Honor

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

HONOR

Prov 20:20

20 If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.

NIV

This certainly comes from the law God handed down to the Israelites. This phrase was found both in the Old Testament and quoted by Jesus in the New Testament. First we see it in Exodus and then Leviticus.

Ex 21:17

17 "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.

NIV

Lev 20:9

9 "'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.

NIV

When Jesus is chastising the Pharisees, he quotes this law.

Matt 15:3-6

3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'   5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' 6 he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

NIV

But there is the opposite to this law of death for not honoring our father and mother. God established this law in what we call the Ten Commandments. He stated that we are to honor are father and mother and in doing so we will have a long life.

Ex 20:12

12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

NIV

So then there is no option here but to honor our father and mother. What does it mean to honor them? Does that apply only while they are alive? It would seem not. Some of us are of the age that our parents have long been gone from this earth. Yet we honor them in memory. We honor them by not speaking unkindly of them or how they acted as parents. There are certainly facts in the history of our lives as children or young adults that may not have been the best of times, but that should be left in the past. Some people make excuses for their behaviors on the way their parents treated them. This excuse giving dishonors their parents, putting the blame on them instead of the person for his or her bad behavior. The fact remains it is our parents who gave us life. Yes it was God who knit us together in our mother’s womb. Yes, it was God who gave us all life, creating man and woman. But the fact still remains we are a product genetically from our father and mother. Many of us have very similar features and traits as our parents. We were raised by them one way or another, those of us who are currently adults have attained adulthood primarily because of our parents. In either case they were the ones who brought us into this world. What we are, who we are is completely on us. We all have choices to make in this life. We all can choose to live an angry, hateful life, resenting our parents and their behaviors toward us, or we can be thankful for our lives and the fact we are free to make our own way in life. We can choose to accept Jesus or choose to refuse him. We can love God or hate him, all freedom has been given to each of us to make our own mind up as to how we live. Some children who had been raised in the worst of conditions have risen to greatest in this world. Some children who were raised in a Christian home with the best guidance possible have chosen to walk away from God. The fact is we have the choice to honor or dishonor our parents. The results are total opposite. By honoring them we will live a long life, but by dishonoring them we can be assured our life will be much shorter.  Does this only apply in the words we speak about them to others? Maybe it also applies to the condition of our heart toward them. We might speak well of them to others, but in our heart we still carry some resentment, or anger, or unforgiveness toward them. Would that count as dishonoring them? Does our behavior reflect honoring or dishonoring them? Then we have to consider God, for now we are his children and he is our Father, and mother, as some would say. Does our life honor him? Do our attitudes, words, and behaviors bring honor to God? Could we see this proverb as those who do not honor God with their lives will have their candle, life, snuffed out in total darkness, perish? Those who honor God will live life eternally, which is a very long life. Either way, let us always give honor to our earthly parents and our heavenly parent.