Man, that was a surprise!...finding that honouring Mum and Dad is
unconditional….no matter what!
Yes, it took me many years of unlearning to wake
up to that and I am ashamed of not having honoured my parents and grandparents
properly – especially Dad. I suggest we dig a bit deeper into God’s
Word, starting with what the Lord Jesus himself said:
“...Well do ye set aside the
commandment of God, that ye may observe what is delivered by yourselves to
keep. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, he who speaks ill
of father or mother, let him surely die. But ye say, If a man say to his father
or his mother, It is corban (that is gift), whatsoever thou mightest have
profit from me by…And ye no longer suffer him to do anything for his father or
his mother; making void the word of God by your traditional teaching which ye
have delivered; and many such like things ye do.” Mark 7 &
Matthew 15
Uhh!...what’s this ‘corban’ thingammy?...whatever
is this all about anyway?
Apparently a tradition
was upheld over the 5th Commandment whereby a guy would be free of obligation
to look after his parents if he claimed the money would go to the temple
treasury, eventually – in other words, he
could talk pious while using the money for whatever in the meantime…and forget
about those parents.
Matthew tells us what Jesus thought
about that caper:
“Hypocrites! well has Esaias prophesied about you, saying, This people
honour me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me; but in vain do
they worship me, teaching as teachings commandments of men.”
Whoa! He’s real angry!...and I noticed He didn’t
say: “only if the parents are walking rightly”.
 |
| Mister Two-face |
So
aren’t we meant to learn from the Old Testament too?
(1 Cor 10:11-12)
(1 Cor 10:11-12)
Absolutely! A whole chapter is devoted to Jehonadab who aided Jehu in
eradicating Baal worship in Israel (2 Ki 10) and set these weird rules for his
family of Rechabites: no wine, no houses, no farms…
Just imagine the poor women
and kids in tents with snow on the ground, while hungry lions and bears snooped
around! So what did God think of that?
"Thus saith Jehovah of
hosts, the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab
your father, and kept all his injunctions, and have done according unto all
that he hath commanded you; therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of
Israel, There shall not fail to Jonadab the son of Rechab a man to stand before
me, for ever." Jeremiah 35…and meanwhile this
is what God thought of some other families in Israel:
“In thee have they made
light of father and mother...” Ezekiel 22:7
Well, the Rechabites
sure took this seriously…and I found a couple more proverbs:
“Whoso curseth his father or
his mother, his lamp shall be put out in the blackest darkness.” Proverbs 20:20
“Hearken unto thy father
that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” Proverbs 23:22
Notice it’s still unconditional and here is the
final prophetic word to Israel waiting for Messiah to come:
“Behold, I send unto you
Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Malachi 4:5 & Luke 1:17
So we’d better pay
attention to this hey?...the great and terrible day of Jehovah is probably just
around the corner. I seem to remember Paul’s final message… Malachi 4:5 & Luke 1:17
“But this know, that in the
last days difficult times shall be there; for men shall be........disobedient
to parents... 2
Timothy 3:1-
Well, we shouldn’t be surprised by that if we Christians don’t show the
world how to honour father and mother – NO MATTER WHAT!
After all, aren’t we the most responsible people on Earth today?... the Brethren are on record laying claim to that one…
“…that ye may be harmless
and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and
perverted generation; among whom ye appear as lights in the world, holding
forth the word of life…” Philippians 2:15
So perhaps we’d better get back to ‘The Word of Life’?
Image credits:
Ids.org
moillusions.com
Ids.org
moillusions.com
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