The Sunday News
Itai Chapunza
Exodus 20:12
Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
THE church is very fixed on honouring pastors, preachers and servants of God yet we sometimes neglect the very people that brought us into the world. Our parents were given custody of us by God. We did not choose them, neither did they choose us but the choice was made by God. He selected that particular home because he knew what was required for you in your life to reach your full potential.
The commandment is so important to God that it is the first commandment with a promise. The rest are consequences. There are two promises in that commandment. The first promise is that you will live long, the second is that you will be in the land that your God is giving you.
Long life is something that only God can control. You can agree that we are in an age where technology is advancing faster than any other time. But with all this knowledge and technology we have never been able to raise the dead and we have never been able to stop someone from dying. In this promise the Lord assures us long life. The condition to this is simple. Honour you father and mother.
It does not say honour you Christian father and mother. This commandment stands regardless of who your father is. Even if he is a thief, a non-believer or any other thing you may feel makes him less of a father, he still has the power to unlock long life for you. The word of God is in motion and at work already. God does not have to do anything. So as soon as a condition is fulfilled, the promise of God begins to take effect. If He says honour them and I will give you long life, the moment you honour, long life takes effect automatically. When God speaks things, they become law. All creation obeys, even life itself. So honour your father and mother regardless of who they are.
The promise goes on to say you will not only live long, but you will live in the land which God Himself is giving you. One may wonder what kind of land is this, one may wonder if God is really giving us this land. Indeed He is. Take a look at scripture.
Exodus 3:8
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites. —
NIV
He says the land has two aspects in it, the land is spacious and the land is flowing with milk and honey. For us land means two things. It means physical land or a sphere of influence. So God is saying if you honour you parents, He will give you long life.
The long life will be in a land that he has kept for you. So you find that you tend to last very long in your trade. If you are a businessperson, you will tend to last very long in a particular industry. While others come and go, you will remain in this land because God has given it to you.
If God has given you the ability to teach, that is a land that God has given you. He means He will make you wealthy from teaching and He will cause you to be unmovable in teaching. You will be a master in the craft. You will have the ability to teach anything you put your mind and effort to.
When He says the land is spacious, He means that you will have enormous reach in your craft. Everyone will know about you and your craft, not only will they know, they will have references of who used to hold that seat of power but because you have honoured your parents, God will remove them and place you. The only condition, honour your parents.
Exodus 3 verse 8 also mentions whom the land belonged to before you arrived in it, it says the land belonged to non-believers. So all the seats of power that are held by non-believers and are in your field can easily be attained and surpassed by you if you just honour you parents.
When God says He is giving you land He also means He is blessing you. The Bible says of his blessing that it makes one rich and He adds no sorrow to it. You can become wealthier simply by honouring your parents.
Even if your parents neglected you, or your father abused you, it is important to honour him for your own good. Honour is a thing of the heart. A lot of people confuse it with respect.
Respect is admiration of a person as a result of their abilities, yet honour is to regard it as a great opportunity to be fathered by them and arousing a feeling of pride and pleasure. You must be proud to be born by your parents, be proud of who you are because of them.
Never participate in negative conversations about your parents, even if it is a pastor or a well-respected person. In fact, challenge anyone that speaks ill of you parents, it is not right for you to participate in speaking ill of them. Honour them highly, speak proudly of them and by all means do all you can to support them in all ways, financially, physically and however else they need you.
Be blessed.
Facebook — Itai Chapunza
