Humility flourishes in the dust. It is from whence we arose, it is what we are, and what awaits this mortal flesh. “You are dust and to dust you shall return” –Genesis 3:19. In the dust, the mighty and lowly alike embrace. There beneath the sod, worms do their work without respect of persons. No pomp abides below. We are but gloryless dust: unnoticed, trodden down, and lifeless apart from the breath of God.
Dust: It is from here that we see ourselves as we are in fact. And Damascan dust is a most fertile field for the budding of this comely grace of humility. Pompous Paul the Pharisee discovered it to be so. In a brilliant flash through now blinded eyes, he saw clearly for the first time in his life. In the dust, his God of ancestral tradition was abandoned and the Lord of glory was apprehended. It was there that he had to admit that he did not know the very God he presumed to serve. “Lord, who are You?” -Acts 9:5.
His mission, entourage, and fanaticism were forgotten in one instant. The curried favors obtained and invested authority of Jerusalem’s high priest ceased to inflate his conceits [Acts 9:1-9]. Swelling thoughts of self no longer inflamed his breast. Stripped of all its pretensions, his heart now had only one occupation: knowing and serving the Lord Jesus. Self was deserted for the excellence of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord. This is what humility is made of. When we see ourselves as we truly are mirrored in the Word of God, pride is exposed for the folly that it is.
We are as grand as grasshoppers [Isaiah 40:22] and permanent as the morning mist [James 4:14]. The sum of our achievements is less than nothing and void of value [Isaiah 40:15,17]. This is man: insignificant [Job 40:4] as a writhing worm [Job 25:6] whose glory fades and vanishes like the wilting grass [Isaiah 40:6,7].
Boasting is sinful. It demotes and ignores the God of glory while promoting and advertising the baseness of man. We have nothing to boast in except Christ’s cross alone. God forbid that we should boast in anything but. Through it “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” –Galatians 6:14.
Crucified, now there is something to boast in. God has put to death by a final violent act all that I am. Self, the arch enemy to myself, to God, and to man has been executed. This is cause for rejoicing. This flesh, which profits nothing [John 6:63] and in which dwells no good thing [Romans 7:18], is condemned. Nothing else could justly be done. All the refined, learned, and sanctimonious among men recoil in revulsion at such a notion. That is, until they be struck down in the dust.
While reclining on velveteen sofas, mounting rostrums, or parading in the sanctuary, the infection of self-esteem thrives. The dust approaching Damascus quickly quenches this fever. Few wish to taste it. To prostrate there with all pomp and pretension stripped does not flatter the flesh. Neither does the cross. But neither is there any other remedy for what we are.
If we must boast, let it be in what pertains to our weakness [2 Corinthians 11:30]. This is what Paul exulted in and promoted to commend his credentials. Here is the highest he could conceive of about himself. “In Damascus the governor had the city guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands” -2 Corinthians 11:32,33.
Dust, a basket, and the cross were all that Paul could truly glory in. Outside Damascus he was accosted by the risen Christ and cast to the dust. Inside, he also found cause to boast in a Damascan basket. Vilified, scorned, and hunted as a loathsome beast was his lot. Death’s sentence hung over his head as he withdrew, cornered and defenseless, from these relentless assailants.
Powerless, Paul awaited his fate holding on to but one glimmer of hope. Help may yet come from above. And it did, and that in the form of a basket. From above, he was lowered to freedom and safety. Looking up he saw the source of his salvation from certain doom. All he could do was abide in the means of his deliverance as so much pitiful cargo. The strength to save was not of himself. The means were none of his own devising. Humbled, humiliated, and helpless aptly describe the basket’s occupant.
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” –Romans 5:6.
A cross, at the right time, for the helpless and ungodly. A basket, at the right time, for the powerless and condemned. Dust, at the right time, for the proud and self-willed. Pride & Dust: one cancels the other.