A Time for Action (Esther 5) — Esther: The Invisible Hand of Providence

Now, this week, as we come before the law of God and consider

God's word, His commands to us and our shortcoming, our sin in light of that, we are at the fifth commandment.

This week, again, in Exodus 20, verse 12. It says, honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the

Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord does not leave honor to parents as a matter of temperament or custom, but makes it a matter of covenant obedience.

The word is plain here, honor thy father and thy mother. But this honor is not mere speech, rather it is a heart disposition that shows itself in reverence, gratitude, and obedience where obedience is due.

And see the gracious promise joined to the precept that thy days may be long upon the land which the

Lord thy God giveth thee. God is pleased to adorn this commandment with a special encouragement that you might learn how precious this duty is in His sight.

Many honor their parents, or they should, while they're small, because they must. But scripture calls you to a steadfast honor that endures into your own strength and years.

In Proverbs 23, verse 22, we read, hearken unto thy father that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old.

Here in Proverbs, the spirit of God brings before you a common temptation that when your parents grow older and weaker, when their counsel seems old -fashioned, when their bodies fail and their needs increase, and at the same time you're growing stronger and wiser yourself, the proud heart is ready to despise.

But the word says, despise not. The duty is not diminished by age, rather it is heightened, for then parents have fewer earthly defenders and greater need of patient love.

They're less able to enforce their honor upon you. And so your requirement to honor them is increasing with age, not decreasing.

Honoring parents, therefore, includes a listening ear. Again, hearken unto thy father. A bridled tongue, refusing to mock or to speak lightly or to shame or to talk back without wisdom and kindness.

A ready hand, practical care and provision and presence for our parents in their older age.

And a faithful spirit praying for them and seeking their good. Again, this law is not narrow, as if it only concerned the household table.

God also appoints elders and families in the church and in the commonwealth. To honor them is to honor God's ordering of human life.

In Leviticus 19 .32, we read, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, that's old, gray, white haired head, and honor the face of the old man and fear thy

God. I am the Lord. So we mark how the Lord fastens reverence for age to reverence for himself.

He says, honor the face of the old man and fear thy God. When a people lose shame and lose reverence, they don't only sin against man, they don't only sin against one another, but against God himself.

But where there is godly honor, there's often peace in the gates or in the society.

There's wisdom and counsel and there's stability in households. And so let us then be a people who honor elders among us by treating them, again, with a viable respect, seeking their counsel, especially in matters of wisdom and experience, speaking to them with gentleness and not sharpness, protecting them from neglect and loneliness and dishonor.

Now the New Testament, when it pertains, when it comes to this law, doesn't loosen it at all, it rather confirms it.

Ephesians chapter six, verses one through three, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right.

Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and now may live as long on the earth.

Though children must obey while under authority, the honor required is broader than childhood. Again, many are no longer under a parent's rule yet remain under this law of honor.

May not always follow a parent's counsel, especially if it draws you away from righteousness, but you must keep a tender conscience toward them, a respectful manner and a readiness to do them good.

But our culture despises the older people among us. We're prone to disregard and dismiss them, hide them off into nursing homes or have strangers take care of them so that we don't have to.

Did you know that the home healthcare industry in the United States is projected to reach over $280 billion by 2030?

Now it's not to say that caring for people in their homes is bad, but it speaks to the impulses of our society.

Don't worry about maintaining your connections to the past. Don't care for those who have cared for you. Just pay someone else to do it, as if throwing money at it is all that's needed.

That'd be like a mother getting a job to pay for a nanny and claiming that's her way of nurturing her children. Or a father working endlessly to pay for someone else to teach his sons how to throw a baseball because he doesn't have the time.

Paying for someone else to do something for you doesn't lead to the same benefits, right? To the same blessings that God promises.

The promises of God that he attaches to this commandment don't apply to paying for things, but in doing them.

And what are those blessings in this case? Connection to the past. Again, if we honor those older among us, we're connecting ourselves to our ancestors, which increases our love for our family, our home, our nation, and our neighbor.

