Malachi Study–Malachi 1:6

 

“A son honors his father,
And a servant his master.
If then I am the Father,
Where is My honor?
And if I am a Master,
Where is My reverence?
Says the Lord of hosts
To you priests who despise My name.
Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

 

Giving honor to whom honor is due:

If you were to look up this word honor in the Hebrew you would find that it means, “boast, honorable, nobles, promote, be rich…” and it continues on.  

We are all familiar with the commandment that says, “honor your father and mother…” Exodus 20:12.  As a mom this verse is quoted a lot in our household.  As a parent we expect our children to treat us with the honor that is due to us as a parent. 

God also desires the honor of His children!

I had a few thoughts as I was studying this passage…

1) I know for a fact that I have not been truly honoring my father or my Father as is stated in the Hebrew.  I have not been boasting, promoting, or making much of either one like I should.  I try but I think I had a false view of what honor meant.  Honor is an action.  I was treating it more like a passive suggestion. 

2) In the Hebrew it states that a person who is to be honored is honorable.  There are so many people who have dads that are not honorable which can make it very hard to treat him with honor, but God is 100% honorable.  He is worth every bit of praise, and boasting we can give Him.  It may be hard to honor our human fathers (even though we are still commanded to), but we should never be at loss for words when it comes to honoring our Heavenly Father.

3) We can never give God too much glory or honor, but we can give Him too little. 

 

Wouldn’t it be a shame if we were to get this same kind of message that the Israelites received?   Wouldn’t it be sad to get to the end of life an realize that we spent way too much time honoring the wrong person or things? 

“A son honors his father,” – the point of this passage is leading up to our honor due to God, but while this phrase is in here may we evaluate how we are treating our own father.  How is your relationship with your dad?  Is there a  way that you can better honor your father?

“and a servant his master,” – again the point is not about the servant master, but are we honoring our employer like we should?  Are we giving our best to the job we have so that it brings honor to our boss?   I once heard a Pastor say that how we treat people is an indicator of how we treat God.  If we aren’t honoring our employer or our own father than what makes us think we are honoring God our Father?

“If then I am the Father, Where is My honor?  And if I am a Master, where is my reverence?”  

God says, “I am THE Father.”  Sure we have a dad, but God is THE Father.  He wants our honor.  He wants our respect and reverence.  He wants the glory due His Name. 

Today lets seek to make honor an action by boasting, promoting, and making much of THE Father.  He is worth every ounce of praise we can give Him.