Here Am I, Send Me
April 25, 2004
Dear Friends,
Humility is one of the most basic and important attributes of a believer. Pride is a powerful barrier to God working in us. Yet, we can have a false sense as to exactly what humility is and how it manifests itself in a believer.
Take, for example, the story of Moses. Moses was once a man “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” (Acts 7:22) It appears that he was well aware of his talents because he “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.” Moses was still forty years away from being the deliverer. It would not be a proud prince of Egypt that would deliver the Israelites, it would be a humble shepherd from Midian. Yet, despite learning humility, Moses hadn’t learned it fully. We have the following account of Moses being called to deliver Israel in Exodus 4:10-12. “And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” Although Moses was humbled, he was still putting the emphasis on Moses. Here is God telling Moses that He will take care of things and Moses, still looking too much at himself, is still unwilling to believe that God can work through him. We all know the end of the story. “The anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses” and Aaron is appointed to be his spokesman.
A truly humble man realizes his own limitations and dependence on God. The standard by which we measure ourselves, Jesus Christ, said “I can of mine own self do nothing.” (John 5:30) At the same time, while recognizing their intrinsic weakness, the truly humble man says “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Php 4:13) In other words, the truly humble man does great things by the understanding that it is by God’s power he does them and not by the might of his own hands. A man with an incomplete sense of humility evaluates themselves and sees nothing worthy of God’s service as if God has somehow made a mistake in choosing them. Like Moses, they find themselves disobeying God’s command of service because of an imbalance between the teaching of human weakness and the power of God working in us. While this sense of humility is much preferable to the sin of pride, it is not the sense of humility that God ultimately wants us to develop.
One of the best examples in the Scripture of a humble man knowing the power of God was the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah, in a vision in Isaiah 6, finds himself in the presence of God and the Seraphim in heaven. His humility causes him to cry “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” In Isaiah’s anguish, one of the seraphims places a hot coal in his hand and lays it on Isaiah’s mouth and says “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” Then God asks the question that he eventually asks of each one of his children including you and I. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” To this Isaiah responds as we all should “Here am I; send me.”
Truly all of us are of our own selves unworthy for service to our Heavenly Father. Yet, for some reason He has chosen us to serve Him and given us His son to let us know that our iniquity is taken away and our sin purged. If we take the focus off of ourselves for a moment and consider that we are told that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”, we too will say with all of the confidence that true humility can muster “”Here am I; send me.”
Have a great week!
