Honor/Respect

(Pro 29:23 ASV) A man's pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor.

I have honored a lot of people over the years; however I am not sure that I actually thought about why. It seemed to be the right thing to do at the time...so I did it. I do believe it is more important for one to honor others because it is the right thing to do, rather than needing to have a good reason for doing it.

As I began to wonder why I honor people, I suppose the reasons fell into one of the following three categories;

Perhaps we honor someone because of their position; such as president, mayor, or doctor. Another reason for honoring someone could be because of their good character. Yet another reason for giving honor may be because of a person’s age.

It is obvious that the above people should be given honor, but what about the quiet hard working person that is rarely noticed? Even if one is not an important city official, or their character is not obvious, or they are not aged and have silver hair—should they be overlooked? Should we honor a person because it is the right thing to do or should they have to earn it in some special way?

According to the “b” part of our text...perhaps that person should receive the highest honor of all. As a matter of fact, maybe we should reevaluate our entire honor system and broaden it to start off with those in the “b” part of our text.

You might find the following story a bit hard to relate to with a subject as important as honor, but because it paints a picture to me personally, I will use it.

A few years ago I went deer hunting at my brother-in-law’s ranch. I got up early in the morning and had only walked about a hundred yards from the ranch house when I spotted an antlerless buck, so I shot him. Within minutes I saw a spike buck (a buck with only one horn sticking up on either side of his head), so I shot him. I immediately looked down over a cleft and at the bottom stood a beautiful eight point buck so I shot him.

I walked back to the ranch house, got in the jeep and drove around and picked up all three deer. When I got back to the ranch house I laid them out on the ground side by side.

While looking at the three deer on the ground, I began thinking about our text. It was obvious to me who deserved the greatest honor of the three deer…the beautiful eight point buck. The spike and the antlerless buck did not deserve any honor at all…they were only meat.

Perhaps that is the way an ordinary hard working man feels when he is seen by others in the way that I looked at the spike and antlerless buck…nothing more than just meat.

In the eyes of many, the hard working sheep herder, Moses, had done nothing worthy of honor. However, because of the way that God saw Moses, he would go down in history as an example to all humble men who draw no attention to themselves. That being the case, then maybe there is a slight difference between those who deserve our respect and those who deserve our honor.

Father,

We desire to respect and show honor to those deserving of it. Help us to especially recognize the hard working Moses type, who does nothing to draw attention to themselves, but deserve both our honor and respect none the less.

Amen