Abase (bring low)

God will abase any who oppose Him. Their supposed strength is irrelevant.

• Egypt Exodus 15:4-7 HCSB He threw Pharaoh's chariots and his army into the sea; the elite of his officers were drowned in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. LORD, Your right hand is glorious in power. LORD, Your right hand shattered the enemy. You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.
• Assyria 2 Chronicles 32:18-21 HCSB Then they called out loudly in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten and discourage them in order that he might capture the city. They spoke against the God of Jerusalem like they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the land, which were made by human hands. King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven, and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated every brave warrior, leader, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned with shame to his land. He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children cut him down with the sword.
• Babylon Jeremiah 50:29-32 HCSB Jeremiah 50:29-32 Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will be silenced in that day. This is the LORD's declaration. Look, I am against you, you arrogant one--this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Hosts--because your day has come, the time when I will punish you. The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him."

God hates pride. He sets Himself against it.

• Proverbs 15:25 HCSB The LORD destroys the house of the proud, but He protects the widow's territory.
• Isaiah 29:11-17 HCSB For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, "I can't read it, because it is sealed." And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, "I can't read." The Lord said: Because these people approach Me with their mouths to honor Me with lip-service--yet their hearts are far from Me, and their worship consists of man-made rules learned by rote-- therefore I will again confound these people with wonder after wonder. The wisdom of their wise men will vanish, and the understanding of the perceptive will be hidden. Woe to those who go to great lengths to hide their plans from the LORD. They do their works in darkness, and say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?" You have turned things around, as if the potter were the same as the clay. How can what is made say about its maker, "He didn't make me"? How can what is formed say about the one who formed it, "He doesn't understand what he's doing"? Isn't it true that in just a little while Lebanon will become an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest?
• Jeremiah 50:31-32 HCSB Look, I am against you, you arrogant one--this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Hosts--because your day has come, the time when I will punish you. The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him."
• Malachi 4:1-3 HCSB "For indeed, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them," says the LORD of Hosts, "not leaving them root or branches. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing," says the LORD of Hosts.

When we begin thinking that we are self-sufficient, that we are self-made, that we and we alone have created our good circumstances, we are placing ourselves in a very dangerous place.

• Daniel 4:28-33 HCSB All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, "Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my vast power to be a royal residence and to display my majestic glory?" While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and He gives it to anyone He wants." At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was executed. He was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky, until his hair grew like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.

God alone raises or lowers. He alone must get the glory.

· Luke 1:52 HCSB He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

• Isaiah 2:10-22 HCSB Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and from His majestic splendor. Human pride will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day. For a day belonging to the LORD of Hosts is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up--it will be humbled-- against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the high mountains, against all the lofty hills, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against every ship of Tarshish, and against every splendid sea vessel. So human pride will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted on that day. The idols will vanish completely. People will go into caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from His majestic splendor, when He rises to terrify the earth. On that day people will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made to worship, to the moles and the bats. They will go into the caves of the rocks and the crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the LORD and from His majestic splendor, when He rises to terrify the earth. Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. What is he really worth?

How much better the results of self-abasement.

• Proverbs 29:23 HCSB A person's pride will humble him, but a humble spirit will gain honor.

We will get much better results when we voluntarily abase ourselves. Learn from the story of Haman who tried to exalt himself and ended up reviled and dead and of Esther who humbled herself before God and her king and was lifted up.

• Esther 7:1-10 HCSB The king and Haman came to feast with Esther the queen. Once again, on the second day while drinking wine, the king asked Esther, "Queen Esther, whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek, even to half the kingdom, will be done." Queen Esther answered, "If I have obtained your approval, my king, and if the king is pleased, spare my life--this is my request; and spare my people--this is my desire. For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and extermination. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn't be worth burdening the king." King Ahasuerus spoke up and asked Queen Esther, "Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?" Esther answered, "The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman." Haman stood terrified before the king and queen. Angered by this, the king arose from where they were drinking wine and went to the palace garden. Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him. Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the house of wine drinking, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, "Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palace?" As soon as the statement left the king's mouth, Haman's face was covered. Harbona, one of the royal eunuchs, said: "There is a gallows 75 feet tall at Haman's house that he made for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king." The king commanded, "Hang him on it." They hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's anger subsided.

Develop a taste for humble people. Look for them and surround yourself with them. Better yet, become one of them.

• Psalms 101:5-6 HCSB I will destroy anyone who secretly slanders his neighbor; I cannot tolerate anyone with haughty eyes or an arrogant heart. My eyes favor the faithful of the land so that they may sit down with me. The one who follows the way of integrity may serve me.