The Book of Exodus states the Fifth Commandment as:
“Honor your father
and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving
you.” (Ex 20:12)
The
Book of Deuteronomy states the Fifth Commandments as:
“Honor your father
and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live
long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving
you.” (Deut 5:16)
And yet
many people today believe that instead of children being accountable to their
parents, that parents are accountable to their children. After all, we have Children’s Aid Societies and
not Parents’ Aid Societies. We have
Child Protection Acts and not Parent Protection Acts. Regrettably, some children are neglected, physically
abused, sexually abused, and even murdered.
I came
across a 2003 University of Western Ontario report entitled Child Protection Legislation in Ontario: Past,
Present and Future? Its abstract
reads, “Ontario has undergone significant shifts in child welfare policy
emphasizing different approaches toward promoting the safety and welfare for
children. This article examines shifts
in child welfare policy over the past 200 hundred years and the manner in which
these shifts reflect changing views of children, of family as a social unit and
of society.”
Rest
assured that the Bible was nowhere on the list of the report’s references. We seem to be moving to a society in which
parents honour their children rather than one in which children honour their
parents. And the statistics in the
report show an increasing number of children in the care of the Children’s Aid
Society.
When
God revealed the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, honour your father and your mother
was the fifth commandment. Honour your
father and your mother comes after the four commandments to honour God and before
the commandments to not murder and not commit adultery.
Failing
to honour your father and your mother was a serious offence in the theocracy of
Ancient Israel. If you stole money from
someone, your could repay four or five times what you stole. If you testified falsely against someone in
court, you could serve the sentence intended for the falsely accused. But if you failed to honour your father and
your mother, the penalty was death.
Imagine
you had a Get Out of Jail Free Card – or in the case of Ancient Israel, a Get
Out of Stoning Free Card – you could take your pick: you could either murder, commit
adultery, or fail to honour your father or your mother.
The Book
of Exodus provides specific penalties for failing to honour one’s father and
mother:
“Anyone
who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death.”
(Ex 21:15)
“Anyone
who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.”
(Ex 21:17)
The Book
of Leviticus gives additional information on this commandment:
Positively:
“Each of you must
respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord
your God.” (Lev 19:3)
And negatively:
“Anyone who curses
their father or mother is to be put to death.
Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on
their own head.” (Lev 20:9)
Just after
Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, the children of Israel
repeated ten curses upon those who violate the Law. The second curse, right after the curse upon
anyone setting up an idol, was:
“Cursed
is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”
(Deut 27:16a)
The
Book of Deuteronomy probably provides the most frightening example of what
happens to someone who does not obey his father and mother within the theocracy
of Ancient Israel. It reads:
If someone has a
stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will
not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take
hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of
ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will
not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”
Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. (Deut
21:18-21)
The
Book of Proverbs, written 500 years after the revelation of the Law, adds:
“If
someone curses their father or mother,
their
lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.” (Prov 20:20)
1,500
years after the revelation of the Law, the Apostle Paul, who was a Jewish Christian,
told non-Jewish Gentile Christians:
Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
“Honor your father
and mother”— which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go
well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Eph 6:1-3); and,
Children,
obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the
Lord. (Col 3:20)
Because
people are always inventing reasons and excuses to avoid following God’s
commandments, Jesus Christ criticized people who had invented ceremonies and
traditions to prevent the honouring of father and mother. Jesus says:
“You have a fine way
of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and
mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what
might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted
to God) — then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.
(Mk 7:9-12, cf. Mt 15:3-8)
This thing is certain – honour your father and mother.
