THIRTY SAYINGS OF THE
WISE
SAYING NUMBER FIFTEEN
“Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise
your mother when she is old.” (Proverbs 23:22, NIV)
Immediately the Bible believer will think of the admonition to
children found in the Ten Commandments: ““Honor your father and your mother,
so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you”
(Exodus 20:12, NIV). This is cited
several times in the Gospels (Matt. 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10; 10:19; & Luke
18:20) and notably in Ephesians 6:2 (NIV), “Honor your father and mother”—which
is the first commandment with a promise—.”
“The word ‘honor’ means to treat someone with the proper respect
due to the person and their role.”[1] Notably this is the only promise that carries
with it a promise of God’s favor[2]. Indeed the child is warned that “the
eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the
ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures” (Proverbs 30:17, NIV).
What is implied and often overlooked in this passage is that
the child is to listen to their parents (“listen” as paralleled with “do not
despise”) to their mother who is now aged.
This implies that the child is also an adult. Our culture assumes that once a child leaves
home and once they are of an age of responsibility that God no longer places
such familial obligation on them. No
so!
Matthew Henry offers good advice here:
“When the mother was grown old we may suppose the children to be
grown up; but let them not think themselves past being taught, even by her, but
rather respect her the more for the multitude of her years and the wisdom which
they teach. Scornful and insolent young men will make a jest, it may be, of the
good advice of an aged mother, and think themselves not concerned to heed what
an old woman says; but such will have a great deal to answer for another day,
not only as having set at nought good counsel, but as having slighted and
grieved a good mother.” [3]
Rather than absent oneself from listening to parents when children
get older, they should be all the more concerned about heeding the good advice
of their fathers and mothers. Their
parents have grown and learned as they have progressed in life, also!
[1] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible
(p. 176). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[2] “This did not merely mean a long life,
but one that experienced God’s presence and favor: that it may go well with you.”
- Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible
(p. 340). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[3] Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s
commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume
(p. 1007). Peabody: Hendrickson.
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