Moses to Children of Isreal: "Open Up Your History Book"

Deuteronomy Chapter 4: Part 5: The Teaching of Moses Goes On

Deuteronomy 4:32-49 -- The Passage and Some Thoughts

This passage is very much a repetition of passages we have already studied so I will take you through it quickly highlighting some key thoughts of Moses.  You may wish to have your favorite version of Scripture there with you.

He has just finished telling them about what will happen in the latter days (see early study) and now wants them to focus again on the “former” days in order for them to get a real understanding of who God is. Chuck Smith says Moses was basically saying, “Hey guys, open up your history books and see what God has done already for you.”  We would do well to open up our own history books of our lives and see what God has done for us, including when we didn’t deserve it. The whole gift of salvation through the sacrifice of His Son falls into the category.

Just thinking about this reminds me of the old southern gospel song of the 1950s written by Stuart Hamblen, It Is No Secret What God Can Do. I guess many of us could also sing it as “It is no secret, what God has done”. But either way, the key message is in line that says, “What He’s for others, He can do for you.”  Or, wherever we are right now, even in the most difficult stage of our lives as some of us may feel we are in, we can sing, “What He’s done for me, He can do again.” Take a listen to the song here, Elvis sings It is No Secret.

He asks them if they know of any other god, since the beginning of creation who has allowed people to hear his voice from the midst of a fire, and still allowed those that heard it to live? And of course, the answer is no. (verse 33)

He asks if any other god has taken a nation for himself from within another nation and done so through trials, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and great terrors, as their God did right before their eyes. (verse 34)

And in verse 35 he tells them God did all this so that they may know Him and know that He is God and there is no one beside Him.

In verse 27 Moses tells them that this was done because He loved their Fathers with whom He made the Covenant. He tells them God didn’t do this because of their own greatness or obedience – anything but. Sometimes we get the benefit of the blessings of God because of His love for others – and often it is those who have prayed for us. In my case, I would say much of the blessings I have received are due to God’s love for my mother whom I know spent hours in the Word and hours on her knees before God – pleading on my behalf. Many of you may have had parents like that. God loved them and you’re now be blessed because of that.

In verse 40, he repeats the requirement to keep God’s statutes and commandments that the sons of Israel may live long in the land God was giving them.  And note the last three words of that verse.  God was giving them land “for all time”.

Verses 41-43 describe the three refuge cities that Moses set up on the east side of the Jordan and what tribes were primarily to manage those and use them.

And then verses 44-49 describes again how it was that these lands east of the Jordan were taken by the Israelites and kept, prior to them going across the Jordan to take Canaan, the Promised Land.

Wrap-up

I have always been a big believer in the fact that one’s relationship with God, and as a result, one’s salvation, is really between God and the individual. I still believe that but as I read and studied this passage, I could not help but realize how God is not just involved with me, but with those in my family (and yours) that went before me (and you). Some of us were fortunate to have a believing parent. Some of us were blessed with two believing parents. And today we benefit from that experience.

Others may not have been so fortunate. Perhaps neither of your parents were believers. Or you lost your parents early in your life before they could influence your faith. Or worse still, your parents’ faith, maybe coupled with their actions (perhaps of hypocrisy) turned you right off faith for a long time. Any of those experiences would be hard.

But here’s the good news. No matter what your experience with your parents was (or is), God can use the good experience for your benefit, and, now wait for it – God can use the awful experience for your good. Yes, he can. In fact, if that’s the case you can be the start of a new cycle in your family – you could be that faithful parent for your children and grandchildren.

What is important for us to grasp is that it really is no secret, what God can do.  May you find that to be true in your life.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Be Thankful You Aren't Living in Moses' Day; But Don't Miss God's View of Sin Even Today.

Leviticus Chapter 20: Penalties of Various Sins and the Laws’ Purposes

Leviticus 20

Today is Palm Sunday and likely none of us are able to celebrate it with other believers except our own family. But the sun is shining. Reminds us of the fact that the Son is shining. Enjoy your day. Take time to reflect on God’s gift to mankind and the fact that He is still in control. In the meantime, I continue with my study of book of Leviticus. Read on.

The Passage

The entire chapter is broken down into the penalties for the various sins God had mentioned earlier. These are penalties for:
-- worshipping Molech (verses 1-5)
-- consulting Spirits (verses 6-8)
-- cursing Parents (verse 9), and
-- committing Sexual Sins (verses 10-21).

