Honoring God

The stories in the Bible serve many purposes. They give us historical information that helps us understand how we came to be where we are today. Those stories of old explain what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Paul warned the Corinthian church about errors in their manner of life and used Old Testament events to support his point. Then he said, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Let’s learn lessons about honoring God from some examples in the Old Testament.

Nadab and Abihu. In the opening chapters of Leviticus, God is leading Israel step by step through the worship He wanted them to offer before Him. Suddenly God’s glory appeared to all the people as fire came from the Lord and consumed the offering on the altar. Then Aaron's sons did something in worship that God had not commanded them. “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” Leviticus 10:1,2.

In verse 3, God commented on their action. “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.”

What was wrong with what Nadab and Abihu did? They acted without God’s command. They presumed that God would be pleased with their action. By doing something God had not commanded they failed to honor and glorify Him. This cost them their lives.

Moses. Some time later, when the people complained for lack of water God told Moses to speak to a rock and He would cause water to come forth. In his anger at the people Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it. God told Moses, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Number 20:12.

Moses failed to honor God because he changed God’s command. Moses had worked many years to bring those people to the promised land but he was not allowed to enter because of his action.

What can we learn from these examples? We can’t honor God by offering Him worship that we think is good or right. We must offer Him the worship He has asked for. If we change what he has said to do we fail to honor Him.

Many people today are trying to honor God but are doing so in their own way. Nearly every kind of activity that people enjoy doing has become a “ministry” in an attempt to justify the action. So we see rock bands, magicians, cowboys, power lifters, motorcycle riders and even model airplane fliers, each one claiming to be “for Jesus.” No doubt many are sincere but who would question Nadab’s, Abihu’s or Moses’ sincerity?

What we need is an understanding of this simple concept taught by Jesus in Matthew 15:8,9. “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

Honoring God is a matter of worshipping Him as He desires, not as we desire. Otherwise, our worship is vain.