5.16.26 – The Humble Walk

You are in familiar territory where everyone knows you, but no one notices you. You are standing in line, and a person cuts in front of you, stating that the person ahead of you was saving their spot. You get back to your vehicle only to find that someone has boxed you in, making you fifteen minutes late for your next appointment. You are now stuck in traffic, and a guy cuts you off, causing you to miss your exit, making you even later in your day. Life can be so annoying! And sometimes, without giving it a second thought, you just have to let them know what you think of them.

The basis of all anger is conceit. What makes me think that things are supposed to be the way I want them to be? Why do I always have to be emotionally, physically, aesthetically, and in every other way, as I think it should be? We live in a society that programs us to believe that our own success is the yardstick of real success. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) will teach us. The yardstick of success is actually how little these little things annoy us.

Bamidbar (Numbers) will reveal to us, through story and instruction, some really good success principles to live by:

  1. We were created to serve others, and no one was created to serve me.

  2. "I wouldn't do it to you, but if you do it to me, it's okay." Warning: that does not mean you are the proverbial doormat where people can walk all over you. But for those who live like "water on a duck's back"—allowing others' inconsideration to roll off your life easily instead of developing a cynical chip on your shoulder—you will find that those people walk carefree and sin-free. Try it and see :-)

  3. "Whatever I do for you is never enough, and what you do for me is more than I deserve."

We could add more, but three is enough to think about on this 42nd day of counting the Omer.

Do you ever wonder why God gave us the Torah in the desert (midbar)? A place with no kings. A place with no cities and no conveniences. A place of no beauty and total humility. So we would learn to receive God's divine instructions without affiliation to dictators, religious systems, or aesthetic circumstances that wow the eye. Instead, God humbles our surroundings in order to prepare us—through humility—to receive His perfect instructions. A conceited person will never learn, or they will always learn new facts but never come into the experiential knowledge of what they have learned (2 Tim. 3:7; Heb. 5:10–14). There is nothing that pleases God more than a person who walks in humility (James 4:6; Matt. 23:12). Hence, Moses—the most humble man to walk the face of the earth—was the recipient of the full Torah (Num. 12:3).

Like the desert, he was the humblest of men. To whatever degree an individual walks in humility, that will be the degree to which they receive the Torah. Shavuot is coming. Ascension Day has passed. May we be more like Moses rather than the Pharaoh who would not humble himself and let the people go so that they could serve the Lord (Ex. 10:3–4).

Shabbat Shalom!
Alan

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