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King Benjamin and Humility

One of the questions that has come to me over the years out of scripture is a seeming paradox, it is. Are we less than the dust of the earth or are we of infinite and great worth?

Well, this story answers that question…about 124 BC.

King Benjamin – the warrior king, was bowed down with age when he called his people together to teach them for the last time. His purpose was to make two announcements vital to their future – the first was that his son Mosiah would succeed him as king and the second the time cometh and is not far distant he said that with power the Lord omnipotent, who reigneth who was and is from all eternity to all eternity shall come down from heaven among the children of men.” [Mosiah 3:5]

Benjamin then went on and told of being awakened by an Angel of God who announced the birth (the forthcoming birth of the Messiah). Interestingly, Benjamin related to his people (verbatim) the joyous words of the angel about the coming of Christ, his atonement and resurrection and the need to put off the natural man that they might partake of the Messiah’s salvation.

Then, Benjamin stopped speaking and looked round about on the great multitude gathered about the temple. They had fallen to the earth for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

Now, I have pondered that. Why did they fall to the earth? And again when the resurrected Lord appeared to the Nephites, they fell to the earth before him. It happens again and again and again in the scriptures that men of their own accord fall to the earth in the presence of the Almighty.

Why? The answer my dear friends – it’s humility. Benjamin’s people had viewed themselves in their own carnal state “even less than the dust of the earth”. [Mosiah 4:2]

At the same time they had come to a knowledge of the goodness of God and it had awakened them to “a sense of their nothingness and their worthless and fallen state.”

This my friends, is true humility. I spent years trying to understand this. I hope this makes some measure of sense.

Humility is to sense deep within how low worthless and nothing we are before him, compared to him, and at the same time how much we need him. As I’ve said before to this camera, humility comes from the Latin word ‘humus’ which means earth or soil. The word human means ‘man of the earth’ literally thus it is that to humble myself means to bring myself down to the ground from whence I came before Him.

Like Benjamin’s people, when you and I see and sense the goodness, the exaltation, the perfection, the power, the peace, all that God has, we perceive as naturally as breathing the greatness that He is and the nothingness that we are. And in so doing, when we come to that knowledge, we fall to the ground, which is right where we belong before Him. It is then, and only then, that He who came to lift us up towards the true exaltation we were born for will begin to lift us up. He can’t lift those who are already standing arrogantly.

By these actions Benjamin’s people received a forgiveness of their sins and joy and peace of conscience. He then told them how simple it would be for them going forward if they wanted to retain a remission of their sins and be filled with that love that so consumed them now. (And this is the reason I tell you) How do you retain a remission of sins? How do you keep that sense of love from Him and for Him that motivates you to fall to the earth before Him?

Benjamin answered the question. He said, “I would that you should remember, he said, and always retain in remembrance the greatness of God in your own nothingness and His goodness and long-suffering towards you unworthy creatures and humble yourselves in the depths of humility – calling on the name of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come.’

Do you see it? Dust, dust, we are all dust; and dust we will be again when we lay this mortal body down.

Of what have we to brag? Of what have we to boast? Nothing!

We are all equal with one another. No one better than another, no one races better than another. We are all equal, none better than the other. Before God, we are all compared to Him – nothing but yet (I repeat it) before Him, we are nothing, worthless, and fallen but to Him we are precious and of infinite and great worth.

Humility is constantly being grounded and reminding ourselves of that truth. Our happiness here and hereafter depends on remembering that truth. And what better way to lay hold on that humility? To humble ourselves and return our mind and our hearts to that sense of our proper place before God then by what? Getting down on our knees in the dust as it were in constant worshipful prayer.