Humility Precious in God's sight — Walter Brubacker

Greetings brothers and sisters, it's another beautiful day in God's creation and in His greatness and power is so much more than what we see, it's incomprehensible. And the glory that is beyond this time is so much greater than what we can imagine.

And so we do these things kind of like through a glass darkly. We try to worship Him in His greatness and it's not very possible, but we do what we can. He also says that the Spirit gives utterance for us, but there's a connection in between somehow that is even greater.

I don't know how that all works, but it does mention that. And I'm going to read an account in 2 Kings 1, starts with after the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. And I'm not sure that's the end of the other chapter, but then it starts with Ahazza had fallen through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria.

Ahaziah’s Reliance on Beelzebub Instead of God

I don't know what he was climbing on or if he fell through a fence, but he fell down off, seemed like off a top floor in Samaria and he lay injured. So he sent messengers telling them, go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.

And I want us to take notice that God is not asleep. When we do things, He's taking account of the choices we're making. And in this case, this ungodly king didn't think about God. He just said, go to Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, to inquire.

Anyways, in verse 3,. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, get up, go meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there's no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not leave the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die. So Elijah went. The messengers, so they met him and that's what he said to the messengers.

The messengers returned to the king who said to them, why have you returned? So obviously they didn't go very far as far as the king expected. And he came back real quick. They answered him, there came a man to meet us who said to us, go back to the king who sent you and say to him, thus said the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel that you're sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?

Therefore, you shall not leave the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die. He said to them, what sort of a man was he who came and met you and told you these things? They answered him, a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.

And the king said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. They knew about Elijah, obviously. But he must not have been much in their life at that point, or he might have thought of him earlier. Maybe not. Then the king sent to him a captain of 50 with his 50 men.

A captain of 50 with his 50 men. So the order they had was like, there's like one man and then his 50 men probably trained together so they could be effective in battle and in protection or whatever might come up.

The Judgment on the First Two Captains

He went up to Elijah who was sitting on the top of a hill and said to him, oh man of God, the king says, come down. Elijah answered the captain of 50, am I a man of God? If I'm a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50.

Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. The king didn't really seem to hesitate. Again the king sent to him another captain of 50 with his, a captain of 50 with his 50. He went up and said to him, oh man of God, this is the king's order, come down quickly.

But Elijah answered them, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. That's 102 people that were just burned up with fire.

And the king again just sent another captain. In verse 13, again the king sent his captain of a third 50, of a third 50 with his, somehow this confusing to me, but sent the captain of a third 50 with his 50.

The Third Captain’s Humility

So the third captain of 50 went up and he came and fell on his knees before Elijah and treated him, oh man of God, please let my life and the life of those 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight.

Look, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of 50 men with their 50s, but now let my life be precious in your sight. And immediately the Lord interjected, or the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, do not be afraid of him.

So he set out and went down with him to the king. And he said to the king, thus saith the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Akron, is it because there's no God in Israel to inquire of his word?

Therefore, you shall not leave the bed to which you have gone, for you shall surely die. It seems like the king was wanting to know what Elijah was going to say now, or I'm not sure what he intended to do, but he was inquiring at least.

But because he would not go to the Lord first, he had to die. I can't know, but I think maybe if he would have sought the Lord in the first place, he might have spared his life. But the point I was going to make in this is, I had in this is to be precious in the sight of God, or to be precious in someone's sight.

Humility Before God and the Desire for Mercy

When we, I think this is a subject that I think maybe it gets talked about all the time, but I think maybe it needs to be talked more. There's this vast difference between we ourselves coming to God and being humble before God, and entreating God that we have to have you.

We want to be precious in your sight. Don't use us according to our sins. And I think this is where the beginning of walking in God's ways, one of the many ways, I think, but another way of explaining how that once we humble ourselves, God is able to not keep striking us down.

And it's, I just find it, I find it precious how this man, how this man was willing to humble himself so much that he was willing to put himself in, like, entreating Elijah, and God heard it. And I think, I believe when we come in the spirit before God that he can do, he can save our lives, he can bring us into the light.

