Come and study the Holy Scriptures with us as Father Stephen DeYoung teaches verse by verse on the podcast, The Whole Council of God.

Father Stephen holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies, and it's an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Chapter 19, verse 1.

Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them.

Okay, so now we're just talking to Israel again.

You shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God am holy.

We talked about how that gets set a bunch in here.

God is holy and set apart, so they need to be holy and set apart, because they need to

show the world who he is.

So they need to be like him.

Every one of you shall reverence his father and mother and keep my Sabbaths.

I am the Lord your God.

There's going to be a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated things here.

There's just going to be a whole bunch of commands.

Because remember, God's defining a whole way of life here.

So he starts with you reverence your father and your mother.

And that's not just your parents, but the people in authority over you.

In the extended family, the tribe, in the clan, and the nation, whoever's in authority over you,

notice it says you reverence them. You respect them. You pray appropriate respect to them.

It doesn't say you do everything they tell you to do. This is, right, It says you give them respect. Do not follow idols,

nor make for yourself molten gods. I am the Lord your God. And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace

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