AUG 21

Numbers 16
Memorise 1 Samuel 15:23
“A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother”

Despite knowing that we should honour our parents, honour our teachers, honour the leaders in church, and honour the leaders of our nations, this is something youths in this day and age seldom do. We live in an age where submission is viewed as weak and ‘uncool’. Instead, it is cool to rebel, to reject authority and to be the rulers of our own lives. It is cool to be anti-establishment, to have a voice that cries out against all forms of proper governance, and to be contrary because we think it makes us special. We always want to walk on the edge, to skirt the boundaries of rules and regulations that have been set for us, to see how far we can go to the edge of the cliff before falling off. When our schools tell us to have skirts of a certain length, we always try to test the system to see how short we can make them before we are caught. When we are told to tuck in our shirts, we purposely leave them out a bit to be more ‘cool’. School tells us not to colour our hair; we try to have a few subtle streaks so we can go unnoticed but still be fashionable.

Dear Teen, is that how you are? Do you find perverse pleasure in rebelling against authority, in doing things that aren’t right? In today’s lengthy passage, we read of the rebellion of Korah, who led a band of men to rebel against the authority of Moses. They were proud, thinking they could do a better job, wanting a share of the leadership. This was a rebellion that God strongly disapproved of, and He swiftly and decisively put it down by opening up the earth to swallow up Korah and his men, and also sent fire from heaven to consume the other dissenters. You see, God does not take rebellion lightly, as 1 Samuel 15:23 says, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry”. When we reject the human authority that God has placed over us, we are not only rebelling against them, but we are also rebelling against God and rejecting Him!

We may think that it is fun or cool to break some school rules and get away with it. We may even boast of our accomplishments and goad each other to be more brazen and daring. We might find perverse delight in mocking our parents, or in making fun of certain quirks of our teachers. Realise that such conduct is not Christian at all. We ought to show forth a good testimony, to honour and respect the authorities that God has placed in our lives, and humbly submit to them, for in so doing, we glorify our God.

Thought: It’s not cool at all to rebel.
Prayer: Lord, grant me the wisdom to obey authority and respect them.