The fifth commandment

Exodus 21.17

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.”

Mark 7.9-13

Leviticus 20.9

“For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.”

Deuteronomy 21.18-21

“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 a 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.”

Exodus 21.15

“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.”

We recall that, in ancient Israel, the people did not yet possess the Spirit of God; deep-seated and lasting heart-change was therefore not as readily possible as in this age of grace (cf. Deut. 5.29; 30.1-10; Ezek. 36.26, 27). While it would have been every parent’s greatest horror to see his child sentenced to death, this rule should probably best be understood as intending to reinforce the previous mandate to fear parents.

No parent could carry punishment of a child all the way to the point of death without the concurrence, first, of the judges of the city, and then of all the men in the community. Types of behavior for which this drastic discipline could be imposed are here clearly spelled out: cursing or striking one’s parents, rebelling against their will, stubbornly refusing to obey, becoming a glutton or a drunkard. Any disobedience or disrespect short of these must be addressed by parents. Children and youth thus had spelled out for them the outside parameters of behavior expected of them by the members of their community. In our day the equivalent of the death sentence would be separation from the believing community for a season (cf. 1 Cor. 5). Parents might accomplish such a sentence by “grounding” children from their favored activities, and church leaders might do so by prohibiting recalcitrant youth from participating in the activities of their peers within the believing community.

This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.