Honour Where Honour is Due

“Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that it will be good for you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you.” Deuteronomy 5:16

The fifth commandment that Yahweh gave the twelve tribes at Mount Horeb, in an audible voice, stated they should honour their father and mother. The writer of Deuteronomy restates all the events that took place, and everything Yahweh commanded.

Deu 5:1 And then Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the rules and the regulations that I am speaking in your ears today, and you shall learn them, and you must observe them diligently.
Deu 5:2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
Deu 5:3 It was not with our ancestors that Yahweh made this covenant, but with these of us who are here alive today.
Deu 5:4 Face to face Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire.
Deu 5:5 I was standing between Yahweh and you at that time to report to you the word of Yahweh, for you were afraid because of the presence of the fire, and so you did not go up the mountain. He said,
Deu 5:6 ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh spoke to all twelve tribes at Mount Horeb:

Deu 5:7 There shall not be for you other gods besides me.
Deu 5:8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a divine image of any type of form that is in the heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Deu 5:9 ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the guilt of fathers upon their children and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those hating me,
Deu 5:10 but showing loyal love to thousands of those who love me and of those who keep my commandments.
Deu 5:11 ‘You shall not take up the name of Yahweh your God for a worthless purpose, for Yahweh will not leave unpunished anyone who uses his name for a worthless purpose.
Deu 5:12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you.
Deu 5:13 Six days you shall work, and you shall do all of your work,
Deu 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Yahweh your God; you shall not do any work, or your son, or your daughter, or your slave, or your slave woman, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your domestic animals, or your resident alien who is in your towns, so that your slave and your slave woman may rest as you rest.
Deu 5:15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore, Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath.
Deu 5:16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you, so that it will be good for you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you.
Deu 5:17 ‘You shall not murder.
Deu 5:18 ‘And you shall not commit adultery.
Deu 5:19 ‘And you shall not steal.
Deu 5:20 ‘And you shall not falsely bear evidence against your neighbor.
Deu 5:21 ‘And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, and you shall not crave the house of your neighbor, his field or his slave or his slave woman or his ox and his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

The writer of Deuteronomy is thought to be Moses; however, his death is recorded at the end of the book. In my mind, that is a clue there were other contributors. After Yahweh’s giving of the Ten Commandments, he finishes with these words:

Deu 5:22 “These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud with a loud voice, and he did not add anything, and then he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Deu 5:23 And then when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, and as the mountain was burning with fire, and and all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,
Deu 5:24 you said, ‘Look, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God can speak with a human being, yet he remains alive.
Deu 5:25 And so then why shall we die, for this great fire will consume us if we continue to hear the voice of Yahweh our God any longer, and so we shall die?
Deu 5:26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have heard it and remained alive?
Deu 5:27 You go near and hear everything that Yahweh our God will say; and then you tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you, and we will listen, and we will do it.’
Deu 5:28 “And Yahweh heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard the sound of the words of this people that they have spoken to you; they are right with respect to all that they have spoken.
Deu 5:29 If only they had such a mind’; that is, to fear me and to keep all my commandments at all times, so that it will go well for them and for their children forever.
Deu 5:30 Go! Say to them, “Return to your tents.”
Deu 5:31 But you stand here with me, and let me tell you all of the commandments and the rules and the regulations that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving to them to take possession of it.’
Deu 5:32 “So you must be careful to do just as Yahweh your God commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left.

Yahweh told Moses to send the people back to their tents and He would teach to him the rest of the commandments, rules and regulations for living a successful life. The commandment we are focusing on for the purpose of this blog is that of honouring our mother and father.

Yahweh said to honour our mother and father individually, and did not just say to honour them as parents collectively . There are many ways to keep the wording in such a way that groups the mother and father together that were not used. That implies that we should honour them individually and not just as a unit. Yahweh knows there are many unfortunate situations that separate a mother and father, but He gave no indication any situation should change honouring both the mother and father.

Jesus discusses this commandment when pointing out the error of the Pharisees.

Mat 15:1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
Mat 15:2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”
Mat 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Mat 15:4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
Mat 15:5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”
Mat 15:6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.
Mat 15:7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
Mat 15:8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mat 15:9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Many believe that Jesus was angry at the Pharisees for adhering to Yahweh’s commandments, when he was actually mad that they added to them or changed them to suit themselves. Jesus was addressing the fact that the Pharisees had changed the commandment to being able to abandon what help a person should be to their parents if they “give it to God”. It is wrong to think that people who want to keep Yahweh’s commands are being like the Pharisees. It is quite the opposite. The people who add to and change Yahweh’s commands are acting like the Pharisees, and “made void the word of God” plus “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. In the verses above, Jesus reminds them of the commands in the Torah to what must happen to those who revile their mother or father.

Exo 21:15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Exo 21:17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

The civil law that the twelve tribes maintained, was given by Yahweh, and it seems harsh. It is not what we observe today in the kingdom of this world. However, it is still the law of God and likely the law that will be used when Yahweh’s kingdom comes.

Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
Isa 2:2 And it shall happen in the future of the days the mountain of the house of Yahweh shall be established; it will be among the highest of the mountains, and it shall be raised from the hills. All of the nations shall travel to him;
Isa 2:3 many peoples shall come. And they shall say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths.” For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again.
Isa 2:5 House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.

Another observation which can be made is that there are no conditions for this commandment. Honour your father, unless he did this terrible deed or that evil thing, or honour your mother, only if she was the ideal mother, are words no where to be found in Yahweh’s instructions. Yet there are some harsh conditions placed on the children’s behaviour.

Deu 21:18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not listen to the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not obey them,
Deu 21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, and they shall bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his town,
Deu 21:20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us, and he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
Deu 21:21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones and let him die; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all of Israel will hear, and they will fear.

Lev 19:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 19:2 “Speak to all the community of the Israelites, and say to them, ‘You must be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Lev 19:3 Each of you must revere your mother and your father, and you must keep my Sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God.

Today we are not going to stone our children, but there is a righteous judge to whom everyone will give an account of their deeds at the end of this age. This judge is also the same one who gave Moses the harshest of punishment for rebellious children.

Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Rev 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev 21:5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Rev 21:6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
Rev 21:7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Rev 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

In these verses from the book of Revelation, there are some very clear things to happen in the future. “The one who conquers will have this heritage”. What are we to conquer? What is it not to conquer? It sounds like the people with the attributes in verse 21:8 definitely did not conquer. Where do these definitions for things such as sexual immorality, sorcery, idolatry and liars come from other than the instructions Yahweh gave to Moses? While we are debating whether or not Jesus would have worn a mask, we neglect His warning to the Pharisees.

Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Mat 23:24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
Mat 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

There is doctrine today teaching that the words of Jesus are not for the people of the modern church but for the “Jews”. I have seen the arguments on Twitter. It is nothing more than the teachings of the first century heretic, Marcion, to imply the Apostle Paul was teaching a different gospel than Jesus.

Here are a few verses from Yahweh’s instruction to live a blessed life you may have not heard lately:

Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or one who practices divination, or an interpreter of signs, or an augur, or sorcerer,
Deu 18:11 or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.
Deu 18:12 For everyone doing these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you.
Deu 18:13 You must be blameless before Yahweh your God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.

Deu 12:2 You must completely demolish all of the places there where they served their gods, that is, the nations whom you are about to dispossess, on the high mountains, and on the hills and under each leafy green tree.
Deu 12:3 And you shall break down their altars, and you shall smash their stone pillars, and their Asherah poles you must burn with fire, and the images of their gods you shall hew down, and you shall blot out their names from that place.
Deu 12:4 You shall not worship Yahweh your God like this.

Deu 25:13 “There shall not be for your use in your bag two kinds of stone weights, a large one and a small one.
Deu 25:14 There shall not be in your house for your use two kinds of measures.
Deu 25:15 Rather a full and honest weight shall be for your use; there shall be for you a full and honest measure, so that your days on the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you may be long.
Deu 25:16 For detestable to Yahweh your God is everyone who is doing such things, everyone who is acting dishonestly.

Lev 18:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 18:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:3 You must not carry out the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not carry out the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes.
Lev 18:4 You must carry out my regulations, and you must observe my statutes by following them; I am Yahweh your God.
Lev 18:5 And you shall observe my statutes and my regulations by which the person doing them shall live; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:6 “‘None of you shall approach anyone who is his close relative to expose nakedness; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:8 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness.
Lev 18:9 As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, you must not expose their nakedness.
Lev 18:10 As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness.
Lev 18:11 As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:12 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
Lev 18:13 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
Lev 18:14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not have sex with his wife—she is your aunt.
Lev 18:15 You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness.
Lev 18:16 You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness.
Lev 18:17 You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife to expose her nakedness; they are close relatives—that is wickedness.
Lev 18:18 And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.
Lev 18:19 “‘And you must not have sex with a woman to expose her nakedness during her menstrual uncleanness.
Lev 18:20 And you must not have sex with your fellow citizen’s wife, becoming unclean with her.
Lev 18:21 “‘And you shall not give any of your offspring in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.
Lev 18:22 And you shall not lie with a male as lying with a woman; that is a detestable thing.
Lev 18:23 And you shall not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.
Lev 18:24 “‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these.
Lev 18:25 So the land became unclean, and I have brought the punishment of its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants.

Honouring your mother and your father, without exception, is part of conquering. It takes endurance to conquer and the Holy Spirit of Truth, through Jesus the Messiah, abiding in your heart and mind. Scripture answers scripture. What is the voice of Yahweh other than the living Word in the flesh, Jesus, otherwise known as Iesous (Greek), Yahusha (Hebrew), or Joshua (English). We are also shown what it is to conquer in the book of Revelation as it is in Exodus:

Rev 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Exo 19:5 And now if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, for all the earth is mine,
Exo 19:6 but you, you will belong to me as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Featured image taken in St. Andrews New Brunswick.