Desolation and Glory

"And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she [i.e., Jerusalem] being desolate shall sit upon the ground." Isaiah 3:26

The desolation of Jerusalem is not merely cruelty on God's part. Yes, it is an act of judgment, but His judgments are always juxtaposed with His love: there is always a "rising up" after the "falling down." We like the rising up part; what we don't like is that we must be brought down before we are brought up.
Jerusalem's destiny was to fall (Deuteronomy 31:29) so that in her falling she and all the world might be raised up (Romans 11:25-32). Job was brought down so that he could know God in a new way (Job 42:5), and all was restored to him. There had to be a falling down before the rising up. There has to be desolation before there can be glory, humbling before there can be grace.
Humility is born out of desolation, not self-downing. Humility does not come from you constantly downing yourself ("I'm just an old sinner!" "I'm nobody!" "I'm as dumb as a bag of rocks!"). Such an attitude keeps the focus on yourself, and therefore is a hidden form of pride. Humbling is not brought by self-downing; humbling is brought by desolation, which is to be brought down. We can fight this "bringing," which is why God does say we should humble ourselves (I Peter 5:6). Ultimately, however, God will bring us down; we either submit to the bringing or not. "Humbling yourself" means we submit to the Will that brings us down.
Desolation means an emptying of yourself of anything "glorious," anything that could counterfeit as solid ground for your soul. Desolation leaves you with nothing in you (including your "humility") that you can rely on. Desolation is to be "the poor in spirit," (Matthew 5:3), to be a "spiritual pauper," as Oswald Chambers put it. The desolate soul is the soul that God can raise up to glory.
This is nothing new. Desolation and Glory is the framework for the paradox of the Incarnation. The Incarnation was the desolation of God, an emptying of His glory, the making Himself "of no reputation...and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself..." (Philippians 2:7, 8). (Note: The fascinating part is that God brought Himself down, but we must be brought down by Him. To seek to bring desolation on ourselves is another form of pride because it is claiming to do something only God can do.)
Christ death and resurrection involves Desolation and Glory as well. His death was a "shame" (Hebrews 12:2), it was Him being "made sin" (II Corinthians 5:21) so that He would be raised up to a glorified body and the salvation of the world.
We want the cure without the medicine when we want glory without desolation, the power of God without the sufferings of Christ. The Apostle Paul not only longed for the "power of [Christ's] resurrection," but also for the "fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10), and there is no resurrection without the sufferings, no power without that fellowship. Desolation forces us to focus not on ourselves but on our need for Christ, and we can never know the Life that brings the power unless we first know the fellowship that brings the suffering. When God (and God alone) brings desolation to us, we must remember that there must be a falling down before the rising up. Submission to desolation is the pathway to glory. What a beautiful paradox.

"Before God can use a man greatly, He must first wound him deeply." -A.W. Tozer