Little In Our Own Eyes (1 Samuel 15:17)

 


Tuesday, June 17, 2025


Psalm 106:1-24

1 Samuel 15:17-35

Acts 10:1-16


Little In Our Own Eyes (1 Samuel 15:17)


And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.”


Humility is a great Christian characteristic. Our Lord has a humble heart, and he teaches us to follow him in this attitude. And so we should make sure to reflect on what makes humility, because there is so much opportunity to get it wrong.


King Saul was accused by the prophet Samuel of a misguided humility. The king had, apparently, a poor sense of himself; we might call it something approaching low self-esteem. He was “little in his own eyes”. Here is our lesson in avoiding false humility. Saul’s false humility was not a veil covering pride underneath; his false humility expressed itself in a couple of other ways.


First was the problem of low self-esteem. Saul saw himself as of not much consequence, yet the Lord had anointed him king over Israel. This is a problem we still suffer from today. We are Christians, a people specially blessed by God, drawn out of darkness into the marvellous light of Christ. Our Lord has given us a charge to go forth and proclaim his gospel in word and deed. We are ambassadors of heaven. Pride is no good – but neither is low self-esteem. Since God thinks so highly of us, how do we apply that to our own self-perception?


Second was the issue of cowardice, which Saul expressed in blame-shifting. It was the people who disobeyed the Lord, not he. This also is a problem from which we suffer. It is much easier to find a way to justify ourselves instead of facing the music. But we shouldn’t be afraid to own up to our mistakes before the Lord, because God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy, and forgives us, and on top of his forgiveness, the grace to move on.


Humility is a tough nut to crack. On the one side we have pride, and our tendency to puff ourselves up in our own eyes. On the other, we have low self-esteem and cowardice. True humility is not in either of those directions. It accepts that the Lord has anointed us as his beloved children and ambassadors of his good news; and it accepts that all our success comes from the Lord. Perhaps the only way to cultivate true humility is to spend more time developing our love for the Lord; and this will never be time wasted.


Where might you find yourself leaning towards pride? Where might you find yourself leaning towards low self-esteem? How does the love of God in Jesus keep you from falling into either of those tendencies?


God of grace and humility, who raises us up to a place higher than we were before: give us the grace necessary to live humbly according to your word, your overflowing love to keep us faithful, and the prayerful courage to keep us bold.

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