Deuteronomy 16-19: Parenting is hard! It is the one job where you know the chances are very good at some point your children are going to disobey you and may even “hate you” for a time. They might even reject you as their leader and follow after their own way. I think sometimes that God allows us to have children so we can understand how He feels toward us when we do the same thing.

The first five books fo the Bible are filled with commandments and rules for the Children of Israel so that their lives could be full and blessed. Instead of obeying it was the nature of the children to rebel. In today’s reading God tells Moses that the Israel would reject God as its leader and want a king. How sad to know this is going to happen and to prepare the way anyway.

Deuteronomy 17:14″When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose.

Though they would refuse God He still loved them and provided a way for them to be made right. Even their king though not God’s choice of the way they should go would be under His hand and direction. That king was not to depend on horses from Egypt. He was to be from Israel. He was not to marry many wives. He was to write a copy of the law for themselves so they would know God’s word.

What a great reminder to us as well. Teach our children God’s word from the time they are small. Teach them to not depend on earthly things for power and strength. Keep their hearts pure, but most of all know that there is One God and He loves them beyond words. I pray for all of our children that when they wander astray that they will come back to the Father.