Ex 21:17, And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 
    	In this chapter, detailing with how the ancients were to deal with some of their social realities is this very stern and telling commandment concerning the honor that needs to be given to parents. The Lord has a very deep place in His heart regarding the familial relationship as described in the fact that to even curse one’s parentage was a death sentence.
	This harkens back to Ex 20:12, where God places the honoring of father and mother within the very basic core of the Ten Commandments. Ex 20:12, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 
	Not only are parents to be honored, but in this chapter, we are told that if the children curse them, the children are to be put to death. This is very strict and detailed punishment for the sake of preserving the familial integrity that God put into place through the creation and marriage of Adam and Eve. From the very beginning of man and woman, the offspring were to honor the parents as those specifically chosen to be the source by which human life comes forth onto the earth. 
	There is such a connectedness in the integrity of a husband and wife as mirroring the creative process by which life comes into this world. They are not gods unto themselves, neither do they have the Omnipotence nor the Omniscience of God, but in their God-given and ordained role as husband and wife, in direct obedience to His edict, as detailed in Genesis 1:27+28, they are to receive honor from their offspring. Gen 1:27+28, And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 
	This was further reinforced to Noah and his sons. God commanded them to go forth and fill the whole earth with their offspring twice within the same chapter beginning with Gen 9:1. Gen 9:1, And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And again in verses 6+7, as God decreed that human life is something to be regarded as precious because it is created in the image of God. Gen 9, verses 6+7, "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. "And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it." 
	With the inherent valuation of human life, God tells Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply abundantly to fill the whole earth with the offspring of those who are created in the image of God. That is the course of obedience of husbands and wives unto God. For that faithful service, the children are to give their parents honor and not to curse them as if they were doing something wrong or slovenly or in opposition to the natural outcome of being joined together as husband and wife.
	There are two aspects that we should realize in this warning to the children. It would behoove us to take this to heart, especially in this day when we do not kill children for cursing their parents. 
	The first reality is that God addresses the parents as father and mother. They are considered together, as equals in the heart of God. This is a vital truth as to the character and the being of the parental couple. One is not elevated above the other, but throughout the scripture, as we will see, they are together on the same level and considered as co-equals. While this might not have been so startling in the days that God spoke forth this command, it goes against the very fabric of today’s social norms. 
In the societal pressures of this modern age, fathers and mothers are no longer seen as equals, but are being considered as separate entities no longer joined together in the form of one, complete parentage for the young ones. 
Today, single parent homes are on the rise. The media influences are such that it is ok to not portray the need for a father in the home or a mother. Modern ideology stipulates that one parent is sufficient to do all that is necessary. Often, the other parent is portrayed, at best, as superfluous, and at worst either a buffoon or a threat to the safety of the rest of the family members. Such is the antithesis of this world age to the family unit of God’s design. Parenting, with all its joys and rewards and responsibilities in the eyes of God, is reduced to merely being the means by which children are propagated and then screwed up for the rest of their lives.
Rather than honoring parents for the selfless giving and teaching and fulfilling of their duties before God, they are relegated to the position of blame. They are consistently dealt with as necessary evils through whom all the ills of society are being foisted upon the younger generations. Parent are now the scapegoats for why everything is screwed up, and their authority and their viewpoints and their accountability is being more and more absorbed by the state in order that the children will be raised in proper accordance to that which best fits society’s needs and moral structure. 
This is so against what God ordained as detailed in Lev 19:3. Lev 19:3, 'Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. To promote the fact that parents are to be reverenced and obeyed and never cursed by the children is actually offensive in today’s society. It means that the world needs to recognize the authority and the place and the design that God established and promoted and honored with such force and determination. It means that the children must take upon themselves the onus for how they live their lives in such a way as will be honoring both to God and to parents, which reduces the avenues of selfish ambition and goals and lusts. Just as this age no longer reveres God, as indicated in the manner in which all His precepts are defiled, so does this present culture devalue and disparage the roles of being godly parents. 
The second reality that our morning’s passage details is that God so fully invested Himself into the roles of parents on the basis of being Our Heavenly Father. Because this is true, when we curse our parents, we are actually cursing God for giving us those parents. That is the core reason as to why the death penalty was placed upon those children who cursed their parents. They were essentially cursing God, Himself, which resulted in their loss of life. No one can curse His Maker and live. This was voiced by Job’s wife as he was in such dire straits in Job 2:9. It was her ultimatum to him in his misery. It was his way out of the physical suffering which he refused to take. Job 2:9, Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" 
	On this basis, it is not at all surprising that the penalty was so severe. Again, it was reinforced in Lev 20:7-9. Lev 20:7-9, 'You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 'And you shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 'If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him. 
