The Bedrock of a Nation: Cursing Your Parents Text: Leviticus 20:9
Introduction: The Great Unraveling
We live in an age of revolt. It is an age that prides itself on tearing down, on deconstructing, on questioning every authority. Children are taught to question their parents, students to question their teachers, and citizens to question their heritage. And we are told that this is liberation. We are told that this is progress. But if you look around at the wreckage, at the shattered families, the chaotic schools, and the fractured nation, you might begin to suspect that we have been sold a bill of goods. What we are witnessing is not progress; it is the great unraveling of a civilization. And it begins, as all such unravelings do, in the home.
The Fifth Commandment, "Honor your father and your mother," is not a sentimental suggestion for pleasant family dinners. It is, as the apostle Paul tells us, the first commandment with a promise: "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land" (Eph. 6:2-3). This commandment is the lynchpin of a stable society. The family is the basic unit of all government, and if the authority structure in the family collapses, every other authority structure built upon it will inevitably follow. The classroom, the courtroom, and the halls of Congress will all begin to crumble when the authority of father and mother is despised in the home.
This is why the Mosaic law treats the violation of this commandment with such terrifying seriousness. Our modern sensibilities are, of course, shocked by a text like the one before us. Capital punishment for cursing your parents? It sounds barbaric, disproportionate, and utterly alien to our therapeutic age, where self-expression is the highest good and disrespect is just a phase. But our shock is a measure of how far we have drifted from God's wisdom. We think this law is harsh because we have forgotten what a society looks like when it comes completely unglued. God, in His wisdom, knows that the seed of societal anarchy is planted when a child is allowed to curse his father or his mother. He is not just protecting parents; He is protecting the entire nation from self-destruction.
We must therefore set aside our modern squeamishness and ask what God is teaching us here. What is the principle at stake? Why is this sin so heinous in His sight? And how does this severe law find its fulfillment and application for us, who live under the grace of the New Covenant?
The Text
‘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.’
(Leviticus 20:9 LSB)
The Crime Defined: A Treasonous Word (v. 9a)
The first clause lays out the crime with stark clarity:
"‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother...’" (Leviticus 20:9a)
The word for "curses" here is not about a child having a temper tantrum or muttering something disrespectful under his breath. The Hebrew word, qalal, means to treat as light or trifling, to despise, to hold in contempt, or to declare cursed. It is a public, verbal repudiation of the parent's authority and God-given honor. It is the verbal equivalent of striking a parent (Ex. 21:15). It is an act of high treason against the family, which is the foundational government of God.
To understand the gravity of this, we must remember that parents stand as God's representatives to their young children. They are God's delegated authority. To curse them is to curse the office they hold and, by extension, the God who established that office. It is a revolutionary act. It is saying, "Your authority over me is illegitimate. The order God has established in this family is void. I am my own god, my own lawgiver." This is the sin of Satan in miniature, played out in the living room. It is a declaration of autonomy from the created order.
This is not primarily about hurt feelings. It is about cosmic rebellion. The child who curses his parents is taking an axe to the very root of his own existence. He is despising the source from which he came. In doing so, he is attacking the principle of derivation, the principle of heritage, and the principle of authority itself. If he can successfully overthrow this first and most basic authority, then no other authority is safe. If he owes nothing to those who gave him life, then he owes nothing to anyone.
The Penalty Prescribed: Surgical Justice (v. 9b)
The penalty for this crime is as severe as the crime is foundational.
"...he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother." (Leviticus 20:9b)
The sentence is death. No exceptions, no parole. The repetition, "he has cursed his father or his mother," serves to emphasize that the stated crime is the sufficient reason for the ultimate penalty. This was not a matter for family counseling. It was a matter for the civil magistrate. This was a crime against the entire commonwealth of Israel because it threatened the future of the entire commonwealth of Israel.
Now, we must be clear. This law, like all the judicial laws of the Old Testament, was given to a specific nation, Israel, for a specific time. We are not under the Mosaic covenant, and the church is not the state. We do not advocate for the civil government today to begin executing rebellious teenagers. That would be to confuse the covenants and to misunderstand the nature of Christ's kingdom.
However, that does not mean this law is irrelevant. The Westminster Confession rightly teaches that the judicial laws of Israel expired along with the state of that people, but that their "general equity" still applies. The general equity is the underlying moral principle. And the principle here is that the authority of parents is a matter of life and death for a society. A culture that permits, and eventually celebrates, the cursing of parents is a culture that has chosen death. The specific penalty of civil execution has been lifted, but the societal principle of death remains. A society that despises parents will die. It will rot from the inside out, and that is precisely what we are witnessing in the West.
The Responsibility Assigned: No Excuses (v. 9c)
The final clause of the verse places the responsibility for this judgment squarely on the offender.
"His bloodguiltiness is upon him.’" (Leviticus 20:9c)
This is a crucial legal phrase. It means that the community, in executing the sentence, is not guilty of murder. The offender has, through his own treasonous act, brought this sentence upon his own head. He is the author of his own demise. There is no one else to blame. He cannot blame his parents for being imperfect. He cannot blame his circumstances. He cannot blame society. His rebellion was his own, and the consequences are his own.
This idea of "bloodguiltiness" is central to God's justice. When an individual's sin is so corrosive that it threatens the covenant community, God commands that it be purged. The execution is a form of societal surgery, cutting out a cancer before it metastasizes. The one who brought the cancer into the camp is responsible for the shedding of his own blood. The community is simply acting as God's righteous instrument to cleanse the land.
This stands in stark contrast to our modern culture of victimhood, which seeks to diffuse responsibility for everything. In our world, no one is ever truly guilty; they are merely products of their environment, victims of systemic forces. But the Bible will have none of it. God holds individuals accountable for their rebellion. The one who curses his father and mother has chosen a path of destruction, and God says, "Let the consequences of that choice be upon your own head."
The New Covenant Application
So how do we apply this today? If we are not to execute rebellious children, what are we to do? We must apply the general equity of the law, transformed by the cross of Jesus Christ.
First, we must recognize that the ultimate curse-bearer has come. Jesus Christ, on the cross, became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). He, the perfect Son who always honored His Father, took upon Himself the guilt of every rebellious, parent-cursing son and daughter who would ever trust in Him. He bore the death penalty that our treason deserved. The penalty has not been set aside; it has been satisfied in Him. Therefore, the first step in dealing with rebellion in the home is to preach the gospel of the crucified and risen Son.
Second, the principle of purging evil from the community remains, but the means have changed. The instrument of excommunication in the Old Covenant was the sword of the magistrate. The instrument of excommunication in the New Covenant is the keys of the kingdom, wielded by the church. A young person who professes faith and yet lives in open, unrepentant rebellion against his parents, cursing them, is to be subject to church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20). If he will not repent, he is to be put out of the church, treated as an unbeliever, so that he might be brought to repentance and his soul saved. The church must take the Fifth Commandment as seriously as God does.
Finally, Christian parents must take up their duty to govern their homes. This law from Leviticus should put steel in the spine of every Christian father and mother. You are not raising a buddy; you are raising a future citizen of heaven and a responsible citizen on earth. You must teach honor. You must demand obedience. You must discipline foolishness and rebellion out of your children when they are young (Prov. 22:15), not with anger, but with loving, consistent, biblical correction. You do this not to be tyrants, but because you know that a society that cannot honor its parents will not be able to honor its God, and a society that cannot honor God is destined for the ash heap of history. The stakes are that high. The life of our culture truly does depend on what happens around your dinner table.