In this episode of Brightheart, we continue with the fourth installment of a short series entitled

A Homemaker's Rules for Life, where we're working through some of the foundational principles

in the life of the homemaker. What is the homemaker prone to forget in the thick of a busy day

or week or month? What truth does she need to be tethered to in the gales of motherhood,

the pressure of keeping a home, and the business of a productive life lived before the Lord?

Now, for many of you, these won't be brand new ideas. Most of what we need to hear doesn't

fall into that category after all. Did I snap at my kids because I just didn't know that I should have?

Was the homemaker disrespectful to her husband because no one ever told her that she shouldn't be?

Of course not. We all need to be reminded of these things from time to time.

The fourth rule goes like this. Do not boil a child in its mother's milk.

This may sound out of place, possibly even very strange to your ear.

What on earth does that mean and what does it have to do with homemaking?

Fully three times in the Old Testament, Israel is commanded not to boil a young goat in its mother's milk, Exodus 2319, Exodus 3426, and Deuteronomy 1421.

What is this strange command all about? And why does God give it so clearly and repeatedly to his holy nation? As with many parts of God's word, which can at first be difficult to understand

and even somewhat opaque to our ears, once you understand

the surrounding context, you find that this law is not only essential to the holiness of God's

holy nation in the Old Testament, but that it also contains a principle with broad application

to us today. The law works on several levels. First, the law forbids a practice that Israel's

pagan neighbors regularly engaged in, a fertility ritual performed in worship of their demon gods.

Several Eucharitic texts, texts preserved from the ancient Canaanites, mentioned cooking a young

goat in milk as part of a spiritual right meant to invoke the

blessing of their gods on their crops, animals, and even their own fertility. The logic is twisted,

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