The Large Catechism – part 126

Scripture Text: Isaiah 2:5

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From the Word: O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:5)

From the ConfessionsThe Large Catechism, The Ten Commandments

The Fourth Commandment

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

Now this, I say should be the primary and most important consideration urging us to keep this commandment. Even if we had no father and mother, because of the commandment, we should wish that God would set up wood and stone before us that we might call father and mother. Since he has given us living parents, how much more should we gladly honor and obey them. Why? Because we know it is so highly pleasing to the divine Majesty and all angels, and vexes all devils.

Pulling It Together: Being obedient does not always make sense to us. This was especially the case when we were children. My father drove me crazy with his demands and discipline. He makes more sense to me now, some 50 years later. This is the Lord’s way; though we can reason no sense of it with our childish brains, we are to obey father and mother. Perhaps, sometimes they do not have our best interests in mind. Nonetheless, obedience itself is in our best interests. Being obedient to our parents is a way of walking in the Lord’s light; it shows us how we may trust and obey him. Even when reason fails us, when following Jesus makes no sense at all, the obedience of following will later yield an understanding that was lacking in the moment.

Prayer: Give me faith to follow you, Lord, walking in your light when my understanding is dim. Amen.

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