Embracing a Promising Command
By Jessica Greer
MTV has been the media guru in symbolizing teen angst and rebellious pop-culture through what used to be music videos – but in the past decade they’ve created another product: reality TV.
It’s a given that the “realities” are less than appropriate and definitely not real, but one show in particular is disturbing on a very different level.
In 2003 MTV aired a reality show called Viva La Bam in which showcased Bam Margera performing over-the-top stunts and pranks, the most abusive of these often pulled on his own parents in their own home.
Margera would continuously mock his mother and father by setting them up in situations in which they would be humiliated, or in some instances even physically hurt.
Of course, since it was all done under the guise of a joke, only extremely uptight traditionalists would supposedly be offended by children abusing their parents on cable television.
This show exposed the blatant disrespect that mainstream media promotes and sells to teens. But even worse, it exposes the heart of the children of this age toward their parents.
While adolescent rebellion is by no means a new phenomenon in the human race, the bizarre new trend is to glorify and legitimize it as a right and good part of our cultural hegemony.
Television programs often reflect parents as clueless figureheads whose purpose is to financially support teen debauchery.
Ironically, the advertisement following that same program will try to sell socialized parenting by encouraging parents to outsource their parenting authority rights to smarter people like those running our country. Organizations such as Planned Parenthood pride themselves in being able to manipulate and lead people into justified immorality and even murder.
These are the secular resources available to parents, not only to guide but in many cases to seek the overthrow of the hierarchy in the parent-child relationship altogether.
Even higher education will advise young people to cast off all pre-existing values that have been instilled, invested and even spiritually fought for since that child’s birth. Professors and other intellectual dictators use their teaching pulpits to preach the gospel of humanism and defiance against tradition and religion (excluding, of course, paganism).
Ideas of existentialism and evolution that deny God’s existence ultimately teach that because there is no God, there is no accountability.
These philosophies defy the imperative of a parent’s relationship with their child and its effects on future generations. Thus, children curse their parents in the name of self-fulfillment.
Deuteronomy 5:16 states the first commandment with promise: “Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
The word honor in this context can also translate into weighty in its importance. It is the same word in Hebrew that refers to the way people must honor God.
One Jewish commentator wrote: “The Lord intended that the mishpakah (family) would picture His relationship with us. Just as God created man and woman in His image (Gen. 1:27), so children are to regard their parents as divinely ordained and truly significant.” The identity of children is deeply rooted in the way they honor their parents. This honor reflects relationship with both God and parents, and also the respect one has for God’s organization of the universe.
Proverbs 1:8, 9 says: “Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.”
The blessing that surrounds obedient children is not that they do not get spanked, but moreover it is a promise of long life and even freedom.
The Bible warns children about the enticement and self deceit of following their own instincts rather than the instructions and teachings of their fathers. Proverbs 3:7 says: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”
Proverbs 30:17 says: "The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, and will be eaten by the vultures.”
The submission children have to their parents will affect the reverence they have for God’s power and authority. Ultimately, all children will need to surrender themselves to God’s will and have a relationship with Him individually, and their foremost reference point of discipline will be their parents.
Parents are responsible to uphold judgment and righteousness, so that their children will understand God’s ways. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 was God’s instruction to the Israelites on how to deal with a child who is unashamedly rebellious and sinful.
Although this is not an avocation for stoning or even for abusing a child, every parent must enforce discipline and judgment when necessary.
God also wants parents to teach their children His Word and raise them according to His righteous standards. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 tells us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
The relationship between children and their parents is referenced in God’s love for all of His children. God’s design for humans is to enter into relationship with Him individually. He has ordained the family as a framework for the functions of relationship and love, so that His words and commands will be maintained throughout the generations.
Joel 1:2, 3 says: “Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers? Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”
How can children preserve the freedom, land, and prosperity they indulge in, unless they obey and heed the instructions of their parents?
Parent, how can your children and descendants fear God and defend His righteousness without your teaching and discipline?
The fifth commandment is one of promise; it connects God with society by defining human roles through a hierarchical system in which God can use parents to reveal Him to their children.
Hillary Clinton may tell parents that it takes a village to raise a child, but God will hold both mothers and fathers accountable for how they treated the gift and privilege He has given them. Do not buy the lie of socialized parenting by means of government power. And, children: know that your parents are not some kind of unfortunate coincidence, but that God Himself has predestined their care for you in particular. You are commanded to honor your parents, not only because it pleases God; but the promises and identity God intends for you are wrapped into this command.
Relationships between parents and children will determine the future of generations to come. The very security of this nation suffers from the breakdown of this structure that God has given us.
Low-brow-culture will persist with their attack on family and social organization according to God’s laws, thus challenging Christians to sustain God’s Word. But rest assured that family is not a haphazard evolutionary event; it was designed to be the center of all order that God has ordained.