October 20
Jer 35:1-36:32 | PS 89:14-37 | Prov 25:25-27 | 1 Tim 5:1-25
The fifth commandment is not a suggestion and states in Exodus 20:12, "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you." There is nothing ambiguous about this. There are no exceptions or caveats to explain this away. Yet, we live in times where the child, and more specifically the individual wishes of the child is elevated. To the extreme, if a child wants to transition to a different gender, and the parent disagrees, that child can be removed from the household and assigned different guardians. But much more pervasive and much more subtle than this is that in our schools and in academia, so-called knowledge is elevated over parental wisdom. Sadly, we are not at all evolving, but devolving into a state of anarchy in which the traditional family has been denegrated, and the state has been elevated. If parents push forth a traditional view of God, this is often seen as backward, something which need not be taken seriously. This direction will not end well. New policies and new "isms" are not as correct as they seem, and individuals are also not as smart and different as they deem themselves. God is always right and the pattern designated by God is always correct. Also, and most importantly, if you can not honor your earthly father, you will never honor your heavenly Father.
We read in Jeremiah 35:13-16, "This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go and say to the people in Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Come and learn a lesson about how to obey me. The Recabites do not drink wine to this day because their ancestor Jehonadab told them not to. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you refuse to obey me. Time after time I sent you prophets, who told you, “Turn from your wicked ways, and start doing things right. Stop worshiping other gods so that you might live in peace here in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you would not listen to me or obey me. The descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab have obeyed their ancestor completely, but you have refused to listen to me.’" The people of Judah, unlike the Recabites, chose to disregard God the Father and this did not end well for them. People might not like what God says, they can even destroy or censor what God says, as we read in 36:23-24, "Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard." But this did not change the words that were written by the prophet, Jeremiah, and they all indeed came true.
Read the admonition to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:1-2, "Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters." Now consider for a moment what is taking place in our "respectable" society. Nothing of what was mentioned above is being modeled in our secular society. The flames of anarchy are being waved. Individual freedom and personal rights have overshadowed any semblance of respect for parents, respect for elders, respect for anything other than those who are actually planting these seeds of rebellion. We are blind to our own reality. Morality has taken a back seat and God has largely been eliminated from almost everywhere: the home, the schools, and sadly even in many churches. Realize that the God of the Bible is vastly different than the god who is often pushed forth from pulpits who seek to gain an audience rather than stay true to God. Get into the entirety of God's Word and read it as both relevant and applicable here and now for each and every one of us.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: