Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in [the due] time;
The word "therefore" ties this command to what comes just before it: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Two questions press on anyone under pressure: what is this "mighty hand," and how long is "due time"?
The Setting: God's Government
Peter has just told younger believers to submit to older ones, and all to each other. One writer sets the command inside God's way of governing His people.
All were to clothe themselves with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. These are still the principles of His government. So they were to humble themselves under His hand, and He would exalt them in due time. This was to commit themselves to God. He knew what was needful. He who loved them would exalt them at the right time.
What the "Mighty Hand" Feels Like
One writer refuses to soften the word "mighty," and finds comfort inside its roughness.
We can't tell in what form that "mighty hand" may humble. He may remove prop after prop. He may disappoint one hope of the heart after another... He may seem so set against your circumstances and your present joys that the heart begins to fear God is against us. It is a "mighty hand;" but let that comfort you instead of frightening you... It is not a "soothing hand;" it is a "mighty hand," that seems set on bruising. Well, what does the Spirit of God say? "Humble yourselves" under it, for "He will exalt you." Oh how beautiful! See how roughly Joseph spoke to his brothers. He put them in prison — told the keepers to take charge of them — but in secret he wept; and, in due time, he "exalted" them.
Others describe the same hand as the pressure of training, felt keenly by believers facing persecution.
The mighty hand of God is upon His people in the way of training, and often in very painful dealings, as was the case in the persecutions of these early Christians, yet under it we are to bow and in due time we shall be exalted.
Two Men, Two Directions
One writer sets the two directions side by side in two men.
What a much more blessed thing to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and for Him to exalt us, than to exalt ourselves, and for Him to have to put us down! "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled." That is the first man. "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." That is the second Man. The first man sought to make himself God, and fell into companionship with Satan. The second Man, who was God, made Himself nothing, and God has exalted Him to the very highest glory.
Where Real Humility Comes From
One writer ties our humility to what that hand has already done for us.
That mighty hand has worked and given us everlasting redemption. God calls us to be humbled under it. Sad to say, we fail to keep a steady sense of this marvellous light into which God called us. But it is our privilege to walk there... and it is our own fault if we do not walk there with open eyes. That is what secures the humility urged here.
Owning the Hand: Jonah's Example
Jonah lived this verse out from inside the fish, centuries before Peter wrote it. He stopped blaming the sailors who threw him overboard.
Jonah 1:15 says of the sailors, "they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea." But in Jonah 2:3, Jonah says to God, "You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas." So he owned the hand of God, and humbled himself under it. He put 1 Peter 5:6-7 into practice several centuries before Peter wrote the words. That put him on the way to recovery. Deliverance comes to souls in distress only when they acknowledge the hand of God.
That covers even the sufferer who has no one to blame but himself.
If some who are suffering have to own that it is the result of their own folly and self-will, what then? Ah, there is only one way. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Let lowly submission mark you before Him. Be honest and without pretence in His presence. Then in His own good time — the due time when it will be good for you — He will make a way of deliverance and raise you up.
"In Due Time" — Not a Minute Late
The timing belongs to God, and trying to hurry it costs us something.
If we try to deliver ourselves and get out of this path of trial, we have to take some side path, and we lose blessing. Remember, the verse adds that in due time God will exalt us — not a minute after the time. When He has worked out the whole purpose of His love, then He will exalt us.
Summary
- The hand — The verse calls it "mighty," not soothing. It may strip away prop after prop and even seem set against you. That word should comfort you, not frighten you.
- The bowing — Two directions only: humble yourself and God lifts you, or exalt yourself and God puts you down.
- The ground — The same hand has already given us everlasting redemption. Walking in that light is what produces humility.
- The owning — Jonah named God, not the sailors, as the one who cast him into the sea. Deliverance starts where we own God's hand — even when the trouble is our own fault.
- The timing — God exalts in due time, not a minute late. Escaping by a side path only loses the blessing.