The Sinful Nature Study - Edition #2: A Badge of Honor

June 19th, 2006

The Sinful Nature Study – Edition #2: A Badge of Honor

Exodus 20:12
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

One verse today. Yesterday was Father’s Day and I kept thinking about this verse. It boggled my mind with the question “What did God have in mind when he said honor?” Did it get softened as time went on? I know respect is something that just isn’t handed out these days and children; in fact people in general don’t honor anyone unless they are celebrities on television who make tons of money.

Exodus 20:12 honor:
kâbad kâbêd
kaw-bad, kaw-bade'
A primitive root; to be heavy, that is, in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable); causatively to make weighty (in the same two senses): - abounding with, more grievously afflict, boast, be chargeable, X be dim, glorify, be (make) glorious (things), glory, (very) great, be grievous, harden, be (make) heavy, be heavier, lay heavily, (bring to, come to, do, get, be had in) honor (self), (be) honorable (man), lade, X more be laid, make self many, nobles, prevail, promote (to honor), be rich, be (go) sore, stop.

I am not going to give the whole Hebrew of mother and father, but just one thing of them, simply because I found these parts extremely interesting...

Exodus 20:12 father:
'âb
awb
Chief, father

Exodus 20:12 mother:
'êm
ame
A mother (as the bond of the family)

Now, I can’t see that God would want me to honor my parents in a bad way. That just would not make sense. The rest of the verse does say “so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you” and if I were to make my parents live miserable, they could just fulfill that saying “I brought you into this world…” you know? So the honor system would then consist of things like:

• Abounding with love


• Promoting my parents (EX: aren’t they GREAT?!)


• Treating my parents as nobles (as royalty)

How great is this? I can’t say that I have treated my parents as royalty or promoted my parents like I always should have, especially growing up. In fact, I was a horrible, horrible teenager. But, looking back, this scripture makes much more sense now. My father is the chief and my mother is the bond of the family, so she has a pretty tough job, really, she, in a sense, has to keep things in order.

Bond (noun):

1. Something, such as a fetter, cord, or band that binds, ties, or fastens things together.


2. A uniting force or tie; a link.


3. A substance or agent that causes two or more objects or parts to cohere.


4. A connection that fastens things together.

I was thinking, originally, that this whole “honor the parents” thing was simply about respect. And when I came across Romans 13:7 and found that everyone is due respect, then it made me think something that my parents must be due something more, at least when it comes to the ten commandments. And then when school came up on Thursday, it tweaked my brain even more, I just had to study it out. Anyway, Johnny Out.