Deuteronomy 21:15-21 Bible Study | Episode 925

April 25, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 21:15-21 Bible Study | Episode #925

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 21, and we are dealing with, I guess, sons. That's the topic. There's actually two kind of sections here, but they both deal with sons. They deal with inheritance rights with sons, and they deal with a rebellious son. And so we need to kind of see these pictures and kind of take them in and then just understand that God got into the intricacies of the familial relationship, the family. God was heavy, heavy, heavy into setting up things that made the family work properly. Why? Because the family is the central unit that represents God. Meaning, you know this. The central unit that people have the most intimate relationships with. It is the. It has all the relationships that. That most directly correlate with God's relationship with us. So it is one of those. It's an important. It's a very important institution that God gave us. The three institutions are the family, the church, and government. And so all of them are important. All of them have their importance in both being a picture of God and being a. A stabilizing and important force in keeping society together, keeping humanity together. Otherwise humanity would just degrade into a morass of death and destruction. It would just be. It'd just be terrible. And that's what God did for us when he created for us the institutions of marriage or the family, government, and the church. So when we're dealing with this, it is God. God gets into some details. It says if a man has two wives. Now, God's not saying that he. That's. That's his optimal way of doing family. In fact, it's quite clearly not his optimal way of doing family. God understands that if you have multiple wives, oftentimes, that is. That is somewhat of a sign of some issues in your life, and it oftentimes is a sign of trouble in that Family unit, meaning the family. And so it says, if a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved. And there the problem is, right? Can a man serve two masters? And he's talking about money and God. But the truth is, can a man really, really love both wives? And the likelihood is he probably could love both of them in some regard, but he's never going to love both of them equally. There's not going to be any equality to it. And eventually, as that goes on and the dynamic of that relationship works itself out, he'll begin to love the one he loved the most, and the other will drift toward being unloved. And that's the problem. That is a major problem. But God says, it doesn't matter. You, you put yourself in that position. I'm going to tell you how to treat, how this is going to be dealt with, especially in regard to their children. And by the way, that's going to be really important to the children, to the mothers, that's going to be really important. Both your wives is. Is not only their children, but how you treat their children. And that's going to take a preeminent role. By the way, that's one of the needs of a woman in marriage, is that her husband be a father. Fig our children, it's not the primary need by any means, but it is a need. And a lot of needs in life that we get from our spouse are not primary or important until we don't get them and then they become preeminent. What I mean by that? Well, you know, you know, trust is not an issue until you can't trust father figures, not an issue until your husband doesn't care anything about your children, then it's a huge issue. Being wealthy is not necessary, a prerequisite for being a husband. But not working can become a major problem. Unwilling to work can become a major issue. And so if, if a woman is really honed in on one of those issues, what she's telling you is, is her husband's not meeting her needs in those areas. Well, taking care of your children is one of those major needs. And if a husband is not a father to his children, meaning he is not actively involved in the rearing of them. And you go, I thought that was the mother's role. No, it's not. Not in Scripture. In Scripture, by the way, nowhere in Scripture does God instruct women to raise their children. Now, I think that's because God's innately put in them a desire for that to happen, and so he doesn't have to instruct them in that which is innate to them. But it's not innate to men. Men do not naturally tend toward rearing their children. It has to be an effort. Men have to decide to do that. And God quite clearly in Scripture instructs men to do that. Why? Because it's not innate to them. And so he says, if you've got two children having borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and the firstborn son of her who is unloved, then it shall be on the day that he bequeaths his possessions now to his sons that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference of the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. What he's saying is you can't change up who gets firstborn preference just because you love one of his mama more than you love the other one. Now, we've talked about the inner dynamics of the relationship. Let me do talk about how the inheritance was worked in the Jewish culture. The way it worked is, let's say you had 10 children. All children got an inheritance. The sons got an inheritance. Let's say you had 10 sons. 10 sons, all 10 sons get an inheritance. Okay? But it's divided 11 ways. What I mean by that? Well, the oldest son got an extra portion. So if there were 10 sons, he would get two 11 and all the other sons would get one 11th. If there were four sons, he would get, he would get two fifths and all the other sons would get 1 5th and so on and so forth. You just add another number in the denominator and you give the firstborn two rather than one. And that's how it worked. That's how the inheritance process worked. And God says, listen, if you've got a firstborn son and he's from the wife that you don't love as much or is unloved, which is a terrible phrase to use. Why would you be married to someone and, and choose not to love them just because you decided to marry someone else? That is, I mean, it's really horrific at its very core of a relationship. And