TO THIS MAN WILL I LOOK
“To this man will I look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and trembles at my word.”
—Isaiah 66:2
The context of this statement is the building of a house for Him. God confronts the absurdity of thinking He is contained by space. Nothing can contain Him. Yet, there is nothing outside of Him. Hannah Whithall Smith once wrote, “People are always trying to enter God’s presence but when I read the Bible I see that you cannot get out of it.” Part of the error of the human perspective is that God is like us. That He is here and not there or He must arrive or that He has left. Though we know that the glory of God can depart and manifest, God when understood rightly, envelops all things. He sees, hears and rules all. Tozer once wrote, “The Christian believes, ‘God is there’ while the mystic believes that ‘God is here.” In other words, the truth is not merely that God exists, but that you are before Him in all that you do. Humility and the recognition of the all-present one are inseparable. Recently, the drama amongst Christian ministers is at the highest point I have ever witnessed it. I have found the best way to communicate with each side is to keep before my eyes that the Lord is here. Present. Listening. Let us absorb and conduct ourselves from this revelation of God from God, “heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Has my hand not made everything?” Yesterday I was on a plane returning from preaching at the Chicago HUB conference. From the plane I saw the Disney fireworks show. A show that I have seen many times. This perspective of the show was much different. Those massive, loud and bright bursts that squint the eye and pain the ear covering the entire sky above were as small as an app icon on my iPhone. From this height I heard nothing and could cover the entire show with my pinky. Maybe the height or our lives is determined by the greatness of our God. If we think God comes and goes, is here and leaves, can be contained in our auditorium the world is loud, large and squints the eye. But if we believe He is the omnipresent one and nothing is done in the dark or behind his notice, we can raise to that altitude where the greatest displays of men are smaller than a child’s hand.
After the Creator of all things declares His greatness, He then swoops down from the highest heavens to the crawling worm and whispers, “To this man will I look.” Breathtaking utterance - Yaweh has revealed to all men what it is that He searches for. John Trapp translates it, “I have an eye to thee.” Giving a romance tone like that old Flamingos tune, “I Only Have Eyes For You.” Brian Simmons comments, “There is one my eyes are drawn to…” Motyer translates it, “For this one I will look.” We have both an understanding that God notices and searches for this one.
“To this man will I look…” He will turn His countenance towards this man. His countenance is His blessing, keeping, graciousness and peace (Numbers 6). His countenance is that shining of His face. He lights upon this man. What other heaven is there? God’s face? The very thing God calls us to seek, “Seek my face.” That very thing David determined to seek, “Your face Lord will I seek.” His presence and person overshadows the humble.
I want to call attention to the fact that man is thinking house and God is thinking humility. Man thinks building and God thinks bowing. Man thinks place, God thinks person. Man says, “do?” God says “look.” Yaweh discloses, “Humility attracts Me!” Andrew Murray defines humility as, “The sense of our entire nothingness.” A true faith that prostrates itself before all that God has revealed Himself to be. Isaac Ambrose cautions us, “if at anytime the soul begins to feel advanced in regard to the accomplishment of duty and spiritual things let us fall down before God and humble ourselves for the pride in our hearts.” Who are the humble? Motyer says they are “those ready to take the lowest place.” For He who is little in his own eyes will not be troubled to be little in the eyes of others. The high mountains are barren but the low valleys are fruitful. Accordingly the showers of God’s grace fall into lowly hearts.
Those who are humble are “contrite of spirit.” Notice that it doesn’t say, “contrite” only. Rather it says, “contrite of spirit.” Meaning, it is not a moment of contrition but a way of contrition. It is not merely an appeal for mercy but a disposition of mercy. It is recognition of a great need for mercy. An awareness of frailty. A friend said to me today, “I am as messed up as everyone else, I just want to be honest about it.” Dane Ortlund said, “I went from being an unaware screw up to an aware screw up.” It is living with a ‘need for mercy’ frame of mind. Motyer translates it, “crippled in spirit.” The word, astoundingly is the same word used in 2 Samuel 4:4;9:8 for Mephibosheth. Saul’s disabled son. A lameness. A deep sense of the damage of sin and helplessness to please God in ourselves. Earnest Kevan wrote, “Sin so crippled man’s moral powers that he cannot perform anything that is truly acceptable to God.” Another Theologian writes that it is to “recognize a radical defect that runs from top to bottom.” The natural man is like water on a hill, left to itself it quickly runs downward. Brian Simmons comments that this imparts a “tenderness” of spirit. The man who knows his personal deformity is granted Christ’s beauty.
Martin Lloyd Jones wrote, “The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God.” How do we make our souls dwell in the valley of humility - in view of God look at humanity. All that you are, see your own soul, all you have and do not have. Look upon your body, remember your actions and lack of actions, see your condition, sufferings, home life, incidents with others, seldom virtues. How often you have placed self first, preferred yourself, made yourself the center, forgotten to think of others or even to consider God. Your lack of constant joy, peace, trust, patience, peace, selflessness. You do not know if you will live tomorrow or not. “If the Lord wills you, you will do this or that.” How little time you have and that it is not yours anyway.
Those who are humble and contrite of spirit tremble at his word. From a crippling faith in God the humble live with a great value of His word. To tremble at His word means we believe it. It is important to us. His spoken words are more valuable than 10,000 gold and silver pieces. The crippled man finds His treasure to be God’s word. Brian Simmons comments, “living in awe of all I say.” Motyer defines treasuring God’s word as, “longing to obey it. To receive it not as the words of man but the very creative word of God.” For the word of God is not “inspired” but “expired.” The God-breathed word. It is God extending Himself to us. Thomas Watson calls the word of God, “the sundial by which we set our lives.” As Luther told us to remember, “the Scriptures did not grow on earth.”
There is a story of a young boy on a ship whose mother gave him a bible. With it she told him, “Whatever happens in your life, never let this book go.” The ship wrecked, his parents drowned and the boy was found holding only his bible. The Captain asked him why he chose to save his bible over everything else. He said, “My mother told me, no matter what happens in life, never let this book go.” When they arrived on land, the captain took the orphaned boy to a Christian merchant that he knew. After telling the story to the merchant that captain said, “I thought he might be a Christian.” The merchant gladly received the boy and said, “He who holds on to the word in peril is a Christian indeed.”
Lady Jane Gray was made fun of by her peers for reading the Bible while they all played. Her response was, “All amusements are but a shadow of the pleasures which I enjoy reading this book.”
In summary - amidst all the trials, temptations, and thunder storms of this short life, amidst all the different opinions throughout human existence, amidst all the joys and pleasures of living, there is one kind of person that God looks for and looks at. Upon this one and this one only does God cast the light of His favor and face. The one whose faith has brought him low, crippled his life and clings to God through His word.