The chapter ends with a section (verses 22-27) on the purpose of the laws of sanctification of the people.

Thoughts on the Passage

On worshipping Molech: remember this was to forbid the Israelites from giving any of their offspring to idols or heathen gods. If one did this, they were to be stoned to death. And if anyone just ignores such a sin by another person, they too will be cut off from God because they also have played the ‘harlot’. God is telling us today that we cannot ignore sin among us, especially among our churches. And while we are not to stone people, He does provide for us today a process in the New Testament by which we can approach those amongst us who are sinning against the Lord. David Guzik writes:

Molech was worshipped by heating a metal statue representing the god until it was red hot, then by placing a living infant on the outstretched hands of the statue, while beating drums drowned out the screams of the child until it burned to death.

On consulting Spirits: The penalty is that god sets his fac against that person and cuts him/her off from among Hi people.  In fact, in the last verse of the chapter (vs. 27), God says that anyone (of His people) who is a medium or a spiritualist shall be stoned to death.

On cursing Parents: The penalty is death. Period.  Wow. Glad I didn’t curse my parents, although I am sure there were times that they may have deserved it. On this, Guzik writes:

Virtually all commentators agree this is not the outburst of a small child – or even an adolescent – against their parent, but the settled heart of an adult child against their parent. Such inter-generational warfare was not to be tolerated, and punishable by death.

Guzik goes on to state that in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 where this matter is discussed further, that passage. . .

. . . states that the parent did not have the right to carry out this punishment, but they had to bring the accused child before the elders and judges of the city. This meant that the parent - against all contemporary custom - did not have the absolute power of life and death over their children.

Perhaps not quite so “contemporary” anymore, as more and more the state is telling parents what little rights they have over their children – be it with respect to their schooling, their discipline, or their health.

On committing Sexual Sins: The penalty for adultery with someone else’s spouse was death. This includes incest, homosexuality, and bestiality. Marrying two women who are related carried the penalty of death by burning. [Guzik indicates that some think this was not death by fire, but more a kind of ‘branding’ that left with them a visible lasting scar as a reminded, not unlike the famous story of The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, 1850.]  In the case of incest involving a sibling or lying with a woman who is having her period, the penalty is being cut off from the people, but there is no mention of death.  However, in the case of incest involving an aunt (or uncle one may assume), the penalty is that the those involved will die childless. God had specific penalties for specific sins.

In the last section of the passage, God gives us again the purpose of His laws. The Israelites were to keep them so that their new land that God gives them does not “spew them out” – that is, that God does not allow it to spew them out. Secondly, God says that a lot of these things that heathens do are “abhorred” by Him. And doing some of those things makes us “detestable”. Third, we are to be “holy to God” because He is holy, and we have been set apart from others to be His.

Chuck Smith claims that a lot of this sounds like “capital punishment” and wonders if we practiced it, whether a lot of our ills in society today would be mitigated. As we all know the Enemy has been able to confuse us all on this matter as he has on so many other matters with complexities of argument that seem right unto man but aren’t necessarily right before God.  The issue remains a very much outstanding one in our society.

One thing is for sure, God certainly does not think lightly of sin. He will punish it. If we learn nothing else from this chapter of Leviticus (even though we are under the New Covenant in many ways), let us learn that God is dead serious about sin, our sin. He can and does forgive, but He hates our sin and unforgiven sin will not be forgotten.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

If Ever There was a Need for Social Order, it is Now.

Leviticus 19:1-8 – Social Order Basics Part I

[parts of this intro appeared first as a standalone article on LinkedIn March 29, 2020]

Day 11 of our 14-day self-quarantine. I can hardly wait to go out and have the whole neighborhood to myself. It’s almost eerie like the pictures of an empty Times Square in New York City in the middle of the day.  The biggest challenge we have today is to be able to discern the truth from everything that is communicated to us (and that includes what we ourselves communicate to others).  Is the Covid-19 a big thing or will it too pass? Are the One World Government proponents behind this or is it just China or the anti-Trump movement or someone else? Is God trying to reach us one more time or is He just letting it be? Is this a build-up to the so-called end times?

