses. The Bible says that Moses was “a very humble man.” It goes on to say that he was “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Number 12:3).
At first glance, that statement sounds oxymoronic.
We assume the first five books of the Bible are written by Moses, so how could he claim to be “more humble than anyone else” and still be humble?
To sort out this conundrum, it helps to remember that God is the author of the Bible, not man. So, that is one thing in Moses’ favor. Secondly, the statement is bracketed in parentheses, so it has the appearance of having been added later. Third, it was true. Moses was the most humble person on the earth.
What does that mean?
In short, the word humility means that a person knows their place in a world that is ruled by God. In a sense, a person’s humility is a measure of how well they know God. The more we know about God, the more we realize how little we know and how relatively unimportant we are.
Let’s consider Moses’ life. He was born at a time in history when the government demanded that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile River and drowned. By the hand of God, he was saved from death and ended up being raised in Pharaoh’s household as one of his royal grandchildren.
Life was good in the palace. He had every material thing a person could want. He had social status, position, power, and money. There was nothing Moses did not have except the respect of his fellow Hebrews.
When he was a grown man, he decided to intervene and protect a fellow Hebrew. That decision cost him everything. Within a day he lost everything. Social standing, the favor of Pharaoh, money, power, … everything. Fearing for his life, he left and went to live in the desert.
For a person raised in a palace, this alone was like a death sentence, and might have been except for God’s providence.
God was gracious to Moses. He kept him alive and brought him into a family that accepted him as a son. He married, raised two kids, and grew to be an old man.
Then God called.
Moses came to know God personally in a way unmatched in his time. He saw God in a burning bush and met with him on Mount Sinai.
When it came to knowing God, Moses knew his place. True humility is knowing our place in God’s kingdom.
God is God, and we are not. Humility remembers that always.
Application: To achieve humility, always measure yourself against God.
Food for Thought: How can we know God like Moses did?
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Moses was unique in his leadership. Educated in all the wisdom of Egypt and other near eastern cultures of the time he was selected to be the first leader of Israel with a position of unequaled power.
Moses received God’s laws from either the direct voice of God and wrote it down on clay tablets or written by the finger of God Himself who chiseled the letters and words of the 10 commandments and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.
Yet Moses never forgot his unworthiness for this position as he was a murderer who had forfeited his former position and power and chosen permanent exile. God’s grace chose Moses in spite of his past failure. Moses knew who God was, served faithfully as a servant as ruler over God’s household, yet always felt he did not deserve, nor did he see himself as worthy to occupy the position he held and had been appointed in which to serve.
All of us are unworthy and it is only by the grace of God ( His absolutely free Sovereign choice to permit us to serve in whatever capacities He has gifted us in which to be useful in His service and for His kingdom. He calls us as well to simply be faithful. This is an impossible task given our fallen, sinful human natures. Yet by the grace, power and submission to the Holy Spirit the Lord is able to accomplish amazing things using us as His instruments and for His purposes on this earth because of how great and gracious He is. As long as we remember Who it is that accomplishes the work which really matters we will be humble because truly wirhout Him we are unable to do anything of any eternal significance. (John’s gospel Chapter 15.)