PLACE OF HONOR ~ Precious Victor Akah

A certain man was invited to a luxurious birthday party by one of his friends. He dressed up in his most expensive attire and went for the party. When he arrived at the venue, he walked into the hall, after feasting on the luxurious decorations and beautiful arrangements of the seats with his eyes, he matched straight to the place where he observed had the most grandiose seats tagged "PLACE OF HONOR" and sat down on one of the seats.

All the guests invited to the party began coming one after the other in their luxurious wears - carefully taking their seats. Before long, the hall was filled to the brim. Few minutes to the commencement of the party, a highly influential man walked into the hall with his retinues. Two ushers citing the man from afar, rushed towards him to give him a grand welcome, while another usher hurried towards the man sitting on the PLACE OF HONOR and requested him to stand up and go and take a seat in the place reserved for "less important guests".

Great shame fell on the man, gripped him firmly and engulfed him totally. He stood up and walked shamefully to the place reserved for "less important guests" to have his seat. This story perfectly dramatized what Jesus said in Luke 14:7-11. It reads thus: "When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This is an important instruction given by Jesus. But many Christians either have not read this passage of Scripture before or haven't read it consciously, or even though they have read it, they do not see any wisdom in it, hence, do not care to live by it. So some people, like the man in the story we read, attend wedding ceremonies and other occasions and still rush to sit at places of honor without being told and end up being humiliated like Jesus foretold.

If you always love to exalt yourself, you'll always be humbled in an embarrassing manner. Let's all learn a lesson from the man in our story and heed to the counsel of Jesus to walk in humility so that we'll be exalted by both God and man.

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Matthew 23:12

"A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor." Proverbs 29:23

Shalom