June 28 - HONOR - Exodus 20:12

¹² Honor your father and your mother,

so that your days may be long in the land

that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 20

 

Have you ever seen a painting of Moses carrying the Ten Commandments down the mountain? How many tablets does he have? Two, right? Why (besides “it tells us so”)? It’s because there’s two kinds of commandments.

 

·         The first set of commandments deal with our relationship with God – no other gods, no false idols, don’t take God’s name in vain, and remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

·         The second set of commandments deal with our relationship with humans – no murdering, stealing, coveting, or bearing false witness, etc.

 

Part of that “etc.” is today’s commandment. Most commands deal with people generically – don’t murder anybody or steal from anyone – but today’s command deals with two specific people: our parents!

 

“Honor your father and mother” is the first of these human-to-human relational commands. It’s also the only command with a promise or a blessing attached to it – “so that your days may be long in the land.”

 

Why do you think that this commandment comes with this promise? I think it’s because honoring our parents trains us to be respectful to proper authority.

 

Our parents are in a positon of authority over us. When we’re little and they can scoop us up in one arm, their authority comes from their relative power (over our tiny little selves). As we grow older, their authority comes more and more from influence. But here’s God’s point in this command: Will you respect the authority that you can see?

 

This is important! If we are rebellious and willfully choose not to follow the authorities that we can see (like our parents), how will we ever trust, follow, respect, and obey an authority that we cannot see (like God).

 

Wait, I know that some parents aren’t totally respectable. We all sin and fall short. Therefore, we must respect what is respectable and honor what is honorable. But God is always and eternally respectable! And the point remains: If we are rebellious and willfully choose not to follow the authorities that we can see (like our parents), how will we ever trust, follow, respect, and obey an authority that we cannot see (like God).

 

I believe the reason that God gave this command – and the promise attached to it – is because if we learn to respect the authorities that we can see, then we will learn to trust and follow God. And if we honor and obey God, then we will live long in the land.

 

God is promising his provision to those who choose to be his children.

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who keeps learning

how to be a better son