The command of God for all of mankind is to love Him with their whole being and also teach His commands to their children, everywhere and at all times. This is the reason for the inherent strength of the Jewish people who have faced innumerable attacks of their identity with attempts of total annihilation. They suffered the death of millions of their fellow Jews and undue sufferings, yet always bounced back to restart in faith. The devil’s strategy has always been to target the young and in this way destroy the family structure.
Parents and children’s responsibility – In todays’ world, to meet the rising needs of the family, both parents are working and the absence of grand-parents leaves the children alone for a long time after school. Parents give their children all sorts of gadgets to make up for their absence. The forces of evil have flooded the internet with content that creates evil desires and opens doors for their fulfilment. The young people are living as performers before a number of judges, which are peers and friends, parents, relatives, teachers and others in the neighbourhood. Their attention is always on scoring the maximum score from each of them and as a result most people are living multiple/duplicate lives. But in actual fact there is only one Judge, the Creator and Provider of everything and His command is ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy’ (Leviticus 19:2). Apostle Peter had been with Lord Jesus for three years and watched and learnt from Him closely. He also quoted the same command for all believers (1 Peter 1:16).
But how can a person live a holy life, while being surrounded all around by corruption of the mind, heart and soul and the society as a whole? That is the false narrative propagated by the devil and his demonic forces. Lord Jesus faced a large group of demons afflicting two men (Matthew 8:28-29). On seeing the Lord, these evil spirits cried out from within those men, ‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’ They are aware of the final Day of Judgement and their destiny in the eternal fires of hell. On the other hand, God’s Son came to the earth as a Saviour to ensure that all should be saved and none perish in those fires and saved through His sacrifice on the cross (John 3:16). He has ensured forgiveness and eternal life to all who receive Him and believe in Him.
The devil knows about hell and the afterlife, but creates the counter narrative as to who knows what will happen after this life. His dictum is to live for today and derive maximum pleasures of the body. The most important prayer for all Jewish people is the ‘Shema Prayer’ which they pray twice daily (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). The command of God is ‘Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God, the LORD is one’ and in Hebrew it is ‘Shema, O Israel, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh echad’. The word ‘echad’ is about unity in oneness and not only as one in number. Since Elohim is a plural form, this unity is of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The morning and the evening join together to make one day and the same word ‘echad’ is used for that. Lord Jesus declared, ‘I am the light of the world’ and He is the source of all life (John 8:12). In His Sermon on the Mount, He further told the disciples, ‘You are the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14). In this manner a believer is ‘echad’ with Him, He in each one of us and we in Him.
With this oneness everyone must love God with all the heart, soul and strength. This is love with the whole being, as a covenant with ‘your God’ and in thoughts, desires and deep longings of the soul. The first thing a Jewish child, when he starts speaking is this Shema Prayer and they say it daily two times, once in the morning and then at night. To ensure continuity of faith, the parents are required to keep discussing this daily at every opportunity and also write it on the door posts. Further, a Jew wears phylacteries, or small boxes containing this on their foreheads, between the eyes and on their arms/hands while praying. This command is the cornerstone of their faith and this is the reason that they have endured sufferings beyond imagination, yet continued strong in faith.
Being so busy, parents tend to leave the development of their children to school authorities. This is further aggravated in single parent families, where every day becomes a struggle. There is great saying, ‘God has no grand-children and only children’. Everyone must develop a close and personal relationship with God and the choices we make during early years shape our future here on earth and also in eternity. When one submits to God, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in each believer. He is God and is the ‘Spirit of power, love and self-control’ (2 Timothy 1:7). He fills us with His power to resist the evil desires and attractions, with love of God and self-control. But God has also given free-will to do what we want to do. The devil acts through those around us to condemn us for our way of life and such people lead others astray. They tend to avoid us and this happens because our way of not following their ways makes them guilty from within. What is required of us is to grab the remote control of our lives and switch off the other channels of judges and start listening to, understanding and getting close to the only Judge who cares for us and who really matters to us.
Ignoring others’ views about us – The Shema Prayer is about knowing God, knowing about His ways, His Word and let that fill our thoughts in the mind, desires of the heart and longing of the soul. Once our whole being is so filled with God, there will be little room for the lies of the devil who comes ‘to steal and to kill and to destroy’ (John 10:10). He steals and destroys our peace and shifts our sight from God to what others are likely to be saying about us. As per Scripture, ‘The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years…. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away’ (Psalm 90:10). Our concern for the views of others must never lead us to compromise on our faith and eternal life. The more we listen to and care for the views of others, the more they will try to control and oppress.
We have the indwelling Holy Spirit to ‘teach us all things, and remind us of the Word of Lord Jesus’ (John 14:26). The Saviour Lord faced opposition from the Jewish leaders, and even His family members, who did not believe in Him till after His death and resurrection. The Pharisees and Jewish leaders accused Lord Jesus of doing miracles in the power of Beelzebul, the agent of the devil. And on hearing all these lies, His own people ‘went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, ‘He is out of His mind’ (Mark 3:2). Did all the criticism and opposition deter Him, or the disciples or innumerable saints to stop them from reaching out to others in the world?
