Honor

Today’s passages are in a section of Moses sermon that covers a lot of ground. They consist of situations that may arise in the Israelite culture and what God has to say about them. We are going to take another bite out of this section today.

Last weeks sermon was one of these sections. It was a guideline that would prevent murder and adultery. When soldiers went off to war, they might take one of the captive woman that they were attracted to home and keep her for a wife. What they could not do, was murder her, rape her, or leave her destitute. She would either come with the captives or she would be honored by marriage to a Jewish man.

This lesson expanded on the sixth and seventh commandments:

Deuteronomy 5:17–18 ESV

17 “ ‘You shall not murder. 18 “ ‘And you shall not commit adultery.

Today’s sermon will focus again on the fifth commandment:

Deuteronomy 5:16 ESV

16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

This commandment covers a lot of ground within culture. The idea of this command is that honor and the ability to show honor comes from the home. Parents can mess this up. Children can mess this up. However things go bad has a huge effect on the culture and the community.

We see this today in the hearts and minds of too many people. We have allowed our culture to forget about God . . . to relegate him to a Sunday sermon . . . a tik tok video . . . or even a delusion.

The question we face today, is how to we bring God back into the fabric of our culture and back into the lives of families around the world. First we will look at the potential problems Israel might have and the solutions God called them to implement in our passage. Then we will discuss how these situations show up in our world today and what we as Christians can do to make a difference for God’s kingdom by applying them.

We begin with a section focused on parents.

Parents Honor the Lord

Deuteronomy 21:15–17 ESV

15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

The role of parents in reflecting God’s love.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

What is the warning of the statute in our passage today?

Deuteronomy 21:17 ESV

17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

Parents: Don’t let your own preferences and sins distort your ability to do what the Lord commands.

Nowhere does God condone or encourage polygamy. Instead, God’s ideal is clearly stated in Genesis 2 where one man will marry one woman and the two shall become one. Not the three, or four, or hundreds. God says a persons body count should always be one.

By not honoring God’s intent for marriage the parents have opened the door for family strife, dishonor, and selfishness to reign instead of God.

Children Honor Parents

Deuteronomy 21:18–21 ESV

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

Notice that these parents have done everything to warn their son. This is not a season of struggle, this is a person who has proven their unwillingness to repent of a sin filled life. They are abusing the family and the generosity of the parents. They are bringing dishonor on the family and on the name of God. Remember the instructions to parents earlier. the first lesson is to love God with all your heart, soul, and might. If the parents modeled this and the son refused to change they took legal, community based action against their own son.

A culture of corruption leads to a culture of death.

Lawlessness breeds more lawlessness

Romans 6:19–21 ESV

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

We see the problems of godless thinking in our culture today. What has the failure of the family produced in our culture today?

Drug abuse and addiction

Physical abuse

Neglect

Abortion

Homelessness

Greed and corrupt power

Debt and entitlement

This reveals that our culture has abandoned God. We have families that refuse to take responsibility. We have a culture that is soft on crime and will not demand justice for sever crimes let alone aid parents with rebellious sons who abuse them and extort them.

This kind of lawlessness is why we are living increasingly in a culture of death. Death from suicide, Death from homicide, Death from overdose, death from neglect, death from abuse, death from the worship of self and selfish desires.

In the end our world is broken and Jesus warns us when he says:

Lawlessness indicates a heart that does not know the Lord

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

We must ask ourselves, what are we doing to uphold the law and point people back to righteousness.

Children: Don’t let your own selfishness or the corruption of this culture lead you to live a dishonorable life before the Lord.

Honor law and life

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 ESV

22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Don’t take your judgment too far. Even in the case of a criminal, God says there is a limit to the lesson.

Sometimes we can get vengeful and want to exact harsher penalties than what God has ordained. What God has set is the extent of the authority we are given.

Judges must judge within the law so long as that law honors God’s will

Parent’s must discipline children and run their households in a way the honor’s God.

Children must submit to their parents and learn to respect authority so they can live honorable lives before the Lord.

This is where we are reminded to do what God say and nothing more. We aren’t to go beyond God’s justice. We may want to make a bigger example of someone by enacting an unjust sentence but that isn’t our right either.

Authority: Honor the law of the Lord and do not go beyond it.

What do we do as Christians?

Look to our own homes and make sure we are honoring God by loving him and loving those in our care.

Look to our extended families and ask how we can make a difference and help those who are wayward.

Look to our attitudes towards the authorities that God has established. Are we doing our part to change our culture.

Don’t neglect the next generation . . . our call is to ensure that the younger generations know the truth so that they can honor God.

Related Media

Related Sermons