Three Humiliations

"What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Malachi 6:8.

The prophet begins at the bottom of the ladder and steps upward. You might think that the hardest of the three rungs would be "walk humbly with your God." But for the believing soul, it is no great task. What else can a frail heart be, but humble in the presence of absolute Holiness? At best, he can cry, "unclean!” But being humble, say before an inferior, is much harder. To be humble before an inferior means that I “love mercy." When a man or woman has been a great sinner, I find it very hard not to “thank God that I am not as other men are.”  But to be brought low, from great height, is Christlike.

Yet the hardest thing of all is to be humble when I meet my equal—to "do justly." I am tempted to exalt myself when I engage with another who is my fellow. O, how I would like to feel that I am superior when all is said and done. How I want to prove that I am the better man. I could easily be generous in my words, but only when I see his chances are poor. Then I say kind things. But, to “do justly” means to bring me down, or worse, to entertain the possibility that he is better, more worthy than I. It means to make allowance for his weaknesses, considering my own, and admit that he might stand above me. This is to triumph in Christ.

It’s just here that I behold the ladder of Christ's humiliations. His humility before the Father, His humility in the presence of the fallen, and His humility in contact with a rival.  O, to follow Christ. In every contact with my fellow man, to remember my hours alone with God. Remember those hours alone when I am tempted to be proud. Remember those hours alone when my rival stands beside me, and I am tempted to self-promote. To remember that I am still with God! To remember that in His sight, I am as fallen as any, as worthless as the vilest, and as polluted as they come. When I am tempted to compare my light to another's, I turn my candle toward the sun, which disappears it. When I see the King in His beauty, I see my own deformity. Gaze on the spotless Lamb, and there will be no other whiteness on the earth. You will climb the ladder of three humiliations if you walk with your God.