honored – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

Ninth day of Christmas

Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. “God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun. (Genesis 30:19-20)

The name Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew word for “honored.”

No matter what we do, we may never receive the honor from people that we desire. Despite Leah having given Jacob six sons, we see no hint that Jacob ever did honor her as he did Rachel.

But God has now crowned us who believe in Jesus with glory and honor. Not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus did for us.

What is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a short time; you crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet…As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him.

But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.

For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—for whom and through whom all things exist—should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:6-10)

As Paul would add in another letter,

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

The God who will be praised

It has been conjectured that Psalm 76 was written after the incident with Sennacherib, during the time of Hezekiah.

Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure, but it does fit with the events laid out in Kings and Chronicles.

And here we see the psalmist praising God for defending Israel against the enemy. He sings,

God is renowned in Judah; in Israel his name is great. His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.

There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. (Psalm 76:1-3)

He then sings about how God brought judgment on those who tried to destroy Jerusalem.

One verse is very interesting. It says,

Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise. (10)

It seems a bit unusual to think of God’s wrath bringing him praise. But it’s happened more than once.

When Sennacherib mocked God and his power to save, God brought about the praise of Israel by destroying his army.

When Pharaoh said, “Who is this Yahweh that I should listen to him?” God again caused his name to be praised and feared by his actions against Egypt in order to set the Israelites free.

So I think here there is a warning to take from this, as well as a comfort.

If we place ourselves in God’s hand, he will defend and help us. But if we defy him, there will be judgment. Either way, his name will be honored. As Paul put it,

At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

The only question we need to ask is will we confess this with thanksgiving, love, and praise? Or will we confess this with anger, frustration, and bitterness?