The Dogs Get the Crumbs: A Study in Humility

By Joel Siegel

The Bible tells of a woman who came to Jesus for help. During the course of their exchange, Jesus said that it wasn’t right to take what belonged to the children and cast it to the dogs. Having been compared to a dog, this woman took her place as a dog. She bowed low, got genuine, and got humble, asking only for crumbs from the Master’s table. When she did, God’s power met her situation, bringing freedom and deliverance. God has the answer for every need of ours, but, like this woman, we must align our lives with His power. In our heart and in our thinking, we must lower ourselves to dog-like obedience and submission. We must humble ourselves so that God can lift us up. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Siegel Ministries, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386993551

Joel Siegel

Faith in God’s Word, and constant reliance on the Holy Spirit have been the keys to success in the life and ministry of Rev. Joel Siegel. Raised and educated as a Jew, Joel Siegel, at age 18, had a life-transforming encounter with Christ that brought him true purpose and fulfillment.  Rev. Siegel began preaching and teaching the Word of God soon after he was saved in 1986. He entered full-time ministry in 1990, serving for three years as the music director for the gospel music group Truth. Truth’s road schedule took Joel and his wife Amy worldwide to over 300 cities a year, ministering in churches and on college campuses. From 1993 to 2000, Joel was the musical director for Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin’s RHEMA Singers & Band. In addition to assisting Rev. Hagin in his crusade meetings, Joel produced many music projects for the ministry, including his first solo release, Trust & Obey. From 2000 to 2011, Joel and Amy served as founding pastors of Good News Family Church in Orchard Park, NY. During this time, they were frequently asked to host shows for the TCT Christian Television Network. Joel regularly hosted their popular Ask The Pastor program. Rev. Siegel spends his time ministering to congregations in the U.S. and abroad, passionately endeavoring to fulfill his assignment to help lead this generation into the move of God that will usher in the return of Christ.  The Siegels make their home in Colorado. Joel oversees Faith Church Colorado in the town of Castle Rock, where Amy is lead pastor.  For music recordings, audio teaching series, books, and other resources, or to invite Rev. Joel to minister at a church or event, please visit siegelministries.org.

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Acknowledgement and Dedication

Acknowledgement

While in Bible School in the mid 1990’s, I heard, for the first time, the Word of God taught on the subject of humility. The truths that I received changed my life. I’m grateful to my instructor, Rev. Keith Moore, whose teaching and example of humility greatly impacted me. He shared that the Lord once told him, Son, your humility is your best protection against deception. I have endeavored to heed those valuable words in my own life. 

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my dear friend, Rev. Michael J. Lokietek who, for many years, has spoken of the need for a book on humility. Here it is, Pastor Michael. Your life of faith and example of humility continues to inspire many, including me. 

Introduction: Get Out of The Way

Years ago, while conducting a series of meetings at a church, I learned something. This particular church (like many other churches) had a prayer team that would meet to pray before each service. Normally, this would be most welcome, as spiritual preparation is too often absent from our services. In this case however, I began to wish that they would stop. I wanted to tell them to just pray at home, by themselves.

Instead of making power available for the service that was soon to begin, they had their own service, their own manifestations of the Spirit, their own prophecies. They carried the flow of their prayer meeting into the main service, greatly influencing the direction of the service. What’s so bad about that? It wasn’t God’s plan.

I had spent the afternoons in my hotel room seeking God, and had already received specific direction from Him for the service each night. It was difficult to move in the direction God had led me, however, because this church was already moving in their own direction.

The entire week was an uphill battle. Ministry was difficult. No one would say the services were bad, but they sure didn’t rise to the level that God intended. I felt as though I was piloting a jet airplane that couldn’t get off the ground. I could see disappointment on the pastor’s face at times. I finally encouraged those in the prayer group to keep the service in neutral, allowing me to lead and follow the direction God had given me.

When I spoke to my wife on the phone during the week, she asked how the services were progressing. Without really taking time to think about it, I answered, They just need to get out of their own way.

