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Transcript 219E
Should We Obey Our Parents if They Ask Us to Sin?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: In Genesis 27 Isaac was deceived into giving the blessing to his younger son Jacob, because Rebecca told Jacob to deceive his father, when his father wanted the blessing to go to Esau. Is this right?
HC: Yes.
CALLER: I was wondering, should we as Christians obey our parents even if they ask us, contrary to our Christian convictions, to partake in or do anything we feel God would not be glorified in, except for our obeying them?
HC: Should we obey our parents if we are asked to sin? Anything at all that is contrary to the will of God is sin, and anything that is not to the glory of God is sin, of course. And we must obey God rather than man.
If our parents would ask us to lie, as Jacob was asked by Rebecca to lie, then we are to disobey our parents. We are to obey God. Incidentally, in this account in Genesis 27, Jacob was not just a youngster. He actually was sixty years of age. And so the sin of lying was a very grievous sin for him, also. He was doing this as a grown man, a very mature man.
CALLER: Also, in verse 13 it says that Rebecca said, "If there is any curse, let it be upon me," and I was wondering if God would look at that and honor it.
HC: Is the fact that she would take the curse, if there was any, a rationale for him to obey his mother? Actually, it was no rationale at all. It changed nothing. The sin was hers, the sin was his. The curse of sin is, "The wages of sin is death." Both were rebelling against God. Both were doing what was exceedingly wicked.