May 7, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Find out what pleases the Lord. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise) so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth’.” (Ephesians 5.10; Ephesians 6.1-4)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

So, now that I have shown how I believe this teaching is for all of God’s children relating to their parents as they relate to God, we have to allow the commandment to speak to us clearly. The commandment, the rule of righteousness, was offered by God to His children at Mt. Sinai. Their journey there had taken four hundred years to get to this point. That means there were generations of God’s children who never saw Mt Sinai nor the powerful events leading up to the descendants of Jacob Israel being liberated from Egypt. Their sojourn in the Wilderness of Egypt was buoyed by “honoring their father and mother.” I am not speaking of their birth parents but of their “faith” parents Jacob, Isaac and most of all- Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was called “the father of faith.” Abraham and Sarah were in a sojourn of their own in the Ur of the Chaldees. There, many gods were worshipped. In the midst of the pantheon of Babylonian religion as Abraham committed himself to worship, one “god” spoke to him as he had heard no other. Does this mean that there was an “Immanuel” in Babylon? We have to consent to that proposition because we know that God is everywhere. Does that mean that God spoke to more than Abraham? God’s Word is present at all times because it proceeds from His mouth as easily as breath does from ours. Why did Abraham listen when no one else did? We know that his father Terah, who had moved from Babylon to Haran, knew of God. It led him to be separate from the people of his past. Now Abraham, honoring the God of his father, felt the call to be separate as well. It was by the awakening of his faith which tuned his ears to hear the word of the Lord as no other. We can follow the story of Abraham from Babylon to Jerusalem and be exposed to the acts of faith which defined Abraham and Sarah. Their story was the story of Israel and in great part our story as well. We know of the Abrahamic Covenant which God established with them. It spoke of future generations who would call Abraham their father. Even the Scribes, Pharisees and the teachers of the Law would hold to the title of “Children of Abraham.”

Now, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, their faith would be tested. With specificity, God called them out to share in the promise made with “their father.” To grasp that share it would take “honoring their parents,” the legacy of faith passed on to them. In order to enter into the promise of fruitful generations to come, such “honoring” would require faithful obedience to God’s word and an abiding love for one another and most of all for God. To “honor” one’s parents required an understanding of their commitment in faith to be children of the Almighty, Yahweh Elohim. I believe it is significant that the liberation of Israel from Egypt came in the time when a Pharoah rose to power who did not know the name of Joseph, Jacob, Isaac and Abrham. This also meant that he did not know the name of God. After four hundred years in captivity, it would seem that the Hebrews had forgotten the name of God as well. Even Moses had to ask for it when God revealed Himself in the Burning Bush whose fire did not consume it. When God revealed His name to Moses it brought with it power, dominion and authority in line with God’s purpose, design and will. Apart from that it would be using God’s name in vain. In line with it then it would go well for them in the days ahead. Even in their journey back to the Promised Land, land that was originally promised to Abraham, this truth was evident. It was evident after forty days following Moses going back up the mountain to consult with God on their direction in life. Having lost sight of Moses, the people fell back to honoring their generational parents who raised them in Egypt. They surrendered the honor due to their faith parents because they choose only to live in the moment and not for the future.

Mighty ones of God, we are called to live with such commitment to honor the legacy of our faith parents. Oh, that our faith parents would be our generational parents. Perhaps for too many this is not the case. If that is the case, then the role of the Church as the community of faith in Jesus as the Christ needs to align itself with them and lead as they had not been lead before. If the current generation is to escape their exile in “sin,” the wilderness of the bondage to slavery in the world by being of the world, it will come when that honor is restored in those who accept the call to be their parents and walk by faith not merely by sight. They must be taught of the future promised to them that will be realized when honor, duty and respect are returned. In this regard, perhaps, the scripture may become true which says “…and a little child shall lead them.” We apply it to Jesus the Christ who was born as a baby, a lamb of God. But it also applies to all those who become children of God who is their Father by faith with hope and in love.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.