Description
Honouring Our Parents: Insights from Exodus 20:12
In this episode, we explore the commandment to ‘Honour your father an… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Should we honour our parents? Let’s think about that as we meditate on Exodus 20, verse 12, as part of our miniseries on the 10 Commandments. It says: Honour your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
So clearly the way this is phrased tells us that it is given at a specific time to a specific people, the Israelites. The land that God was giving them the Promised land. And in that sense, this commandment was attached to a promise for the Israelites.
But we see in the 10 Commandments, God’s moral law, the way that he has created, and structured this universe, which reflects his own character. And there is a principle here that it is important to honour our parents. Why?
Well, because God chose them to give you life. Now, your history may be really difficult and traumatic, and you may have no relationship at all or a very bad relationship with your parents. This verse isn’t telling us that we need to make all these things right that are impossible to make right.
Nevertheless, we do not need to do things that disrespect our parents. We don’t need to do things that disrespect anyone, but God is particularly concerned that we don’t do damage to the means through which he gave us life.
It is very hard sometimes to understand why all the things that happen in this world happen. The bottom line is we live in a fallen world, and because of that, many parental relationships are complex or non-existent.
But we see in this verse that God treasures us, that he wanted you, my friend, to be alive, to exist. The means through which some of us come into existence is not always the best, but God is glad that you are alive. He’s glad that I’m alive. God really is our true Father for all of us. And he’s perfect in every way.
This is not a great thing that he asks of us. And he shows us through this verse that he wants to bless us.
