The bible tells us in Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. The bible further explains in Ephesians 6:2 to "Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth." Today is a day that we take time out to honor the women in our lives that have taken care of us and nurtured us and loved us.
However, I think that the world we live in has distorted our thinking and beliefs on what the above scriptures really mean. Sadly today I see a lot of us not giving our parents or elders for that matter the honor that they truly deserve. We say we love them but we are quick to flat out disrespect them when they do something that we don't like or when we ask them for something and they tell us no. Little do we know that we are actually hurting ourselves and not them with our dishonor. Lets take a look at the above scriptures again and you will see what I am talking about.
Exodus chapter 20 starts by God speaking the 10 commandments to Moses. Verse 12 lays out the 5th of the 10 commandments. I'm sure that all of us know that the bible tells us to honor our mother and father but often times we forget that this is actually one of the 10 commandments. Yep thats right!! It is right above "you shall not murder" and right below "Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy." Remeber from Sunday achools that the 10 commandments were given in order of their importance. Therefore recognize that to God dishonoring our parents is greater than committing murder.
If we cross reference Exodus 20:12 we will be led to Ephesians 6. As I stated above the 5th commandment is the 1st commandment that comes with a promise - "that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you" or as it is stated in Ephesians 6 "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth." We learned opposites in elementary school and I think that that is the best way for us to look at this promise. If we honor our parents we will have a long life and things will be well with us while we live here on earth but if we dishonor our parents our days on earth will be shortened and filled with a lot of bad days.
A further look into the scripture will also reveal that no where does it say that we should give honor only when our parents deserve it and withhold it when they do not. All God said was to honor your father and mother period. Honor is one of those things that God believes should be freely given no matter what a person does or says to us. If you do not believe me go to I Samuel 24 with me......
After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi. ” 2 So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. 3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.Let me give you a little background before we talk about the scriptures above. Isreal wanted a king like some of the other great nations so the Lord had Samuel to annoint Saul as the king of Israel but during his reign he did some things that were not pleasing in the Lord's sight. God therefore rejected Saul as king and subsequently commanded Samuel to anoint David as king to take Saul's place. At the moment David was annointed the Spirit of the Lord was with him and departed from Saul to the point where Saul was tormented by demons. This made Saul very angry and he developed a hatred for David and he tried several times to kill him, which leads us to the scriptures above.
5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. 8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
Although Saul had just come back from pursuing the Philistines, he still had enough energy left to pursue David because he wanted him dead. Instead the Lord delivered Saul into David's hand to do with him as he pleased. It is clear from the scripture that David could have killed Saul if he wanted to as evidence by the fact he was able to cut off a corner of Saul's robe without being noticed. Although David had the opportunity to kill the man that had been pursuing him for years to kill him, David spared his life because he still honored Saul as king so much that he felt guilty for cutting a piece of Saul's robe and despite the way Saul had treated him, David still saw him as "my master, the Lord’s anointed, My lord the king." David honored him to the point that even though Saul wanted his life "David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground" before Saul. Many of us would have taken this opportunity to get rid of Saul and would not have given it a second thought. But we learn from David that no matter what our parents do to us or have done to us our duty as children is to honor them with the respect that they deserve inspite of their short comings.
So what happens when we dishonor our parents??? I'm glad you asked! Lets go to Matthew 13:53-58...
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” 58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.You see the people who grew up with Jesus did not honor him as the Son of God. Instead they saw him as the carpenter’s son, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Jesus response was that "a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home." And because of their dishonor Jesus did not perform many miracles there. This is the same thing that happens to us when we dishonor our parents, our days are shortened and our time spent on earth is filled with bad days. I learned in church that honor produces a culture of miraculous blessings and we see from the scripture above that dishonor produces a culture void of miraculous blessing.
Therfore, my prayer today for myself especially and for those reading this is "Lord do not let the dishonor in my heart hinder you Jesus from doing the miraculous things in my life."
Until next time.....