Simply put, I don’t know. We do know this much. We are approaching 33,000 deaths worldwide as I write this (March 29, 2020).  That is more than the number of deaths of SARS, Ebola, and MERS combined. The next milestone (for lack of a better word) is Yellow Fever in the late 1800’s which took between 100 and 150 thousand people, followed by the Swine Flu in 2009/10 which took 200,000. We need to watch the stats.

With respect to who is behind all this, my personal feeling is that while one or more players may have had a negative role in this pandemic, the reality is that most of them are taking advantage of the situation to promote their own agendas. And that they’re prepared to do it in stages, taking what ground they can this time and setting up for the next ‘big thing’ that will help them do so. We need to be aware of that.

Finally, is God trying to reach us through this pandemic?  God is always trying to reach us. He has been doing that since He created the world and put man on it.  He made His ultimate reach 2,000 years ago when He gave His son to die on the cross providing a gift of eternal life to mankind. Some of us have not accepted that gift yet. Many are accepting it now. For them, and in the big scheme of things, the coronavirus pandemic will have been most worth it in the end. There is no virus or disease of any kind in heaven.

If ever there were times for having social order in the world, this is certainly one of them. And with that in mind we turn to our passage of Scripture today.

The Passage

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

² “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord your God.

⁵ ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. ⁷ So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense; it will not be accepted. ⁸ Everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Thoughts on the Passage

Here are God’s basic initial requirements for a social order that brings true “peace and security” to people.  This peace and security is NOT what all global and one world government proponents promise (until they have you under their control).  It is internal, it is lasting, and it cannot be taken away.

First, God says we need to be holy. Because He is holy. Simple. And we humans become more holy as we follow His commandments and live by his statutes. I love what David Guzik says about being holy:

The idea behind the word holy is “separate”. As it is applied to God, it describes God’s apartness. It means that God is different than man and from all other beings in the greatness and majesty of His attributes. He has a righteousness unlike any other; a just unlike any other; a purity unlike any other – and love, grace, and mercy unlike any other. . .. Being holy [for us] means being like God, separating ourselves unto Him and His truth - and naturally, separating ourselves from those things that are not like Him and not according to His truth.

And that is what we are to move towards.

Second, social order requires (now think about it) that each one of us “reverence his mother and his father”. Period. My, have we ever screwed this part up. Part of that is our own doing as sometimes we are not the parents God intended us to be; other times it happens because we allow the state or the school system to take over our responsibilities as parents. Sometimes it happens because we allow society (what others are doing or allowing with their kids) to dictate what we do or allow with ours. It’s just so much easier that way, we argue, because we need to focus on so much other stuff these days. Well, I’m sorry, but what your kid does (even as a teenager) should be one of your uppermost priorities.  We can only get “reverence” from our children, if we show them love and provide them with the limits that they need to become the adults God wants them to be.

Guzik says this law is an essential building block for the stability and health of all society. Harrison says, “Reverencing parents is an act of piety towards God, since the parents are substitutes for the heavenly Father as far as their children are concerned."

Third, God says, we are to keep His sabbath. That calls for another period! At this point I don’t care what day of the week is your sabbath, as much as I care that you have a sabbath and adhere to the idea of it being a day of rest – whatever God leads you or shows you or wants you to mean by that. Search the Word about keeping the sabbath and find out. And then in the words of some famous marketer, “just do it.”

Third, in this initial set of criteria for social order, God says to His people, “do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods”.  Well, many of us today may say we don’t do that. Check again. This very thing I am typing on right now may be an idol. So may my phone and the many apps on it. So too that idiot tube I watch periodically. Not to mention that glass container of spirits that we may pour into our bodies. Or porn. I would even go as far as to say that “idleness” – my “free time” can become an idol for us today. Did I mention money? (Are you going crazy because your sales or income is down right now? Maybe this is a time when you need to adhere to this verse – don’t make money your idol.)

Finally, God says, in verses 5 to 8, keep on making your sacrifices (or today your offerings) of service or gifts to the Lord. And do them in the appropriate way, He says. We learned about that earlier in this study from previous chapters. We have been away from our church for four weeks now due to our trip south and then our quarantine. Today, we wrote our check to make up for our inability to contribute to the weekly offerings. This Thursday, when we are released from quarantine, one of us will make that special trip to our church’s mail slot and make that donation. That is tops on our list. Do not forget to continue making your offerings unto the Lord, God says.

