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Parenting a Generation By Faith

This series is entitled, “The Journey of Faith”.  We're looking at Hebrews 11, since it is usually referred to the Faith chapter, and the stories that relate back to those passages in the Old Testament.  

Faith is the most basic aspect of our relationship with God.  Faith is not a something, it's a Someone.  God is what we put our Faith in...his goodness, grace, mercy, and sovereign wisdom too.
NOW, yesterday I dove into something that speaks of Faith in raising a Family - a family that has Faith from one generation to another.

The passage from Hebrews shifts the focus from Genesis to Exodus.

Hebrews 11:23
23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

We know of Moses for the Exodus…and the 10 plagues…the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt, through the Red Sea in the miraculous deliverance of God; the nation of ex-slaves traveling to Mt. Sinai and after receiving the covenant, Moses leading the nation of Israel through the wilderness to the edge of the promised land - that Moses!

In Hebrews 11, this verse – is only one sentence, but it speaks volumes about what it means to parent with a sense of Faith in God as the guiding principle.

NOW…let me be upfront.  I’ve raised four kids, and older people can be critical of parents in unfair ways…I won’t be one of those.  I can be honest and tell you that I made my share of mistakes as a parent. 
Parenting is tough…and it’s rewarding…but mainly tough.
I have three kids presently raising kids and the gamut of things they have to deal with and the ways in which they have to deal with them is at times “mind bending”. 

Not only my own kids, but I was a teacher to some 300 young adults…the vast majority of them have gotten married and are also raising kids.  I see their lives unfold, and every once in a while I’ll get a message, or an email, or a request to meet with me because of either marriage or parenting issues.

I don’t try to give parents advice…not easily.  Often I listen to the dilemma they face and can only say, “I don’t know what to tell you…”
I said all of that to make sure those of you who are parenting know that I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job…I just want to encourage you, and speak into the issue of Faith, Family, Parenting the next Generation in a way that I hope helps you.

The last verse in the Old Testament is Malachi 4:6
6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers…”

In the story of Moses we learn how to Parent by Faith...seeing our kids (and Grandkids) as part of God's overall plan from generation to generation.

Faith Parenting Is Not Easy, It Can Be Difficult

Hebrews 11:21-23
21  By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
22  By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

The promise of God to Abraham was that from him would come many descendants...as many as the stars in the sky.  But at the end of Abraham's life came his one son Isaac.
Isaac’s had a Son named Jacob who carried the promise forward.
Jacob had 12 sons, one of them was Joseph, and by the end of his life, just three generations from Abraham…who waited for 25 years to have one son…there were 70 descendants, and they all ended up in Egypt.

Joseph rises up to become Pharaoh’s designated ruler…the President of Egypt, so to speak.  
What happened?

The story begins in the first chapter of the book of Exodus: 
Exodus 1:5-7
5  All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6  Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
7  But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

God’s promise to them is coming true…descendants from Abraham that number like the stars in the heavens.
The time of this happens over a 300 years span. 

Exodus 1:8-10
8  …there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9  And he said, “… the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
10  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

Joseph is dead and a new Pharaoh comes to the throne…in fact, we know from Egyptian history that five dynasty changed hands since Joseph, and when Exodus opens a new Pharaoh, Ahmoses I comes to the throne… hence when Pharaoh's daughter finds the baby in the reeds, she takes him into Pharaoh's household as her own son, and names him “Moses”, which means “Son” in Egyptian.
But Ahmoses was fearful of what the children of Israel had become…and he wanted to deal “shrewdly” with them… The Hebrew word carries the idea - “we need to think about what to do with these people.”

Exodus 1:11,13
11  Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens… 13  So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves…

Enslaving them wasn’t enough, so he hatches a plan of infanticide:  

Exodus 1:15-16
15  Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives…16  “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them giving birth, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”

This is the times that Moses is born into.  He’s obviously a boy, so by order of the Pharaoh, he should have been killed…but he wasn’t.
The time that he was born in was a difficult one for any Hebrew child to be born. 
I think I’ve heard that over and over again…”it’s a difficult time for a child to be born…”  Think of children of Christians born in Iraq, Iran, Syria…the fear of your child being killed for being born into a Christian family is real.

That leads me to the second thought here:

Faith Parenting Involves Risking Trust in God.

Exodus 2:1-2
1  Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
2  The woman conceived and bore a son, and she hid him three months.

Hebrews 11:23
23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

They took the risk of Faith over the Fear of what might happen if they didn’t.
The point in the story is that His parents acted by Faith in protecting Moses’ life. 
Isn’t that what we did most of the time as parents?  Linda and I took care of our daughter's two girls, our granddaughters, and after a couple of days…Linda was texted on Facebook "how it was going".  Linda replied… “There still alive”.

But obviously that makes light of a difficult time Moses was born into when a lot of Hebrew baby boys were being killed.  Moses parents trusted God. 
They risked their lives for the sake of their son’s life… by faith, believing that their trust in God for their son.

Behind the scenes, God is at work…protecting Moses’ life because he had a purpose for Moses that was going to be fulfilled many, many years later…almost 80 years later.

Exodus 2:5-6
5  Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.
6  When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Exodus 2:10
10  When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

I mentioned the Pharaoh was “Ahmoses”… and Moses itself means to be “drawn out”.  Moses was birthed by his mother, but raised by Pharaoh’s daughter.

The risk of his parents – a radical trust in God – is what began it all.
Now, we need to skip ahead in Moses life. 
He is raised in Pharaoh’s court, but deep down inside he knows that he is not Egyptian, but Hebrew.  And he sees what the Egyptians are doing to the Hebrews in making them slaves.
God had plans for Moses:

Hebrews 11:24-27
24  By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25  choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26  He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27  By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Moses chose a pathway of Faith.  He risked it all on God too.
What he did wasn’t right…he killed an Egyptian taskmaster and fled for his life…but he did it because he knew that remaining in privilege was not the pathway of faith… VS 26-27 make that clear.

BUT it all began with his parent’s choice to choose to risk it all on Faith and trusting in God in the face of difficult choices.
They were doing what any normal parent would do.

You protect your child, and do everything you can to help your child grow up in a safe environment. That’s what all parents do, or should do.

Parenting in faith is a radical trust in God on all levels...this is where this concept of parenting begins.  More next time I post.

Peace

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