FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER
“Honor your father and your mother that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you,” (Exodus 20:12; cf Deut. 5:16).
It seems to me imperative in this instance to start my article with some exegetical notes. First of all, the commandment to honor our parents stands unique in the Decalogue in that it is positive in both form and content*; the others begin usually with: “You shall not . . .“. Secondly, it is the only case where the goal of the command is mentioned: “that — so that, in order that — you may have a long life. Thirdly, please note that the text does not read: “that you may have long life on earth”, but “that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.”
In the Old Testament the land of Palestine is not a property by right, but a gift of God; it is promised as gift and it is offered as gift. The land is not a possession where we settle, but an inheritance where we sojourn as pilgrims. It is the place where we are always reminded that it is God and only He who, in an act of pure love and mere grace, brought us out of slavery and bondage into freedom and creativity, out of nothingness into being. The land is His and not ours, and in this sense it is a reflection of His realm and kingdom. To have then a long life in the land means to receive the gift of living
