“Ye shall fear every man his mother,
and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God” Leviticus 19:3 (KJV)
I. A Powerful Symbol of Relating
A. The Charges that Moses was to Share
1. Be Holy
a. This certainly conjures up the
instruction:
1) Walk in the Ways of the
Lord
a) William Law
wrote in 1728
i.
“He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will,
or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who
considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes
all the parts of his common life parts of piety, by doing everything in
the Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory.
b. Israel and the world has wrestled
with this
1) In the sense of sin and
decadence through the centuries
2) And in the sense of what
it means to be Holy
a) I would
suggest to be Holy means in part
i.
“To love the Lord God”
ii.
“To love one’s neighbors”
iii.
“To love one’s enemies
iv.
“To seek out fellowship”
v.
“To worship the Lord”
vi.
“To Claim forgiveness and offer forgiveness for sins and shortcomings”
2. The second charge: Fear your mother “yawrey”
a. This is not about anxious fear
related to danger
1) This is fear is about
honoring one’s mother
a) It is the same word
related to fearing God
b) Exodus 20:12
(KJV) says: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be
prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.”
i.
Kabed means in part to boast about or glorify
i) Two students and the skeptic
(i) After attending a lecture one student
said to
the other, “Well, I guess he knocked the props out from under
Christianity, didn’t he?”
(ii) The other said, “No, I don’t think
he did.
The man did not explain my mother’s life, and until he can explain my
mother’s life I will stand by my mother’s God.”
2) This fear about respect
a) Someone once
asked, “Who is greater? Thomas Edison or his mother?
i.
It was pointed out that a teacher sent a note home to Edison’s mother
brutally saying “He is dumb. We can’t do anything for him”
i) Such a statement would have that teacher in hot water
today
(i) It is unacceptable
ii.
Nancy Edison allegedly responded
i) “You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself”
ii) I could not verify the story, but did verify that
Edison’s parents were active in his learning
iii.
It was said of Thomas Edison “He led no armies into battle, he
conquered no countries, and he enslaved no peoples... Nonetheless, he
exerted a degree of power the magnitude of which no warrior ever
dreamed. His name still commands a respect as sweeping in scope . . . .”
i) He found the recourse for his work ethic in his mother
and father
(i) This included exploration of the
Bible
3) This fear is about love
a) An primary
school teacher’s lecture on magnets
i.
The next day she asked this question on a test
i) My name has 6 letters. I pick things up. What is my name?
(i) When the test was graded the
teacher was
amazed to find that 50 percent of the students wrote the word “mother”
as the answer
b) Another
teacher giving a lecture in math presented this problem
i.
If you had 7 members of a family and your mother baked a pie
i) When it was divided, what fraction of the pie would you
get?
(i) A student raised her hand
(ii) 1/6
ii) “The answer is incorrect,” said the teacher
iii) “No I am not,” said the student. “My mother would say
she didn’t want any pie.”
c) A student was
presenting his part of a scripture memory event and forgot his line
i.
His mother seeing his distress mouthed the words for him.
i) “I am the light of the world.”
ii.
The child had his ah-ha experience and said
i) “My mother is the light of the world.”
d) Fear in the
Biblical context is about love
i.
And in this context it seems fitting to quote that famous, often used
verse that captures the heart of the Gospel
i) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life” John 3:16 (KJV)
(i) This has been at the heart of
spiritual love
from and for mothers through the centuries.
References
William Law
(1728). “Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. In “The Master
Christian Library, Version 8. Rio, WI, Ages Software, 2000,
p. 9.
Gerald
Beals, (1997). Thomas Alva Edison: American Inventor 1847-1931.
www.thomasedison.com
References
Dinesh D’Souza. What’s So
Great About Christianity. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing,
2007.