Honour is a much-discussed and much-misunderstood topic in the church today. I’ve talked about it many times before, but I feel as a church we are still wrestling with its true meaning. (I’ve defined this more fully in other blogs which you can search in the tags for.)

One of the ways we have mistakenly used honour is to create leaders who are untouchable. Because we misunderstand honour as ‘finding the positive’, we find that many people never tell the truth about someone’s behaviour or question their decisions. This, of course, cannot be what God intended, and because we have felt the pain of this kind of ‘honour’, we have rejected it completely and instead brought suspicion to any decision made by a leader and actively sought to maximise the smallest flaws in their character. Neither is what the Lord had in mind.

I want to look at an example of honor I discovered as I was reading through the scriptures today. It’s a crucial moment in King Saul’s life, a moment that changed the course of his life forever. Saul, in case you weren’t aware, was the first king of Israel, and he was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel. The whole episode we want to talk about today begins with the prophet Samuel giving some clear instructions to King Saul about a battle he was to fight.

Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” 1 Samuel 15:3

Saul does go up and attack the Amalekites as instructed, but we see that he didn’t follow the instructions through in their entirety.

But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. 1 Samuel 15:9

Samuel comes to visit Saul and the army after the battle, and in an infamous exchange, he asks Saul why he can hear the noise of the animals around him. He knows that Saul hasn’t carried out the instructions that were given to him. After a time of trying to justify himself, Saul in the end repents.

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD.” But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!” 1 Samuel 15:24-26

There are clear consequences of Saul’s actions here, the largest one being that his rejection of the Lord has resulted in the Lord’s rejection of him, and his time as king will be coming to an end. However, the two things Saul wants restored to him do not include his throne. He desires the forgiveness of his sin and also that Samuel would accompany him back home to Jerusalem. It’s the second one of these that I want to look at; his desire to have Samuel return with him from the war. When kings and the armies returned from war, especially when it was victorious, it would be a time of celebration and triumph. There was the sheer excitement of the fact that women and kids had their fathers, sons, etc., back from the battle, but also a collective sense that their nation was safe from attack because they had proved their dominance over another enemy. I’d imagine the extra plunder that came back would have garnered some celebration too. Saul had been victorious, so this would be a party for them when they came back. However, Saul also knows that whilst they won this battle, he has lost something far greater – the hand of the Lord would no longer be with him, and without the Lord’s blessing, his power would diminish, people would know he’d disobeyed God, and ultimately he would lose his honour as God’s man on the throne. Saul at this point goes into survival mode. He knows he won’t change God’s mind, but I think he thought if he could convince Samuel to return with him from the battlefield, it would keep up the appearance that he did indeed honour God. Samuel’s presence with Saul would represent God’s presence with Saul. We see that Samuel doesn’t agree with this idea. In Samuel’s mind, Saul has dishonoured God and so Samuel isn’t about to pretend everything is okay by returning with Saul and the army. Saul doesn’t like that Samuel has done this. The passage continues;

As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. 1 Samuel 15:27

It looks like Saul has made this worse. Not only has God taken away his kingdom, and Samuel is refusing to return with him to Jerusalem, but he has now assaulted Samuel and had the consequences confirmed. The tearing of the robe of one who was anointed was significant, as we see later when David ‘dishonors’ Saul by cutting a part of his robe in a cave. Saul is surely heading for more dishonor. However, something strange happens;

Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.” So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD. 1 Samuel 15:30-31

Saul starts his repentance the same way as the last time by admitting his sin, but he asks for something different this time. Rather than asking Samuel to just return with him, he specifically asks to be honored before the elders and the people of Israel. The rest of his request remains the same. This time, and we aren’t told for certain why, Samuel agrees to return with Saul after the battle. Samuel’s presence with Saul on the return would have brought Saul great honor, and we can only presume that Samuel also chose to honor him more openly in front of the elders and the people.

Why did Samuel change his mind?

I guess we may never know this answer fully until perhaps we get to chat with Samuel in glory, but we can tell that Samuel wasn’t really up for changing his mind. I think I have a theory about why he switched his thinking – it’s just a theory, though. I think it’s got something to do with our favourite word; honor. Honor was the currency in that culture. If you had it, you were a joy to your people, and if you didn’t, life would be a tough assignment for you. We know that Samuel cared for Saul. At the start of the next passage, we find out that Samuel mourned because Saul had been rejected as king. (We also find out that Samuel was a bit scared of him too, but we’ll hold that to one side). On top of that, Saul had still been anointed by God and was still the King of the people, even though he knew the kingdom would be taken from him. Samuel knew that not returning with Saul would cost Saul everything. I like to think that even though Saul had clearly failed and rejected God, and even though he had dishonored Samuel by tearing his robe, Samuel didn’t want to cancel him completely. His actions would have consequences, yes, but who he was, and all that had gone that was good, still mattered. Saul still deserved honor for who he was and what he had done.

This is at the root of honour for me. Yes, Saul was ruthless, disobedient and power-hungry but Saul was still someone who took on the leadership of God’s people. That should be honoured. Regardless of his mistakes, he also had success. With all his success, he made some grave mistakes. Honour doesn’t allow the bad someone has done to cancel the good. It also doesn’t allow the good they have done to cover up the bad. Honour realizes that everyone with breath in them was created in the image of God and therefore deserves to be treated with love. It also realizes that not everyone created in the image of God will live out that image well, and that must be recognized too. We could get into all sorts of complexities here and I know this can be a touchy subject for many of us, but I still feel that if we are called to follow Jesus, we must be people who learn to honour always.