Honor

Honor. This is a word that honestly has been lost to our society. However, it is a very common word in the Bible. What is honor? According to Websters dictionary: Honor is excellence of character, high moral worth, integrity, uprightness, trustworthiness. It also includes purity and chastity. A person of honor knows what is right, just and true and does it. He or she is aware of all duties imposed by his conscience, position and privilege and acts on these duties. How would you know what is honorable? Honorable things attract esteem, respect and consideration.

In this light, the story of Jabez is given a whole new light. The Bible says he was honorable meaning that he was of high moral worth, of excellent character, integrous, upright and worthy of trust. 1 Chron 4:9-10

⁹Jabez was honorable above his brothers; but his mother named him Jabez [sorrow maker], saying, Because I bore him in pain.

¹⁰Jabez cried to the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and You would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me! And God granted his request.

This story says that your honor has clout with God. If you are honorable and upright and ask God to bless you and enlarge your border, God can trust you with more and bless you indeed. But if you are without honor, how can God give you more than just sustenance?

So who is the man that God is pleased to Honor?

Over and over in the Bible God says that it is the man that honors him that he will in turn honor. With this he also directly links honor with humility. But what is humility? It is defined as freedom from pride and arrogance. A humbleness of mind, a modest estimation of your own worth, a sense of your own unworthiness in the sight of God, penitence for sin and even submission to divine will. The expression of humility is difficult for most people, myself included because we expect it to be an outward action.

In my own view, humility is knowing that without God I am nothing and can do nothing. Led by that knowledge, I accept him as my savior and Lord of my life. That done, I hand over my will to him and ask him to lead my every move. It means that I seek him often because I know that if he does not guide my steps I will make a false move. It is refusing to despise people in my heart but loving them with the love of God at all times. Humility is a condition of the heart and we all know that the heart, according to Jeremiah is deceptive and wicked above all things. It is therefore quite possible to think you are a humble person but you are not.

I am not sure if it was a book I was reading or a movie I was watching but this guy was brought to his knees by his oppressors. While on his knees before them, while they were shouting in triumph and looking down their noses at him on his knees, he made a very profound statement. He said "I may be on my knees, but on the inside I am standing up!" That was a tear jerking moment! But the opposite should be true for us believers. As God elevates us and promotes us to positions of honor we may be standing up on the outside, but on the inside we are on our knees in humility before God!

True humility is the road to honor and glory in God. The book of Esther talks about her uncle Mordecai who would not kneel before Haman. To all around him it looked like the height of pride and arrogance. However, all Mordecai was doing was honoring God above man. So Haman plans his demise and that of all his Jewish people. In Chapter 6 God decides to show Mordecai honor because he honored him and decides to use the King to do this. The King is in a dilemma about what to do and by God's genius Haman had just walked in. The King asks a question that blesses me. He says "What shall be done for the man the King wishes to Honor?" What shall be done for the man that King Jesus wishes to Honor? What shall be done for the man Jehovah wishes to honor? What shall be done?

Ours is not to know what shall be done, ours is to become the man that God would be pleased to honor. Are you that person? Can God sit in heaven and ask, "what shall be done for my daughter Cynthia whom I am pleased to honor?" Would God be pleased to Honor you?