In some recent studies I have been going through the 10 commandments. I have been thinking about their significance, how they were received by the people, why they are separated from the rest of the commandments and laws that God gives to Moses. I've thought of whether there is a difference that they are called commandments rather than laws? (maybe that a law is something you can break and have consequences for such actions and a commandment is something that is simply done without question)So I have decided to further my studies and talk about what I have learned and found about these commandments.
Lets get the cliche`s out of the way first. The Ten Commandments were written on two stone tablets according Deuteronomy 5, but not in the way we probably think. It was most likely to be written out fully with all the explanations and rewards that came with certain commands. They were not written five on one tablet and 5 on the other split perfectly evenly. It is actually thought to possibly have been written on a stone tablet that is similar to a cylinder that one would roll over to continue reading; that is interesting.
For this post, I am going to skip a middle commandment and talk about the fifth commandment, Honoring the father and the mother. This commandment actually has reasoning behind it. "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." (Deut. 5:16) God says to do it in order for you to have long days. That sounds pretty good, I know that some times there does not seem to be enough time in the day to get all I need to get done done. But what I want to go about is the idea of how people teach this commandment. Whenever people read this verse they always seem to relate it to children, that children need to respect their parents, do what they say without questioning, meaning to eat their vegetables and clean their rooms without complaining. But if one would take time to think about the situation of who the commandments were being told to, we might not think of this commandment as for children. When Moses was telling the children of Israel, he was speaking to the adults, not specifically the children. He was not speaking to the 18 and under group and say this one is for you from God, he just said it to everyone. Now what does this commandment mean to those who are living out of their house with families of their own? How are they supposed to Honor their fathers and mothers when they could be living across the state, country, or world? I think it means that there was a specific message that was going out to the people. A message of that was saying that parents are the ones that teach you what you know, they have the connection with God and lead you to that connection as well. I think also that Frederick Buechner has the idea when he says it does not even matter if you consider your parents to be "good," but to honor them because they gave you life when they did not have to. They might not deserve honor, or do anything honorable, but it commanded that we do so. If it is for nothing but an example for others that elders need to be honored, because their life paved a way for you to live. Or an example for the next generation or more specifically your children that they should treat you when reaching a older age with honor because that is what you showed them to do with your own parents. How do we honor? Well, to honor means to hold in high respect, to think highly of, to accept as valid and to confirm the request and demands of. That is a simple example of honoring, and not even I can say that I am completely honoring to any person really.
Honoring your father and mother has its benefits as the scripture clearly states being long days which are fulfilled in the land which God is giving you (I believe that the latter part "land God is giving you" is specific to the Israelites because he was moving them literally to land he was giving them, for modern people like ourselves, we can assume in our land, which is given by God anyways...). The thing is you have to honor first; you have to set the example of honoring for those around you, those under you and all you have never seen such honoring. God says to honor not for the benefit of the parents who receive the honor, but for those who give it. Maybe the father and mother are the ones who should be doing more honoring, so the children have an example.
No comments:
Post a Comment