Welcome to another edition of the Morning Devotional. My name is Pastor William Hill, the pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church located in Evansville, Indiana. Today is Monday, January 15th, 2024, and this is edition number 21 of season nine. As we continue looking at the book of Deuteronomy, today we're going to consider chapter 21. Let's pray first. Our Father in Heaven, as we come to Your Word, we come again asking that You, by Your Spirit, would teach us and guide us and direct us in all things. We pray, Father, that You would be merciful to us and forgive us for our many sins and transgressions and ways in which we violate Your Word. We pray that as Your redeemed people, You would help us, that we would have a zeal and a love and a desire to do what You have commanded. May You grant us this grace, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, Deuteronomy 21 has a number of very interesting issues and subjects, and it's quite involved, in fact, in many different ways. But I want to deal with just two sections here in this 21st chapter. Again, just reminding you that Moses is dealing with matters pertaining to the Decalogue, to the moral law, and he's going to take up matters pertaining to the Fifth Commandment. He does deal with matters pertaining to the Sixth Commandment, in the early sections of the chapter, but he specifically addresses the fifth commandment when we come to verse 18. Let me just read verse 18, reading through the end of the chapter, Deuteronomy 21, starting in verse 18. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, And though they discipline him, will not listen to them. Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives. And they shall say to the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel shall hear and fear. Verse 22, and if a man has committed a crime, punish one by death, and as he has put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day. For a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance. Now there's two matters here that I just want to bring to your attention to think through. The first one, of course, is related to the fifth commandment. Honor your father and your mother that the days may be long upon the land in which the Lord your God is giving you. And we have here a situation in which son, and of course a daughter as well, but a son is rebellious. He's stubborn, he's stiff-necked, he doesn't listen to the directives of his parents, the lawful directives, the God-honoring directives of his parents. And though they seek to discipline him, they seek to do the right things, they seek to raise their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord according to the law of God. They discipline him, yet he still does not listen. Then they are to get help. They are to get help from the elders of the city. They are to go to the gate of that place and where they live. And oftentimes the gate of the city is a place where judicial actions or transactions would take place. And so this is a common place in which these things occur. and they shall report the matters to the elders of the city." And then there's an executed, then therefore, a judgment upon the rebellious child. Now, you might think, wow, this is pretty harsh. A rebellious child who will not listen to his parents, won't heed the discipline of his parents, he should be stoned. And that's precisely the directives that God gives to the people of Israel of old. In the New Testament, of course, I think, and I've said this before throughout this study of Deuteronomy, I think the death penalty in matters of these case laws that we have here in Deuteronomy have been replaced by excommunication. That death penalty of sorts that is given to the church, not to the civil, in other words, we don't, as elders in the church, we don't have the power of the sword, we can't execute the death penalty, but we can excommunicate wayward, professing Christians. And even covenant children who have yet to make a profession of faith, we can still enact pastoral discipline against them for not listening to their children. But what we need to note here is that it appears, at least on the face of the text, that we're dealing with somebody who is repetitively stubborn, repetitively rebellious. This is not a one-time event. in which the child is defiant against the directives of dad. He says, go clean your room. And the son says, no, I don't want to. And then they drag him to the gate of the city and the elders stone him. I don't think that's the issue here. We're talking about a lifestyle that is antithetical to a covenant child living within the confines of the covenant rules and regulations and the moral law. of God. And so this should bring a certain sense of fear, and I'm sure it did, to the children of those days. With that said, there's also a factor here, just by way of application, I think we need to consider, and that is the requirements are very exacting. They're very strong. And this should encourage parents to be very diligent in disciplining and guiding and leading their children in the things of the Lord. Now, we do that today, and there's many different ways in which we should be doing that. Of course, we should discipline either with the rod, as it were, or corporal punishment, or in some cases, restrictions and privileges removed. But discipline is not always a negative thing. Discipline can be positive. We should ensure that we bring our children to worship every Lord's Day. And both services, if you have them, we need to teach our children the importance of the church. They are Christians. They are covenant child. They are baptized into the church and they need to understand the importance of the church in their lives. When we keep them away from the corporate prayer meeting, we keep them away from corporate worship, we are instructing, we are teaching our children that they don't really need the Lord. that church is an afterthought, it's a tack-on to life and existence, and that's not the way it ought to be for any professing Christian parents who are charged with raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So this mandate given here in these verses speaks as much to the parents as it does to the child. No parent wants their children stoned. No parent wants to see their child excommunicated from the church or under any kind of pastoral discipline. And so it is incumbent upon the parents to be faithful and consistent in their raising their children in the things of the Lord. Well, so much for that section, the fifth commandment. We note also the last section that I read, starting with verse 22, a man hanged on a tree is cursed. Now this, of course, has direct implications into the very crucifixion itself. And the Apostle Paul picks up on that very theme in that ancient hymn in Philippians chapter 2. And verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death. on a cross. It was considered shameful, it was considered cursed to die on a tree, on a cross as it were, and we often use the tree and the cross as synonymous terms for the crucifixion of Christ. So it should not remain all night there, as the text tells us, and as one commentator puts it, he says, He says in reference to this particular statement, this law restricts the exposure of a dead criminal hanging on a tree, hence the concern to bury Jesus immediately after his death. We see that in Galatians chapter 3. And in verse number 13, well, let me just start in verse 12, "...but the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by faith. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who's hanged on a tree." So Paul is appealing in the Philippians text as well as more specifically in the Galatians text. He's looking back on this Deuteronomy passage and he's applying that to the very crucifixion itself. And so when you think about the death of the Savior. You're not talking about an average death. We're not talking about some run-of-the-mill execution. We're talking about a cursed, awful, terrible thing, but something that He did that He might redeem you and me from the curse of the law. Well, I trust these times are helpful. If you have any comments, you can leave me a note. The way to reach me is there before you on the screen. And so until the Tuesday edition, when we look at chapter 21, or I'm sorry, chapter 22 of the book of Deuteronomy, may the Lord help you today. May you strive to do all that He has commanded. God bless.