Wisdom for today, another great blessing, which strengthens us for a better future for us and our children and our children's children.

And further, maybe a future blessing to hold onto is it leads to provision for tomorrow.

It creates a culture of care for us as we age so that our children will take care of us as well and not shuttle us off into nursing homes.

These things tend to pay themselves back, if you will. These are investments into the future. This is the blessings of God.

The promises of God very often see their fruition not through the supernatural, natural, excuse me, or spiritual only, but in the physical provision from those around us as God works through the ordinary means.

And so let us be a people who outdo one another in doing good. Let us eagerly look for ways to honor our parents, not just when we're young, but for all of our lives.

And so let's repent of contempt, right? If there's hardness in your heart towards father or mother, and that's just not being your natural parents, but even to older people in our time and place, it's not a hard thing to do, not hard to be frustrated with older generations, especially for younger people here.

But let us repent of any hardness of heart we have. Let's confess it to God and let's seek forgiveness where it is fitting.

Again, too many young people today are unforgiving towards their parents. They blame them for everything and they refuse to move on with their lives because they're busy blaming their parents for something or one or another over the years.

They don't see how unforgiving they've become. Second, practice honor and speech, right?

Let's not let jokes and complaints or bitter rehearsals train our mouths in despising the elderly around us.

Third, practice honor and care. Remember the needs of the people around you, appointments, burdens, and limitations, right?

Let your love be seen. Take care of those older among you who need the help. Fourth, honor spiritual elders, because in doing so we honor all.

1 Timothy 5, reviewed not an elder, but treat him as a father and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity, right?

And in this way we honor one another and we treat all of each other in the proper station and we honor

God in doing so when we position ourselves well to receive the blessings of God because of it. And fifth, teach the next generation.

Let children see honor in their homes, that they may learn it by example. And so if you would, if you're able, please join me in confessing your sin to God in a spirit of repentance and asking him that he'd help you to honor him and honor those around you with a greater honor and a greater love.

Please join me in kneeling if you are able. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the words of this commandment and the promise that accompanies it. And we thank you for the generosity of your word and your law to us that you would teach us and tell us the ways in which we are to obey you and honor one another and love you and love those around us.

We ask you to help us, God, in our confession. Help us to bring to mind to us,

Lord, the areas in which we are falling short. We ask your help in our repentance that you would give us strength to honor you, to obey you by honoring our fathers and our mothers, particularly,

Lord, our natural parents, but even those older around us as well. Lord, you have commanded us to honor father and mother.

Again, we ask you that you write your law upon our hearts such that we would not forget it as we go from this place.

Forgive our pride, our impatience, and our neglect. Lord, please grant us grace to hearken, to hear, and not to despise, to esteem well those who are our senior and to show love in deed and in truth.

Lord, and for Jesus' sake, who is subject unto his earthly parents, make our obedience willing and our honor steadfast.

Lord, in all these things, we do give thanks and pray in Jesus' name. And amen. Amen. If you would please join me in standing as we would hear from God regarding our confession.

By the grace of our God and Father, we are a people of hope. We're set free to honor our fathers and mothers without bitterness, right?

The guilt of sin that we are conceived in because of our first father, Adam. If there's anyone that we can be embittered against, right?

If there's anybody that we could be frustrated with for what they did, for their sins, it'd be him, right?

It'd be our first father. But that sin, the punishment for it has been lifted. It's been removed from us by Jesus Christ.

Amen? Amen. And so if we no longer have license to be embittered against him, that being

Adam, the father we would be most justified to be embittered against, then we have no license to be embittered against our own fathers and mothers.

The Lord Jesus has made a way, not only for the forgiveness of your sin and dishonoring, but also for your obedience to him.

And so let us take heart in his strength and his spirit's work. Let us believe that he will bless us in that and give us greater resolve and repentance because of the promises of his word to us.

And so let us this week, hear our pardon from God in his word, that being from Romans chapter five, verses one through 11.

Again, Christian, hear this as the promises of God of your pardon in him. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation work with patience and patience experience and experience hope.

And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength in due time,

Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.