Isaiah 57:9c, 15a …debase thyself even unto hell… For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit…
Having read Isaiah 57 this morning, I’ve been confronted with a question, “What is the difference between humility and humiliation?” I think most people would agree there is a difference, but I think we would have a difficult time putting a finger on it. It is one of those things where we would say, “Well, I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it.” There is a difference between humiliation and humility.
The reason this matters is because this is a contrast brought to us in Isaiah 57. God is talking about the righteous men among His people who have perished and what He calls the “sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.” Those are strong words. He is talking about the righteous man and those among His people who have been unfaithful, who have gone to other kingdoms and other gods, who have rejected the help of Jehovah. Specifically, they have done two things. He says in verse 8, “Thou hast discovered thyself to another than me.” That is, just as someone who is unfaithful to his spouse, Israel had been unfaithful to God and had discovered herself to other gods and kingdoms. In verse 9 He says, “Thou…didst debase thyself even unto hell.” They had lowered themselves to the pit of hell. They had humiliated themselves.
With those words ringing in our ears we come to verse 15. There is a contrast here between the high and lofty God and the humble people, but there is also a contrast between those who humiliate themselves, something that is done to self in this case, and those who are humble. Verse 15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” God says He revives such people. Elsewhere God says He exalts such people.
You may recall in the story of King David how he “danced before the Lord” with joy about the return of the Ark. His wife, Michal, essentially said, “What are you doing? You are humiliating yourself in front of all these little girls out here.” Was David humiliating himself or was he humbling himself? The fact is, he wasn’t humiliating himself before an idol; he was humbling himself before God.
Therein lies one of the major keys. When I am lowering myself before a god that is not a god, I’m humiliating myself. When I humble myself before Jehovah God, the God Who is God, I am simply acknowledging Who He is in His high place and who I am. In that sense, humility is a character trait and humiliation is something often done, maybe unintentionally. When I am humiliated, I shame myself. When I am humble, I am ashamed of, perhaps, prior behavior.
The bottom line is that humiliation is submitting to vanity. Later, God says of the idols after which many of His people had gone, “When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee.” He is saying, “If you want help, then ask your gods. See how they do.” It continues, “But the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them.” In other words, it is humiliation and not humility because they had lowered themselves before a hunk of stone, a graven image, a god that man had created. That is not humility; that is humiliation.
On the other hand, when there is the high and lofty One, Who inhabits eternity and Who created time and space, a set-apart, holy God, I can do nothing else but acknowledge by my attitude and actual posture what is true in reality: God is high and lifted up and I am not.
So, humiliation is submitting to vanity, to that which is not God, but humility requires something greater, Someone greater, God. So whether I am humiliating myself or humbling myself largely has to do with what I am responding to. Am I responding to a “little g” god or to God Jehovah?
Someone may say, “I’d do anything for a buck” or “I’d do anything for TikTok.” That is humiliation, lowering yourself before a god that is not. Someone says, “I want to say I would do anything for Christ.” That is humility. That is putting aside my self-will, self-interest, and self-absorption, and focusing on something eternal and sublime. We are submitting to Someone Who is greater.
Today, I want to live in humility and I don’t want to live in humiliation. So much of the difference between those two is the God Whom I worship.