Seething a Kid in it's Mother's Milk

Three times the Scripture commands, “…Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk” (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21). This appears to be so much more than a health issue; there appears to be a great moral lesson tied to this rebuke and command. The baby goat is given its first nourishment from its mother’s milk. It is the gift created by God to give it sustenance, nourishment, strength and even life itself. So the Lord is saying, don’t you dare take that most precious commodity intended to give life and use it as the solution, which is used in the kid’s destruction.

How shall we make a modern application of this biblical principle? We see it:

1. When apostates teach our youth.

An apostate is a person who has been exposed to the truth and rejects the truth and teaches a distortion of the truth. The progression of the apostate is outlined in Romans 1: 21-25: 1. When confronted with the truth of whom God is, they are not thankful, but rather reject the revelation of God. “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Romans 1:21). 2. They become arrogant, unteachable and fall into the category of fools. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). 3. A pantheistic view of Deity begins to develop. “And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). 4. Since the God of absolute right and wrong is rejected, morals take a serious dive. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (Romans 1:24). 5.They twist the truth and worship themselves. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen” (Romans 1: 25). The apostate is one “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Timothy 3:5,7).

Apostates will weasel their way into churches and proliferate in universities. Many a parent has been heartbroken when their child is sent off to college and that child loses his or her faith at the feet of an apostate. The apostate masquerades as a believer, which is why the unsuspecting weak brother or sister is duped into falling under their teaching. They become the “kid seethed in its mother’s milk.” Jesus describes the apostate when He says, “…they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:14). God does not take their wicked deeds lightly. Listen to these words of impending judgment for the apostate: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Peter 2:1). “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude, verse 4).

The kid is seethed in its mother’s milk…

2. When parents lead their own children astray.

There may be nothing sadder than a parent who ignores biblical commands, influencing their children to reject the Lord Jesus Christ by their own lifestyle. This is even closer to the biblical directive to not “seethe a child in its mother’s milk.” A Christian young lady made an unwise decision of marrying a lost man. Although he was on good behavior before marriage, his true colors came out after they were wed. She went to church; he went to the bars. When a beautiful little girl was born into the home, she went with her mother to church and learned the Bible and golden rule. She would see her mother go one way and her dad would go anther way. When she was fifteen, the daughter demanded to go “Daddy’s way” rather than Mommy’s “Bible way”. With broken heart the mother saw her daughter go down the wrong path. Before the daughter was twenty years old, she lay dying as a direct result of an accident caused by her loose and careless life-style. Just before the daughter died, she looked up into her father’s eyes and cried, asking, “Daddy, I’ve seen you go one way and Mommy another way. Daddy, which way is the right way?” The father burst into tears, fell over the dying form of his precious daughter and screamed, “Honey, choose Mommy’s way; choose Mommy’s way!” The girl was dead before she could respond. The environment that God intended to nourish the daughter to embrace Christ and follow Him, became the place of her physical and spiritual demise. The Bible tells us as parents that we are to, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). “And, ye fathers…bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

Finally, the kid is seethed in its mother’s milk…

3. When so-called Christian friends act unchristian.

Often the unsuspecting and well-meaning parent will lead their child in the direction of what the parent believes is a strong Christian friendship with perhaps a fellow member of the church youth group, Christian school mate or fellow home scholar. In my travels around the country, speaking at youth rallies and youth camps, I have often been cornered by teary-eyed parents or teens who are grieving the loss of virtue or innocence at the hands of someone who was supposed to be a Christian. Jesus warns: “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way” (Matthew 13:24,25). The tare is the plant called “darnel”. Allow me to give you the definition: “Darnels usually grow in the same production zones as wheat and is considered a weed. The similarity between these two plants is so great that in some regions, darnel is referred to as "false wheat". It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. Jesus tells the questioning disciples, we will not know until the end of time, at the judgment who was really wheat or a tare plant. Jesus said, “So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:27-30). Meanwhile, if we are deceived by the darnel or tare, the effect can be lethal. Researchers say, “It parasitizes wheat fields. The French word for darnel is ivraie (from Latin ebriacus, intoxicated), which expresses that weed's characteristic of making one feel poisoned with drunkenness, and can cause death. This characteristic is also alluded to in the scientific name (Latin temulentus = drunk).

Instead of the friends becoming the “milk of human kindness” to spur one on to God, the wrong friends become the poison which robs the Christian’s joy of life. Since tares will be growing along side the wheat in our churches and Christian communities, what are we to do? We are to follow the admonition of Jesus, who said, “…be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Let us pray for wisdom as never before and be on the guard against “seething the child in its mother’s milk! God help us to walk uprightly and claim the protective blessing for our children: “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” (Psalm 3:3). “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

-Pastor Pope