In the rest of this chapter, God continues with His “laws” of “social order”.  Boy, do we ever need them now. May you reflect on this as He speaks to your heart this day. Stay tuned for the next installment of this study and feel free to share this one.  God bless you.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Waiting For God(ot) -- No, I Mean It, It Seems Death is All that is Left

The day after American Thanksgiving my wife and I cut our visit to our daughter's family in the U.S. short.  Word had come back that my mother-in-law was not doing so well in her long-term care facility. And my wife felt she needed to be home.

I lost my mother when she was 64. I was 35 at the time. My dad died in his 91st year. I was 59.  My wife's father lived to be in his 97th year and died when my wife was 70.  And now we sit daily for a long stretch of time -- feeding and making comfortable her mom who is in her 96th year.

She has signed all the required papers. They are not to resuscitate her when the time comes. In the meanwhile she breathes with the help of oxygen. I understand that the amount of oxygen is significant enough that the portable containers can no longer be used.  It now comes directly from a much larger machine that is plugged into the wall.

And although this is also possible in the dining room, this resident is no longer able to sit up, let alone stand up. Thus getting her to meals in a wheelchair is not feasible. It's a struggle for two staff people to get her to the washroom or to take care of her in her bed.  They are angels.

I don't mind visiting as often as I can.  I do it because I love my wife.  And I want to be there for her. Fortunately, the home has excellent Wi-Fi and I can get a lot of work done (including writing this blog) when I'm here.

Today is not a particularly good day.  My mother-in-law does not want to eat a lot. She is hardly talking. She can barely keep her eyes open. This is no way to live. She wonders how long she has been like this and how much longer this condition will continue. We're not sure if she is hoping to get better or if she is ready to die. The verdict on that changes regularly.

For all of us, it's like waiting for Godot. You may have studied the famous but absurd play by Samuel Beckett performed first in 1953.  Godot never comes for the two main characters.

But get rid of "ot" and change it to waiting for God -- and that's exactly what we have here.  We tell Grandma that it's up to God now as to how long this state will continue.  We are doing nothing to cut it short and there is nothing we can do to prolong it in accordance wth her wishes.

But the wait is important.  Not so much for her, but more for us. Death has a way of strengthening the  living.

When a parent lives into his or her late nineties, their caregiver children often range into their seventies. The toll of daily visits, feeding and just sitting next to their loved day after day (especially if due to location one child is more likely to bear the majority of the burden) often with little or no response, or signs of real life, can be taxing. Yet, children do it because of the relationship and the bond (regardless of quality) that has been established over seven decades or more.

Somehow God gives them the strength to daily set aside their own responsibilities and make that visit. It's a duty they take on even though they have no idea of how long it will need to last. The staff at the long-term care facility my wife's mother is in told me this week that in 2019 they had to say goodbye to two 108 year olds. And then of course what happens when the caregiver themselves starts to have her or his own health issues?  Just imagine a parent living to 108 and the caregiver being 85.

Maybe our forefathers knew something when they all lived together in villages, taking care of their aged at home and sharing the responsibilities. Or did they?

So we wait for Godot.  We wait for our loved one to die. There are no other options -- recovery has succumbed to age. If a setback occurs, any medicine or treatment can only prolong life for a day, a week, month, maybe even a year. But what does that life look like and who wants it?  Does the elderly person themselves want it?  Does one dare to ask him or her?

I asked my mother-in-law today, "Did you sleep well last night?" Her barely audible reply was, "That's all I do."  She's right. I added, "Then you've mastered that.  Maybe you can teach some of us how to do it."  She smiled.

As we each take turns visiting and sitting quietly in the room, we cannot but think of our own future, our own old age, even our own last days.  Will we have mastered sleep, waiting for Godot, waiting for death?  I pray my personal experience will be characterized by a sense of wonderment because I will be waiting for God, not Beckett's Godot. And Love will have once again conquered all, even death.

-- Ken B. Godevenos writing from Toronto.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

In the Line of Fire: Raising Kids in a Violent World

 

I agreed to review this book because I have six living grandchildren ranging from 14 years of age through to 10 months whom I love dearly.  And while none of them live in a constantly violent world per se, each one of them is a candidate for being exposed to violence in their lives, both now and in the future – be it in the playground, at school, riding our public transit, driving our congested highways along with those prone to road-rage, or in the workplace.  Their chances of experiencing violence is growing daily, especially if they were to venture to parts of the world where violence is a way of life. Or perhaps, they, God forbid, will be in the wrong place at the wrong time when those who import violence to our world are doing their thing.

