Been talking about humility with some guys from my church over the past few weeks. Brother! You’d think that by now — after so many years of seeking to follow Christ — holding up that mirror would not still be revealing so many blemishes. Apparently not.

I’m guessing that’s why something repeated in Deuteronomy 8 caught my attention this morning.

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

(Deuteronomy 8:2-3 ESV)

“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'”

(Deuteronomy 8:11-17 ESV)

Would it be fair to say that if leaving Egypt is meant to be a picture of salvation, and entering the promised land foreshadows something of glorification, then perhaps the wilderness is a hint of what’s entailed in sanctification? That while the people had been brought out of Egypt, before entering the land of promise Egypt needed to be pried out from the people? That before they could fully possess what was ahead of them, they needed to learn to stop longing for what lay behind them? And so, they did laps for forty years. And during that time God humbled them, testing them to know what was in their hearts. Reminding them again and again of their need for Him as the pangs of hunger again and again unsettled them. They were humbled. Not so much as a punishment but as preparation. If that’s true (and I’m thinking it is), then boy am I being prepared!

As a man disciplines his son, so God disciplines His people (Deut. 8:5). The Lord disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6). Humbling is part of that training. Humiliation a tool in the Potter’s hand. The constant reminder of the earthen vessel’s weakness the means for revealing the actual source of the cracked pot’s power (2Cor. 4:7).

Being humbled doesn’t feel so good. Humiliation is hard. It’s painful, not pleasant, as it tests the heart. But we gotta believe it readies the man and it prepares the woman as it ultimately “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).

Humbled? Yeah. Still? Yup. Ouch? Yes sir. But for my good as I continue to journey in this wilderness on the way to the land of promise.

Another facet of God’s amazing grace. Another means by which God gets all the glory.