Before he became president, Andrew Jackson was known for using violence in order to defend his honor. He survived 15 duels so that it was said that his body was so filled with lead that it "rattled like a bag of marbles."
Duels are no longer held today. But in the past, they were fairly normal. A duel was began when one man was insulted in some way by another. He had lost his honor with that insult whether it was by word or by action. Therefore, he would throw down his glove in front of the other man to indicate that he demanded a duel to restore his dignity. Each man would be given a pistol and agree to a certain amount of paces to walk after which they would turn around and fire. The loser would be either the one who had first blood or was killed.
This was practiced in America until about the late 1800’s but is now outlawed in many states. What was the reason for a duel? HONOR.
To many, honor is considered more important than life itself - the most important quality for a person to have. Life is not worth living if you don’t have respect, good reputation, a good name. It’s better to die than lose your honor.
Is honor really that important according to God? “My salvation and my honor depend on God;” Psa. 62:7. That is KEY. Our honor does not depend on the opinion of other people about us. If that was the case, then, most of the great men and women of the Bible will totally dishonorable including Jesus. Jesus died with the worst reputation and most dishonorable treatment of anyone. Talk about being insulted.
Our honor depends on God and what God thinks about us. If you mistreat others, if you rebel against God, if you curse his name, if you lie and deceive, you bring dishonor to yourself because you dishonor God. Dishonoring God IS serious! Honor is VERY important to God.
In Hebrew it’s the word “kavod” – literally it means to have weight. But then to honor someone means to put weight on someone else. It can be make someone rich for example. We add to the weight of GOD’S name. We make him important and above all in glory. How much weight does God have? INFINITE! We can never give him the full glory he deserves. But we’re going to learn at least how to start….
During the time of Malachi, the priests were taking away from God’s weight/glory and putting it on themselves. They were the ones getting glory and credit instead of God – in other words, they were robbing God of the praise he should have gotten. Now, that’s something that we never want to do – do not dishonor God because there are serious consequences for our soul. And it says in 2:2b “I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings…”
No one wants to be cursed. But every single one of us faces a curse from God for what we have done. Why? Because we have all dishonored God in some way or another. “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Gal. 3:10) We are doomed! But Paul continues to write three verses later: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."” (3:13)
Thanks to Jesus, we are freed from the curse, freed from our mistakes and failures. We are new and fresh before God! Therefore, we now can honor God as he ought to be honored – not to be saved, but to give our Lord and Savior all the praise he deserves because we love him.
Now, if we turn to Malachi 2:5-6 we find the same thing happening to the priests. Let’s read verse 5a: “My covenant with him was one of life and peace and I gave them to him.” They had a special covenant with God. He had saved them and chosen them out of all the nations of the world. They were God’s beloved and therefore they had a special relationship with Him.
What was the result? They honored God!
As we read further, we’re going to see that these people knew how to honor God. They knew how to heap weight on him. They knew how to honor God in a way that brought him the greatest praise. And that is the key for us too isn’t it? We need to know how to best honor God!
1. The first place God is honored in the heart. 2:5b: “It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.”
This MUST be first. Because if God is not honored in your heart, everything else you do to honor God is fake and if it’s fake, it’s simply insulting to Him.
Here, the word fear can also be translated as “reverence.” A holy fear because God is all righteous and powerful – he is almighty! Do you “stand in awe” of Him? What does that mean?
• If you went to the Blue Angels Airshow yesterday you probably stood in awe as you watched those incredible machines do things you’ve never seen before in person. The loud roar, the speed, the precision probably gave you chills!
• Or maybe you stood in awe as your team won the championship this year!
• I remember standing in awe after my wife and I fell in love. It was such an amazing surprise and joy. I don’t think I slept for two nights. Pure awe!
Can you put Jesus Christ in that list? Do we really stand in awe of HIS name? Oh, how we forget who he is and what he has done. We forget the awe of the cross. We forget the awe of his love and majesty and power. We totally underestimate how huge God really is. People stand before angels and their hair nearly falls out over the awesomeness of them. What about God the Father? He wants to knock our socks off. If there is no awe, maybe we need to spend some time with him? Let God reveal himself to us once again. Soak ourselves in God’s presence, in his word. Turn back to the Lord!
2. So the honor of God begins in the heart and then it moves to the lips – we honor him with our words. Let’s read from verse 6a: “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips.”
The Levite’s job was to teach the word of God. They went a step farther than honoring God through their hearts and prayers but through the words they taught others.
We are not all teachers but we are all to be using our words to honor God. Just giving God’s name honor through our heart and mind should go a step farther and lift him up with the comments we make. Or the testimony we say. Or the way we encourage others or bless others.