Jan Arnow’s 2015 book entitled, In the Line of Fire: Raising Kids in a Violent World, with a forward by Maryum Ali (peace activist, gang prevention specialist, and daughter of Muhammad Ali) and published by Butler Books of Louisville, KY, is a formidable reference volume on how to guard our children from violence – both being impacted by it and participating in it.  The book is attractively designed with many color photos throughout its 226 full-size (8 ½” by 11”) pages.  At 5/8” thick, sitting on a coffee table, it will be picked up readily by any awakened mind.

But who is Jan Arnow and what qualifies her to write on this most complex topic? Well, for starters she personally knows the horrors of growing up in an abusive household. That may be qualifications enough, but she also has credentials that may count for more in some peoples’ minds: She’s the founder and executive director of Innovations in Peacemaking International; internationally recognized lecturer and authority on multicultural education, violence abatement, prejudice reduction, creativity, and leadership; award-winning author of nine books and scores of articles; and currently working a new peace curriculum for schools, houses of worship, and neighborhoods.

The book’s table of contents speaks for itself.  Each of the nine chapters is filled with sub-topics that we as parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers can identify with. Here’s what Arnow covers:

·      Conditioning for Hatred and Violence (War Toys; Video Games; Television; The Next Step: Real Violence; Media Literacy; Responding to Kids’ Concerns)

·      What Is Your Child Reading? (Sexism; Racism; Other Forms of Bias; Finding the Materials)

·      The School Climate – Creating a Supportive Setting (Who Fails and Who Succeeds?; Why Keep Kids in School?; Strategies to Improve School Culture)

·      Growing Up Equal – Gender Fairness in the Classroom (Early Gender Socialization; Sexism in the School; Sexual Harassment; Connection Between Gender Inequality and Date Rape; The Call for Equity)

·      Parents and Teachers as Partners (Barriers to Parental Participation; Redefining the Concepts; Parental Involvement Helps Prevent Violence)

·      Sticks, Stones, and Digital Damage (Kids Will Be Kids; What is Bullying?; Cyberbullying, the Anonymous Destroyer; The Dangers of Sexting; It Doesn’t End There)

·      Guns Are Us (Guns Up the Ante; The Gun Industry; How Do Kids Get Guns?; The Path of a Gun; Myths and Truths about Guns; How Guns Affect Kids; Who or What is to Blame?)

·      From Hate to Harm (Persistence of Social Problems; Hate Crimes and Gangs; Community Services)

·      Actions as Antidotes – Working for Change (Compassion Fatigue; Reactions to Troubled Times; Commitment to Change; Where Do We Begin?; What Our Children Deserve).

Every chapter in the book is filled with very valuable information, fully researched and well presented.  Her chapter four on Gender Fairness has no hidden agenda as many authors have today.

Her chapter seven on Guns is not about gun control or taking away the Second Amendment rights that Americans enjoy – it’s about “children dying unnecessarily from gunshot wounds.” As such, there is no fear that the NRA or any wise owner of a gun would object to what she is saying.

Arnow’s chapter six on Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Sexting is a must read for every parent and guardian. I would even go so far as to say it’s a must read for every pre-teen.

Every chapter of Jan Arnow’s book is filled to capacity with what parents and teachers need to know today about their children and how violence is impacting their lives. In fact, Arnow is working hard to develop a teacher’s and community guide that can be used in conjunction with her book.

And if that’s not enough, to help you each chapter has eight different types of “aids” clearly marked to help you make the best use of what you are reading. These are:

n  For Your Information (Annotated book and resource reviews relate to the chapter topic.)

n  How Do You Rate? (Topic-specific checklists.)

n  Programs that Work (Examples of proven practices, how-to’s, and so on.)

n  Expressing Your Concerns (Where to send letters and faxes.)

n  Straight Talk (Quotations from parents, teachers, children, and experts.)

n  What Does it Mean? (Definitions of key words in each chapter.)

n  Did You Know? (Lists of easily grasped, pertinent facts.)

n  What You Can Do (Lists of action steps to take, by topic.)

