Fall on your face
To fall on your face is a phrase that means to prostrate yourself in total submission to another, crouching down as low as you can on the floor.4 There are multiple scriptural references to falling on one’s face. For example, Joseph’s brothers prostrated themselves to him after finding out who he was,5 Abraham prostrated himself to God as God spoke with him,6 John prostrated himself before the angel who showed him the vision he recorded,7 the chief steward of King Ahab prostrated himself before the prophet Elijah,8 and the people prostrated themselves before God when Elijah called down fire from heaven.9
As with the face, the forehead carries metaphorical significance as the location of your understanding. The surfaces upon which we walk are known for their uncleanliness, especially in the street, and even more so in ancient times when they were the dumping areas for human and animal waste. Falling on your face is a visceral admission of submission that physically acknowledges that your best understanding is as dung compared to the one to whom you bow. It is unfortunately and exceptionally rare for anyone to come to feel this way, even with God, and even for the moment required to signify it by falling on their face.
It is rare for a person to be willing to exercise the humility required to fall on their face before God, let alone anyone else. The importance and process of submitting to God is discussed in the chapter Submit to God by learning and living his presence and elsewhere in this book.
Footnotes
- 1. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. (John 16:23-28) ↩
- 2. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (Numbers 6:26) ↩
- 3. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. (Acts 2:28) ↩
- 4. And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. (Ezra 9:6) ↩
- 5. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. (Genesis 50:18) ↩
- 6. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him... (Genesis 17:3) ↩
- 7. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. (Revelation 22:8) ↩
- 8. And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? (1 Kings 18:7) ↩
- 9. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. (1 Kings 18:39) ↩