Honor

Readings for today: Nahum 1-3

Some things you can’t unsee. Like the time I ran my first Bolder Boulder several years ago and saw the male belly dancers around mile four! :-) On a more serious note, now that I’ve become aware of the “honor/shame” dynamic running through all of Scripture, it seems like it’s everywhere. Why does God judge Nineveh with such harshness? Why is He not just content to win a victory? Why does He go further, grinding them to dust? Why does He put their nation to open shame? Lifting their skirts. Exposing their nakedness. Demonstrating before the whole world their powerlessness? Why does He go as far as to throw excrement at them and make them a spectacle? Because God is a jealous God. Jealous for His honor. Jealous for His glory. Jealous for His name. 

The nation of Assyria has enjoyed their time in the sun. Their chariots have rolled all over the Middle East like an ancient blitzkrieg. Their empire is great. Their power limitless. Their military without equal. But they’ve grown proud. They’ve exceeded the limits God set for them. They’ve become drunk with their success. Though they served as the rod of God’s anger against the northern kingdom of Israel, He must now bring them to heel. He must again demonstrate His sovereignty over all the nations of the earth. Remember the words of the Assyrian commander to King Hezekiah when they besieged Jerusalem? How they dared to compare Almighty God with the small tribal gods of the pagan nations? It’s worth going back and re-reading the story from 2 Kings 18 again. Such disdain and disrespect draws God’s ire. Not because it hurts His ego but because it offends His sacred and holy honor. God will not be mocked. The Creator will not allow His creatures to treat Him this way. They will learn to honor God. They will learn to respect God. They will learn to submit to God. He will bring them to their knees one way or the other because there is one thing God cares about more than the creatures He made in His own image and that is His glory. His honor. His fame. It is His will to make His name great upon the earth!

“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. The Lord takes vengeance against his foes; he is furious with his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up, and he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; even the flower of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth trembles, at his presence — the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before him.” (Nahum‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭6‬ ‭CSB‬‬) Assyria will learn this lesson in spades. As will the other nations who dare defy the Living God. But what about God’s people? What is our response to this God? How should we approach this God? With fear and trembling? On some level, yes. With humility and submission? Certainly. With terror and dread? Absolutely not! Why? Because our God is also good. He loves His people. He is faithful to His people. “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him.” (‭‭Nahum‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

So here’s the million dollar question from today’s reading…are you living a life that honors God? Do you seek to honor God in all you say and do? Does this cross your mind when you work? When you parent? When you’re among friends? When you relate to your husband or wife? Are you living a life of humble submission before the Lord? Is God an ever-present reality in your life or does He seem distant? Someone to call on in case of emergency or a close friend? Do you seek to love God with all your heart or are you apathetic towards His commandments? Do you follow where He leads? Do you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness?

Readings for tomorrow: Zephaniah 1-3

The Honor of God

Readings for today: Isaiah 23-27, Psalms 114

One of the great privileges of my life is to spend about a month in Africa each year. I’ve been almost twenty times at this point and I’ve learned an incredible amount from the cross-cultural interactions I have with my brothers and sisters across the globe. They have helped me understand the Bible better. They have helped me understand God better. They have taught me much when it comes to faith. Perhaps the biggest lesson has to do with the dynamic of honor and shame that shows up throughout the Scriptures. The world tends to equate humility with shame and pride with honor but the Bible inverts this matrix. According to Scripture, pride ultimately produces shame and humility is the path to genuine honor. This dynamic holds true not just for individuals but for tribes, cities, and even nations.

What was the great sin of Tyre and Sidon? Two of the great commercial trading centers in the ancient near east? Pride. Tyre saw itself as “the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are the honored ones of the earth?” (Isaiah‬ ‭23‬:‭8‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬) Sidon enjoyed tremendous wealth and privilege. “And on many waters your revenue was the grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile; you were the merchant of the nations.”(Isaiah‬ ‭23:3‬ CSB) In their pursuit of worldly honor and riches and power, they forgot the Lord. They dishonored God. And they paid the price. “Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your haven has been destroyed… Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken...” (Isaiah‬ ‭23:1, 4‬ CSB) 

But it’s not just Tyre and Sidon who make this mistake. The whole earth has forgotten God. The whole earth pursues wealth and power and honor and glory apart from God. The whole earth seeks to exalt itself rather than humble themselves before their creator. Therefore, the Lord will bring His righteous judgment. No one shall escape. “Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare and making it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants: people and priest alike, servant and master, female servant and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor. The earth will be stripped completely bare and will be totally plundered, for the Lord has spoken this message.” (Isaiah‬ ‭24‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬) And why does the Lord speak such a harsh word? Why does the Lord render such a harsh judgment? Because the Lord is jealous for the glory of His Name. He is jealous for His own honor. He will not rest until the whole earth sings His praises. “They raise their voices, they sing out; they proclaim in the west the majesty of the Lord. Therefore, in the east honor the Lord! In the coasts and islands of the west honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs: The Splendor of the Righteous One.” (Isaiah‬ ‭24‬:‭14‬-‭16‬a ‭CSB‬‬)

Human beings were made for one glorious purpose...to bring honor to their Creator. To enjoy God and to worship Him alone forever. To praise God for all eternity. This is the great work we were designed for. This is the great work we were made for. And it is to our abiding shame that we neglect this great task and forget our God. It is to our great shame that we “exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans‬ ‭1:25 CSB‬) We pursue worldly honor and worldly wealth and worldly power to our own destruction. Because we have turned away from God and gone our own way, He has “given us up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. We become filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. We are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans‬ ‭1:28-31 CSB‬) And God simply will not allow such evil to stand. So He brings judgment. He lays low the proud. He shames the arrogant. He dishonors the honored among all the earth. “The Lord of Armies planned it, to desecrate all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the honored ones of the earth.” (Isaiah‬ ‭23‬:‭9‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

This is why we must consider carefully the priorities of our lives. Why do we do the things we do? What drives us? What gives us purpose and fulfillment? Are we truly seeking to honor God in all we say and do? Or are we trying to steal a bit of that honor for ourselves? Are we truly seeking to glorify God in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, and places of work? Or these just means we are using to justify our own ends?  

Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 28-30, Psalms 115