“And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” Deuteronomy 21:20-21
No doubt theses are shocking words to every parent. This is understandable, in consideration of natural affection, which is for the preservation of our posterity.
But God was dealing with the larger and more potent problem that lies beyond all the power of parental love and good will, “…the putting away of evil from their society” v21. Every murderer, rapist, child molester, thief, terrorist, etc., is somebody’s child. So to exclude judgment based on parental love, would simply open every door for evil to abound.
Rather than the nation of Israel be a society where parents would harbor any wicked adult child, the parents, who knew what was going on, were to bring them in to the authorities. This way the evil would be put away before the evil left a trail of victims and ruin. According to Divine judgment, those who chose wickedness did so at the expense of their own life, and were to be put out of business before they victimized others.
Human nature is inherently depraved, see Psalms 58:3. All have the capacity to commit any and all sin, by the fact we are born sinners. No one has to be taught how to do wrong–that comes natural. But people have to be taught, trained, and disciplined to do right.
The human heart is deceitful above all things, see Jeremiah 17:9. Children can and will deceive their parents, until their parents make it a point to be perceptive about their children’s conduct and character. You can’t catch a thief by depending on them to admit their guilt. You can’t prove a person is a liar just by asking them if they are telling the truth. All that children need to live deceitfully, is to know that their parent will take their word for everything and will not seek to perceive what they really are doing.
Another aspect of deceit is manipulation. Children can manipulate their parents by talking about the “bad” that somebody else did, when in reality this is what the child is doing themselves. By putting blame on someone else, this throws parental attention off what their child is doing, as well as deceiving the parent into thinking their child has a good sense of right and wrong. Make sure that you perceive what’s going on when your child diverts your attention to someone else’s wrong doings. Evil must be perceived before it can be put away!
SHARING
