Exposition of Deuteronomy 21:18-21

For the context of this post, see first paragraph of previous post. On the surface, this is a very problematic passage. Did God really mean for his people to kill their own sons? How does this apply to us today under the New Covenant?

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, ¹⁹then 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, ²⁰and 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.' ²¹Then 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.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 explicates the negative human consequences of the Fifth commandment (Deut. 5:16). As Craigie notes, those guilty of not honoring their fathers and mothers are under the wrath of God.[1] This passage pertains to a son exhibiting apathetic and unrepentant dishonor towards his parents. It is contained within a section of Deuteronomy in which the original given law is being expounded upon for the sake of clarity and application.

In the broader context of the Torah, this passage is vital to understanding the kind of covenant people that Yahweh wants to possess the Promised Land, the kind of community with which he wants to have relationship. He will not tolerate unrepentant disobedience even from those who are born into the people Yahweh declares to be his own through his redemptive work (Deut. 7:6-8). To disobey paternal authority had implications beyond the family. As McConville observes, “the family unit is an essential part of the larger political and religious fabric. Respect for parents was therefore a basic element in a right attitude to the whole society and indeed to God.”[2]

God has revealed himself as a loving Father, one who knows what it is to love and discipline his children. Hosea 11:1, 8-9 is a promise Yahweh makes to Israel, his children, that because of his love for his people he will not destroy it. It is difficult to imagine that any parent could hand over his son, though rebellious, to be executed, even for the good of the community. As McConville notes, “there is no evidence of such measures actually having been taken in the OT.”[3] However, the fulfillment of this passage and Hosea 11 is the death of the obedient son, Jesus, as a representative of a disobedient people. God the Father did the unimaginable, giving up his own son, who was “numbered with the transgressors” (counted rebellious) that the rebellious son who deserved death (God’s chosen) might be spared and renewed into right relationship with the Father.[4]

Because Jesus died for these sins, Christians should not punish them by death in state or communal practice. Also, this is incompatible with Jesus’ ethics. Christ’s fulfillment of this passage doesn’t diminish that God takes this sin very seriously. On the contrary, it shows that it was worth dying for. Therefore, Christians today should take the principle of respect for one’s parents, grandparents and elders in general very seriously.

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[1] P.C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) 284.

[2] J.G. McConville, “Deuteronomy,” in Apollos Old Testament Commentary, eds. D.W. Baker and G.J. Wenham (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2002) 331.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Jn. 3:16; Is. 53:12