And he's just waiting for that humility in us to be that humble. And I think this applies also in our daily lives that we can, we can have more that, we should have more that spirit of, am I precious in your sights?

Am I, can you forbear with me? I think it's just so different from having this pride of needing to tell everybody, or commanding people. Like, it seems like here, these, the first one seems like he, he just said, the king says, come down.

The second one said, quickly. Like he was trying to emphasize his power, perhaps, but it made no difference. And the third one had wisdom. He, he was willing, he was willing to humble himself before God.

And this is, I think, the great lesson for me, too, that I think, I think by nature we're all kind of proud. I don't think I'm so different, but there is a lot of pride in me in so many ways. And, and I, I want to learn this lesson before I have to perish.

So I want to be precious in the sight of God. And I would love to be precious in your sights. Because, not because I, I command you around or tell you what to do, but he did not even say that, he didn't even ask that he would come.

I hadn't noticed that, but right now I, I think this fits in real well. Like, he was done. He was finished. He knew his life was likely death for him. But he, he pled and he humbled himself. I just think there's a great lesson for us.

This is a way to God's heart.

Job’s Plea for Mercy and Waiting on God

Thank you for the message. It kind of reminded me of the spirit of, of Job and chapter 14 verses 12 through 14. He says, So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more. They shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep.

Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave. Thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be passed. That thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.

Thou shall call and I will answer thee. Thou will have a desire to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps, dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

If God is waiting, like, we know God is waiting on us, but can we wait on him to do this great work?

God’s Consuming Fire and the Severity of Judgment

We don't know his name. We don't know the man's name who, the third captain who humbled himself, but the humility, certainly an example. Over and over again, not over and over again, many times in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy, God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews, God is a consuming fire. Whether it was, oh, Korah, perhaps Nadab and Abihu, how did Nadab and Abihu, but when people question the, what would we say, when they question the authority or the firmness of God's commands, you know, Paul says, consider the goodness and severity of God.

So, the Jews are in the wilderness and they wax fat, you know, they got fat, physically fat, and they forsaken the commandments and everything. And so, in the wilderness, Psalm 78, can God furnish us a table in the wilderness?

And God was wrath. He was wrath with them, just by questioning that. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? And so, he gave them manna from heaven, but then the wrath started, right? As they were eating, he poured out his wrath.

Perhaps Nadab and Abihu, you know, whether it was drinking at a strange fire, but knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But the real message of the gospel, I think, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, is the goodness and love and the forgiveness and the patience and all the great things that, knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance and the positive things, but we shouldn't forsake those severe things, the punishment.

And for those of us who believe that it's not just annihilation, it's an ongoing thing, as Brother Adelmo says, weeping and gnashing forever and ever, it's not, it's not a, you know, it would, as Brother Aaron's not here, but, you know, I mean, in some verses, he mentioned that we're hard to reconcile, like, don't be afraid of him who can kill the body, and, but those who can kill the body and soul, it's, there's a lot more than just going to sleep.

Anyway, thanks, Walter, as a lesson for humility and reverence for God, reverence that he is a consuming fire. The Lord be magnified.

The New Covenant and the Spirit of Mercy

Audience Member. Yeah, I want to say amen to all that has been said. It's very encouraging to see this third guy rise up and be above the things of this world. That's a good example there. What caught my attention here was that, okay, so here in the Old Testament, fire came down and consumed these men.

And in the New Testament, whenever the disciples asked for something of similar power to come down and consume those ones in Samaria that didn't accept them, what did Jesus say? He said that you don't know what spirit you're of, which just really expresses to me, like, this new covenant that had begun through Jesus and his kingdom, his disciples, was a very real thing.

Like, it was the new, the laws of this covenant was going to be different. There wasn't going to be man calling down fire from heaven. And even, even here in this example, it's, it's the Lord sending the fire down.

And I think men from this world have no, no, like, control or no right to ask for those things. Like, vengeance is the Lord's and needs to be left in his hands. So, and then the other thing, if we think of this king, I'm not sure if I know to pronounce his name just right, Ahaziah, Ahaziah.

