Why Children Dishonor Their Fathers Prov. 30: 11. CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

Father’s Day.  It is more common today for children to dishonor their fathers than in prior generations in our country [Prov 30:11].  We see that this is a worldwide problem.  Before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Mal 4:5-6, Elijah must come to turn… the heart of the children to their fathers.  How did the children get into this condition?  Their hearts turned away from their fathers as the result of:

Societal degeneration – Prov 30:11 – There is a generation that curseth their father.  This is pervasive in the world.  There is a general breakdown of the home in society.  According to Lev 19:32 you are to rise up before the hoary head.  Today it is just the opposite.  Schools promote this, movies and sitcoms promote this.  Look what happened in Elisha’s day [2 Ki 2:23-25].  They children cried against him, “Go up, thou bald head.”  You must know that these children were wicked for Elisha to destroy them by the bears.

Spiritual deception – Jn 8:44 – in this verse Jesus is referring to Cain, the murderer from the beginning.  Why did Cain kill Abel?  According to 1 Jn 3:12 because “he was of that wicked one.”  In 1 Jn 3:10 we’re talking about “children of the devil.”  There is a terrible spiritual influence between the time children are “little children” [Mk 10:13-14] and the time they begin to manifest the wickedness of “children of the devil.” There is a spiritual deception affecting children.  And in these last days [2 Tim 3:1] we see that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,” [2 Tim 3:13].

Sensual delusion – 2 Tim 3:2 children who are “disobedient to parents” are also [2 Tim 3:4] “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”  They are following the lusts of the flesh.  They are deluded by their fantasies and imaginations.  They have no concept of walking in the Spirit.  Parents are trying to keep their children from harming themselves by following their sensual desires and the children won’t listen.  In Prov 5:12-13, the young man said, “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!”  They were trying to keep this young man from harming himself and he wouldn’t listen.

Selfish defiance – 2 Tim 3:2 – in the last days, children who love their own selves are disobedient to parents. In essence they say, “I want what I want and I don’t care who I hurt to get it.”  They’re like Amnon.  You can’t just blame their actions on societal degeneration, spiritual deception and sensual delusion.  The disobedience of the children is the responsibility of the children.  Consider Deut 21:18-21 the “stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father” bore the responsibility for his own behavior.  They stoned him.  The consequences of your disobedience still fall back on you.

Conclusion: the solution is found in Eph 6:1-2 obey your parents… honor thy father.  This command is in the context of Eph 5:33 “and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”