There are two quotes at the beginning of the book that well-represent Arnow’s thinking in writing the book and what she hoped to accomplish.  The first makes a statement; the second explains her purpose:

n  Quote 1: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi as quoted in The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer (1950).

n  Quote 2: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality . . . I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1964.

As a Christian reviewer, while I understand and accept the point Gandhi was trying to make in his quote, and while I firmly believe in the act of forgiveness, I take some exception to his absolute conclusion.  An eye for an eye does not mean “an eye for an eye for an eye, ad infinitum.” Only that misinterpretation of the phrase could lead to Gandhi’s conclusion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on the other had indeed hit upon truth, but in his attempt to appease all, he fails to clearly state what the Gospel he preached truly maintains.  That is, that while the world is indeed “tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war”, the root cause of the problem is man’s fallen state of sin.  King is correct in saying we can look forward to the “bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood”, but this “reality” can, given our condition, only fully come in the “unarmed truth and unconditional love” found in the person of Jesus Christ.  In the meantime, Arnow’s book is an amazing tool to help each of us limit, and hopefully overcome, the “racism and war” and hatred in the lives of our children and grandchildren – and perhaps more importantly, in our lives as we model what it truly means to be human “living in peace with all men or women”.

With the copy of the book I got, there was an insert that went exactly like the following.  I recommend you take the steps suggested:

n  Step One:  Light a match.

n  Step Two: Hold your finger in the flame for as long as you can stand it.

n  Step Three: Reflect on how terrifying and awful that felt.

n  Step Four: Read In the Line of Fire: Raising Kids In a Violent World to understand why our children feel that way, literally and figuratively, and what we can do about it.

    -- Ken B. Godevenos, http://www.accordconsulting.com , Toronto, 15/05/17  

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God Warns Us Against “Cursing” our Parents -- Exodus 21:17

“And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”
 

On the list of actions for which God called for ‘capital punishment’, we come to the “cursing of one’s mother or father” in verse 17.  We remember that “striking one’s parents” was, according to verse 15, also part of this list.  After that, in verse 16, came the law on kidnapping in general (also punishable by ‘death’).  I find it interesting though that the two verses concerning how children treat their parents are interrupted with the reference to kidnapping.  I do not have a good explanation for that.

According to David Guzik, punishing the cursing of one’s father or mother by death preserves a critical foundation for civilized society, namely respect between generations by discouraging conflict between them.  God knew that as people age they are more at the mercy of the young, especially their own children who supposedly become responsible for them.  Thus He cannot stand to see open warfare between them, as that would harm society and ultimately possibly destroy it.

Today, as nation after nation, deals with modernizing its laws on euthanasia, which in essence is a legal means of the younger in the world facilitating the killing of those who are old, we seem, despite God’s laws, to be inching more and more towards civilization’s end.

Matthew Henry gives us some insight into the prohibition on cursing one’s parents.  He suggests it has more to do with “profaning any name of God” in a child’s expression of their ill feelings or anger towards their parents.  He also suggests that the “undutiful behavior” of children towards their parents provokes God greatly and if it is not punished by society, it will be dealt with by God Himself.  Henry warns sons and daughters against any such thoughts, feelings, or actions towards their parents, for as he says, “God searches the heart”.

So what does it all mean for us?  As I look back at the life of my own parents (my mom died when I was 35 and my dad when I was 59), I realize know how much of a gift they were to me from God.  I do not know what I would have been like without their direct and indirect influence.  I do not know what kind of husband or father or grandfather I would have been if it were not for how they shaped me.  I do not know how I would have handled the challenges and difficulties of life without following their instruction to rely on God Almighty.  It is possible that much of the good that I may have done towards another person would not have had the chance of ever happening had it not been for my parents and their role models in my life.

And as tough as one or both of our parents might have been towards us, the Bible simply asks us not “to curse them”.  That does not mean we condone or accept what they have done or are doing as parents, especially where they have or are causing harm to themselves, us, our family, or to others. But it does mean we do not wish them harm or death.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Striking Our Parents -- Exodus 21:15

“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”

Let me paint the picture for you.  God is giving the Children of Israel ordinances that He wants them to follow.  These are no ‘try to comply’ directions.  These are regulations that if not obeyed, have serious consequences that others can enforce.

