Leviticus 19:1-3
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. You shall each man revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.”
A primary requirement in the context of Leviticus 19 is reverence toward parents and Sabbath observance. These two are major pillars of good government and social well-being. Reverence is a profound, adoring, and awed respect for something, someone or a concept. Reverence is more than mere honor. It actually indicates “to tremble before,” arising from our awareness of our inferiority, in the presence of the one, we revere.
The Sabbath commandment influences social well-being. It first commands us to work six days. It takes work to make a community safe, orderly, peaceful, and prosperous. The other part of the commandment implies spiritual, moral, and ethical instruction, fellowshipping with others of like spiritual and moral mindset, and service to the community.
It appears that in God’s eyes, a parent stands in the place of God Himself. In the physical sense, parents are the child’s creator, provider, lawgiver, teacher and protector and sometimes even savior. A child’s response to this relationship will greatly determine his later response to larger relationships in society. It is reasonable to expect the parent and child relationship, can affect their relationship with God. As parents represent God, it becomes their obligation to live lives worthy of that honor. Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping this commandment falls on the child, but it begins with the parents through child training and example. If parents neither provide the correct example nor teach the correct way, they can hardly expect their children to honor them.
Life begins at home and wisdom should begin there, as well. The home is the primary and most vital factor in a child’s development into a mature and stable member of society. Church and school play secondary roles, if only because of the amount of time spent at home and all the personal interaction that takes place there. The Sabbath is a great time for parents and children to spend quality time with each other. Also the Sabbath is a great time for each one of us to spend quality time with our Heavenly Father and elder brother, Jesus Christ.
