Slanted, biased over-emphasis on the theory of evolution; distrust of any knowledge not verified by the empirical sciences (only those matters that can be observed and/or experienced are really real); the deification of self – these well-established trends and universally accepted tendencies have all but obliterated the most fundamental and essential of all relationships – that of creature and Creator.

Some years ago the noted English poet, Oscar Wilde, wrote: “He who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die.” Wilde knew whereof he spoke because he himself suffered multiple agonies owing to the licentious lifestyle he fashioned for himself. There is, indeed, only one life. It comprises the span of years allotted to us by God. He alone is the Author of life. Distorted ideas, inferior teachings and bad example often give people the impression that their personal life is something over which they themselves have complete dominion. Expressing this self-centered  view  another  poet  has  written:  “I am  the Master  of my Fate,  I am the Captain of my soul.”

It is sadly ironic that as the arrogance of modern life mocks the very existence of God, mankind becomes more and more obsessed with thoughts, ideas, analyses, examinations, discussions and the evaluation of relationships, especially personal affiliations. It seems as though the more the foundations of society crumble under the onslaught of unabashed self-esteem, rewarded ruthlessness and isolating selfishness, the more people want to feverishly explain how they really have it all together. Talk shows justify their very existence by relying on blitherers and blatherers trying to explain and vindicate their handling of family members, lovers, friends, bosses or neighbors.

Public broadcasting not only resurrects the classic tales about basic human relationships; it also features commentators on the human condition and psychological counselors eager to explain away marriage problems, give us insights on the rebelliousness of youth, and show us all the ingredients that make up a successful and blissful life. Even as all these pundits speak and we view them on our television screens, we know that most of them are testifying to defeat while all their solutions are shallow and empty. The blab is only temporary therapy; the counselors are mostly partial recoverers seeking to acquire a niche for themselves in the hallowed halls of the healing arts. Primetime TV is replete with sitcoms that flail away at any remnants of decency and demonstrate to young and old alike that pushing things as far as they can go, getting away with as much as possible – this is the real challenge of life. All the while the writers and producers could care less about the emotional, moral or spiritual impact their material might have on the viewer or his family.

You don’t have to go to the modern media to learn of the violence of murder and mayhem nor the viciousness of jilted, scorned women and macho men given free rein. One worst case scenario for broken and failed relationships is found in an early section of the Old Testament. The Bible, in Deuteronomy 21, presents a hypothetical situation. It is a very swift moving saga including a sudden climax and a very tragic end. God’s directions for dealing with a stubborn and rebellious son shockingly goes like this:

“If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
   Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto 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.
   And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” Deuteronomy 21:18-21 

Most moderns would think that this manner of dealing with a son who has caused his family to become dysfunctional is not only primitive and anachronistic, but totally barbaric. How could a loving, forgiving God (see Exodus 34:6 ff.) ever think of mandating such a brutal course of action? All agree rebellion is bad; gluttony and drunkenness are not to be condoned, but what kind of solution is it to stone to death the offender? I must confess that when I first read this shocking statute I was not only awed by the directness and abruptness of its capital punishment, I was frankly perplexed by its apparently ruthless disproportion. How could such an irrevocable penalty fit what seemed to be an obviously remediable crime? As I pondered and prayed about this drastic solution, I soon began to understand more clearly not only the purpose of this fatal injunction but I also gained a deeper and richer comprehension of the very nature of the Law.

Many people consider the Law to be little more than a list of do’s and don’ts – the Ten Commandments catalogue and broadly summarize the most basic statutes that God has ordained. The ancient scribes minutely examined every aspect of the Law of Moses and came up with no less than 613 separate precepts that God insists must be upheld. But the Scriptures, presented and interpreted by the Holy Spirit, show us that the Law (or, the teaching of God) is something more than the sum total of its multitudinous rules and regulations.

The Law is a true teacher (Galatians 3:24 refers to it as a schoolmaster or pedagogue) from which we can learn fundamental ideas about life. Much more than a legal manual, a mere checklist or handbook, the Law – in fact, all Scripture – is profitable for teaching what is true; for convicting us of what is false; for the correction of what is wrong; and for instructing us in what is right (see II Timothy 3:16).

God’s teaching is much deeper, broader and inestimably more valuable than all the lists, charts, maps, outlines, texts and other useful informational resources that we can obtain from the finest schools. The Law, the Scriptures are filled with right attitudes, proper perspectives, honorable and worthy outlooks, challenging but obtainable goals and the promise of God’s personal help and grace in attaining what is truly the very best in the short time that is allotted to us on this earth.

