Proverbs 20:20 Commentary and Bible Study

The fifth commandment says, ‘Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee’ (Exodus 20:12). God has ordained that we come into the world as dependent infants, reliant on our parents’ care and in the normal case receiving much help from them in preparation for life. They are proxies for God’s care over us. All rebelliousness against parents is therefore rebelliousness against proper authority and ultimately rebelliousness against God. It is the Lord who chooses our parents for us and we have absolutely no say in the matter. He does not ask us to decide or give us any options, and since all that he does for us is right and just, we cannot complain about his choice. We do not choose so many factors about our lives: the land where we are born, our inherited features, our appearance, intelligence, fitness, strength, or status. All these things are to be accepted with thanks to God. Obviously parents have responsibilities to their children and will be held accountable for how they raise them. There are parents who are guilty of terrible crimes against their children, but for the most part God restrains evil, and puts an instinct in parents which makes them capable of caring for their offspring and not giving them a stone when they ask for bread, or a scorpion when they ask for an egg (Luke 11:11-12). The state of dependence we start life with should train us to submit to the Lord in the whole of life. The child is shown by wise parents that, just as they require their child to be in subjection to them, they too are in subjection to the Lord throughout life. The adult state will bring their children into this same position. Since God has appointed them over us and they are in this unique relationship with us, there is a special commandments devoted to this relationship. That relationship obviously changes over the years, but the special nature of it never alters. To curse father or mother is more than to have a disagreement with them. It is to cease to protect their honour which the commandment gives us a particular responsibility to do. For those who behave in this way, there is a severe judgment. The lamp of a man stands for his life. In the temple the lamp burned continually as a symbol of the testimony to God’s truth. Our souls are designed to live for ever and we are intended to be creatures that understand the truth of God and glorify his name. But those who refuse to believe and turn away from God will have their lamp put out. They will have all enjoyment of God taken from them and will be left in confusion, aware of his condemnation, and the removal of all blessing. The word ‘obscure’ comes from the Hebrew for the pupil found in the eye and indicates deepest darkness, a place without hope or possibility of recovery.