And now we come to the edict regarding one’s parents.  Striking one’s father or mother will result in death.

Best we take a look at the word ‘strike’ itself.  When I did so on the dictionary built into my Word software, I was surprised to see thirty-six (36) definitions for the word as a verb.  Not all of them are relevant to our study here but the following ones need attention:

1.     Hit somebody (or something)

2.     Deliver blow

3.     Attack somebody (or something)

4.     Stop working as protest

5.     Affect somebody suddenly

6.     Affect with emotion

7.     Damage something or somebody

8.     Bite or sting suddenly

In my own life, I can say I have never exhibited any physical kind of striking behavior towards my parents.  On the contrary, it was the other way around. I remember my father striking me on several occasions as I was growing up.  There came a time when he tried to do so when I was eighteen years old and a little stronger than him at the time. In his rage over something I had said causing him embarrassment in front of his older brother who was visiting us from the family’s homeland, he attempted to strike me (perhaps with a belt in his hand).  I immediately grabbed his arm and pinned him against a nearby wall.  “Dad” I said, “please don’t do this and don’t cause me to hurt you.”  He retracted.  Not so much, I think, because he thought I could defeat him if necessary, but because he may have been struck himself with the guilt of hitting a son who otherwise loved him so much.  My dad and I went on to have a strong relationship many years afterward.  But many others are not so fortunate; they do carry out their impulse to strike their parents.

What about the non-physical striking of one’s parents?  Have any of us ever just quit on our parents, wanting nothing more to do with them?  Given up on trying to help them or understand them?  The last five of the eight definitions above may well apply.  I think when you combine Exodus 21:15 with the definitions of the word ‘strike’, the message is clear – godly men and women do not strike their parents physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, or socially.  Just as we are a gift to them, our parents, rightly or wrongly because of sin, are gifts to us.  You might say, “Well, you just don’t know my parents.  That’s one gift God could have kept for Himself.”  I understand, but remember this.  Just as many of us as children have, with our behavior and choices, hurt our parents to no end, so to, because of sin many parents have hurt their children to an extent that is even unbearable.  Yet, the ‘gift’ part comes to both parents and children in that we have an opportunity to belong to someone or to take care of someone, to have an identity that uniquely identifies us among billions of other people on earth and over history.  And God also gives us as children, through the opportunity of loving our parents to model for our own children not only what God wants but also what it means to be a loving and caring person beyond all adversity.

In his book, Night, by Elie Wiesel, the author is haunted by the fact that he stood by idly watching the guards in a concentration camp during the Holocaust while they beat and killed his father, the only relation he had left after several years of being prisoners.  Understandably he was too weak physically and mentally to attack them, and too afraid as well.  It would have done no good and both would have been dead. Wiesel survived, but the memory of that inability to do what God had commanded at that time stayed with him to this day.  Not being able to do so was just one of the things that contributed to his turning against God in his own life.  Yet, it was not God that prevented him from trying to stop Hitler’s regime from killing his father, it was the evil of man that made it next to impossible.

Fortunately, not too many of us are placed in those kind of circumstances.  Often there are real opportunities not to strike our parents, yet so many of us fail in this regard.  I do not know about you, but in the big cosmopolitan city that I live in, stories break out about this very thing.  We have read accounts of children arranging for the murder of their parents in order to inherit their wealth or cash in on their life insurance policies. We have seen children arranging for the death of their father in order to gain social freedom.  (This is a problem our western society faces more and more as newcomers from very strict family traditions about entertainment, friends, dating, and sex clash with teenagers and older children seeking their total independence in the North American culture.) There was one story of what appeared to be a wealthy couple, living in a very large and expensive home, yet keeping their aged parents in the closed off garage without heat or other critical facilities. While they got their just desserts in all these cases (not death mind you, as society seems to think it knows better than God), we are certainly observing signs of a society gone amuck.

Finally one of the thoughts that hit me as I was studying this verse was the fact that God, the giver of these dictums is indeed a parent Himself.  And it occurred to me that He Himself as our Father is not to be ‘struck’ in any way.  It is important that we stop at this point in our study of Exodus and consider two things:

1.     Have we ever ‘struck’ our parents in the past and not asked for forgiveness?  If so, and they are still alive, the best thing we can do is ask them for it now and then change our ways if we have not done so already.  If we are striking them now in any shape or form (physical, social, mental, economical, or emotional), we must stop it and also ask for forgiveness.  There is no alternative here in the eyes of God.

