Exploring the word abase in the Scriptures Part 1

April 3, 2011 Sunday

Study of Abase

Synonym: Humble

From the Topical Guide the first scripture it sends me to is Ezekiel 21:26

“Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.”

I don’t understand this very deeply, but I have an idea. Perhaps, it means when you remove the diadem (which is a Hebrew translation from headdress) maybe we are removing the high pride of our hearts. Because as the scriptures generally teach, the rich are the ones who will go to hell, but when they say rich it just shows the tendency within people to be prideful and to think they are worth more than everyone else, that everyone else is beneath them. Which is not a teaching of Christ, because he teaches in the New Testament that all must come unto Him; the greatest commandment he teaches is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind and strength, but the second greatest commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. The rich, well forget the rich, just those who think they are too important to help others will be going to hell, unless they change their ways.

So my current understanding is also that we need to take off the diadems and crowns that we put metaphorically on us, and to serve God and others and when we do that we are exalted, meaning we are brought closer to Christ and knowing who He is. It is important to know who Christ is because, He bids us come unto Him, and we cannot come unto Him unless we are trying to be like Him. And I believe this statement because of the rich young man in the New Testament who goes to Christ and asks what he can do to go to heaven, and Christ tells him to follow all of the commandments and the young man says he has since he was young. Then Christ tells him to sell all that he owns and give it to the poor then come follow Him, however, the young man does not do this and goes away mourning because he cannot give up his riches.

Before I continue with musing, I am going to look at this verse’s idea, when I say that I mean the backwards P in the scriptures, those indicate idea changes or a break in thought. This one begins in verse 25 and ends after 27.

In verse 25 it mentions the 2^nd coming of Christ, during the millennium when there will be no evil and Satan will be bound. Which then is the time to judge(?) who has been righteous and those who have not. However, verse 27 is confusing. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” –What does he mean by repeating overturn and saying it three times? Well to repeat it means it is important. Overturn is flipping everything upside down. Are there many things to flip over, or is it three times to flip over? However, overturn can also mean to change. So he could be changing the current system. Oh! Here’s an idea, perhaps he means that since he is speaking of the second coming of Christ, he is preparing the people for His return. He could be overturning (changing) those who are high and to humble them as Christ would have His people be humble, until Christ returns and then he will as he says, “until he come whose right it is; and I will give it Him” So he will teach Christ’s word until Christ comes again and only then when all evil is gone, as said in verse 25, and then turn over to follow Christ and let Him, the greatest teacher, teach him.

Does that make sense to you? –I hope so.

So what I understand about abase so far from this verse is to humble those who are prideful in their hearts, which I know I am at times. The Lord will “abase him that is high” so if I follow after what Christ taught, He will help me to be humble. Because Christ was humble, He helped everyone who asked Him and He was above none, because He would always serve His friends and those He did not know.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this thought another time.