Annie
Scriptures: Genesis 2:7 – 3:24 Matthew 11:28-29 Luke 14:7-14 Micah 6:8
This garden was a special place, a place like no other, filled with fragrance, colour and sustenance. It was a place of communion, a place of companionship, a place of community, a place of love. A family lived in this precious place, a family created to know no sin, no guilt or shame, a family treasured and adored by their loving Father, the One who had created them from the dust of the earth, the One who had breathed life into them. Each evening, their Father would come to this family and walk with them in the cool air, relishing this time with them, imparting His Love to them. The family knew no pride or selfishness, no arrogance, they simply knew that they were loved, cared for, treated so well by their Father.
All was right in their safe world, until the day, the day that Father God had always known would come, when the most beautiful of all the angels, who had decided that he would be like God and fell into pride and the ugliness of self aggrandisement, entered this tranquil scene. Of all the sins, pride is one of the easiest to succumb to. All it took was for one seed of doubt to be sown into the hearts of Eve and then Adam, and pride entered their world, pride that would ultimately cause them, and their 2 children, to be excluded from the Garden of Eden. They would no longer walk each evening with their Father, no longer delight in all that was good in this garden. In their foolish pride, they had doubted what God had told them, and now they must live with the consequences of this destructive decision.
If we look at the words used to describe why Adam and Eve hid from God as He came to walk with them in the evening, they tell Him it was because they were naked. Yet, they had walked with God so many times before naked and not ashamed. Having fallen for the lies of the devil and allowed pride to take hold of their image of themselves, shame quickly followed and totally changed their relationship with Father God. They could no longer bring themselves to be in the presence of His Glory, they knew they had been disobedient and that now they would, one day, die. The shame of the guilt in doubting God now consumed them, and was an impenetrable barrier that suddenly existed between them and their loving, extravagantly generous Father God. Yet God had already prepared a solution, the only solution for this heinous, mendacious scheme of the devil. His Justice and His Mercy would meet at the cross of Jesus Christ and restore what had now been lost.
The word humble or humility appears about 60 times in the Old Testament and about 20 times in the New Testament, depending upon which translation you read. Our modern day understanding of being humble is very much to do with our attitude, not pushing ourselves forward or acting arrogantly, particularly in a spiritual context. The words used in the Hebrew and Greek are more often used in the context of a physical state, being in need, in poverty or being afflicted. In other words, being in the lower ranks of society, not amongst the upper echelon, in a position that often engenders the shame of being less than what society honours, and less than God desires for us to be in relationship with Him.
In Matthew 11, Jesus tells us to take on His yoke and learn of Him for He is meek and lowly (humble) in heart. He walked with every sphere of society in the world He was born in to, not treating the poor as not worthy of His attention, not allowing their lowly position to prevent them coming to Him. In fact, in Luke 14 we find Him instructing a room full of the upper class Jews to take the lowest seats at feasts, which would have probably made them aghast at such a premise. Walking humbly with our God truly is taking on Jesus’ yoke and learning from all He did on this earth. And realising that, when we surrender to Him, and turn from our guilt and shame, our access to the Father God who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, is restored, totally and irrevocably.
Prayer: Abba Father, reveal to us how each of us can walk humbly with You on the path You have already prepared for us, no longer full of shame and guilt, but seeing ourselves as Your beautiful creation, Your child deeply and eternally loved by You. Amen
Comments