On which Tablet is the Fifth Commandment?

"Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

I have just finished preaching on the subject of worship at the Grace Ministers’ Conferences in South Africa. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and mutual encouragement with many pastors who have become very dear ministerial colleagues over the years. However, as in times past, when I have had to deal with the subject of worship, I was again faced with the need to put before them my understanding of worship as it is taught in the first five commandments of the Decalogue.

When I initially taught on worship from the Ten Commandments and said that they were divided into two sets of five commandments each I was sure that I got this from John Calvin. However, a few years later an American friend, with a far more formidable library than mine, told me that Calvin divided the Ten Commandments into the usual four-and-six category (i.e. four commandments on our relationship with God and six on our relationship with one another). I rushed back to my library and found that he was right. I searched the rest of my few books on the Ten Commandments and found that all of them had the four-and-six category. I have since asked myself the question, “Where on earth did I get this five-to-five category?” I have tried to change, but have miserably failed. So, I am writing this blog for two reasons: (1) To explain why I find the five-to-five category more satisfying, and (2) To find out from those with more formidable libraries if you know anyone else who has divided the Ten Commandments into two sets of five commandments each. I would hate to be the only one doing so, since the Holy Spirit could not have only revealed this to me!

Is this the right division of the Ten Commandments?

Let me be quick to state that when it comes to the content of the fifth commandment, whether it is put under the first or second tablet (I am using the word “tablet” to simply signify whether it is part of the “greatest commandment” as described by our Lord, or as part of the second greatest commandment), I have found that we are all saying the same thing. Everyone agrees that it deals with godly submission to parental authority. So, all are agreed that it is about a vertical relationship. The commandment is further applied to civil and church authority in a secondary sense.

However, herein lies my problem. Firstly, I find a clear thread running through the first five commandments and it is all related to a vertical relationship. I find it rather forced to put submission under loving my neighbour. I say so because my parents are not my neighbours! In obeying them, I am not doing to them as I would love them to do to me. It seems to me that the only reason why commentators have put the 5^th commandment under the second tablet is because it talks about our relationship with human beings rather than God. However, as you shall observe, these human beings are standing as God’s regents in society—rather than as our neighbours. Our parents stand between God and us in a way that no one else does—literally from birth. Rebellion against them was a capital offence (Exodus 21:15, 17, Deuteronomy 21:18-21). The authority of parents and rulers is to be guarded because they are God’s agents on earth (Exodus 22:28, Romans 13:1-2).

Or is this the right division of the Ten Commandments?

When the Ten Commandments were being given, parents were the centre of authority. It was the patriarchal period. Israel was beginning to be organised as a nation and thus went into the judges and kings period. Even then, the phrase “father and mother” was generically applied to rulers (Genesis 45:8 and Judges 5:7). At this point it was the elders, who represented the wider parental authority, who were in charge of Israel. God had entrusted his worship into their hands. Thus in this commandment public worship was being secured by ensuring submission to godly leadership.

Secondly, there is such a close connection between the 4^th and 5^th commandments that I often wonder why commentators put them on different tablets. The 4^th addresses heads of homes (i.e. parents) and tells them to ensure that worship is maintained in the household, while the 5^th addresses the children and tells them to honour their parents as they seek to implement the worship of the true God. So, the two complement each other. In fact, it becomes clear when one notices the promise given to the children—“that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Why such a promise? It is not because the children are doing well in loving their nearest neighbours, but because they are honouring their parents as they pass on true religion to them. It was when a generation in Israel abandoned the true religion that their parents had passed on to them that God sent them into captivity. So, it was all related to the first tablet, i.e. loving God.

Thirdly, there is a beautiful symmetry in the two “tablets” which we miss when we divide them into four-and-six. Notice how the 1^st and the 6^th commandments (i.e. the first on each tablet) are the most important. Once you are wrong on the object of worship (the 1^st commandment), then even if you are right in the ordinances (the 2^nd commandment), the reverence (the 3^rd commandment), the day (the 4^th commandment), and the custodians of worship (the 5^th commandment), it is all useless. You are worshipping the wrong object! Similarly, with respect to the second tablet, if you murder a person (the 6^th commandment), you cannot commit adultery with them (the 7^th commandment), you cannot steal their goods (the 8^th commandment), you cannot lie to them (the 9^th commandment), and you cannot envy what they have (the 10^th commandment). They are dead!

Ultimately the issue of "tablets" is not the ultimate issue

This beautiful symmetry can also be seen as you work upwards on each tablet. The last commandment on each tablet has been put there in order to secure the top four. Because religion has a given-ness to it, when children honour their godly parents, they will most likely observe the resting day as a day of worship (the 4^th commandment), be reverent in worship (the 3^rd commandment), observe only the ordinances of worship prescribed by God (the 2^nd commandment), and worship the only true God (the 1^st commandment). Similarly, because sin is a matter of the heart, when a person jealously guards his heart with contentment, he is more likely to treasure integrity (the 9^th commandment), respect the possessions of his neighbour (the 8^th commandment), only engage in sex in God’s legitimate context (the 7^th commandment), and preserve the life of his neighbour (the 6^th commandment). Isn’t this what James teaches? “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1-2).

However, having said all this, it is not my intention to upset the apple cart. I share this blog because I want to find out from those of you with more formidable libraries if any commentator sees what I have seen. As I said at the Grace Ministers’ Conference, the difference is more of awkwardness than content and purpose. It is like a man who is addressing an important gathering on a cold day but who has buttoned his jacket wrongly. Since he is feeling warm, the jacket is fulfilling its purpose. However, his wife, sitting in the front row, is totally embarrassed as she sees her man improperly dressed in front of such an august assembly!