HONORING THE LORD

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the firstfruits of all your produce: then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10, ESV).

This passage of Scripture is widely used to encourage people in their giving—and rightly so. Most of us need to be encouraged to be generous givers, to break out of the status quo in giving and move into the blessedness of generosity.

It is important to remember that the reason we give is not to get. The fact that God blesses the giver is not relevant to the reason God blesses him—not because he gives but because giving is an act of obedience and honors the Lord. As the Word says, God blesses the giver who “honors the Lord with his possessions and the firstfruits of all his increase.”

Honor is not a widely used word in today’s church vocabulary. We talk about faith, miracles, blessing, increase, relevance, worship, joy and praise but rarely is the subject of honor and honoring the Lord raised.

The root of the Hebrew word honor as it is used in Scripture means “heavy or weighty.” Proverbs says that we are to “honor the Lord,” which means that we are giving the Sovereign Creator and loving Father the important, weighty place in our life—by putting Him first!

While honor is an attitude of respect and reverence, it must be accompanied by our attention and obedience. Without our willingness to be attentive to Him and His direction, honor is little more than trash talk or, as the Bible puts it, “lip service” (see Isaiah 29:13-14).

This subject of “honoring the Lord” came to be a focus for me while I was in prayer and the phrase “a new season” was impressed upon me by the Holy Spirit. As I pondered the phrase, the Spirit directed my attention to the first few chapters of 1 Samuel where we read about the birthing of a new season in Israel. I wrote about this in last week’s blog.

At that time, Israel was in a very dark period as a nation. We read in 1 Samuel 3:1 that there was no open revelation of the Word, as only a few true prophets preached righteousness and repentance to the people. The religious leaders of the nation were typified by Eli, the chief priest, a passive leader who was not responsive to the voice of God. Busy enjoying the fruits of being the head priest, Eli did little to turn the people away from their sin. His two sons, also priests, were blatantly corrupt. And as a result of being led by sinful, immoral religious leaders, Israel was in a pathetic state.

A new season began in Israel when a brokenhearted, barren woman named Hannah cried out to the Lord for a child. God heard her cry and she became pregnant with Samuel, who later became a prophet. With Samuel’s birth, a new season was born for the nation. As the child grew to manhood and prepared for his time of leadership as a prophet and judge over Israel, God began to remove the corrupt religious leaders.

An unnamed man of God brought a prophecy (see 1 Samuel 2:27-36) saying that what had been happening in Israel was not His (God’s) plan. He stated that because of Eli’s disregard for God and the blatant carnality of his sons, they would all be removed from their priestly offices.

Within this prophecy is one of the most incredible statements regarding honor in the Bible. As I read and pondered this passage, these words struck me with great force: “Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (v. 30). This colossal statement made by the Sovereign Creator just blows me away! God is saying, “When you honor Me, I will return the favor and honor you. If you disregard Me, however, as Eli and his sons did by disregarding My Word and My plans, My blessing will not be upon you.”

Understanding this truth totally clarifies the meaning of verses like Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the Lord. . . .” The blessing of the Lord is not on the firstfruits. The giving of the firstfruits is the act of obedience and the blessing is on the honoring of the Lord—so clearly the blessing comes because we honor Him, and we honor Him by our obedience and our generosity.

  

Honor is an attitude of respect and reverence and in order to be complete, it must be accompanied by obedience. God is honored when people do things that please Him (see 1 Corinthians 6:20 in which the word glorify means “honor”).

Jesus teaches this to His church when He says, “Whoever serves me must follow me . . . My Father will honor the one who serves me” (John 12:26, NIV).

We honor the Lord when we follow His leading for our lives. We honor the Lord when we take time out of our busy lives and spend time with Him. We honor Him by being generous—as He is!

“Those who honor Me I will honor.”