Parents and the X Commandments

[1inICXC]

I feel guilty asking this question but one of my many issues with the OT is the X Commandments.

I don’t understand why God would single out a commandment for children to honor their parents but not for the parents to love and guide their children.

The parents have a MUCH greater responsibility towards children than vice versa and can also do MUCH more damage but the X Commandments don’t seem to articulate that, so many terrible parents exploit that 4th commandment so it does make me quite resentful.

I wish it could be said that it goes without saying that parents accepted, loved and educated their children in the ways of the Lord but that wasn’t the case then and it surely isn’t now.

 

[Christy_Beth]

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord.

Does this help?

 

[puzzleannie]

I feel guilty asking this question but one of my many issues with the OT is the X Commandments.

I don’t understand why God would single out a commandment for children to honor their parents but not for the parents to love and guide their children.

.

it is the same commandment, which covers the entire gamut of family relationships, just as the 5th commandmant covers the gamut of violence against persons. The 4th commandment implies the parent will be modeling God as a parent and thus be worthy of honor.

 

[JRKH]

I am not up on all of the OT laws, but I understand there was something like 600 of these. The Decalogue being the “base” group.

Anyway - I wonder if a look at the other laws and ordinances of the OT would turn up something helpful in this.

Peace
James

 

[1inICXC]

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord.

Does this help?

It would help more if it was commandment #4.a) and children b)

it is the same commandment, which covers the entire gamut of family relationships, just as the 5th commandmant covers the gamut of violence against persons. The 4th commandment implies the parent will be modeling God as a parent and thus be worthy of honor.

I see, but it directly addresses the children and hardly even implicitly the rest. Since parents owe more I’d imagine it would be the other way around…
I’m thinking I’m missing something about the OT social context. I try not to think of it because I feel guilty for questioning and almost disproving God’s word but I do have a bard time with this…

 

[Nita]

Deuteronomy 4:9 "Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; **make them known to your children and your children’s children **–

Deuteronomy 6:7 and 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.

Deuteronomy11:13-19
13 "And if you will obey my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, … 18 "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 And you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

 

[drafdog]

It is interesting that Nita quotes that passage from chapter 11 of Deuteronomy. There was much that Moses taught the people that was not recorded in the scriptures. Thus Moses says they must follow *all *that he taught them. This became the basis of the traditions of the Jewish people much as the church has the traditional teachings which came down from the apostles and the Fathers of the church. So you will not find in the bible the four things which a father owes to a son, although every Jewish parent is aware of them (and every Christian parent should be aware as well). The first thing a father owes his son is to have him circumcised, thus making him a child of the covenant. A Christian parent similarly has his child baptized, a circumcision of the soul making him a child of the new covenant. The second thing a father owes his son is to teach him Torah. A Christian parent teaches his child the faith. The third thing a father owes to his son is to train him in a trade. The holy rabbis teach that a man who does not teach his son a trade teaches him to become a thief. A Christian child should be educated in such a fashion that he can function profitably in the world. And “profitably” should not be construed as being limited to matters of finance. The last thing a father owes a son is to find him a wife, so as to comply with the first commandment (mitzvah) given to man, “Be fruitful and multiply.” A Christian parent guides his child in finding a spouse or into a celibate vocation of some sort.
As for the Decalogue, this is a set of requirements which underlie the basic functions of society. No society can last which does not follow these admonitions. They are not ideals to be striven toward, but bare minima to be exceeded.
Continuing with your contention that parents owe a great deal to their children, it has been pointed out that the commandment forbidding theft does not refer to material possessions. The Torah addresses personal property rights elsewhere. The commandment refers to life itself. Thus the Torah elsewhere limits the term of servitude of a slave. You cannot own a person’s life. Similarly, a child’s life is his own and not the possession of the parent. Paul had to make the distinction in his letters to the early churches because so many of them were gentile converts from cultures which regarded children as possessions of the father.

Reb Levi

 

[JRKH]

Drafdog,

That you for that wonderful post. Really good information.

Peace
James

 

[TimothyH]

I am not up on all of the OT laws, but I understand there was something like 600 of these. The Decalogue being the “base” group.

Anyway - I wonder if a look at the other laws and ordinances of the OT would turn up something helpful in this.

Peace
James

Leviticus 17 through 22 is where you want to go.

Leviticus 17 - 22 was called the “Holiness Code.” It was the everyday rules and regulations about how Jews were expected to behave. Jewish children were taught to read and write using the “Holiness code” to serve the dual purpose of literacy and education in proper conduct according to the law of Moses.

-Tim-