Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

Two Pathways to Humility - Part 2

• December 23rd, 2006

By far the easiest and least painful path to humility is to obey His Word, in order to obey we must first meditating on His Word (Joshua 1:8). The second path to humility, is to disobey, and (by default) take the road of hard work, it takes much longer, you may reach the point of exasperation, but you will come out humble and obeying His Word. During the time of hard work, the Lord would say, “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I am calling you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the water, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched - the flame will not burn you.” (Isaiah 43:1b-2)
When we have decided, or learnt to be prompt-to-do-it obeyers of His Word, God is able to lavish us with His love and demonstrate His power in our lives, without us forgetting him. Although the Promised Land, is everything we hoped it would be, and more, there are some pitfalls we must avoid them if we want to remain dependent on Him, the true source of life.

The Risk of Satisfaction
As strange as it seems, we are at great risk when we are satisfied, throughout scripture we find stories of those who went before us and fell to the pride of life. When God’s people were in the desert, “they were fed, they were satisfied; when satisfied, they became proud. Therefore they forgot me.” (Hosea 13:6) The Father wants us to prosper, to be satisfied, and to wear fine clothing, so that we can make a name for Him on the earth. He has chosen us and loves us enough to withhold prosperity if it would lead us astray. He led you through your desert experience, “humbling and testing you in order to do good in the end - you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’” (Deuteronomy 8:16b-17) The Father has taken great care in preparing us for our calling, Joseph was humbled for fourteen years before he was ready for a life of prosperity and fame. God made us to cling to Him, and when we are satisfied, He wants us to continue to cling to Him, perhaps even more. Moses reminded the people before they were going to enter the Promised Land of their human tendencies, “Be careful not to forget ADONAI your God by not obeying his mitzvot [commands], rulings and regulations that I am giving you today. Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, and increased your heards, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, you will become proud-hearted. Forgetting ADONAI your God - who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14a, emphasis added)

Of the prince of Tzor, God had said, “Sure, you are wiser than Daniel! No secret can be hidden from you! By your wisdom and discernment you have acquired wealth, you have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries. By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and it is because of your wealth that you have become so proud.” (Ezekiel 28:3-5, emphasis added)

And of the Jerusalem, God had said, “I also clothed you with an embroidered gown, gave you fine leather sandals to wear, put a fine linen headband on your head and covered you with silk. I gave you jewelry to wear, bracelets for your hands, a necklace for your neck, a ring for your nose, earings for your ears and a beautiful crown for your head. Thus you were decked in gold and silver, your clothing was fine linen, silk and richly embroidered cloth; you ate the finest flour, honey and olive oil. You grew increasingly beautiful - you were fit to be queen. Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, because it was perfect due to my having bestowed my own splendor on you’ says ADONAI ELOHIM. “But you put your trust in your own beauty and began prostituting yourself because of your fame, soliciting everyone passing by and accepting all comers.” (Ezekiel 16:10-15)

The Father takes a risk when he pours out His blessing on us, when we are satisfied we might forget him, when we become famous and wealthy we might trust in the fame and the wealth instead of in Him who gave it all to us. He longs to love us lavishly, he longs to use us to demonstrate His power and glory. Jesus talked about this risk too, “Yeshua looked around and said to his talmidim [disciples], “How hard it is going to be for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” The talmidim were astounded at these words; but Yeshua said to them again, “My friends, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” They were utterly amazed and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” yeshua looked at them and said, “Humanly it is impossible, but not with God; with God, everything is possible.”" (Mark 10:23-27) It is so hard to cling to Him when we’re wealthy that Jesus described it as being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. The only way to enter the Kindgom of God and be wealthy is by the grace of God. It’s good to believe God for His Promises, but we must “seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) Do we really want prosperity at the cost of our relationship?

The prosperity message has been strong over the years, and while this is what the Father wants for us, we need to be careful not to “imagine that religion is a road to riches.” (2 Timothy 6:5b) Our relationship with Him is not to attain prosperity, but to cling to him, to live in His Presence and do His will. Paul continued to write, “Now true religion does bring great riches, but only to those who are content with what they have. For we have brought nothing into the world; and we can take nothing out of it; so if we have food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these. Furthermore, those whose goal is to be rich fall into temptation; they get trapped in many foolish and hurtful ambitions which plunge them into ruin and destruction.” (1 Timothy 6:6-9)

We need to have the heart of David who said, “I rejoice in your instruction more than any kind of wealth.” (Psalms 119:14) and prayed, “Bend my heart toward your instructions and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; with your ways give me life.” (Psalm 119:36) David talked about his road to humility through his own personal desert experience, “It is for my good that I have been humbled it was so that I would learn your laws. The Torah you have spoken means more to me than a fortune in gold and silver.” (Psalm 119:71)

Remaining humble in the Promised Land
In due time, we will enter the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey. God will prosper us in ways I don’t even think we can imagine all because of His love for us and that we would bring Him glory, but in being satisfied we want to remain humble. God gave the people of Israel clear advice on remaining humble even in the midst of prosperity.

