Jesus taught us that, whoever desires to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, must be the least. It is the biblical principle of what goes down, must come up.
We see this in the history of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph spent more than 20 years being the least and then suddenly found himself second in power over all of Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph absolute authority over the entire kingdom and even his own family; the only person exempt from this authority was Pharaoh himself.
So too we find in the book of Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus humbled himself to become a man, really a servant, he humbled himself to the point of death even a death upon the cross.
Jesus humbled himself to become least but as Paul Harvey used to say, “now the rest of the story.” just as the Lord allowed Joseph to suffer at the hands of his brothers, Jesus suffered at the hands of his brothers and sisters being made low. But then the father resurrected him from the dead and he has been exalted to sit at his right hand and only the Father is exempt from the authority of Jesus as all things are subject to him.
Just as Pharaoh gave Joseph a signet ring and the second best chariot in the land, Jesus has been given the chariot described in Ezekiel and just like Joseph who had criers commanding people to bow as Joseph passed so too when Jesus comes to conquer and put an end to the enemy every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
The reason this has not occurred yet is because the Lord is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. He still gives you and I the opportunity to voluntarily bend our knee and confess with their tongue that he is Lord.
So when you look around your world and you feel despair because it seems like the bad guys are winning and the Lord is not paying attention, just remember that he is waiting for us to voluntarily choose him to be our King and then sin and death will come to an end.
