Commentary - Exodus 21:15

Bird's-eye view

This stark and severe statute is part of the "Book of the Covenant," the case law applications that flow directly out of the Ten Commandments. Specifically, this law is a radical buttress to the Fifth Commandment, "Honor your father and your mother." Modern sensibilities recoil at such a penalty, but this is because we have lost the biblical understanding of the family as the foundational institution of all society. The family is the original church, the original state, and the original school. For a child to strike a parent was not merely an act of youthful rebellion or a simple assault; it was a revolutionary act of high treason against the God-ordained structure of the world. It was an attack on the office of the parent, which is a viceregency, a representation of God's own authority. Therefore, this law establishes that the foundational order of a healthy society is so important that to violently attack it at its root is a capital crime. It is a declaration that familial anarchy is the seedbed of societal collapse, and God requires a society that would be blessed by Him to take that threat with the utmost seriousness.

We must understand that this is case law, meaning it establishes a central principle. The law is not envisioning a scenario where a toddler throws a tantrum and slaps his mother's face. This concerns a level of violent assault that constitutes a complete and utter repudiation of parental authority. It is an act of insurrection. The severity of the penalty underscores the sanctity of the family covenant and the gravity of such a rebellious strike against God's appointed representatives in the life of a child. The health of the entire nation was seen as an extension of the health of its households, and this law was a potent guardian at the gate of every home.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This verse is situated in the immediate aftermath of the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20). After the awesome display of God's power, the people drew back and asked Moses to be their mediator. God then begins to give Moses the "judgments" or "ordinances" that will govern their civil life together. This section, from Exodus 21:1 to 23:33, is known as the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 24:7). It is not a comprehensive legal code in the modern sense, but rather a series of case laws that reveal the principles of justice that were to characterize God's covenant people. The laws begin with regulations concerning servants, and then move to capital offenses. Exodus 21:15, along with the law against cursing parents in verse 17, is placed right alongside the laws against murder (v. 12) and kidnapping (v. 16). This placement is intentional. It shows that in God's economy, a violent, revolutionary assault on the family structure is as serious a threat to covenantal order as murder or kidnapping.

Key Issues

The Treason of a Raised Hand

We live in a sentimental age that has reduced the Fifth Commandment to a sort of Hallmark card sentiment. "Be nice to your folks." But in the Bible, the relationship between parents and children is a covenantal bond that images the relationship between God and His people. The family is a theocracy in miniature. The father and mother do not rule by their own authority, but as delegated authorities under God. Their rule is a stewardship, and the honor they are due is honor rendered to the office God has established.

Therefore, when a son or daughter "strikes" a parent, it is not the same as a brawl between siblings or a fight in the marketplace. The verb used here implies a violent, deliberate blow. It is an act of insurrection. It is a physical declaration that the child is casting off the entire structure of God's ordained world. He is not just hitting a person; he is striking the image of God's authority in the home. This is why the penalty is so severe. It is not primarily about the physical injury, which might be minor. It is about the treason. A society that tolerates this kind of foundational rebellion in its households is a society that is rotting from the inside out. God is telling Israel that if they want to be a holy nation, their homes must be holy precincts where authority is honored and rebellion is seen for the poison that it is.

Verse by Verse Commentary

15 “And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

The phrasing is direct and absolute, leaving no room for ambiguity. Let us break it down. "And he who strikes..." This refers to a physical act of violence. This is not about disrespect or backtalk, though other laws address that (see verse 17). This is about a physical assault. It is the line that is crossed when verbal rebellion escalates into physical mutiny. The principle here is that the authority structure of the family is so sacred that it must be protected by a physical boundary that cannot be crossed without the most severe consequences.

"...his father or his mother..." The law gives equal protection to both parents. The authority in the home is a joint authority. The father and the mother both stand as God's representatives. To strike either one is to commit the same crime. This upholds the dignity of both fatherhood and motherhood as essential to God's design for the family and, by extension, for society. It cuts the root of any attempt to pit one parent against the other or to devalue the authority of the mother.

"...shall surely be put to death." This is the language of a mandatory capital sentence. The community, through its judges, was responsible for purging this profound evil from its midst. Why? Because a society that will not protect the most basic and foundational lines of authority in the home will soon find that it cannot maintain any authority anywhere else. If a man can raise a hand to his own father, the one who gave him life, why would he hesitate to raise a hand against a magistrate or a king? This law was a bulwark, not just for parents, but for the entire civil order. It taught every Israelite from childhood that rebellion against God-given authority is a flirtation with death.

Application

Now, what do we do with a law like this today? We are not theocratic Israel, and our civil magistrates do not enforce the Mosaic judicial code. The first and most important thing is to recognize the abiding principle. The principle is that the authority of parents is a sacred trust from God, and that rebellion against it is a profound evil. Our society has completely lost this. We treat youthful rebellion as a cute phase, a rite of passage. We make sitcoms that celebrate the sassy child who outwits his bumbling parents. The Bible calls this foolishness and wickedness.

While we do not carry out the civil penalty, the moral gravity remains unchanged. A child who strikes a parent has committed a heinous sin in the sight of God. In the church, such an act, if unrepented, should lead to the most severe forms of church discipline. In our homes, we must teach our children from the earliest age that to raise a hand to a parent is unthinkable. It is not just "not nice"; it is a violation of the created order. We must restore a culture of honor in our families, where parents take their authority seriously as a stewardship from God, and children are taught to obey and honor them as unto the Lord.

Furthermore, we must see how this law points us to the gospel. We are all rebellious children who have, in our hearts, struck out at our Heavenly Father. Our sin is high treason. The wages of that sin is, and always has been, death. The law says, "shall surely be put to death." And the gospel says that someone was. Jesus Christ, the only truly obedient Son, stood in the place of us rebels. He took the capital penalty we deserved. He absorbed the full force of the curse for our cosmic treason so that we, the guilty children, could be forgiven, adopted, and welcomed back to the Father's table. This law, in all its severity, shows us the depth of our sin and the even greater depth of Christ's saving grace.