1. Remember the Lord your God and obey His instructions. The humility that came by hard work or obeying His Word needs to be continued. We must meditate on His Word and obey. When Joshua was about to enter the Promised Land, God said to him, “Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, and you will succeed.” (Joshua 1:8) God also warned the people before they entered the promised Land, “Be careful not to forget ADONAI your God by not obeying his mitzvot [commands], rulings and regulations that I am giving you today. Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them, and increased your heards, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, you will become proud-hearted.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-18)

2. Remember from where you came. In the book of Ezekiel, God describes in one chapter his relationship with Jerusalem, how he found them, how he blessed them and how they forgot him. We were in the same condition when we were found, “I Passed by and saw you there, wallowing in your own blood; and as you lay in your blood I said to you, “Live!” Yes, I said to you, as you lay in your blood, “Live! I will increase your numbers just like plants growing in the field.” And you did increase, you developed, you reached puberty, your breasts appeared, and your hair grew long; but you were naked and exposed. Again I passed by you, looked at you and saw that your time had come, the time for love.” (Ezekiel 16:6-8) After which God describes how he made her beautiful, clothed her (See Ezekiel 16:10-15 quoted above). After she had fallen into pride, God said to her, “In all your disgusting practices and fornications you never remembered the condition you were in when you were young - naked, exposed and wallowing in your own blood.” (Ezekiel 16:22) One of the keys to remaining humble through the wealth, prosperity and fame is to remember from where we came, when we remember where we came from we also remember that it was Him who brought us into this place. In the Allegory of Ezekiel, God also said, “Because you didn’t remember the condition you were in when you were young, but enraged me with all these things, therefor I will bring the consequences of your ways on your own head’ says ADONAI ELOHIM.” (Ezekiel 16:43)

3. Remember His deeds. Remembering where we came from is important, and remembering the miracles He has done for you in bringing you to the place you are on the other side of the Jordan will also keep us clinging to Him. Of the Israelites God said, “Then they believed his words, and they sang his praise. But soon they forgot his deeds and wouldn’t wait for his counsel.” (Psalm 106:12-13) We can also use this as a test, if we find that we are no longer waiting for His counsel, we have forgotten what he has done for us. “They forgot God, who had saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, wonders in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds by the Sea of Suf.” (Psalm 106:21-22)

4. Teach your children. Afther the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, they humble, devout followers of God’s Word, they remembered the miracles he had performed, remembered where they had came from and meditated on His Word, but they did not teach their children. The blessings of the Father lasted only a single generation because “when that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither ADONAI nor the work he had done for Israel. Then the poeple of Israel did what was evil from ADONAI’s perspective and served baal.” (Judges 2:10-11)

5. Praise Him. “These curses will be on you and your descendents as a sign and a wonder forever. Because you didn’t serve ADONAI your God with joy and gladness in your hearts when you had such an abundance of everything.” (Deuteronomy 28:46-47) “Keep on being filled with the Spirit - sing pslams, hymns and spiritual songs to each other, sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him; always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” (Eph 5:18b-19)

The time is coming, when we will be humble, prompt-to-do-it obeyers of His Word, the time of love will also come when the Father will take us into the Promised Land, let us be faithful and continue to be humble esteeming His word above any kind of earthly things. Let us obey His Word, remember where we came from, remember and journal the miracles he has done for us so that we can praise Him and teach our children of the awesome things he has done. Praise be to the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Troy Dalldorf

All scriptures are taken from “The Complete Jewish Bible”.

Two Pathways to Humility - Part 1

• December 17th, 2006

The scriptural definition of humility could be summed up as “prompt-to-do-it obedience to God’s Word.” For those whom he has called and chosen, He requires of us, humility.

In the beginning…
Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and given a couple of commands (God’s Word), “ADONAI, God, tool the person and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it. ADONAI, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.” (Genesis 2:15-17). So basically, two instructions, the first being to look after the garden and the second to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before they disobeyed, Adam and Eve were completely humble, they obeyed God completely and the garden yielded an abundance of fruit with only a little effort required on their part. After they had disobeyed, Adam was cursed with hard work, “…the ground is cursed on your account, you will work hard to eat from it as long as you live. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat field plants. You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground.” (Genesis 3:17-19) What was required of Adam and Eve was humility, they could choose to obey God and receive humility by their obedience, or disobey and attain humility through hard work.

The two pathways to humility
God delivers us from problems, from hurts, from addictions, from pain, from financial difficulties, family problems. Sometimes God pours out His power and in minutes or hours our circumstances have changed, but there are times when everything seems like an uphill battle, we may even begin to doubt that God has given us a situation we can handle (1 Cor 10:13), it all seems so difficult. As time passes on and we look back on our lives, we see the handiwork of God, we are being changed from glory to glory, we are being transformed to His likeness. These two paths to the same result can most often be explained by the two pathways to humility: meditating on His Word and obeying, or hard work.