Psalm 145:1-12…
If God has engaged your heart, he will also move your lips. Don’t hold back! Don’t shrink from talking about Jesus and what he has done in YOUR life! Let it shine.
Honor God with your heart and with your words, and then let it carry on with your feet. 2:6b says “He walked with me in peace and uprightness.” God is to be honored with our body – our actions.
This is an interesting description of the Levites. They have a unique relationship – one in which they don’t just believe in their mind about God’s teachings but they walked with him. They go where he goes and as fast as he goes or as slow as he goes. They honor him with their feet.
We can honor God in our head and with what we say, but it all comes down to what we do after we speak. Walk the talk! How well do my feet honor Jesus? Do my feet lead me in places that Jesus would never have me go? Do my feet run from places where He WANTS me to go?
Does your lifestyle reflect Jesus Christ? Do you go places and do things that Jesus would do? If we are a disciple of Jesus, then his Spirit is going to lead us to places we normally would not go. He leads us to people we would normally not go to. People will look at our daily walk and think that we’re a little bit weird. After all, that’s what they thought of Jesus and his disciples.
So we honor God with our heart, with our lips, with our body. And we should always be doing this. The praise of God should be continuously on our lips. But there are certain times when honoring God is the most important: at times of pain and suffering.
It’s easy to praise God and honor his name when you graduate from college, when you get a job, when you get married, when a child is born, when you’re in good health and good spirits. But when the going is rough, we don’t praise God – we complain! “He should not have allowed this to happen!”
Only God can put the heart, words, and actions of praise in your life when times are tough. That’s a miracle that we CANNOT do ourselves. We are 100% dependent upon God for that.
I first met Jurek Slawik at his church in Bielsko-Biala Poland 17 years ago. He was leading a group of believers who were passionate about studying the scripture and they were organizing their annual evangelistic meetings at the church. I remember him by his exuberant joy and passion for the Lord. A few years later his health failed severely as he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and slowly lost control of his body. The last time I saw him was at the outdoor evangelistic crusade a year before he passed away. He was totally paralyzed, pushed around in a wheelchair. But the joy of the Lord beamed from his face. The harder his physical condition, the more Jesus was glorified because physically, there was no reason to praise God. He totally overcame the attacks of the enemy by glorifying Jesus through his broken body.
Of itself, suffering cannot make us more Christ-like. There are plenty of Christians who have suffered and the result is bitter and angry people who are farther from Christ than ever before. What is important is how we RESPOND in times of suffering. Are you turning to God in prayer? Are you turning to his word? Or are you seeking to find blame and make someone ‘pay’ for your suffering? Are you drawn to trust in Jesus more or get angry at him and reject him?
Apostle Paul wrote these words about suffering in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Paul tells us that if we turn to the Lord in times of suffering, not only will we endure it, but it will make us more and more like Jesus his Son. God will produce more glory through us.
Wouldn’t that be the greatest blessing in life to be able to be joyful even in suffering? To be at peace through the storm? That would be one of the greatest blessings any of us could have. Why? Because it means that nothing that can happen in life can steal the joy of the Lord. And this gift is possible through the Holy Spirit. God desires to be honored and praised through it all and will equip us for it. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Finally, what is the outcome of giving God his weight, his honor, the praise due his name in this way? The glory of God will be revealed to the lost! Let’s read 2:6 again: “True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.”
Finally, because the Levites honored God with their heart, lips, and feet, others saw this testimony and it got their attention. They saw something different. What did they see and hear? The glory of God’s Name! And they changed the direction of their lives.
TURNING MANY. This is the greatest way to honor God – turn others toward the Lord.
Today is the last day of the airshow here in Mankato. It’s a very big deal. And the promotion of this event has drawn thousands of people out to the airport not only from Mankato, but all over the region. Thousands and thousands have come in order to appreciate the world famous Blue Angels and many other planes fill our skies and amaze us. Mankato is famous and the publicity is huge. And this is our task: cause people to start looking up to the Lord!
Nobody will want anything to do with God if his followers honor him with half a heart, with words that are hypocritical and judgmental, with actions that are the opposite of what is supposed to be a follower of Christ. The world sees that and has every reason to reject Christianity. It’s fake!
But at the same time, if they see genuine honor, genuine praise, genuine words that give glory to God and show love towards him and others, genuine actions that can only be explained by the work of God in their lives, that is a testimony that cannot be denied.
People can deny a lot of things but they cannot deny a changed life. They can’t look at a life that’s been dramatically transformed by God and say that it’s not real.
