Spank the Baby! – Part 2
NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.
When He killed them, then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer [Psalm 78:34-35].
The USA today is a dying culture. What was once a society permeated with the Bible’s influence is now an outright antichrist society. Abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce—all are denounced by the Word of God, specifically and undeniably denounced. Yet they are not only universally entrenched in our land from Atlantic to Pacific, but they are practices considered taboo for discussion, much less for serious criticism.
Egads! Anyone daring to preach the Bible on these issues must be promoters of hate crimes! That is where we have come today as a society. This is utterly anti-Bible and antichrist. The teenage rebels of yesteryear have become the political leaders of today, and they’ve incorporated their teenage rebellion into the warp and woof of our society, you see.
The specifics for trying to meaningfully relate to teenage rebels, during the years they are still teenagers or nearly so, varies with the individual. What works, at least somewhat, with one person flops with the next.
Experience and experimentation are needed by parents. Part of that experience is to learn the rote responses their own teenage rebel spouts, all the while he is insisting on his uniqueness as a person, mind you. As parents we should recognize this truth.
Indeed, we would be benefited immeasurably to recognize that our loving heavenly Father goes through the same things with His kids. Our Bible verses for today portray an extreme case of teenage rebellion by the Lord’s kids. The Lord’s response to those rebels was itself extreme, but it came only after prolonged refusal on the part of the rebels to recognize spiritual reality and adapt accordingly.
When a parent inflicts penalties for disobeying the family rules, it is known as chastisement. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Those are a couple of examples from Proverbs which come to mind.
The fact that the Lord inflicted penalties on the Israelites was proof positive that He was their Father and they His children. The fact that the penalties were so severe demonstrated that they were inveterate rebels who had spurned His chastisement on numerous prior occasions.
When my son didn’t obey the family rules, I warned him about it. If he continued to disobey, I spanked him. Should he have persisted in disobedience after that—which he never did—I would have spanked him harder. The more the rebellion, the worse the chastisement.
But he was still my son regardless. I would never have executed him! I wouldn’t even have disowned him. I’d do whatever I could to bring him to repentance and restore his fellowship with me and the family.
Let’s pause and reflect on this overnight. Allow the Holy Spirit to pour His truth over our hearts and minds, as we sit with Jesus a while.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86
