In The Gospel of Matthew, Jesus criticized the Jewish society of His time, challenging their lack of honoring their fathers and mothers. They held to a custom called Corban. Corban was a convoluted practice whereby sons and daughters would dedicate to God their earnings, though they could still use them. These funds could not be used to support their parents. They were sacred by a law that allowed the sons and daughters to declare they had no means to support their mothers and fathers thus protecting the funds. Consequently, the parents were cast upon the welfare system of the time, begging alms and seeking provisions from generous people, while their children lived in wealth and security. Jesus deemed this culture the worst of all human activities to deny the care of their mother and father, calling for an end to this practice.

Ancient societies relied on the family system. Families had many children as a sort of built-in welfare system. For example, a family of nine, 10, or 12 children would insure a great retirement, especially if there were more sons to work the land. It was a way for society to flourish and advance while honoring and protecting the aged among them. Larger families were the norm in the U.S. in the 18th and 19th centuries. Large families on farms not only served as insurance for the future of farms but also as an assurance that parents in their old age would be cared for by the labors of the younger. As farms passed from generation to generation, many families lived in the same home or on the same properties. The elderly were honored and children prospered from the honest work of their elders—while the elders were cared for by the efforts and labor of their children, quite the opposite of Corban.

We no longer see this care. One could argue that our welfare and social security systems are essentially equivalent to former society’s dependence on large families and generations of care. Any society that does not care for its elderly, valuing and esteeming them, is certain to fall. The church must stand for the care of the elderly, honoring fathers and mothers. But also, and more importantly, individual Christians must care for their own mother and father as part of their faith. Paul pointed out this promise was the first of the commands with a promise. (See Ephesians 6:1-3)

God made this command very simple for Moses, etching in stone the law that if you honor your father and your mother, it will go well with you in the land that has been given to you. Treat your parents well and you will prosper is the message of Scripture. The opposite is true as well. If you abuse your parents, it will not go well with you in the land that has been promised to you.

Words of God

Some anthropologists believe the words etched in these stones created the first alphabet known to man. More than likely, the Israelites served in mines described in Numbers 33:12, a short distance from Rameses, where they resided near the place of the giving of the law. In the wilderness of Sin where they mined and labored in slave trade, the mines were filled with silver, gold and turquoise. Sometime between 1500 BC when the Egyptians re-opened these mines and 1300 BC when the mines played out, these slaves of Hebrew descent did something that no one else in the world had ever done—they developed an alphabet.

Sometimes the most creative things come out of the wilderness experience. The hardship of the wilderness and slavery become the birthplace of innovation. The birthplace of writing as we know it today had such an occurrence. The priests whose hands were entrusted to keep the memory of God with no image and no name: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were forced into slave labor in the sweltering turquoise mines in the desert. Yet, there in these dismal conditions they had to devise an alphabet to continue their priestly care of their nation. It was the same alphabet another of their tribe, Moses, would use to write the first five books of the Bible, which included the covenants, laws, and ordinances of God. This first alphabet known as the Proto-Canaanitic symbols, which was a major departure from the hieroglyphics of Egypt. Instead of being made of pictures depicting thoughts these were symbols representing basic consonant sounds from which an infinite variety of new words were formed.

This evolved into Proto-Sinaitic alphabet which formed the basis for the Phoenician alphabet from which our own alphabet has derived. You can see the remains of this alphabet in the doorways to some of the openings of these mines, a prototype of modern-day Hebrew. For those who understand Hebrew, it is possible to recognize a few letters of the Hebrew alphabet still distinguishable in that ancient language. Long ago, archeologists determined its originality and authenticity. The words in the caves are the oldest known inscriptions of the alphabet, as we know it today.

As a result, this alphabet allowed Israel to create its world. They would learn to honor their parents with these words and they would thrive. The Hebrew alphabet allowed God to have a standing witness forever. These people, who had served as slaves with broken families, had their mothers and daughters forced into prostituted slavery to the soldiers of Egypt out in the distant, foreboding mining communities.

They had this very alphabet to affirm to them a promise that God was going to gather their families together. As He gathered them back together, the family unit would be the primary realm of His working.

The temple would not be as important as the family. That would come later. The family that would become the center of the welfare system, the worshipping center, and the celebration of all God would be to the nation of Israel. Through this alphabet, God articulated His wishes and plans for the nation of Israel.

The rise of cities raised the question of God’s prejudice against large cities, sociologist Jacques Ellul illustrates in his book titled Meaning of the City. Large cities tended to accentuate the importance of the individual in the large corporate society over the family. In small rural communities, families from generation to generation could survive as the center of the place of worship. In our time, we live at a great disadvantage in keeping our family structures together. A measure of this disadvantage is a statistic that one-half of all children are born out of wedlock in our suburbs and inner cities. Family has lost its importance in the thinking of people and thus mothers and fathers are dishonored. The Apostle

Paul writes:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord — Ephesians 6:1-4

Paul saw a vision of the church that would amount to the restoration of society to the enrichment of the family. This is the purpose of the local church – to celebrate the primacy of the home.

The family of one of my friends built a small house next to their main house when his grandmother was 80 years old. They all sacrificed to care for the grandmother. His mother took on a job to be able to support the home in which the grandmother lived. One does not see this arrangement very often. We used to have lots of fun after school going to his home; his grandmother always had candy and pies, delicious things to eat. In the back yard, there was an old tree with a fort in it.

The grandmother sat in the back yard and watched us as we climbed from limb to limb. In her old age, she was honored. She was not thought to be useless. She was considered a vibrant part of the family circle. The grandmother was allowed to live in her own dignity and privacy at the same time. It is no wonder why this family was blessed with great joy.

My grandmother taught me how to work. I grew up in orchard country in Washington state. Several relatives had orchards, some of which grew apples and cherries. When I was in grade school, my grandmother would pick up me and my brother and take us to one of the family orchards to pick cherries. I remember my grandmother, in her mid-60’s at the time, climbing from limb to limb to teach us all how to pick the cherries from the tops of the trees. She labored long days in the summer heat and drove a Jeep like a maniac through the orchards. When we took breaks from picking, my grandmother would take us all for rides and then let us take turns driving the Jeep. But, work was the real order of the day for my grandmother. She wanted to make certain all of her grandchildren knew how to work so they kept out of trouble during the summer. That was my grandmother and I still honor her in my heart.

Periodically, everyone should take the time to write down 10 things that their parents did for them that were a tremendous help. Of my ten reasons, I thank my parents for teaching me:
1. To work
2. To honor my grandparents
3. To know the power of forgiveness
4. To stick to your commitment
5. To know the importance of friendships
6. To try new things
7. To give away love
8. To give enjoyment
9. To know hope
10. To care

Doug Murren