Those who honor me I will honor. – 1 Sam 2:30
This verse speaks to the powerful principle of reaping and sowing. However, the heart’s intention is crucial. One can invest time and effort in pursuing success and often achieve it, but if that pursuit is rooted in self-honor, it becomes a replacement for God. Our fallen nature tends to glorify and honor oneself, leading to dissatisfaction that never truly fulfills us.
As Christians, we possess a dual nature; we are born again with a new identity, yet still grapple with what scripture refers to as the old man (KJV), our former life (Eph 4:22-24). God calls us to turn away from what we once sowed in the fields of our lives that yielded fleshly harvests and instead cultivate spiritual fruit.
Reflect on what you are sowing in your life, considering Galatians 6:7-9:
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
God invites us to live fa fruitful life for ourselves and those around us. This act of honoring Him reflects the essence of His character, as described in 1 John 4:7-21, remember, love is defined as selfless and sacrificial. In honoring God, we glorify His Son, manifesting that glory through worship and obedience.
When we honor God by sowing to the Spirit and cultivating His character within us, we come to realize that Jesus is more than enough and never disappoints. As John Piper famously said, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Consider these reflective questions:
- According to Scripture, how can we sow to the Spirit?
- How do we sow to the flesh?
- In what areas are you sowing “to please the sinful nature” in your life?
- What are you reaping?
Now, meditate on the following verses: 2 Peter 1:3-11.
Honor God and He will Honor you…
inspired by David Nasser a call to die
Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.
Today’s study really got me thinking about how I prioritize my time, and what I am actually serving in life. It’s easy to say that I don’t have time to help with a Ministry task because I am “working”. Especially when the work that I am doing is considered serving my country. But what am I actually serving? At this point, I believe that it is more of money that I am serving and less of my country. I can see that I should be prioritizing the mission work and not the Army mission. The verse that comes to mind is Matthew 6:19, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.
I believe that God is telling me that I need to refocus on where the real treasure is.
1 Samuel 2:30
Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.’
This passage starts off with “therefore” and what I have learned from many pastors is “you have to know why that’s there for”. So we look backwards for context. In verse 12, we find that the sons of Eli were “worthless men”. Now Eli was a priest serving in Shiloh where Samual was brought. Exodus 29 tells of the process of the priests becoming consecrated in order to minister to the Lord and they must come from the lineage of Levi. So for Eli to be a priest, he must come from the lineage of Levi, and his sons are likely to also follow in that lineage tradition. For them to be considered worthless, they likely were not doing what was customary or mandated to become priests within the Levi lineage.
Looking further to verses 13 through 17, we see more about Eli’s sons and what made them worthless men. We see they would take what they wanted of the sacrifice through a custom of jabbing a three-pronged fork into the pot of boiling meat. But also, that they would demand, through threats of violence, the portion of fat to be cut off before it was burned. If we look in the first few chapters of Leviticus when the offerings are described, it is stated the priests were to receive a portion. So clearly it wasn’t that the priests were supposed to abstain, so it must be about the nature in which they were acquiring their portion. They “took” rather than “received”.
Eli, in verses 22 through 25, rebukes his sons finally for all the bad things he is hearing from the people in Israel. He says something very interesting as well in verse 25, “if someone sins against man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” In Romans 8:34 and in Hebrews 7:25 we see that Jesus is the one who intercedes on our behalf for our sins against the Lord. Before the crucifixion and the atoning shed blood of Jesus, the sacrifices and the offerings had to provide the atonement for sins against God, but only for one year. And who was to sacrifice on behalf of the priests? Now Eli’s sons were desecrating the sacrifices and not honoring their purposes.
Then a man of God goes to Eli and, in verse 29, says on behalf of God, “why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering?” This leads into our verse today. We clearly see the importance of the heart posturing and sacredness of offerings and sacrifices. There is a need to remain reverent and humble before the Lord. God is the one to be exalted and seen as Most High, not man. In verse 30 we see God saying He once said “your house and the house of your father should go in and out before Me forever”, which was said to Aaron in Exodus 27:21. Here in the second half of this verse God is updating the terms to be a more limited group of priests because of how wicked and evil the heart of man continues to proves itself to be. God says, “for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed” – that is to say God will honor those who honor Him and curse those who despise Him.
We are to ensure we approach the Lord with reverence in our time of offering and sacrifice. The Lord says He likes a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) and He values humility (James 4:10) and obedience (1 Samuel 15:22). This may require us rethinking our traditions and things we proceed to do without thinking about it because it’s the way we’ve always done it.