Then he also says in verse 17, "And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely
be put to death."
Now if you would flip over quickly to Matthew chapter 15.
Matthew chapter number 15 because Jesus actually refers to this law in Matthew chapter 15 because
a lot of people will say, "Well, you know, that's the Old Testament mosaic law, but Jesus
didn't teach that."
Okay.
Well Jesus did teach that and Jesus reiterated this in Matthew 15 because he says in verse
4 of Matthew 15, well actually let's start in verse 3.
It says, "But he answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition?
For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or
mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition."
So is Jesus backing up the commandment, here or not, that says that if you curse your father
or mother, you shall be put to death?
Now atheists will often bring out this verse and say, "Oh, you believe the Bible, huh?
A book that tells you to put to death a disobedient child?"
Now let me ask something.
Did this say to put a disobedient child to death?
Well, the Bible says to stone a rebellious child.
Does this say to stone a rebellious child?
Does this say rebellious or disobedient?
No, they're lying.
Every child is going to be rebellious at some point.
Every child is going to be disobedient at some point.
And the Bible clearly commands us to spank our children when they disobey.
But this is not disobedience.
This is not rebellion.
This is assaulting your parents.
And I've seen this.
I've seen kids today and teenagers that will literally slap their parent across the mouth
or punch their parent in the face.
That's the abomination of a society that we're living in.
Total disrespect.
Now you say, "Well, what about cursing?"
Now a lot of people misunderstand the word cursing in the Bible.
They think basically, because we have a word in English today, we have a word cussing.
And here's the thing, the word cussing comes from the word cursing.
But when we say cussing, what we mean by that is we basically mean that somebody used a
word that is considered a bad word, okay, you know, by Tipper Gore or the TV movie rating
association or whoever decides what is a bad word.
I find it ironic that half of the words that are bad words are in the Bible.
And let me tell you something, any word that's in the Bible is not a bad word.
I mean, people have told me that I was cussing from the pulpit because I use, I'm preaching
the Bible, I'm reading Bible verses and using biblical terms and they're like, "That's cussing.
You're cussing from the pulpit."
Well, no.
And here's the thing, but when the Bible talks about cursing, it's not talking about using
a four-letter word.
That's not what curse in the Bible means.
A curse is the opposite of what?
A blessing.
Blessed is the opposite of curse.
Now, if I bless you, you know what I'm saying?
I'm basically putting a good word on you, saying, for example, "You know what?
May you live long and be healthy, and may you prosper in all that you do, and God bless
you."
I mean, if I say, "God bless you," I'm basically saying, "I want God to do good things for
you."
Right?
So what is the opposite of that?
A curse on someone would be to wish something bad upon someone, right?
Blessing is when I wish something good upon you.
Cursing is when I wish something bad upon you.
Like, for example, if I said, you know, "Man, I hope that you get in a horrible car wreck
on the way home today."
I mean, wouldn't that be an awful thing to say?
But that would be a curse?
Or what if I said to somebody, "Hey, go to hell."
Isn't that a curse?
Okay?
Or if I said, you know, all different examples you could think of, of basically wishing that
something bad would happen to someone.
And saying that you want something bad to, you know, that like they melt like a snail
or whatever.
You know what I mean?
Whatever the curse may be.
You know, that's not a blessing, that's a curse.
Okay?
So, it's like, for example, what about Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 2?
Elisha cursed the children that had come out and mocked him.
A bunch of children were, you know, roving around and mocking him and telling him.
And he cursed those children and then God sent two bears that tear up 40 and 2 of them.
That was the result of the curse of God and the curse that Elijah put upon them.
Or like, for example, when a curse was put upon Ahab, that he would be killed in the
vineyard of Naboth and that the dogs would eat him, okay?
That was a curse.
So, when the Bible says here that if someone curses his father or his mother, he shall
surely be put to death.
This is basically a child who basically tells their parent to go to hell or tells their
parent, you know, "I hope that you...I wish that you would die."
I mean, can you imagine saying something like that to your parent?
The Bible said that if someone said that to their parent in the Old Testament that they
should be put to death or if they hit their parent.
You know, that shows that God demands respect of children for their parents and not to even
come close to doing anything like that, okay?