By Roy B. Blizzard
[12] Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
Translation:
Honor your father and your mother to the end that your days may be long on the earth that YHWH, your Elohim, gives to you.
Comments:
Notice that this is the only one of the Ten Commandments with a promise: if you honor your father and mother, your days will be long upon the earth. Perhaps one reason why one’s days might not be long upon the earth if they fail to honor their father and mother is because in the Mishnah, Order Nezikin, Tractate Sanhedrin 7:4, "the rebellious and the disobedient son is to be stoned."
In Deuteronomy 21:18-21, it states that the stubborn and rebellious son will be stoned to death and in Exodus 21:17, it states that the son who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death.
Judaism placed great emphasis upon family; not only the parents’ responsibilities to children, but also the children’s responsibilities to the parents. That responsibility continued throughout the lifetime of the parents. It was the responsibility of the child to see that their parents were adequately provided for in their lifetime and to ensure a decent burial at their death.
Jesus calls attention to this very fact in Mark 7: 10-13, when He says, "Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’" Then Jesus continues (referring back to Exodus 20:12 and 21:17) saying, "if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban’" (that is, a gift offered unto God as a sacrifice) "then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do."
Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees, saying they have, in essence, made the word of God of no effect by no longer requiring the sons to be responsible for their parents.
It is interesting in our archeological excavations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem we found the inscription incised on the leg of a bowl with the word "CORBAN" confirming this practice mentioned in this passage in Mark 7: 10-13.
To summarize, all three resources – the written law, the oral law, and the words of Jesus – emphasize the importance of one honoring their parents.
