Humans are a very proud species. There is not a single human being that does not fall prey to this gangrene that is pride. Most of our actions, if not all are tainted with it. It shows itself in various ways, to the point that it can be hard to discern at first. For example, an act of kindness can be fueled by pride, the recognition before men to be “the kind one”. Our motives tell who we are. We can fool the world, but we cannot fool our Maker. Psalm 24 is often titled “the King of Glory” because it talks about the King of Glory that reigns above all the earth in its fullness. This King of Glory has to be announced to the “gates”, and “ancient doors” to let Him come through saying: “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (Psalm 24:1). Now, I am not an expert to know what the “gates” and “ancient doors” here represent but I am astonished that the response from the announcement is “Who is this King of glory?”. Indeed, who would dare question the LORD? Who dares ask the LORD who He is? Sadly, this is very human of us to do. Pharaoh did something similar when Moses told him what the LORD had commanded. He responded, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2). Such is the epitome of pride in the human’s heart. This is a sin that we have to rid ourselves off, we cannot cajole it, nor can we entertain it. It is too powerful and so we must not engage it. The only way to fight pride is with humility, our greatest weapon. This weapon is what Christ showed us on the cross and throughout his life on earth. However, today, I want us to first look at three characteristics of God that He himself speaks of so that we can adopt the right posture before Him. These characteristics are his foreknowledge, his power and might, and his self-sufficiency.
First, let us talk about God’s foreknowledge. Throughout the Bible, and most recently in my readings of the book of Isaiah, I have been noting that God speaks of a lot about being able to tell events before they happen. For example, in Isaiah 42, the Lord says “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (verse 9) or in chapter 45, “Ask me of things to come” (verse 11b) or even in a few verses later “Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD?” (verse 21b). Indeed, God’s foreknowledge sets Him apart from any gods or any being we elevate above Him. No one else can boast of such an ability, no one has ever done such a thing. He alone can predict events to the detail because He knows all things. Nothing that has happened was done without His knowledge. He is not taken by surprise on any matter, any subject, any circumstance. All things are under His subjection. So, it is a shocker, to be asking who the King of Glory is when one is created. If you are like me, you have heard this and you know this truth but because it is commonly known, you might have not grasped the implication of it. Truly, do you really believe that God has foreknowledge? That He has been here before ages past? In today’s workplace, we often mourned the fact that we are lacking “corporate knowledge” because of the high turnover with many employees leaving the company after two years or less but think of it, God has the “corporate knowledge” of this world, from its beginning to its end. The history of it all, He grasps. This is the God you want to have on your side, this is the God you have to bow down to. This foreknowledge quality is to be feared as the LORD says “Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified” (Isaiah 41:23).
Second, God is also powerful and mighty. Again, this attribute is commonly known, and we often call it omnipotence. However, we do not meditate much on what it means for us and for our world for God to be omnipotent. In our humanity, we view God as someone who is at the same level as us. We compare ourselves to Him and we think of His power in terms of our own “power”. In our finite state, we tend to forget that we do not have a full picture, but God is very clear on who He is and how powerful He is. As He declares through Isaiah, “who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:13). He adds “It is he…who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness” (verse 22). From these questions, we get to see how powerful God is. He is able to hold and measure the waters of the world in His hands. The nature and landscape we see, fauna and flora are completely under His power but we foolishly just think they just “showed up”? How about the deliverance power of God? No king or ruler can stand in His way. The Bible tells us that no other God saves like the God of Israel. Indeed, for the sake of Jacob, He created and made Cyrus, king of Babylon. This Cyrus, who was not a Jew, did not know the LORD but was God’s anointed one. In the Bible, those who were identified as God’s anointed were usually Jews and knew the LORD but not so with Cyrus. In his case, God chose to shame our wisdom. He demonstrated that His wisdom is far above ours and the results even far greater than what we could think or imagine. There is no obstacle that can thwart or reverse the power of God, not even a pagan king! When God has a plan in motion, He executes it to the end and it always, always goes accordingly. Nothing and no one resists Him. It is to our shame that we actually resist the LORD thinking that we know better or are more powerful. What folly!
Third, the God of the Bible is a self-sufficient God. “Who is like me?”, “To whom will you compare me?”, “Who has given counsel to the Lord?” are questions we often hear asked in the Bible. The Lord says in Isaiah: “What man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?”, and again, “who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it… I am the LORD, and there is no other…and there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none besides me” (Isaiah 45:18, 21). All these statements make it clear that God does not need anyone to help Him with anything, He does not need anyone to be secure, He does not need anyone to know what to do, He does not need anyone to be content. Other passages in the Bible express the self-sufficiency of God even more clearly like Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”. God swears by Himself (Isaiah 45:23) because He is the highest authority that exists and He does not need support from anyone. There is a common saying I have mostly heard in African praise, and it says, “you are God all by yourself”. I love the phrase because it clearly depicts the self-sufficiency of God and the fact that there is no one else besides Him. Maybe this is something Peter understood when he said to Jesus: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
These attributes of God should give us confidence and comfort as we behold our God. It should grow our faith and trust in the LORD for we see in them that He is worthy of our praise, worthy of our lives, worthy of our sacrifice. When we see God for who He is as far as our human wisdom allows us to, we rightly understand that we are creatures, and God is the Creator; we understand that we ought to submit to His wisdom because He knows all things even the ones we think are insignificant. I pray the LORD helps us pay attention to what He highlights to us when it comes to who He is and what attributes sets Him apart. May we live our lives always with the humility of Christ in mind, looking to him for ways to honour the Father. Let us set aside the pride of man and embrace the humility of Christ. Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 