1 Peter 5:5–6 (NASB95) 5and all of you, clothe yourselves
with humility toward one another, for God
is opposed to the proud, but gives
grace to the humble. 6Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the
proper time, . . .
When
Christians have problems with anxiety, there are only a few reasons why this
is. One is that they believe God will
allow them to experience hard, painful, and unpleasant experiences. They do not see the fact of being Christian
as either exempting them or protecting them from these things. In fact, they often even see God as being
instrumental in bringing these experiences into their lives. For their good, of course, but there just
doesn’t seem to be any endgame in this.
Which
lead to the other reason. They see God’s
purposes for our lives fulfilled in heaven more than on earth. There will be relief in heaven, but they are
not too hopeful of having too much of that prior to getting there. The whole time down here is to be spent on
things like discipline, chastisement, and testing, which is theological for a
lot of junk in your life.
We
know that God loves us, but just what does that mean in everyday life? What does that look like? What can we expect from God in life now
because of His love? We know that we
will go to heaven when we die, but how different should our lives be from
non-believers because of God’s love for us?
I am not talking about how our lives are different because of how we are
acting but because of what God is doing.
Verse
6 above says that God wants to exalt us at the proper time. Literally, that last phrase just says ‘in
time.’ We have already shown that God’s
plans for us include humbling us. This
is what He does to us rather than what we do on our own, but that
acknowledgement of being humbled could be called humbling ourselves. Like Pharaoh, people have been known to
refuse to be humbled.
But
then it says that this is all so that God “may exalt you at the proper time,
or, in time.” So what exactly does that
mean?
One
way to answer that question is to look at the rest of the Bible to see if there
are examples of this. And there
are. About 20 examples. This is one of those cases where it is
important to look at the Greek Old Testament, which was the Bible of the early
Church. You can see the same word used
in all its various shades.
Genesis 24:35
(NASB95) 35“The Lord has greatly blessed my master, so
that he has become rich;
and He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and servants and
maids, and camels and donkeys.
The
phrase ‘become rich’ in English is where the Greek uses Peter’s word for
‘exalt.’ The King James says ‘become
great,’ which is probably a better translation here, though the text then
enumerates all the things that God has blessed Abraham with, so in this case,
becoming great in this case involved material wealth.
Genesis 26:13
(NASB95) 13and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very
wealthy
The phrase ‘became rich’ here is where the Greek use Peter’s
word. The Hebrew text again just means
‘to become great.’ The Hebrew text is
almost comical, because it uses the verb ‘become great’ 4 times in this
sentence. The man became great, and then
he advanced in greatness greatly until he became very great. In the Greek text, Peter’s word is only used
for the first becoming great.
Joshua 3:7
(NASB95) 7Now the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will
begin to exalt you
in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with
Moses, I will be with you.
Here the word ‘exalt’ again translates the Hebrew word for
‘becoming great:’ God was now going to make Joshua great in the sight of the
nation. Or exalt him.
2 Samuel
22:49 (NASB95) 49Who also brings me out from my
enemies; You even lift me
above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man.
Peter’s word is translated ‘lift me,’ the Hebrew word simply
meaning ‘being high.’ or here, making high.
An exaltation would be making something really high, so the Greek word
in itself does not mean necessarily what we think of as an exaltation, just the
fact of lifting something up. The
context clarifies the meaning, and in Peter we need to see the use of this word
in the Bible for how God works in His people.
But
note here, this was not just an emotional lifting, a feeling better. This was a lifting above one’s enemies.
Psalm 18:48
(NASB95) 48He delivers me from my enemies; Surely You lift me above those who
rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man.
This
is the same passage as above. In the
book of Samuel, it quotes a psalm that Dave wrote, and in the book of Psalms,
it is included there as well. There are
a few slight variations in the Hebrew text.
The Revised Standard Version catches the sense better here when it
says: yea, thou didst exalt
me above my adversaries. To merely lift
him over his enemies is almost meaningless.
To exalt him shows that he now has the advantage.
1
Kings 16:2 (NASB95) 2“Inasmuch as I exalted you [King Baasha] from the dust and
made you leader over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of
Jeroboam and have made My people Israel sin, provoking Me to anger with their
sins,
The
same Hebrew word here about lifting, but the text clearly shows this was a high
lifting, a true exaltation.
Psalm 27:5
(NASB95) 5For in the day of
trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent
He will hide me; He will lift
me up on a rock.
I like the Revised
Standard Version here better when it says: he will set me high upon a rock.
It seems a lot more like what the Psalmist is trying to
say. The rock was a picture of safety
from one’s enemies, a position of advantage and strength. Lifting him up on a rock doesn’t quite catch
the flavor of it.
Psalm 27:6
(NASB95) 6And now my head
will be lifted up
above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts
of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
This is the
next verse in the same psalm as the last verse.
It notes that the Psalmist’s head is now to be lifted up. The Greek and some other ancient versions
translate it as an active verb, God has lifted up his head. First He set him (lifted him up) on a rock,
and now God has lifted up his head above his enemies as well.
