Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #191. When Your Kids Don’t Follow What You’ve Taught Them | Nehemiah 10–13 & Psalm 126

Transcript

#191. When Your Kids Don’t Follow What You’ve Taught Them | Nehemiah 10–13 & Psalm 126 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox, and today we're wrapping up the book of Nehemiah and Psalms finally you are almost to the Old Testament finish line specifically, we're covering Nehemiah chapters 10 through 13 and Psalm 126.
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  If you've ever felt that you've trained your kids and set them up for success, and then you turn your back and they do exactly the opposite of what you've taught them to do, You're gonna be able to relate
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  to Nehemiah in the scripture for today Before we get into our reading I'm gonna do something kind of silly.
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  Today is my birthday and because we're about to dive into the New Testament together, and our plan is gonna feel a little bit more approachable I wanted to ask for a birthday favor from you.
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  If you've been blessed by this and it's helped you stay more consistent I would be so grateful if you wrote a review so that it's easier for other moms to find this podcast.
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  And if you told a couple friends about it and encouraged them to commit to the New Testament plan my heart is that in a culture that does not value motherhood That you would feel encouraged and equipped to be
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  faithful right where God has you.
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  Though the world would tell you that parenting is an unseen, purposeless task you serve a God that sees you and I'm so excited To begin looking at the New Testament and see with you that Jesus is the long-awaited
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  Messiah.
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  He's exactly who we need to keep our eyes on in the craziness and overwhelm of every day.
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  All right.
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  let's get to the episode.
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  Nehemiah is one of those biblical characters that people often look to for leadership philosophy, and rightfully so.
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  Let me pull out a couple phrases from the MacArthur commentary about why Nehemiah's leadership style is so exemplary.
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  He writes, Like many biblical leaders, Nehemiah demonstrated an understanding of God's call over his life.
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  Whether as cupbearer to a king or as the rebuilder of Jerusalem, Nehemiah pursued his goals with commitment, careful planning, strategic delegation, creative problem-solving, focus on the task at hand, and a continual reliance on God, particularly regarding areas beyond
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  his control.
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  each of the leadership qualities above can be illustrated from Nehemiah's successful completion of the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem."
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  He later concludes, As the work moved forward, Nehemiah did not allow himself to be distracted by attacks of various kings or tricks from enemies.
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  He took threats seriously enough to arm the people, but not too seriously that the work came to a halt.
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  At every turn, we find Nehemiah conferring in prayer with God, placing every decision before him.
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  Nehemiah succeeded because he never lost sight of the reasons for the work and the source of power with which to accomplish the task."
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  as I've mentioned, I really feel that we as moms can relate to Nehemiah as his role was multifaceted And that's the name of the game for a mom.
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  Scripture shows us that he was aware of the opposition, but he didn't let it stop him from his goal.
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  He kept the end in sight and focused on God to empower him.
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  yet he dealt with the issues that were right in front of him.
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  It reminds me of a conversation I had with an incredibly wise friend who's a biblical counselor How do you steer your family and guide them while also making sure that you don't bulldoze over the important issues that come
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  up?
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  How do you take time to get to the root of things while still moving forward with what you need to accomplish?
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  and she gave a great analogy.
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  She said, "It's kind of like driving a car.
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  You have to keep your eyes out on the road to make sure that you're driving safely in the proper direction, but you also need to be aware of the dashboard in front of you to know if there are
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  any check engine lights to stop and resolve."
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  It's this both/and that was needed for Nehemiah's role of offense and defense, Balancing the construction efforts with addressing the opposition And it just reminds me as moms, as we're pursuing these eternal spiritual goals for our families, while also
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  meeting so many practical needs and I'm thankful that scripture validates the importance of both In the last episode, I mentioned when the people heard the words of the Lord, they realized how far they were from honoring all that
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  God had called them to.
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  They began to grieve and mourn, but Ezra and Nehemiah and the Levites said, Don't mourn.
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  Be glad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
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  And it's in the next chapter, chapter 10, that they make a covenant before the Lord.
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  They vow to walk in the law that was given by Moses, to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord.
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  They specifically commit to not intermarry with the pagan nations around them, to not exchange goods on the Sabbath, to let the land rest on the seventh year, and to support the Levites and the temple monetarily In chapter 11,
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  there's an interesting occurrence.
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  As the wall is rebuilt, they need to determine who will live inside Jerusalem and who's going to live outside it.
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  They cast lots, and one-tenth of the people are chosen.
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  When we went through Esther, you may have felt the casting of lots was wrong, but in the Old Testament, it's not frowned upon.
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  What's important is who you're looking to as you're casting them In the rest of chapter 11 and in chapter 12, we're given a detailed record of those that lived in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
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  But the end of chapter 12 is truly the climax of the book because they dedicate the wall to the Lord.
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  They have two different choirs that gather on different sides and meet together as they're worshiping, these detailed descriptions helped archeologists to recently locate King David's house These details are not in vain After all of this singing, they offer
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  sacrifices, and verse 40 tells us, They rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy.
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  The women and children also rejoiced, and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away."
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  Let me read that phrase again.
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  They rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy."
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  Keep that phrase in mind because in a couple episodes, we're going to see something very similar in the New Testament At the beginning of chapter 13, there is at least a 20-year gap because Nehemiah returns to serve as
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  cupbearer to Artaxerxes.
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  He knows he's faithfully done the work that God called him to in Jerusalem.
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  He's been there about 12 years, and he returns to serve the Persian king.
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  He leaves them in good standing.
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  But during his time away, he may have heard a report that they're not holding to the covenant they made with the Lord It's likely that the Book of Malachi was written during this time.
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  But in order to not make our reading plan too complicated, we'll finish Nehemiah today and do Malachi next.
