Giving appropriate Honor to GOD and parents is the key to opening the promise of a long life!
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter 6:
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
In Exodus 20:12, the fifth commandment of the ten commandments tells us to:
Honor (kabad) your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
This is the only command that carries a blessing with it. It is a command that contains the key that opens the door to a secure life in the Promised Land. And that key is ‘honor’.
We see this when we look at the pictographic meaning of the individual letters of the Hebrew word כבד kabad, and how together they illustrate the Hebrew concept of ‘honor’.
כבד Kabad has three letters:
כ kaf illustrating an open hand – meaning power or strength
ב bet illustrates a house, and is used throughout Hebrew to mean ‘in’ or ‘inside’, and
ד dalet illustrates a door
When put together a picture is formed that illustrates the concept of honor being the strength or power that opens the door.
There are steps to “ENTER INTO THE PROMISED LAND”:
Honoring is the fifth of the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments define a process that brings us to the Promised Land, or God’s Kingdom life. This fifth one shows how we can remain in it securely.
To enter into the Kingdom Life we must first hear the Voice of God calling us, this is defined in the First Commandment. He reaches out and reveals Himself to us as our God – the One Who has released us from our bondage to sin.
We respond to Him when we act according to the second command, where we forsake all others and declare our loyalty to Him – that He is Our God. By being in an intentional relationship with Him we experience His faithfulness towards us, and we come to trust Him. We trust His Nature, and as we trust His Name, we no longer take it in vain – so we are keeping the third commandment.
These first three commandments are a process of transformation that leads us into the fourth commandment – the sabbath rest. Our old nature is put to death, not by our own work but that of Christ in us. As we bear His Image we cease from our own labor and enter into His rest – as it is not our work that conquers sin, but His… and He has already overcome. This is what it means to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
It is at this point that, having entered into His rest, that we enter into His Kingdom Life. By submitting ourselves to Him as our Lord and King we will express a new way of living. And this new way starts with ‘honor’.
So, what is ‘honor’?
Firstly, it is not simply obedience, and it is also not Love. This is particularly striking, as nowhere in God’s word are we specifically commanded to Love our parents – although the Bible does tell us to Love our neighbor, the stranger, and God Himself. We are however commanded to honor them.
Honor implies a recognition of authority, and is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as:
High respect, or great esteem, and
The quality of knowing and doing what is morally right.
The Hebrew word that is used for ‘honor’ is כבד kabad and it literally means ‘heavy’.
Now this may sound a little strange. However, in ancient times value and weight were connected. A simple illustration of this would be the ancient monetary unit, the shekel – the heavier the coin the higher its value.
So when we say ‘honor’ is ‘heavy’ we say that ‘honor’ is ‘value’
But the way in which the word כבד kabad is used in the fifth commandment implies that we are to do more than simply ‘honor’ or ‘value’ our parents.
כבד Kabad is written in a form that does not just mean ‘heavy’, but rather to ‘make heavy’.
We are therefore commanded to ‘give value’ or to ‘give honor’. It is therefore not a passive act, but one which requires expression.
With this foundation in place, honoring our parents is witnessing of the respect that we have for God, and the recognition of His authority. It is respecting our source of life.
Honoring our parents starts with honoring God, and when we do so, God promises that:
1st Samuel 2:30 Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
This is the foundation of life, and is the key to securing the blessing that is contained in the fifth commandment. It is how we secure possession of the Promised Land.
When we give honor we express value – we identify what it is that we treasure.
Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, that is where our heart will be (Matthew 6:19).
Yes, parents are imperfect yet FATHER selected them to bring you forth into this world.