Chrildren & Parents (Ex. 21:15 & 17)

6/23/2008 8:47 AM

My Worship Time           Focus:  Children and parents

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 21:15; 17

            Message of the verses:  “15 “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”  17 “He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”

            I am repeating two of the verses that were from yesterday’s SD because I try to follow the outline in Dr. Wiersbe’s book on Exodus that I am using to help me to understand Exodus. 

            Lev. 20:9 repeats the laws that are in Exodus 21:17:  “9 ‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.’”

            These verses move from the general parts of the Law to the more specific parts of the Law, and in this case it involves children and parents.  The fifth commandment says that we are to honor are parents and so in these verses we see the opposite of honoring them, and this results in the death of the child according to this law from God. 

            When a child does not respect his parents he usually will not respect any authority figure and so in if this Law that is given in these verses is carried out then the nation of Israel will not have the problems that would result if there were no such law.  God’s laws are given to benefit a person, a family and a nation so if they are kept the family and the nation will benefit from these laws.  If all children would have the respect for their parents they would learn to respect other authority figures that came along in their lives, people such as their bosses or the government, and so this would help in the development of not only the family but also the nation that they live in.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I grew up in the ‘60’s and the theme of that generation was to reject authority, to do one’s own thing, and this was engrained in me for many years and when I became a believer in 1974 I did not want to even join a local church because I felt that there was none that was teaching the things that I was learning, and this was a result of being raised in the ‘60’s.  God was patient with me and in time I did join GBC and to this day am still a member of it.  I know from time to time that I still have a problem with authority figures, and this lesson and reading the book by Alistair Begg has also helped me to understand how the Law of God works in my life today, the benefits of it are life changing.

My Steps of Faith for Today: 

1. To respect authority figures in my life.
2. To give myself to the Lord for service and worship.
3. To ask the Lord to search my heart to find any sin in my life that I have not confessed.
4. Trust the Lord to guide my paths.
5. Trust the Lord to make a way of escape when tests and temptations get too hard for me to bare.
6. To yoke up with the Lord Jesus Christ today.

Memory verses for the week:                      Colossians 4:12-13

12.       Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

13.       For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. 

6/23/2008 9:39 AM