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  But just think, Nehemiah had set the people up for success.
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  They were doing great when he left.
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  The temple was restored, the wall was built.
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  They had sworn an oath that they would follow God's covenant Honoring the Sabbath, letting the land rest, not marrying people from Canaanite nations And committing to support God's work in the temple But when Nehemiah returns, he finds that
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  the priest has allowed one of the enemies of Israel to move into the temple Tobiah, one of the enemies that had continually opposed the building of the wall, is now living inside the temple with his personal belongings.
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  they've even moved some of the objects of worship out to make room for him.
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  Remember how Nehemiah himself had such an honorable fear of the Lord That he wouldn't enter the temple where he wasn't supposed to be.
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  But Tobiah isn't just visiting, he's camped out.
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  I'm gonna read a portion of chapter 13 so you can hear how Nehemiah handles the people's rebellion.
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  Beginning in 13:6, While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king, and after some time I asked leave of the king and came
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  to Jerusalem.
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  And I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
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  And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
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  Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers and brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offering and the frankincense.
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  I also found out that the portions of Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers who did the work had fled each to his field.
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  So I confronted the officials and said, Why is the house of God forsaken?'
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  And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
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  Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
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  And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the honor of my God and for his service.
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  In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads which they brought into Jerusalem on
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  the Sabbath day.
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  And I warned them on the day when they sold food Tyrians also who lived in the city brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem itself.
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  Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, What is this evil that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
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  Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and in this city?
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  Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath."
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  Nehemiah locks the gates to prevent any trading or selling on the Sabbath But what he sees next must have shocked him even more.
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  In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
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  And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, but they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.
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  And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair.
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  And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.'
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  Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin on account of such women?
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  Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel.
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  Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.
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  Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?
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  Nehemiah sets about restoring the people back to obedience of their oath.
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  The book ends, "Remember me, O my God, for good."
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  If you've lost it in your frustration at your kids' disobedience, you're probably feeling a little bit better about it right now.
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  But remember, scripture tells us to be slow to anger and to not sin in our anger.
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  The Bible is silent here and doesn't clarify if Nehemiah's actions were out of righteous anger and for the good of the people or whether he went too far We do know that it's not godly leadership to allow people
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  to continue in sinful patterns and behavior, and we also know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, when He saw the ungodliness that was occurring In his father's house?
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  He angrily tipped over furniture as well Thankfully as we go into the New Testament, we're going to continue to see the standard for holiness with our words and our actions.
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  And even though we may have absolutely legitimate frustrations God calls us to handle ourselves with patience and self-control But I think Nehemiah wanted to ensure that this was a rebuke that the people did not forget.
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  This brings us to the end of the Book of Nehemiah.
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  Really, the ending is kind of a bummer, as was Ezra Up to this point, we've read so many promises of God wanted to do for Israel.
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  Here we're a couple chapters away from the end of the Old Testament, and so much of it has been left unfulfilled But I appreciate how Brian O'Neill In the Moody Commentary explains that all of this is intentional.
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  He says Chapter 13 in Nehemiah has a distinct literary purpose for the readers.
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  It may have been thought that the end of days had come and the final restoration of Israel had been accomplished.
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  By including chapter 13 with its specific breaking of the renewed covenant, Nehemiah was proving that the return from Babylon was not the restoration anticipated in Deuteronomy It's fitting that there is a sense of incompletion or non-resolution as the
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  whole of the Hebrew Bible awaits the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant and the Messiah promised in it And it is indeed at this very temple where the Old Testament narrative ends that God breaks back into the affairs of
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  men by sending the angel Gabriel to speak to the priest Zechariah to announce to him the birth of John the Baptist, heralding the immediate coming of the promised Messiah isn't that so beautiful?
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  we're meant to be left with an ache.
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  It's not over.
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  It's not finished Who will be the one to fulfill all of these prophecies?
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  Just wait and see If we turn to Psalm 126, we'll finish our 38th book of the Bible.
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  We don't know exactly when this psalm was written, but it does talk about people coming back after captivity, so after the Babylonian captivity is the most likely.
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  It's pretty brief, so I'll read it in its entirety.
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  When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
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  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.
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  Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.'
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  The Lord has done great things for us.
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  We are glad."
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  Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb.
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  Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
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  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him when this psalm mentions the streams in the Negev, it refers to the southern part of the Promised
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  Land.
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  It was a really dry, arid region in the summer.
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  But then when the spring rains came, it would quickly get flooded.
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  And the psalmist is saying, God, will you do it quickly?
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  We see areas of dryness right now.
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  But would you fill them to overflowing and do it so rapidly that no one can deny it was your hand at work?"
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  Today's reading reminds us That leadership and life are hard and people are sinful but God calls us to faithfulness and as you continue to pour into your family, maybe sometimes you feel that you're sowing in tears or seeing
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  areas that are arid and dry.
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  We can have hope That if we do not give up there will be a harvest Heavenly Father, we come before you grateful that your word doesn't deceive us.
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  We know we're still waiting on many promises to be fulfilled and we know it's not always going to be easy to wait upon you.
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  But we thank you that you've promised to walk with us through all of life Lord, we ask that as we try to train and teach our children That you would give us deeply rooted patience amidst our hopes and
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  expectations.
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  That we would not be shaken When our children disobey or have questions or just don't seem to be good soil We take heart that those who sow in tears will reap a harvest of joy.
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  And I pray that you would give hope and encouragement to all of those that are having a difficult time imagining that a harvest could ever come or that you could bring beauty from ashes.
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  we declare that you can.
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  We thank you that you are faithful and that we can trust in your promises And Jesus, we're so grateful for another book That points forward and causes us to hope in you.
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  It's in your name we pray.
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  Amen