that's why God does not condone it. He definitely regulates it, meaning he gives regulations to it. But he does not condone it. Cause it doesn't work. He says, you shall acknowledge the oldest son, whether he's from the loved wife or the unloved wife. You shall acknowledge him as the firstborn. He's going to get the double portion. That's just the way it goes. That's the way it goes. He gets the double portion. Now that you go, what is the spiritual emphasis on this? Well, Jesus is a double portion for sure. And he is the firstborn among many brothers. And so we get a portion. We're co heirs with Christ. We get an inheritance from our heavenly Father, but it's not Jesus's inheritance. In fact, we are the Father's inheritance. We are also the Son's inheritance. So we're his treasure. And so when you're kind of going through Scripture and you're dealing with that, that's how that kind of works on a spiritual point of view. Verse 18. If a man has a stubborn or rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, meaning you got a rebellious son. Now, first of all, from a spiritual perspective, this is a son, okay? So that means if you're going to tie it to the spiritual. If he's a son, that means he's part of the family. That means he's a part of the inheritance. That means he's in the family. You can't. He's not out of the family. He's still in the family even though he's going to be punished severely. Okay? You've got a son who's rebellious. He's not willing to follow. He's not willing to obey his Father. Now remember, we're instructed to obey in the New Testament, but that obedience is based on faith. It's an obedience born of faith. It's not obedience born of obed obedience. We're obedient because we trust God. And that makes our faith powerful because we're being obedient. And it makes our obedience powerful because we're being faithful. And so faith mixed with obedience always, always, always is not only pleasing to God, but powerful to God. All right? So understanding that, that's really, really, really important. So this son is. Is not willing to hear the voice of it. And it clearly says, obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, he's unwilling to obey the revelation of his parents what they've said to him to reveal truth to him, then his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of the city, to the gates of his. Of. Of his city. Meaning this child is wholly, completely rebellious. Now, he may be not, not just a child, he may be a. An adult child. Same thing. Same thing here, he says. And they shall say to the Elders of the city, the Son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard, which tends to indicate he's at least older than a child. He's likely at least in his teenage years, if not fully a 20, 30 or 40 year old adult. He's stubborn and he's rebellious. He's not doing what he's doing. See, this is a long term problem, okay? And by the way, we have a lot of Christians that have a long term problem and not listening to God, it is a problem. They've heard God, they've sat in church for years and years and years and they just refuse to obey God and they refuse to do what God has told them to do in their lives. We have that going on. I want to tell you that this is a direct correlation to how we live our lives, okay? This is a direct correlation to New Testament, he says, and they shall say to the elder city, the Son of ours 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 put away the evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. All right. What he's saying is that there is a cost to disobedience to the revelation of God. There is a cost to the disobedience of the revelation of God. And eventually, that is mortality. Eventually, that is God will take you. God will make you, or he will take you. He will make you into one of his. He will grow you. But, but what is required of that in the salvific process and the, in the sanctification process is that you hear his voice, you believe him and you act upon it. That's what we call faith. That's the process of faith. If you do not hear him, believe him and act upon it, then you are acting in clear disobedience toward Him. And if you are as a believer for long enough, meaning you are unwilling to glorify God because that's what you were made for. You were made to glorify God. You're unwilling to glorify God with your life because you're unwilling to walk in faith with God, then God's taking of you is a. Well, it's an act of mercy. Why leave you here dishonoring your Lord and leave you here not doing what you're supposed to be doing by his clear revelation for your life when you could be in heaven honoring God, glorifying him in your glorified body. No reason to leave you here. And so remember God's long suffering. He's patient, he's kind, he's generous, he gives people a lot of time. But if you're going to remain, you know, here, he's a glutton and a drunkard. If you're going to remain disobedient to, to your parents, if you're going to remain disobedient to your Heavenly Father for long enough, eventually there's no use in leaving you here. You're of no value to the kingdom and you're dishonoring and not glorifying God. And so there is a consequence for that. Well, that's a harsh teaching, isn't it? It really is, but it is a powerful teaching. And so what I would say to you is be obedient. Be obedient not because God has said to be obedient. Be obedient not because, not because you want to be obedience obedient for obedience sake. Be obedience because you trust God. Meaning be obedient by faith. And when you be, when you're obedient because you trust God, you believe God, you trust God, there's powerful things that happens. You, number one, please your Heavenly Father. But second of all, you open yourself up to well, to be set free to have the full healing of God for your life and to be powerful before him. And so that's what I would say to you this morning. Be obedient by faith because when you are well, you're going to get your inheritance and it doesn't matter how that works out. In the end it will be have honored your Heavenly Father and you will be a well, you'll be a faithful servant.

As you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.