God often allows problems to enter people’s lives in order to facilitate His initial plans. For example, God had already expressed His desire to Abram for him to separate from his kindred. For various reasons, Abram had not obeyed God up until this point. In order to bring about God’s desired will, He allowed conflict to enter between the herdmen of Abram and those of Lot. The solution to this unnecessary conflict was quite simple. Abram suggested that they part ways (God’s initial plan) and Abram turned toward the land of Canaan (God’s initial plan). The Lord used the same tactic in the early church to get them to spread out and to preach His word outside of Jerusalem (see Acts 1:8 and Acts 8:1).
The Lord is high above His creation. He “is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens” (Psalm 113:4). He is so exalted that He must humble “himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth” (Psalm 113:6). As strange as it may seem, it humbles God to behold His creation (i.e., the sun, the moon, and the stars). The Bible even declares that “the stars are not pure in his sight” (Job 25:5). All of these things were created by God, yet it humbles Him to behold them. Not only is this true of the Father, but God the Son humbled Himself when He was adorned with a body of flesh (Philippians 2:8). God created man, yet it humbled Him to take on a body of flesh like man.
