Even Perfect Parents Have Rebellious Children

I have met a lot of parents in my twenty-three years of ministry.  Some were good parents; some not so good. But there was one parent, a dad named Theo, who stood out to me as having parented his kids particularly well.  First, his own example of devotion to God was stellar.  He loved his children in spite of their weaknesses, disciplined them consistently when they turned to sin, and provided for them faithfully, even when we would all say they didn’t deserve it.  From my vantage point, Theo did an excellent job raising his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Surprisingly though, all of his children turned away from the Lord and rebelled.  Now I guess we might expect him to have trouble with one of his kids, but Theo had major problems with them all.  What makes matters worse is that they pretended to love God on the outside, going to church and following good outward religion, but their hearts were far from God.  Theo hated their hypocrisy and knew their sin made a mockery of his kindness.  In spite of his attempts to warn them, they refused to listen.  There was nothing he could do to convince them to love and serve God.  Theo became weary of bearing the reproach of their evil ways.  Finally, after reaching out again and again, he refused to listen to their excuses and pleas, and counted them utterly lost.

There was a time, not too long ago that I would have judged Theo’s parenting for the rebellion of his kids and thought something must be amiss at home behind the scenes.  But I know that is not the case.  You see, Theo is no ordinary father. Theo is none other than God himself and you can read about  his kids in Isaiah chapter one.  There Isaiah gives us God’s own perspective on his parenting of the people of God. “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me” (Isaiah 1:2).  Now if God describes his parenting that way,  we shouldn’t be so surprised that sin working within the hearts of our children might lead them astray as well.  If that is the case for you then look a little further in Isaiah chapter one for God’s solution to his rebellious kids.

There is a parcel of hope, hidden in the midst of God’s judgment. The ultimate solution for God’s children’s rebellion is found in verse 18, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red, like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

If here in the book of Isaiah, the only remedy for the children of God is the gospel, should we fool ourselves into thinking we have a better parenting tool than the gospel for our kids?  No, the only hope for Israel, that Jesus Christ would one day shed his blood to take away the stain of their sin, is the only hope for our children.  And if God’s children rebelled against him, let’s not be so surprised when our children rebel against our parenting.  Rather than fear, let’s put our hope and trust in the gospel.