That statement sums up the reason for this book. God is powerful: able and willing to do great things for us and move mightily in our midst. So often, though, He’s not able to bring to pass that which He desires. When we take the lead position in our lives, He can’t lead. When we establish our own direction, His direction goes unfulfilled. So much of the time we just need to get out of our own way. Then God can lead. Things will happen, and we will enjoy His best.

This book teaches you and I how to get out of our own way, clearing a path for God to teach us, use us, bless us, and fill us. It teaches something called humility.

01 Two Yokes

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Isaiah 10:27 (KJV)

This passage in Isaiah is speaking of Israel’s enemies, particularly the Assyrian nation that was afflicting and threatening to destroy them. God was telling Israel, Don’t be afraid of Assyria. I’ll take care of them. He assured His people that the heavy burden of their enemy was soon to be removed from their shoulder and their restrictive yoke from their neck.

While speaking literally of Israel’s enemies, this passage is also prophetic, carrying a spiritual meaning for us today. The believer – the child of God – has an enemy: Satan, the oppressor. Satan desires every Christian to live subject to the type of bondage depicted in this verse. Satan wants us burdened: weighed down with cares and troubles. He wants his yoke of bondage placed firmly around our neck.

We don’t use the term yoke very much in our society, but the agrarian society of Bible times would have been quite familiar with that term. A yoke is a farm implement used to connect two head of cattle. The large wooden yoke would be placed around the head of one of the animals and then connected to the other. The result? Where one goes, the other must follow. The two are joined, unable to individually follow their own path.

Satan yokes people by connecting their lives to his works, intertwining them until it seems as though they are permanently bound. The individual, whether lost or saved, is not free to make his or her own movement through life, but is forced into puppet-like submission to the desires of the enemy. It’s a horrible thing to be under the yoke of Satan’s bondage. Thankfully, God’s anointing destroys every one of Satan’s yokes. Because of Jesus, we need no longer be subject to our enemy.

As believers, we are forever free from the yoke of Satanic bondage. Satan’s yoke, however, is not the only one spoken of in Scripture. There is another: a yoke not forced upon us, but one we willingly accept, should we choose.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne. Matthew 11:28-30 (AMPC)

These life-giving words, spoken by Jesus, are an invitation to all to freely come, exchanging the oppressive yoke of the enemy for another yoke: His yoke.

The word yoke had another meaning in ancient times besides the agricultural reference of which we have spoken. When a student joined himself to his teacher, or an apprentice to his master, it was said that they were under that teacher’s yoke: joined to them, following their every move. This is the kind of yoke to which Jesus was referring. He was inviting His followers: join up to Me. Connect to Me. Follow Me.

These two yokes – the yoke of the enemy and the yoke of the Master – couldn’t be more different. One is placed upon a person by force, the other, taken by choice. The enemy’s yoke is harsh, hard, sharp, and pressing; the Master’s is comfortable, gracious, and pleasant. Jesus offers us this great exchange: His light, easy, refreshing yoke for the heavy, burdensome yoke of the enemy. When given the choice between bondage and refreshment, it’s safe to say that most people would choose refreshment.

Or would they?

Are most Christians living this life of ease and refreshment? Are they enjoying an abundant quality of life: the continual flow of inner-recreation and blessed quiet of which Jesus spoke? They are not.

The lives of most believers I meet show no evidence that this great yoke exchange has taken place. Although not every believer is suffering under the throes of an addiction-type bondage, their life is nevertheless burdened with heaviness. They don’t seem to be in control, but seem, at best, to just be chasing after the promise of a better life. Truth be told, their life resembles the enemy’s yoke more than it does the Master’s yoke.

Why is this? Was Jesus exaggerating the availability of this glorious life? Was it an empty promise with a failed fulfillment? Of course not. What Jesus advertised to His followers is eternally available to all. We can all indeed enjoy the easy and light life. Let’s carefully examine, however, what Jesus really said.

