“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” ~James 4:10 

If you are following the Bible Reading Schedule, you will know that we recently finished 2 Chronicles. In the final chapters of that remarkable book, we read about the final kings of Judah, beginning with Hezekiah and ending with Zedekiah. As I read through those chapters, one word kept appearing on the pages of my Bible. It is the word “humble”. That word, in its various forms if found 60 times in the Bible and 7 of those times are in the final 5 chapters of 2 Chronicles. 

The word itself means “to bring down, to become lowly in mind, to place oneself under the divine will”. The Bible has so much to say about the quality of humility, but there were two things that stood out to me in those final chapters of 2 Chronicles. 

First, God’s dealings with those kings was based upon whether they were humble men or not. His blessings and His judgments were directly tied to the humility or lack thereof in each man’s life! The power of humility was so great that even a horribly wicked king like Manasseh found mercy and help with God when he humbled himself before the Lord! 

Second, I saw that either those kings humbled themselves before the Lord or they were humbled by the Lord. The first is voluntary while the second is anything but! The voluntary humility brought blessing and joy. The forced humility came about through much sorrow and hardship. 

These are vital lessons that every Christian should pay attention to. A humble heart trumps talent, education, status, and any other quality we may think is important. Without humility we are without the blessing of God! 

Pastor Bish