Deuteronomy 21:18-21 – Nurturing the spirit of obedience

Obedience and submission are two godly habits every one of us needs to nurture in our children. These were God’s expectations of the children of Israel during their wandering years. Yet these were precisely the two areas that they constantly got into trouble. However, when they realized their wrong, repented, and returned to God, He would forgive them. But being gracious to them was one thing and allowing them to continue in these harmful attitudes was another. God certainly did not want the spirit of disobedience and insubordination to be cultivated and fomented. Hence the instruction of Deuteronomy 21:18-23 was necessitated. The pertinent question we ask then is, what has recalcitrant children who rebelled against their parents to do with obeying and submitting to God? The answer is simply this: obedience and submission are first cultivated in the home. If a son would not obey and submit to his parents, he most likely would not obey and submit to God. Furthermore, in the fifth commandment, God specifically said, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” God requires of every child to honor their parents.

So in Deuteronomy 21:18-21, God prescribed the discipline for a rebellious son who continued in a life of indulgence in gluttony and drunken revelry. The parents were expected to forcefully bring the son to the elders of the city. At the gate of the city, the parents would then openly declare the son’s rebelliousness and indulgence before the elders. Then all the men of the city would stone that wayward son to death. God’s objective for this act was stated clearly in verse 21. It was to make a public example of what would happen to rebelliousness, hence to purge this evil from the midst of His people. we learn here that the spirit of rebelliousness that starts in the home against one’s parents has the potential of nurturing the same spirit of rebelliousness against the Lord. It must be curbed.  

In these verses, we see the Lord’s aversion to the spirit of disobedience and insubordination. In 1 Samuel 15:23, we are told that “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.” Cultivation of the spirit of obedience and submissiveness begins in the home. This underscores the need for good and godly parenting. As Christian parents, we need to inculcate obedience when our children are young and help them to make obedience a habit. Obedience will curtail the spirit of insubordination. The home is our children’s first training ground for godly living. Don’t waste the opportunity to use it to raise godly children for the glory of God. Spare the rod and hate the child!