Deuteronomy 21:21

What an appalling scene! The LORD Himself, who "is Love" as He "is Light," commands parents to lay hold of their own child and bring him before the elders and the congregation, to be stoned! It was a private affair — a family matter. What did the elders and the congregation have to do with it? God had something to say about it, and He had to see to it! In His sight, next to the abomination of an idol, there is nothing more horrible and unbearable than a rebellious child. His existence was a stain on the camp where God lived. The congregation had to purge itself of his presence. Otherwise his continued presence would have defiled the whole congregation of Israel, along with the family he belonged to.

This law deals with the sin of disobedience and rebellion alongside drunkenness. That is not because drunkenness was the capital sin (compare v. 18). It is because the crime of such stubbornness and disobedience to parents is so unnatural and cowardly that it can only be put down to the maddening influence of drink. At the same time it shows that God will not accept drunkenness as an excuse for such a crime. Human judges should not accept it either, and in general they do not.

But what about a stubborn and rebellious son in a Christian family? Is grace to prevail, and is he to stay in the house, because the law of Moses no longer applies? Is he to stay until he has infected all the children with his wickedness? If the word of love and grace, and the rod of correction, have both failed, the family ought to purge itself without further delay of the defiling presence of the rebellious child. God's blessing cannot rest on a household where He is dishonoured by tolerating such an abomination in His sight. Then their prayers for the wanderer will go up to the throne of grace, and in God's own time bring the cry of repentance: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you."

There is the case of the stubborn and rebellious son. Who does this apply to? To the people of Israel in their obstinate self-will and irreverence toward the LORD their God… The end of this age will not see united hearts among the Jews, but a people split and broken. The divisions among them will be as wide as possible. Some have hearts truly touched by grace, as we have seen, and they are destined for the place of the firstborn on the earth. Most, on the other hand, will fight to the last against God, and reject His testimony to their own ruin. This is the stubborn son.

Striking contrast! In Deuteronomy we see the hand of God, in righteous government, carrying out judgement on the rebellious. In Luke 15 we see the heart of God pouring itself out, in soul-subduing tenderness, on the poor repentant one. He gives him the sweet assurance that it is His own deep joy to get His lost one back. The persistent rebel meets the stone of judgement; the returning penitent meets the kiss of love.

How can He pardon the sinner steeped to the lips in sin, and yet not "clear the guilty"?… In the cross of Calvary… Was this not a vindication of the law? Did the words "So you shall purge the evil" ever fall on the ear with such solemn force as at Golgotha, when the blessed Son of God cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Oh! never, never.