Reading

• Lev. 19:9-10
• Deut. 24:19-22; 23:24-25
• Lev. 25:35-38
• Deut. 5:16
• Lev. 19:3a; 20:9
• Deut. 21:18-21
• Lev. 19:32-34; 24:22; 19:14, 16-18
• Deut. 22:1-4; 5:21; 25:4; 22:6-7; 20:1-20; 23:9-14

Devotional

GOD expects children to obey and respect their parents. This has always been true and GOD gave the Israelites instructions regarding this. He said:

Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
(Deut. 5:16 NKJV)

Each of you must respect his mother and father…
(Lev. 19:3a NIV)

For the Israelites, being disrespectful to one’s parents carried the penalty of death. GOD was very serious about children honoring their mother and father. GOD said:

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
(Deut. 21:18-21 NKJV)

Young people were to be respectful of older people in other ways too. GOD said:

You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD.
(Lev. 19:32 NKJV)

GOD also gave a special command regarding the widow and orphan.

Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
(Ex. 22:22-24 NKJV)

All of these laws can really be summed up in one verse:

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
(Lev. 19:18 NKJV)