Come and Learn

Jesus said that if we would come to Him, He would give us rest. That, however, is not all He said. He not only told us to come, but told us what to do when we come. We are to come learn of Him. We learn of Him by yoking ourselves to Him – following Him closely – talking, moving, and loving like Him. We shadow Him in the pages of the Bible, applying what we see in His life to our own.

Jesus was clear: if we desire the peaceful, restful, refreshed-every-day kind of life, we must come to Him, become yoked to Him, and learn from Him. But what specifically are we to learn?  Was Jesus speaking only in general terms when He told us to learn of Him or did He have something specific in mind?

Of course, we can learn from all aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry, yet, after telling us to come learn of Him, Jesus focused in on one specific area of learning: one quality and characteristic that’s of particular importance. Carefully notice again His words in Matthew 11:

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. Matthew 11:29 (AMPC)

Jesus, inviting us to enjoy His life of ease and refreshment, pointed us to the key to that life. That key is humility. When He said learn of Me, He immediately followed by telling us what He most wanted us to learn. He said I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart. He wants us to learn the key to His success. He wants us to learn what He learned. He wants us to learn humility.

Jesus invites us to experience a much-sought-after but rarely-found quality of life: a life of ease and refreshment. (Ease and refreshment does not mean an absence of trouble and challenges, but rather ease and refreshment in the midst of trouble and challenges.) A life of deep, enduring peace. The good life. The abundant life He spoke of in John 10:10.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Were you to survey a thousand believers, asking them the key to a life of abundance and ease, the answers would be interesting, to say the least. The majority of believers would likely state that no such life is promised to the Christian; that the easy life is not this life, but rather the next life. Indeed, most concur that there is nothing easy about the Christian life. Jesus, however, spoke otherwise. He (not me) is the one who boldly announced the availability of a life, easy and light.

The few that didn’t challenge the survey question might answer by speaking of qualities such as faith, prayer, consecration, etc. All good qualities, and all necessary, but not the answer that Jesus gave.

Exchanging a yoke of bondage for a life of ease is no small thing. It’s the Father’s desire for each of His children. He desires none of us to live yoked to the kingdom of darkness when a life of freedom and fullness is available. What allows a person to enjoy this high quality of life of which so many only dream? Humility. I know that answer may not make sense on the surface – and it’s certainly an unconventional answer – yet it’s the answer given by the Lord.

Jesus, when inviting us to learn of Him, pointed to meekness and humility as keys to His success. His success can be our success if we’ll do what He did. We can live the kind of life He lived if we’ll learn what He learned. He told us what to learn. We must learn humility.

02 Meekness

Jesus didn’t just speak of humility when telling us to come learn of Him; He also mentioned something called meekness. Meekness, a seldom-used word in our vocabulary, is also seldom understood.

When people hear the word meek or meekness, they often imagine a person who is mild-mannered and wimpy; one easily mocked or taken advantage of (think about Superman’s alter-ego, Clark Kent, the clumsy newspaper reporter who could never muster the guts to stand up for himself or anyone else). Indeed, meekness is often associated with a similar sounding word: weakness. That, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s nothing weak about meekness, or its close companion, humility.

If meekness means a person is weak and wimpy, then all should aspire to weakness. Jesus’ earth-walk, however, was anything but a picture of weakness. Although often translated as gentleness, the true meaning of meekness is still hidden; it must mean something more. Before we further explore the meaning of the word, notice some of the verses that speak of meekness.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live forever. Psalms 22:26 (KJV)

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Psalms 37:11

The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 29:19

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isaiah 61:1 (KJV)

Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. Zephaniah 2:3 (KJV)

Whatever meekness entails, the results are outstanding. Meekness will cause you to obtain things that others cannot enjoy and will bring you places to which others cannot arrive. As the verse in Zephaniah 2 indicates, we should seek to be meek. The meek individual enjoys a level of satisfaction in life that others don’t experience. They possess more of their inheritance than others. They have a level of peace unknown to the non-meek. They get