“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12
We have completed the 4 initial commandments that deal with our relationship with God. God declares He is solitary, He cannot be represented by an idol, demands sacredness concerning His name, and sets aside a day of rest in celebration of His creative genius. We now explore the first of six commandments that deal with the relationships between people. It is only fitting that the first of these deals with the family and the home.
The Biblical story clearly outlines that the family is foundational for society. In God’s creative action, He created man first and declared that it was not good for him to be alone. God then created woman from man and gave her to man as his companion in God-blessed marriage. One had become two through God’s creative genius. This created pair then became unity in the sacred union of God designed and blessed marriage. This original marriage was between perfect individuals and was ideal. As the result of sin, our marriages are no longer perfect because neither participant is perfect. The dramatic failure of marriages in the latter part of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st is not that marriage is broken but rather the participants are. God endorsed the institution of marriage by blessing procreation in this setting and this setting alone. If you scan the birth announcements from the hospitals in our city, you will discover that God-blessed marriage is no longer considered a necessity to have a child. Parenthood for some has been reduced from a sacred and clinging relationship to mere biology. The folly of this is played out in the welfare system failures in our country coupled with our overflowing prisons. The inmates routinely have not a recognizable father. This is a grave mistake pushed forward by “the pill” and public figures or leaders such as Alfred Kinsey, Sigmund Freud, and Hugh Hefner.
The fifth commandment’s honoring results in a blessing of God. The promise is one of a long life.
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
3 ” ‘Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:1-3
This introduces a subtle change that would not be noticed were it not for the fact that it arises from a patriarchally dominated culture. Note that the honoring of parents is reversed so that the mother is mentioned first. This surely is for purpose and reflects that this relationship is between equals. The Bible generally directs the father to be the spiritual head of the household. Unfortunately, many of us have left the heavy lifting to our wives. Were male leadership in the spiritual realm all that we have or will be available to us in the future, our outlook would be dismal.
Your order of worship includes 12 easy rules for parents. It was put out many years ago by the Police Department of Houston, Texas. It is the antithesis of the 5th Commandment. It goes as follows:
For parents:
How to make a child into a delinquent:
12 easy rules
1. Begin in infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way, he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
2. When he picks up bad language, laugh at him. This will make him think he’s cute.
3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is 21 and then let him ‘decide for himself.’
4. Avoid the use of the word ‘wrong.’ It may develop a guilt complex. This will condition him to believe later, when he is arrested for stealing a car, that society is against him and he is being persecuted.
5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around, books, shoes, and clothes. Do everything for him so that he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.
6. Let him read any printed matter he can get his hands on. Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilized, but let his mind feast on garbage.
7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they will not be shocked when the home is broken up later.
8. Give a child all the spending money he wants. Never let him earn his own. Why should he have things as tough as you had them?
9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink and comfort. See that every sensual desire is gratified. Denial may lead to harmful frustration.
10. Take his part against neighbors, teachers, and policemen. They are prejudiced against your child.
11. When he gets into real trouble, apologize for yourself by saying, “I never could do anything with him.’
12. Prepare for a life of grief. You will be likely to have it.
In our day of enhancing self-esteem and disrespecting authority, these rules serve as an excellent start for creating a chaotic home and delinquent children. Our challenge is to create a nobility of character in our homes and in subsequent generations who are nurtured there. Cultures rarely remain the same. They either ascend or descend. The responsibility for us all is to honor the mothers and father of our homes and to promote Godliness in all who reside there.
