respect

In the Army there was a saying: “We salute the rank, not the man.” The point was that the chain of command only works if all soldiers give respect according to rank, not according to their personal views of the person holding the rank.

I thought of that this morning when I read of Elisha being called on by the king of Israel to foretell the outcome of a pending battle. Three kings had come together to do war, and now they wanted some reassurance. Elisha wasn’t inclined to help out his enemy, but he said this, in 

2 Kings 3:14:  "As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not pay any attention to you.”

Elisha didn’t respect Jehoshaphat because he was such a good king, or even a good man. Elisha respected the fact that, out of love for David, God had promised there would always be a descendent of David on the throne in Judah. Even though most of the kingdom had been stripped away, God honored the man after his own heart in this way.

Elisha honored God, so Elisha honored what God honored. David’s line would always be treated with respect because of David and his devotion to God.

It makes me wonder if there are things that God honors that I don’t. Maybe there are things I honor in principle but not always in deed, like justice for widows and orphans. Sometimes my vote goes to candidates who will be good for business and the economy, not those who want to strengthen the social safety net.

Sometimes I might just pay lip service to the idea of unity in the church, while what I’m really doing with my words is aggravating differences of opinion. Maybe I try to act humble but really think I’m doing pretty well in life by myself. 

Elisha’s words remind me that I need to respect the things God wants respected. It isn’t hard to know what those things are, so why don’t I do a better job of it?