David said in the Psalms, “Before I was humbled I used to go astray, but now I observe Your Word.” (Psalm 119:67) David, in this verse separates his life into two parts, before he was humbled, and after he was humbled. The difference between the two was in going astray. Even although he loved God, he went astray, working hard to learn God’s ways which would lead Him to humility. God’s Word teaches us His ways, if you “keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper and you will succeed.” (Joshua 1:8) The progression is interesting, if we saturate ourselves in His Word, we will take care to obey everything written in it. This is humility, complete prompt-to-do-it obedience to His Word.
We can also choose the alternate path, which is an inherent choice when we disobey His Word. Once we have gone astray, we learn God’s ways by working hard and facing difficulties. The people of God were tested in the desert to learn their humility. After their hard work, Moses explained to them what was happening in the hearts, “You are to remember everything of the way in which ADONAI led you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart - whether you would obey his commands or not. He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of ADONAI.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, emphasis added) The desert road was a choice selected by disobedience. Because God loved them so much, he let them learn His ways their way. We don’t have to meditate on the Scriptures to learn His ways, He will teach us by paths of hard work. If you think you don’t have time each day to spend in His Word and in His presence, you have been deceived, honestly, the path of hard work is very hard and takes very long. We will do well to learn from the desert journey.

A lesson from the desert
The journey of Israel serves as an excellent example for us. Most of the times, I find I learn best by how not to do things (this is also due to my lack of humility), but let’s at least learn from others lack of humility. God’s plan was to bring the Israelites from Egypt, to Mount Sinai where they received the Word of God which they were to obey, humbling them, and then straight ahead into the Promised Land.

God described the Promised Land (after it had been conquered) in this way, “I sent the hornets ahead of you, driving them out from ahead of you, the two kings of the Emori - it wasn’t by your sword or your bow. Then I gave you a land where you had not worked and cities you had not built, and you live there. You eat fruit from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.” (Joshua 24:12-13) The scriptures are clear about God’s plans for us, not being a life of hard work. God intended us to work, but with supernatural success. The wicked worked at accumulating wealth, building cities, cultivating the lands, the humble just took over. What God had promised was truly amazing, His people would live a life not too different from that originally planned for Adam and Eve.

When the twelve spies returned with their report (Numbers 13) and “the people of Israel cried out in dismay and wept all night long.” (Numbers 14:1) Joshua and Caleb who were the only two with a positive report, believing God’s Word and ready to obey. Of Joshua it is was written, “Joshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of wisdom” (Deuteronomy 34:9). Joshua was already full of the Word of God, he used to linger in the Tent of Meeting after Moses had left, because he meditated on God’s Word, he also obeyed God’s Word, this was not so for the rest of Israel, they chose the path of disobediance, causing everyone to go astray for forty years.

God’s chosen people learnt His ways their way, the roamed the desert learning humility, “So He humbled their hearts by hard labor; when they stumbled, no one came to their aid.” (Psalms 107:12). Here are a few excerpts that describe life in the desert:

• “They wandered in the desert, on paths through the wastes, without finding any inhabited city. They were hungry and thirsty, their life was ebbing away.” (Psalm 107:4-5)
• “Some lived in darkness, in death-dark gloom, bound in misery and iron chains” (Psalm 107:10)
• “vast and fearsome desert, with it’s poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground” (Deuteronomy 8:15)

After forty years, their hearts had been tested, they were prompt-to-do-it obeyers of His Word. Moses reminded them of the lessons learned in the desert, “You are to remember everything of the way in which ADONAI led you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart - whether you would obey his commands or not. He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of ADONAI. During these forty years the clothing you were wearing didn’t grow old, and your feet didn’t swell up. Think deeply about it: ADONAI was disciplining you, just as a man disciplines his child.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, emphasis added) They had arrived at the place of humility, of dependence on the God’s Word. They were now ready to cross the Jordan river into the Promised Land.

Why humility?
We can see that God requires humility of us, and that our accomplishing what God has called us to on earth is completely dependent on humility, but is this simply to live a life devoid of hard work? God’s plan is to save the nations of the earth.  “He will give a signal to faraway nations, he will whistle for them to come from the ends of the earth; and here they come, so fast!” (Isaiah 5:26) God wants to see all the nations of the earth return to Him, but His plan is to pick the weakest among us and demonstrate His power in us, “for the eyes of ADONAI move here and there throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those who are wholehearted toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) God chooses us because we are “the fewest of all the peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7), and then shows himself strong on our behalf so that the whole world will know the glory of the Lord. God said just before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, “As for me, I will make the Egyptians hardhearted; and they will march in after them; thus I will win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and all his army, chariots, and cavalry. Then the Egyptians will realize that I am ADONAI” (Exodus 14:17-18a)

God wants to use us powerfully, demonstrating His power in our lives so that the whole earth can be saved. The truth is that when he demonstrates this kind of power through us, our hearts become proud and we forget God. “When they were fed, they were satisfied, they became proud. Therefore they forget me.” (Hosea 13:6) The very promise God offers, the very tools needed to save the whole earth are the same ones that cause us to become proud and forget Him. He loves us so much that He will lift His blessing in order that we may be humbled.  We can choose to immerse ourselves in Him, in His Word and in His Presence and be humbled, or he will discipline us in desert-like experiences and test our hearts so that we can be ready to be used by Him and for His glory!