Humble God?
Just the other day someone was having a conversation about the struggles they were having in their relationship with God. There were a few of them at hand, but one of the main concerns was the humbleness of God. It seems God is very specific about the necessity of humility, yet at the same time He establishes His supreme understanding of Himself all throughout the bible, in what some may call a not very humble way. How should we look or understand this? This is what I wish to talk briefly about in this blog. I want to recognize that this is not the final word on the topic but I figured I would quickly toss my hat into the ring.
To make this blog easier to follow, I wish to lay out this posting in the format below.
- Definitions
- Biblical verses on humility
- God’s Self-understanding
- Proposed Solution
DEFINITIONS
In order that we are on the same page in our understanding of what we mean by one being humble, let me first give two definitions that will help us out.
Humble - having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance.
Modest - not wanting to talk about their abilities, achievements character, etc.…. in a prideful manner; unassuming in the estimation of one's abilities or achievements.
BIBLICAL VERSES ON HUMILITY
It appears much of the problem arises from the fact that we are called to be humble in this life. The bible is full of examples of this. Below I will list a few verses in which we are called to be humble. It seems where the question or may I say the assumption lays is in thinking that if God calls us to be humble, wouldn’t you think God Himself would be what He desires us to be? He does tell us to be holy for He is holy (1 Peter 1:16 / Lev 11:44-45).
Proverbs 11:2 - When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 22:4 - By humility and the fear of the Lord; are riches and honor and life.
James 3:13 - Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
GOD’S SELF-UNDERSTANDING
In this section I want to establish who God says that He is. For the claim that God is not humble needs to be established by biblically backed proof. Now, I want to mention here that all one has to do at this point is to claim that all of these specific verses of who God is, is in fact humble. It seems one could push away this original claim by stating that God in describing Himself is using a humble understanding. That God being the greatest conceivable being and in order for us to grasp who He is, there has to be some language to describe Him. This language then is put in modest terms for what mankind can and is able to comprehend. For the sake of this blog let us assume we don’t state this, and just agree that what appears in Scripture is in fact a very high and extreme view of God.
I also want to establish another point. In Scripture we see God describing Himself in a very high manner as well as person/persons describing God in a high manner. I want to assume for the present sake that both fall within the same degree of Inspiration; that Scripture is God’s word to mankind. All one needs to do is deny this and the argument that God is not humble seems to fade away. For if the bible is not God’s word to mankind then it is just man’s fallible understanding of who God is. The lack of humility is located in man’s description of God and not God’s actual character. For this blog let us assume what I take to be true, that Scripture is indeed God’s word to mankind and is indeed inspired by God himself. If we hold to these two assumptions we therefore find in Scripture God’s not so humble view of Himself. Below are a few examples.
Jeremiah 10:6 - Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord (You are great, and your name is great in might).
1 Chronicles 29:11 - Yours, O Lord, is the greatness,
The power and the glory,
The victory and the majesty;
For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,
And You are exalted as head over all.
Isaiah 55:9 - “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
PROPOSED SOLUTION
It appears then that God is rather not humble if the above sections are true. What are we to do? How are we to look at this? I propose that we look at this is a different manner! My claim is this with regard to God’s humbleness: The greatest good is for God not to be Humble. It is far less of a good for God to be humble.
Or it could be put like this:
1. Man’s end is to worship, be in union with, and to know God
2. To know God in a lesser form of who He is, is the lesser good
3. God is the greatest conceivable being
4. Therefore to know God so that we may worship and be in union with God which is man’s end, God reveals that He is the greatest conceivable being. This revealing is for our end and our greatest good
The fact that God reveals how great He is then is in fact the best thing He could do for mankind. For to hide who He is would be the least good since we are designed to know Him fully. If our fulfillment is in everything He is, why wouldn’t knowing these wonderful things about Him be for our good? It would in fact be! God would not be humble for the very fact that it wouldn’t be good for Him to be, because it wouldn’t be the best for us. Even in all of this we still see His love for His children. It would appear then that His call for us to be humble would not be hypocrisy. It would be for us to look less at ourselves in order to look more at Him. Which is then in fact the greatest thing for all of mankind.
Ryan Willert