While I was researching obedience for Sunday's teaching, I came across this Proverb, which, being the sarcastic parent that I am, I wondered why I hadn't quoted it to my kids when they were not being obedient;

"The eye that mocks a father

and despises a mother's instructions

will be plucked out by ravens of the valley

and eaten by vultures."

Whoa!  That's gross.  And truthfully, even as sarcastic as I was, I really don't think I would have ever tossed that one at my kids.  The mental picture of Stephanie being chased across the yard by ravens and vultures after refusing to clean up her room is a bit off the wall; and a bit funny.  (Not sure I should admit that.)

But I have chewed on this verse this week.  If the meaning obviously isn't that you will literally lose your eyes to vultures for leaving your toys strewn across the room, what does it mean?  Perhaps in King David's time, if a person despised their parents and the wisdom that they offered, that person would either leave home, or be expelled from the home.  Without guidance, they may wander about the land, surviving as best they could, until they died; at which point the vultures would literally eat them. 

Or, possibly, that without the wisdom of the generation that is before us, we are spiritually short-sighted, or even blinded, and satan has the opportunity to steal our vision.  In a generation now that values everything that is cutting edge, culturally relevant, and globally accessible, the wisdom of the prior generation is easily discounted.  And though the venues for using that wisdom have certainly changed, and are constantly changing, the wisdom itself is of great value.

God hasn't changed.  His Word hasn't changed.  His faithfulness to the prior generation still needs to be rehearsed in the ears of their children just as the Israelites were instructed to rehearse all that God had done to deliver them from Egpyt; 

"Talk about them when you are at home and when your are on the road; when you are going to bed and when you are getting up."

We can "talk" about God's faithfulness on our podcasts and blogs.  We can attend webcasts broadcast from around the world.  We can facebook and twitter His goodness instantly to thousands of people that we may never meet in person.  But let's be careful that in our embracing of the immediate ability to share the now of what God is doing, we don't despise the testimony of our parents by discounting it as no longer valid.  But let's take what they have laid as a foundation, and continue to build on it, and present to the next generation a clear ability to see God and His vision for us today.