Note how it was fully linked with the command to be holy and consecrated unto God and to keep His statutes. This was invested with the very real connection of honoring God in honoring one’s parents. 
The breaking apart of that relationship by the children was not to be tolerated. It had to be severely dealt with because it called into question the very Sovereignty and Holiness and Omniscience of God in His bringing the family into being. Humanity obviously was imperfect and the parents might not have been completely understanding or even supportive or encouraging, but that did not release the child from the responsibility to honor his or her father and mother in obedience unto the Lord. 
	As well, because this was  a spiritual transgression, the parents were charged with the need to so bring to the attention of the elders of the community a stubborn and rebellious son for the sake of the purification of the entire population. After the parents had done everything possible to correct such an attitude, in full obligation of parental service unto the Lord, it was incumbent, by the direct command of God, to deal extremely with that child. 
Such a cancerous attitude, if left to run amuck, would cause others to become insolent and dishonoring to all the precepts of God and even unto God, Himself. Therefore it was absolutely defined, in Deut 21:18-21, what the leadership of the community would have to do when dealing with such rebellion and insolence. Deut 21:18-21, "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his home town. And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.' "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear of it and fear.  
  	So attuned to the consideration and the character and the reality of God were the people, that they placed the obligation of the children to honor their parents within the same context of spiritual obligation. There was an intense stigma that was put upon those rebellious and impudent and disrespectful children to the point of becoming worst than social outcasts. They were cursed to die and that death was by the most painful and public manner of the day. They were taken outside the camp or the town or the city and pummeled to death with rocks and shards and objects that would crush the body to the point of lifelessness. 
	In Deut 27:14-16, once more, we are shown how this whole matter of dishonoring parents was fully invested with the very spiritual life of the people. Deut 27:14-16, The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 'Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say,' Amen.' 'Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.' And all the people shall say,' Amen.' 
	Again understand how much this was wickedness in the eyes of God to the point of being included with the curses of idolatry. This is something which has been lost within the thinking of our enlightened societal norms. Obviously, we do not advocate killing our children for their rebelliousness. If that were the case, with the way in which our children are taught that it is OK to practice rebellion against the standards of their parents, we would have no children to go forth and fill the whole earth. 
Our release from the death penalties of the Law through the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ provides us with the means by which we practice grace and mercy. We direct our efforts to guide and to establish those elements in the recognition, within our families, that we are to honor God and to honor each other because we are all created in the image of God. 
	But we must not lose sight of how important it is to continue to obey the commandments of God including that we are to honor our fathers and mothers. As we so teach our children this very core truth, we will keep them from what takes place, even today within the lives of those who disregard this edict from God. When we read, throughout the Old and the New Testaments of what happens to those who do not honor their parents, we should take it as an urgent warning within us on the same basis that this is a relationship that is to mirror our respect and our valuation of God as Our Heavenly Father. 
	In Prov 20:20, we read the following, Prov 20:20, He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness. This correlates to the fact that such a one has no basis or means by which to deal with the trials and the tribulations of life. When the parents are rejected, the core relationship of trust in God is rejected and that child will flounder and struggle in despair and desperation. We are seeing this happen within our society as there are those young ones who are losing every sense of hope and purpose and responsibility and maturity. Their minds are clouded over with depression and frustration and anxiety. They refuse to call out to God because they basically curse Him for the parents whom they despise and abhor. 
	They will suffer the figurative and spiritual consequences as delineated in Prov 30:17. Prov 30:17, The eye that mocks a father, And scorns a mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it. They will suffer the natural course of trying to live their lives in the desert region of parched and arid despair. Their rejection of the providence of the Lord, evidenced in their callous disregard and disrespect of their parentage, will manifest itself throughout the course of their miserable existence. This will be the case until they turn again to the Lord and call out to Him and ask Him to heal and to forgive and to reestablish Himself as their Heavenly Father. When that takes place, there can and should be a healing and a coming together in the goodness of the Lord for His glory to reign in their lives and in the lives of their parents. 
	I know this has been a less than positive subject. But it is something that we need to take to heart in the urgent seriousness of how vitally important it is to instruct and to model, within our family units, what it means to honor father and mother and never to deride them in any manner. As well, Lord willing, we will consider this in further uplifting detail, next time, as we see that when we do honor our father and mother, God has given us His promised blessing. So be it!
	And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 48:1-3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King. God, in her palaces, Has made Himself known as a stronghold. Amen.