* Humility is seeing yourself through the grid of who God is and who you are in relation to Him.
* Isaiah is saying that this type of person is the one whom God will look on with favor.
* vs 2 - “Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.”
* A humble person filters everything through God's Word with a sincere heart to obey it.
* A humble person is dead-set on being reverent to God's Word more than he is on being relevant to the culture.
* Warren Wiersbe says, “To “tremble at God’s word” means to respect what God says and fear to disobey it. The Jews experienced this when Ezra exposed their sins, and the prophet Habakkuk experienced it when he saw the vision of God’s judgment. Saul of Tarsus trembled when he met the Lord. However, King Jehoiakim did not tremble at the Word; he tried to destroy it, and that led to his destruction. Paul urged, “Work out your own salvation [Christian life] with fear and trembling.”
* To tremble is to have a holy fear of God.
* He’s a lion, but He’s not a tame lion!
* You do not mess with Him.
* Jeremiah 2:19 - “Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe (fear) of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”
* Skip Moen - “The fear of Me” isn’t strong enough, particularly these days. This is not yārāʾ, the usual verb for fear. This is far more intense. Terror is the sense of it. YHVH complains that His people are no longer terrorized by His presence. Yes, He is the loving God committed to a covenant with Israel. That doesn’t go away. But He is GOD, the absolute monarch of all creation, the source of everything, the producer of good and evil, able to snatch away life in a split second. Israel forgot Who it was dealing with. The people counted on the covenant promise without recognizing the character of the Promiser. Instead of trembling, they presumed.”
* “When was the last time you heard anyone speak about the dread of God? That wouldn’t attract many attendees, would it? No, instead of listening to the words of Jeremiah, we have converted a warning into a welcome.
* “We have divorced wrath from mercy and gone on to proclaim the end-of-the-rainbow kingdom. We don’t think it’s possible that God would actually destroy us. We skip over YHVH’s declaration of Jeremiah’s role, “to pluck up and break down, to destroy and to overthrow . . .”
* “Okay, now you can stop thinking about this truth and go on pretending that God wants to make you happy.
* Do you tremble at His Word?