Psalm 37:34
(NASB95) 34Wait for the Lord and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the
land; When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
The expression ‘inherit the land’ [(kata)klhronomei=n
th\n gh/n] is found frequently in the Old
Testament , usually translated as ‘possess the land,’ speaking of the Promised
Land that God promised to His people. At
the time of this writing, the people were already in the land, but they still
had problems with enemies some still living within their borders. This was a promise of victory over those
enemies and a full enjoyment of that land.
Read again Deuteronomy 8, which we used earlier to help explain our
text.
Some Christians may question how that experience is relevant
to their lives today, and I would answer that it gives us insight into the
heart of God.
That expression of inheriting, or possessing the land, is
the same expression that Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount: Blesses are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Since that same expression is used about 40 times in the Old Testament,
a better translation would be ‘possess the land.’ Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess
the land.
It is not talking about some after-death millennial or
heavenly second earth experience. He is
talking about life on earth now. And
since the Sermon on the Mount was given well after the times of Moses, Joshua,
and the Promised Land, this expression is clearly used metaphorically for a
life that knows God’s presence and power.
Psalm 75:10
(NASB95) 10And all the horns of the wicked He will
cut off, But the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.
Psalm 89:17
(NASB95) 17For You are the glory of their strength, And by Your
favor our horn is exalted.
Psalm 92:10
(NASB95) 10But You have exalted my horn like that
of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.
I tried to find a good definition of horn as it is used
metaphorically in the Bible. Horns
obviously comes from certain male animals like bulls and rams which are
emblematic of an animal’s strength and virility. But I think I would define it loosely as
one’s place in life as in relation with other people. So one’s horn being cut off would not
necessarily mean one’s death but one’s public diminishment, and one’s
exaltation one’s public promotion.
But generally definitions speak of one’s strength or
negatively one’s pride. I like my
definition better. But in Psalm 75,
Peter’s word is translated ‘lifted up,’ but as ‘exalted’ in the other two
psalms. ‘Exaltation’ clearly captures
the sense of the word better in these verses.
Psalm 149:4
(NASB95) 4For
the Lord takes pleasure in His
people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
There’s a lot more to this verse
than what it may first appear. First note
that the second part of the verse depends on the first part. You could add a ‘therefore’ between the two parts. So what is it saying? The Lord takes pleasure in His people, therefore,
or because of that, He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
Anyone familiar with Hebrew poetry
will tell you that in a verse like this the people in the first part of the
verse are the same people in the second part. The word translated here ‘afflicted ones’ is
the common Old Testament word for ‘humble, meek. or poor.’ If Peter had written his epistle in Hebrew,
this is the word he would have used in our original text about clothing
yourself with humility or being humbled by God.
The Greek Old Testament translates it as ‘meek ones.’ [1]
The Greek Old Testament also translates
‘beautify’ by ‘exalt.’ the same word Peter uses in our text. It reads: He will exalt the meek with
salvation. ‘Salvation’ has become a
Christian buzzword that we use to speak of our eternal destiny, but in the Old
Testament, it is often translated as ‘deliverance’ or ‘victory.’ To be adorned with victory or deliverance is
also to be exalted.
In other words, Peter could have
used this verse to expand on what he wrote in I Peter.[2]
Proverbs 4:8
(NASB95) 8“Prize her, and she
will exalt you; She
will honor you if you embrace her.
This verse is speaking about wisdom, and wisdom does not
merely lift up those who prize her, but she exalts them. Read the rest of Proverbs 4.
Proverbs
18:10 (NASB95) 10The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous
runs into it and is safe.
The Hebrew word translated here ‘is safe’ means to “be
(inaccessibly) high.” In that time and
place of constant warring, having a position of height was always an advantage.
Here the text says that one that runs
under the protection of the Lord is safe, period. The Greek says that the righteous here are
exalted.
So
back to our original text: be humbled under the
mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in time, God wants to bless His people far more than
they imagine. We quote Ephesians
3:20:
20Now to Him who is
able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to
the power that works within us, but we can’t get past the ‘He is able’
part. We know that God can do all
things, but we stumble over His willingness.
One article won’t be enough to answer all the questions or
remove all the doubts. For most of us it
take constant reinforcement from a lot more Scripture.
You don’t lose when you are humble. While learning is a lifelong venture, most of
God’s work in your life is a preparation for future blessing. In this life.
And He wants to do more than we can imagine. But the humbling comes first.
[1]
The
translators may have chosen to translate it by ‘afflicted ones’ here because
the text they used had a different word which is often a textual variant for
this word. They are spelled almost
identically.
[2] As a side note, the word for
salvation here יְשׁוּעָה , yeshua, is
the Hebrew word for Jesus. The word for
‘with’ can also be translated as ‘in.’
So there could be a play on words here where the humble, meek are
exalted with deliverance , and at the same time exalted in Jesus (Ephesians
2:1-7).