As for the case of the rebellious son, I got a strong indication of what that was all about from I Samuel 15:23.  Israel’s last  judge and  prophetic  leader,  Samuel,  is  rebuking  the nation’s first king, Saul:

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity  and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”

A deeply ingrained spirit of rebellion…

is a most serious matter, indeed. Bad enough that rebellion sets up the perpetrator for ultimate destruction; it, more than any other attitude, is a pervasive moral cancer that threatens the very existence of the body politic. Peremptory execution might not seem as primitive and brutal as it first appears when we realize the depth and extent of destruction caused by a stubborn rebellious spirit. All of us must spend our lives here on earth submitted to some sort of authority. If we basically refuse to obey; if, somehow, we convince ourselves that we have an inalienable right to do whatever we desire and to say whatever we want, we have effectively condemned ourselves to social death whether or not we are ever charged, imprisoned or executed for it. A rebellious person may even restrain his self-intoxicated madness as occasion or expediency dictates.

If one is so disproportionately self-absorbed and doggedly self-determined in spite of continued warnings, corrections, reprimands and penalties, he is an ongoing menace to himself, to his family, his friends and to society at large. A major societal problem is that, as clearly prophesied about the end of the age, rebellious attitudes, Balaam-like stubbornness [You can read about The Error Of Balaam] has become so epidemic that the protesters are the ones who seem to be out of sync rather than the rebels! Though manifested sometimes in subtle ways, the fool (which is the scriptural name for a rebel; the Greeks referred to a similar-spirited citizen as an idiot), the rebel at heart really hates his brother and is spiritually branded as a murderer (I John 3:15)! This third chapter of John’s first epistle deals much with inward purity, its outward manifestations and exposes, as well, the works of the devil which are founded on a spirit of rebelliousness. True Christians are pilgrims and strangers on this earth but unrepentant rebels are doomed to wander the world as vagabonds and outcasts suffering the curse of Cain and marked by their own inability to truly belong to anyone but themselves! Their selfish, dominating personalities may gain them some measure of superficial success. They may even appear to have relationships with others but upon close examination they are too self-absorbed to forge solid bonds of genuine love or lasting friendship. A third poet has captured the quintessence of the rebellious if not the correct theology:

“Far from your own kind, outcast and reprobate,
Go prowl like wolves in desert worlds apart.
Disordered souls, fashion your own dark fate;
And flee the god you carry in your hearts.”

Yet God’s judgment of truth is tempered by mercy as only the love of God can do so perfectly. The very same loving, forgiving God who gave us the mandate of Deuteronomy 21:18-21 also gave us Luke 15:11-32, the thrilling, most heartening parable of the prodigal son. Here is the story of flaming, rebellious youth flaunting all the accepted, the tried and true ways of doing things and insisting on his own selfish, thoughtless, stubborn, rebellious plans. His shallow relationships ran out when his substantial legacy was gone. Abandoned by his partying friends he found himself all alone. Doomed to endless drudgery he faced possible death through starvation. But, praise God, all these disappointments, sufferings and stinging tragedies finally brought him to the end of himself. When, as the Scriptures say, “…he came to himself” and deeply, heartily repented, he then began to think clearly, to judge soundly, to acknowledge his sinfulness, only then could he place the blame for injustices where it ever and truly belonged.

The cartoon character, Pogo, was essentially correct when he exclaimed: “We have met the enemy – and it is US!” The peace that comes from lowering our expectations of others and the determination to do our part in reconciliation filled the prodigals sadder but wiser soul – and he headed home. At the bend in the road, instead of seeing a gallows, a guillotine or the prospect of a lethal injection in the veins of an often upraised, rebellious, but now forcibly restrained, arm; instead of condemnation and death he saw the outstretched arms of an ever-loving, long-suffering father. And if we strain our spiritual eyes just a bit, we can almost glimpse just beyond the welcoming arms of the forgiving Father the ultimate emblem of unfailing forgiveness. We can barely perceive the splayed-out, disjointed arms, the nail-pierced, bleeding hands of a Most Obedient Son who never harbored a rebellious thought, let alone committed a selfish act. Those of us who can see and keep on seeing that submissive Son, Jesus, who died to bring order out of the chaos of our self-will; seeing and being in Him we need never fear that our personal lives will either be tainted or destroyed by the anarchy of self-will.