WHEN A CHILD
WON'T OBEY
Scripture Reading--Deuteronomy 21:18-21
We are in great danger when we treat anything God takes seriously in a casual manner. That's why we must consider our passage from Deuteronomy with much concern. God presented to His people a plan for dealing with a son who was stubborn, rebellious, and disobedient.
The key phrase is found in verse 18b--"when they have chastened him, [ he ] will not hearken unto them." God never commanded His people to stone a child who just disobeyed. Rather this punishment was reserved for a child who refused to change after he was properly disciplined.
We might assume that these child-stoning events were a regular occasion. I highly doubt it! In fact, I believe these events rarely occurred. In verse21b, we read, "And all Israel shall hear, and fear." In Proverbs 16:6b, we read, "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." The stoning of a rebel was God's way of letting children know that He would not tolerate a rebellious attitude toward parents. If and when a child was put to death, his death served notice to all the children in the land that God would deal harshly with them if they didn't change.
Can you imagine this discussion among a group of teens? "What happened to him?" "Where is he?" "I think he was having a hard time getting along with his parents." "Probably a bad attitude." "Did you hear what they did?" "They stoned him." Something tells me that every teen listening would have gotten the message and would have been more serious about having a right attitude toward his parents.
Attitude is everything. If God suddenly required that we enforce this Old Testament Jewish law in our church youth groups, I wonder if we would find any empty chairs in teen Sunday school this week. Closer to home, I wonder if we would have any empty bedrooms in our houses. God doesn't look lightly on rebellion, and neither should we.
DISCUSSION: As a family, describe some ways you would identify an attitude of rebellion.
--Tom Palmer--
No comments:
Post a Comment