2. Have we ever ‘struck’ our Father in Heaven?  Doing so does indeed result in death.  Repentance and a change of behavior is the only solution.
   
   
   
   [Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]
   
   
   Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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Some Christians Would Rather Forget This Verse -- Exodus 20:12

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
 

The first four commandments that we covered above deal with our relationship with God.  The next six (beginning with this one) deal with our relationship with others and thus breaking one of these, commentator Chuck Smith says, constitutes unrighteousness before God as we would be breaking our fellowship with our fellowmen/women.

In a crazy world like the one we live in where God often does not figure into the equation of life for many, it is not unusual to find Christian sons and daughters, who for one reason or another have broken relationships with one or both of their parents.  And yet, they know the Ten Commandments and they know that the requirement to “honor them” is indeed one of them.

So what does this 5^th commandment really mean?  I like what the Cambridge dictionary gives us as the definition of this word as a verb: “to show great respect for someone or something, especially in public”.  And the Merriam-Webster dictionary says, “to show appreciation, respect, or affection for (someone) with a public celebration”.

At face value we are to ‘respect’ our parents and to openly demonstrate that respect of them both to them and to others through our various acts of kindness and tribute.  That’s pretty strong medicine for many these days.  We are to ‘appreciate’ them and to show them that appreciation as well as our ‘affection’.  In short, honoring our parents is more than an attitude; it is also a behavior and an act of the will.  It often takes effort, and more and more of it, as they get older.

Much has been written about this topic over the centuries that we will not repeat here.  Suffice it to say that in this 21^st century, there is global concern that we are moving towards less and less honoring of our parents.  Some may argue some of it is justified – “they neglected me” or “left me when I was a child”.  Others say, “they can take care of themselves, they don’t need me.”  Or, “I have my own life and so many other responsibilities.”  And then there’s my favorite one, “I didn’t ask them to have me.”  And yet God tells us straight, “Honor your father and your mother.”  And as a commandment, that means no ifs, buts, or whys.

Some commentators (like Chuck Smith) take the approach that a son or daughter does not need to ‘honor his/her parent(s)’ if they are not honorable, that is when they do things that their children cannot respect.  For example, an alcoholic parent, one who lives an ungodly life, one who sexually abuses their child, and so on.  According to Smith, a child of those kinds of parents is not obligated to honor them.  I am not so sure and here is why.

First of all, God (at least at this point in the Bible) does not make any exceptions to his commandment.  Secondly, the whole purpose of the commandments (especially the last six) is not for the beneficiary of the outcome of the command (e.g. the parent get honored), but rather for the benefit of the one following the command.  Honoring our parents is not about our parents; it is about us.   And God even says so in His next statement when He tells us the reason why we are to do so.  He says, that we would be allowed to live longer in the land He gives us, that is for us today, we would be allowed to abound longer in His blessing of us on the earth, in this life.  David Guzik in his commentary on this verse suggests that youth “rebellion is costly, and many have paid a high price personally for their rebellion against their parents.”  On the other hand, God is letting us know here that He looks favorably upon those who keep this commandment.

Admittedly, there is no requirement to condone what our parents may have done in many cases to harm us physically, socially, morally, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  There is no excusing of their behavior.  But still God says, “Honor your mother and your father.”  We need to find a way to be like Jesus when it comes to our fallen parents.  We need to honor them without condoning their mistakes and sins.

David Guzik sees this commandment as an “essential building block for the stability and health of all society.  If the younger generations are constantly at war with older generations, the foundations of society will be destroyed.”

You and I may forget our parents and think nothing of it.  But that is not what God accepts or approves of in our lives.  It is interesting to me that of after the commandments dealing with our relationship with Him, the first one about our relationship with others deals with how we are to behave towards our parents.  Some would say that it is strategically placed there to indicate that our relationship with our parents is not really a relationship between equals as the other commandments that follow may imply, but rather a relationship with those who are our earthly ‘superiors’ in many respects.  That may be, but as a minimum, we know this – God wants us to honor our parents if for no other reason than their positional relationship with us in order that we (more so than them) may be blessed.  How are you doing in that?

 

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[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.