Under Cover
Romans 13:7, “Give respect and honor to all to whom it is due.”
We are going to learn in this study how honoring people in authority over us is for our own sake. Not for the sake of the person in authority. Honoring those in authority over us is actually brings blessing.
In I Samuel we read about a woman named Hannah. She was married to Elkanah, who had a second wife, Peninnah. Elkanah married this second wife because Hannah was barren, and Peninnah tormented or “rubbed in” the fact that Hannah could not have children, which made Hannah all the more upset at not being able to bear children.
Now every year this family would go to Shiloh to worship. This was an especially hard time for Hannah and Peninnah who knew this teased her all the more. Hannah was so deeply hurting over her barrenness that even her husband who loved her dearly could not comfort her.
During one of Hannah’s visits to Shiloh, she was so upset that she wept before the Lord and made a covenant. She told God that if He would give her a child, that she would give the child back to God for all his years.
While she was praying and lamenting over this, Eli, who was high priest and judge of Israel, came to her thinking she was drunk, and rebuked her. “Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. ‘Must you come here drunk?’ he demanded. ‘Throw away your wine.’” (I Sam 1:13-14)
Not only was he being non-compassionate to her pain, but he also scolded her for doing something she hadn’t done and called her a drunk. She had left the woman who tormented her, to go and be treated in such manner by the priest.
“Every year she came to Shiloh empty-handed with no child to present before the Lord. Each year she encountered the looks, the stares, the whispers and jeers of those around her.”
How would we feel in her situation? You go to church to cry out to God in a moment of anguish over a situation and the pastor comes over and insults you. How would we feel if he called us a drunk and told us to move on? You might think, “Who does this guy think he is? I’m here pouring my heart out to God and he insults me.”
You might question his position as pastor. You might not even want to go back to his church. Is this how Hannah responded?
“Oh no, sir!’ she replied, ‘I’m not drunk! But I am very sad, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow’” (I Sam 1:15-16). She answered him with respect and honor. It wasn’t that his actions warranted that respect or honor, but his position did. That was what she was honoring.
At that time Eli was not in good standing with God, and was under judgment, but her focus was not on him but on herself. “Hannah was a woman who truly feared the Lord. If anything was wrong with the leader, God would deal with it.”
With the response she gave, his attitude toward her changed: “In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.” “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad. (I Sam 1:17-18).
Hannah not only honored his position, but thanked him for his word of blessing on her. Look what happened next.
I Sam 1:19-20, “ The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah. When Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her request, and in due time she gave birth to a son.”
“God used a fleshly, insensitive priest to release the words to bring forth the conception of a promise.”
What can we learn from this? Check this out: “When God places His authority on a person, no matter his private or personal behavior, we may still receive if we look beyond it and honor him as sent from God.”
People, who are not in right standing with God, can and, will be used by God to bring things forth. Look what Jesus said about this, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt 7:22-23).
Please notice two things here. One, that there were people doing miraculous things in God’s name, even though they were not followers of God’s law. And I’m not talking non-Christian either. But equally, if not more importantly, God used these people to bring forth blessings to others.
The people who Jesus was talking about were people such as Eli, who He used to bring forth or perform works through, yet Eli’s whole house was judged forever.
There will be corrupt and ungodly people in ministry and in places of authority, but our job under them is not to judge them or to make what they are doing right. Our job, under their authority is to honor their position. We have to let God take care of what’s wrong. While we do what is right.
If we judge or try to make things right by our own ways and devices, we are in a sense saying to God that we don’t feel He is doing a good enough job, or not fast enough, and that we have a better plan then God Himself.
Hannah left the judgment in the hands of God, and followed God’s authority and honored the authority that God placed on Eli.
Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” (John 13:20)
Look what Jesus said in reference to Judas to the twelve, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70) Judas did everything the other disciples did. He cast out demons and performed miracles along with the others. So others received from Judas, the very one who betrayed Jesus.
God always makes things right with his judgment. If not here in this life, then it will come in the one following. We don’t have to get involved in someone else’s sin, especially when we aren’t even sure. Listen to what John says about this, “Too many operate out of suspicion, and too often they are not accurate in their assessment and bring serious damage to themselves and their peers. Their mouths leak what they incorrectly suspect. They justify their notions as spiritual discernment. The make it difficult for others to receive from ordained leaders, and many miss what God desired to give them. That is why God admonishes, ‘Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses’ (I Tim 5:19). A witness is one who can produce evidence, not hearsay.”
If there is a leader in blatant sin, and is unrepentant, then you should remove yourself from being under their authority, but we are NOT to speak against them. David did the same with Saul.
Let’s look again at Matt 10, verses 40-42, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
First we see in these verses the flow of authority. We start with the Father, followed by Jesus, who is the head of the church. Next is the prophet. Prophets are initially depicted as the Lord’s spokespersons. This would represent one of the five fold ministry gifts. Then you have the righteous man, which does not exclude the babes in the church.
The second thing we see in these verses is that we are to receive these people not only as those in authority, but as sent by God, and each received the rewards that were due them. Let’s look at Jesus’ life to see this.
Jesus said, “ ‘Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.’ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them”
We receive someone as sent by God, when we honor them in there position. Why didn’t his own people receive Him? It was because He didn’t come in a way they expected Him to.
Look what they read as their bases for who they were looking for: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders… Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom.” Isaiah 9:6-7.
They were looking for a king, not a carpenter’s son, who hung around with fishermen and tax collectors. That was not what they wanted or expected in their Messiah.
Notice the scripture said that he “could not” do any miracles. It doesn’t say He “would not”. He was kept from doing what He would have wanted to do, but how? Why? The two reasons are this: First they did not honor Him in the position He was placed in and the second was their familiarity with Him.
Mark 6:2-4, “He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this, which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?’ So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
David dealt with this when he went home to bless his household. He was praised in the streets but despised at home, and for that, Michal missed the blessing God had for her. She remained barren till the day she died.
Only those with hungry, teachable, and humble hearts saw who Jesus really was. John also mentions the two types of people. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:11-12)
Truth is, many times God will send us what we need in a package we don’t want. Because of this, our true nature comes out and we expose whether our heart is truly in submission or not. Jesus said, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also” (John 8:19).Those who know the Father recognize the authority He puts on those He sends. It doesn’t have to be explained, taught, or proved.
“This explains why a minister can go to Africa and see blind eyes opened, the disabled walk, and the deaf hear, then come to America and see only a few headaches and minor back problems healed…. In Africa, the man or woman is received as sent by God, no matter the appearance or packaging. Because the person received and honored this way, the precious African people are blessed by God’s power and His presence. In America if the packaging is not just right, honor is withheld. It is proportional. To the degree you receive and honor the messenger as sent by God is the degree you receive from God through this person. Dishonor, and this will be your reception. Give great honor, and honor will be your portion.