Honor Thy Father And Mother. (Part 4 Of 8) Series

Honor Thy Father and Mother.

This commandment is fairly self-explanatory but there is a lot to learn about this command to honor and the Bible has much to say on this topic. Let’s look at the command God gave to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 5:

16 ’ Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

There are three areas that the Bible addresses in detail concerning honor. In our modern generation the concept of honoring our parents is a forgotten commandment. The Bible foretells of this generation in which we now live in Proverbs 30:11-14

11 There is a generation that curses its father, And does not bless its mother. 12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness. 13 There is a generation -- oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. 14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, And whose fangs are like knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, And the needy from among men.

In this modern generation the average person looks at everything from a ‘me’ perspective. People do not want children because it interferes with their careers and personal goals. In the U.S. last year, there were 1.37 million abortions and most were performed solely for the sake of convenience. World wide there were over 46 million abortions. According to Proverbs 30:14, there will be a generation that devours the needy from off the earth. Why would anyone devour the needy? Simply because of convenience. If these children were allowed to live, they would be considered a burden to the selfish generation that lives for its own selfish purposes. While this generation in which we live justifies itself in its own eyes yet is unwashed from sin, this self-justifying generation stands to become the most murderous generation in history. Not only has this generation lost its ability to feel shame, but it praises its sin as being noble. An online newspaper published an article praising women who have abortions or sterilization for their ‘self-sacrifice’ to protect the environment. They spotlighted two women who have made this ‘sacrifice’. One of the women had an abortion after stating that having a child was not an option. She explains:

"Having children is selfish. It’s all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet,"

While claiming that not aborting children is selfish, Toni, the woman being interviewed made the following statement:

I’ve never doubted that I made the right decision. Ed and I married in September 2002, and have a much nicer lifestyle as a result of not having children.

Truly the warning of Jeremiah 17:9 rings true, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked”. The wickedness of the human heart can justify killing an unborn child so that man can have a ‘nicer lifestyle’ and then convince itself this is a noble deed by claiming to do it for the sake of the planet. The second woman being interviewed echoed a similar world view when she stated:

"I realized then that a baby would pollute the planet - and that never having a child was the most environmentally friendly thing I could do."

While God states that children are a gift from the Lord, this modern generation is buying into the lie that children are a stain on the earth and should be prevented from arriving. You can read the testimonies of these two women at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=495495&in_page_id=1879.

Each political season this can be observed during many campaigns. Anyone who dares to speak out for the helpless is devoured with rage by those who claim to be ‘defenders of personal rights’. If a child is allowed to live in the womb, they are usually sent to daycare so that the family can increase materialism and wealth. The family unit is sacrificed on the altar of convenience and material prosperity. Throughout the Bible, the generation we now live in has been foretold.

The same mindset from the culture is directed toward aging parents. The father and mother are considered a curse and a burden to those who want to live free of responsibility. There is no sin that the human mind cannot justify as reasonable when our convenience is the purpose of our living. Just as children are looked upon as a burden to society, the elderly are being classed as a burden. The so-called field of ‘Bio Ethics’ has reduced life to a mathematical formula where death is considered zero and anyone who does not have a certain quality of life is less than zero. Under the modern ‘ethics’ death is considered to be an improvement and the terminating a life is justified by claiming that it is an improvement. It is argued that if what society claims to be quality of life is absent, euthanasia is a good deed. In an article responding to the Holland law legalizing euthanasia in 2001, disabledworld.org acknowledged the pressure that has now begun to be put on the rest of Europe and the world to follow suit. The article explains the pressure in Germany: