Are you honoring your side of the bargain to receive long life and abundance from YHWH? Or are you manifesting curses on yourself and your family through disobedience to the Fifth Commandment?
YHWH commands us,
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which YHWH thy Mighty One giveth thee”. (Exodus 2:12 KJV)
Paul tells us in the letter to the Ephesians that this is the “first Commandment with promise”. If we obey the Commandment we will be blessed with long days on the land. The land YHWH gives us is flowing with milk and honey and He protects us from our enemies. So we can understand this blessing to be peace and abundance for ourselves and our family.
The corollary to this is that, if we disobey the Commandment, we will receive curses on ourselves and our children. These curses are a natural progression from the failure of the nucleic family unit. If there is no respect for the parents the children will not grow in a disciplined, nurturing environment and will turn elsewhere for role models. Likewise, parents will feel less responsibility for the upbringing of their children and the family unit collapses.
We are now experiencing the terrible consequences of our societal failure to obey this Commandment. 45-50% of couples married in the 70’s and 80’s ended up in divorce. This rate has fallen slightly for those married in the 90’s and 2000’s. But the other side of the story is that people are marrying later in life and more couples cohabit rather than marry. 47% of all young women now bear all their children out of wedlock.
The curse propagates as follows. Of this 47% of the total population – 62% are high school dropouts, 58% graduated high school, 48% attended college. While the lowest level of illegitimate births are amongst college graduates at only 25%. Family income is also directly proportional to the level of parental education. So a child born to graduate parents is more likely to be raised in a stable environment with sufficient resources to allow the child to be correctly nurtured. Those born to single mother, high school drop outs are more likely to continue the destructive social trend.
This Commandment also places an obligation on parents to “not provoke your children to wrath but raise them in the training and admonition of YHWH”. So before we can demand respect, we must accept responsibility for the behavior of you children and demonstrate correct living to be a congruent role model they can follow.
The Fifth Commandment is a transitional Commandment. The first four define our relationship with YHWH and the Fifth transitions in to our relationship with other people. So we need to understand the Fifth Commandment as defining our relationship with our earthly parents and, as we mature in grace and knowledge, it defines our relationship to YHWH our spiritual Father. It also leads us to the ultimate fulfillment of this blessing. When we are obedient to YHWH our Father, he accepts us as His sons and we received adoption into the family of YHWH and eternal life and rulership alongside Y’HoWShUA.
If you have any questions about this message or would like to suggest other subjects for future messages, please feel free to contact me.