Just turning, turning from, or maybe had already previously turned from the Lord's ways, but turning to a, an outside source, you might say, for future knowledge. And I just wondered in what ways people still do that today.

People that you would think should know better, should know that there's a God in Israel and they still turn to whatever other God there might be in the present day that, that they go to for fortune telling or, or even some things may be a little more, seem like a lot of the things should be settled in our minds if we just commit ourselves to follow in his way and press into his kingdom.

Yeah. Amen. I appreciated that. I didn't have a lot to say, but I did think of a scripture when you were up there, Walter. Proverbs 18, 23, the poor useth in treaties, but the rich answereth roughly. Just made me kind of consider when, when we're in a humbled state, we're humble and when we're comfortable, we're, we're not so humble.

But anyways, I appreciated that. I just thought of that verse when you were. Thanks brother Walter. And I, I also appreciate the comments that have been made. Just looking at that story. One, one thing that's been jumping out at me as I've been reading through the Old Testament lately.

It's nothing new. It's, it's something I've thought about before, but it's true that, that we serve, that we serve a merciful God, that we serve a God who's, who's both just and merciful. And I recently, I was reading the account of King Ahab.

Ahab’s Repentance and God’s Compassion

I think arguably, arguably he's probably one of the worst, most vile Kings that we have record of, especially when you, especially when you pair him up with his wife and the schemes that she devised, you know, to hurt other men and to, to serve Baal.

But when it finally came time for, for judgment, when God was going to enact a judgment on him, he put on sackcloth and, and was repentant. And, and, and then God said that he, I don't remember how, how it's put, but, but anyway, he wouldn't, he wouldn't visit that judgment in the days of Ahab.

And it came later at a later time. It just, we serve a compassionate God who's moved by people exercising their free will in repentance. And, and I think I, I didn't see that in the King who fell through the lattice.

He just wanted to know, he, he just wanted to inquire further. And I, I kind of wonder, it doesn't say it in the story, but I kind of wonder if maybe what he was hoping for was like a, a lobbying or a pressuring of Elijah to maybe have a better prophecy.

And he didn't get it. He got the same prophecy, but, but the messenger who came and humbled himself rather than tried to order Elijah around was spared. And then, and then of course, like in Ezekiel, I, I just think there's this one verse that just really captures the heart of God toward people.

In Ezekiel, when God is quoted and it says, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live. I just, it's just really heart-wrenching, a beautiful picture of God's heart.

The Holy Spirit’s Conviction and Holy Discomfort

Amen. Mateo kind of reminded me of a point that Dwayne had made a couple of years ago in a sermon, and it was talking about the, the way in which the comforter, the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us. And he was saying that usually the times that we feel like we're on edge, or we don't feel comfort, the same, same level of comfort that the people of the world would feel comfort.

But almost as if the, when we, almost as if, if we know we're on the right track, it's, it's, we feel this level of discomfort, almost as if somebody is holding a sword at our back or challenging us. Maybe something doesn't quite feel right in our spirits and we need to, we need to work on something.

We may not even know what that specifically is, but there's the, the imagery of a, of a king prodding his soldier on, continue, fight, you know, do the right thing. And so our, our comforter is, is not all that comfortable.

And it was, it was something that I really, I had been thinking a lot about lately and it's,.

It's challenging. And a comment on Brother Max's comment that the mercy of God and, you know, the eyes of the Lord move back and forth throughout the world to see you. It's hard. It's completely his. And to your last breath, I mean, you think of some of my heroes, people will say, well, well, these are your heroes, but, but not just Ahab, how he humbled himself.

Of course, he never repented, but how about his son, King Manasseh, the worst king of all. And yet he humbled himself, the thief in the cross, the apostle Paul, chief of all sinners. They all humbled themselves and God's mercy overthrown it.

And I won't forget some other people here. That is every one of us here who have come to the Lord and been baptized. God had his mercy on us. So like David, we can sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.

The Lord be magnified.