The second part of the Shema command was about writing the Word of God ‘on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:9). What is inside of us is known to us and God but our outward appearance would also reveal our inward character. How we dress, behave with others and the people we mix with, are all indicators of our life pattern. It is normal human tendency during a young age to be attracted to those who are rich and a bit rowdy. Those who are generally good in studies remain aloof and focussed on their work. It is the duty of the parents to discuss with their children about their own life struggles, to help them understand about their future and their own hard work. In western countries business establishments are obligated to provide summer break jobs to school children. This helps them understand the value of work and money and obedience to the employer. The money thus earned by them is generally used by them for something worthwhile.
My niece is married to a software engineer and they have given both their teenage sons iPad with locks on objectionable internet content. Also, the systems stay operational during each day for a certain time only, with auto switch off after that. Both the sons have to join an outdoor sports activity with an organised coaching system. Once we drill into a child from early years about a sense of responsibility, it gets written on their souls, affecting their behaviour and conduct. Also, a relationship between the parents and their children must be close, with confidence of being heard. With this it becomes easy for them to share easily with their parents what they face.
Lord Jesus cautioned the disciples about this only and not to be unduly worried about the Pharisees’ opinion and teachings (Luke 12:4-5). He said, ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do’. They can cause physical, social or financial pain to us by putting us out of their circle of friends. But our Lord further taught, ‘But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell’. The friends that mattered to me the most in school went their own ways and I joined the army. We do meet sometimes but no one is really unduly concerned about the others’ view. The same is about my friends in the army, who have settled down in various places in the world. In our early years we cared so much about the same people.
David was the ‘man after God’s heart’ and considered as the best king that Israel had, but he turned out to be a poor example of a father. He married many women, had a number of children but did not train them in the way of the Lord. His firstborn son Amnon raped Tamar, Absalom’s sister and was killed by Absalom (2 Samuel 13:1-29). His second son was Kileab or Daniel, son of Abigail who was earlier the wife of Nabal, a rich evil man, who died suddenly. Probably Kileab went to manage Nabal’s estate and no details about him are mentioned. Absalom’s mother Maacah was the daughter of Talmai, the king of Geshur. Absalom rebelled against David, forcing him to flee from Jerusalem. He was killed by Joab, David’s Army Commander (2 Samuel 18:14). Nathan the Prophet confronted King David about his sin with Bathsheba through a story of an evil rich man. David as king promised to ensure fourfold reimbursement by the accused (2 Samuel 12:5-10). Adonijah, his fourth son tried to anoint himself as king, against David’s wish and was later killed by Solomon (1 Kings 2:25).
When the parents become too busy in their professional life and progress, the next generation suffers. Once the children are confident of their parents understanding their thoughts and struggles, they readily share it all with the parents. The parents and the children are both responsible to each other to be alert to the evil influences all around us. In this state then, it becomes easy for the children to turn away from such bad company and follow the right ways.
Why does God not interfere to save us from our storms? Prophet Isaiah saw the glory of the LORD in the temple with the LORD sitting on the throne (Isaiah 6:1-9). His ‘sin was purged’ by one of the seraphim with a coal from the altar. It was only after this that the question from the LORD came, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ Did God not know whom to send? If that was the case, why did He reveal His glory to Isaiah only at that time? God desires volunteers to fulfil His tasks and not forced labour. His answer was immediate, ‘Here am I! Send me’. The job description was also unique because God said, ‘Go and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive’. Are we ready to obey God despite repeated failures?
When God judges someone, the first thing is the spiritual blinding of the eyes and deafness of the ears. Lord Jesus kept on telling the people about His teaching, ‘Who has ears, let him hear’. God does not change, for He is the perfect God in everything and is not evolving into someone better.The same is true of the Son of God, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow’ (Hebrew 13:8). The miracles happen in the lives of all those who walk in the light of God’s Word in obedience. He opens doors in their lives that no one could have and shuts the unsuitable doors to bless and lead them on the right paths.
The Israelites were freed from the slavery of Egypt as a nation and Moses was sent, equipped and sent by God for this. He performed various signs and wonders in Egypt to break the resistance of Pharaoh. Finally, they left as a single large group of more than two or three million people. But then they faced the Red Sea in front with the Egyptian army behind to take them back into bondage. God answered Moses’ prayer of desperation, ‘Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward’. But right after that, God commanded him, ‘lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it’. As soon as Moses did so, the sea parted and the Israelites crossed on ‘dry ground through the midst of the sea’. But, when the Egyptian army went in after them with their chariots and horses, they were drowned in that. However, when Joshua led them into the Promised Land to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant moved first. As soon as their feet touched the water, it stopped far away and while the priests with the Ark stood in the dry river bed, all the people crossed over to the other side (Joshua 3:14-16).
Why did God use two different ways to let them cross two water bodies? They left Egypt as a nation but they entered the Promised land as individuals to receive their inheritance. In the latter case, the presence of God was individual oriented and all were equipped to battle and win while being led by Joshua, their leader. In like manner, each believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit to help them with their battles and not look for someone else to fight for them with the Pharaoh of their lives. God has set our way, provided all that we need to move forward, but we have to move. Those who keep looking for someone else to fight for them, are lost in the way.
God has established the direction and destination of each person born on the earth, with the essential talents to fulfil their mission of life. The Saviour Lord sits at the right hand of God, the Father, waiting for us to move forward and receive all that is needed for success. But we start off on the wrong path, under the control of darkness, and keep going in circles. Great is the number of those, who remain focused on all that is around them, get attracted to that and remain stuck. When we turn to the Lord, He helps us achieve the impossible and also readily rescues us from our troubles!
