June 7, 2026 - The Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12)

The Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Introduction

There was a famous research paper that was published by a professor named Lynn Hasher in Toronto. This professor published a paper that the brains of elderly people are weaker but they are wiser. This means that as you age, your memory ability and concentration gets weaker but you become wiser and your ability to discern exceeds those who are young. This means that those who are older, they are more wise and ability to have discernment in your decisions may be stronger. This means that when you are young, you don’t have enough experience to have wise discernment in your decisions and make more mistakes. That is why when we make decisions or as we live our lives, it is important to take into consideration wisdom from the older generation. There was a son of King Saul and his son would ignore and look down on his father for his older age. But because the son ignored his father and the counsel of his father, the entire nation of Israel suffered significantly because of his poor decisions. The land of Israel ended up becoming divided in half. May you receive important answers through today’s sermon. 

1. Honor your Mother and Father

(1) The importance of the family

Verse 12 - This means the importance of a family. In other words, the fifth commandment was given to heal your family. In this world, there may be people without children but there are no people without parents. This means that parents have an important role in people’s lives. When God created the world, He created this world for us. When God created mankind, the first thing that He permitted us was a family. A family was so important that when God created the beautiful Garden of Eden, God allowed mankind to be granted the blessing of a family first. God’s creation started from a family. Out of the four commandments from the 10 commandments all include commandments regarding the family. The fifth commandment is also about family, about honoring your father and mother. The seventh commandment is also about the family as well, do not commit adultery. The eighth commandment is also about the family, which speaks about do not steal. In the tenth commandment, it says don’t covet your neighbor’s wife, male servants, or female servants. All of these four commandments from the Ten Commandments are about the family and a message about healing. The first commandment regarding family was to honor your father and mother, which was the fifth commandment. The fifth commandment is the message that brings the first and second parts of the commandments together. The fifth commandment is talking about how important our parents are. The word “honor” has an important meaning and in Hebrew it means “Kavod”, which means heavy. What does it mean to honor your father and mother? To honor your father and mother means to honor your parents as you honor God. This means not to take your parents lightly but to honor your parents just like how we would honor God. 

(2) The importance of parents

The Jews know how important it is to honor your father and mother. They take everything that their parents say with a heavy heart and not lightly. We can see that the Israelites got that heart from Isaac who was at the brink of death and still obeyed his father, Abraham, on Mount Moriah. Issac obeyed his father, Abraham, who commanded him to become a sacrifice before God. Your parents’ authority was given by God. 

Genesis 27:28-29 “Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you!” - This was when Issac blessed and cursed his sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac blessed one son and cursed the other son. We can see how important a prayer of a father is. 

Genesis 27:28 - We can see all of the prayers and blessings that Isaac prayed and proclaimed, the blessings and answers were fulfilled exactly as he spoke and prayed. This means that the prayers of parents, God takes them very seriously and earnestly. Our parents’ prayers are so important and precious, and they are able to give us great answers. Martin Luther also said that parents are God’s representatives. As God’s representatives, parents are able to take on and lead the family. This means that this word does not apply to just Isaac and our forefathers in the Bible but this also applies to us today. This is so important that it contains the promises of God. 

2. A Commandment With a Promise

(1) A commandment with a promised blessing

Verse 12 - This is the message of a promise. This means that God promised this word. Are you really honoring your parents then God promised that He will allow our days to be long. In the Bible, there are two types of promises. God gave us a promise after the second commandment. 

This was the second commandment as written in Exodus 20:6 “But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” - When we keep God’s commandment, then God promised that He will show His mercy to thousands. This promise means that if we keep God’s commandment and give all glory and worship to God, then God will bless our generations to thousands. This will absolutely happen. 

Ephesians 6:2-3 “Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise: 3 that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” - This is an important Scripture. We can see this was the answer that Apostle Paul received. On this earth, this is the only way we can prosper. Commandments 1-4, these were promises from God to His people. The commandments from 5-10 are commandments concerning people. The first commandment concerning people, mankind, was to honor your father and mother. If we honor our parents then we will prosper and live a long life. People who don’t know God, they only chase after their own greed and money. 

People of this world are only busy chasing after their own wealth and greed just as we see in 2 Timothy 3:2-3 “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good.” - People of this world will live for their own greed and forsake their own parents on the way. They are heading towards destruction even though their parents warn them, and they just continue to ignore their parents. But the Bible gives us a different method towards success and victory. The way to success is to honor your father and mother then God will grant you prosperity from heaven above. Hold onto this covenant. 

Colossians 3:20 “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.” - God is pleased and will give you answers from heaven above when we honor our parents. All blessings come from our parents and people don’t know this fact. Our parents are always praying for us and God is hearing those prayers, and answering those prayers. God is blessing you because of your parents’ prayers. 

(2) The family as a model of the church

When God created female and male, God gave us the blessing to multiply on this earth. God granted us the blessing to multiple through a set of parents. God gave the parents the role of nurturing your children and the blessing of giving birth. Why would God use this as a model? God was showing this was the model of a church. 

Ephesians 5:32 “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” - When God is talking about a family and children, God is talking about what a church is about and needs to be. In a family, you need to serve your parents as the head of the household. In the church, you need to serve God as the head of the church and we are the body. Right now, we are in the brink of a family crisis and Satan has completely demolished all family structures in this world. Especially believer family households and this has direct influence on a church. When a family breaks down, your faith will break down and you will leave the faith and church. From this, God gave us an important message to honor your parents.  

Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” - Cain gave the wrong sacrifice and worship to God, and God rejected his worship and sacrifice. This made Cain furious and we can see how God responded to Cain in Genesis 4:7. God said this twice, “If you do well.” What does this mean? Does this mean to be a good person and do good things? “If you do well” means to give blood sacrifice that Abel gave correctly to God. This blood sacrifice is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This blood sacrifice is the only way for us to live. When Cain gave sacrifice to God, he did not give the proper sacrifice to God and ignored the importance of blood sacrifice. Adam and Eve gave the message to his children that they must give the blood sacrifice. Abel understood this but Cain rejected the blood sacrifice, and ended up giving whatever he wanted. God rejected Cain’s sacrifice and told him the importance of blood sacrifice. But Cain continued to ignore God’s commandment and ended up murdering his brother, Abel. What is the problem here? This means to honor your father and mother. If Cain listened to his father’s word to give blood sacrifice then Cain would’ve not ended up the way he ended up. To honor your parents means to accept God and Jesus Christ. Honor your parents and have victory. 

3. The Life of the Summit

(1) The Summit’s bartizan

Hold onto God’s covenant and enter into prayer. 

Acts 1:14 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” - God is alive and is listening to our prayers. When you pray sincerely to God and then true answers will come to us. 

(2) The Summit’s journey

Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” - When we pray to God then God will answer us. We must enjoy the blessing of the heavenly throne and head out on our journey. We must have the guidepost of the summit. 

Acts 2:6 “And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.” - God will answer us no matter what and that answer will give us a new start in our lives. May we have a new guidepost in our lives. May we have great and new answers in our lives. 

Conclusion

Remember Leviticus 19:32 “You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD.” - God gave us an important message. This gray headed means those who have aged and are older in age. This means that we should honor our Father God and fear God. The wisdom of the older generation and our parents are important. We should honor the older generation and parents who fear God. Parents who hold onto God’s word and pray, we need to honor our parents who honor and fear God.