Does Your Brethren Cry Out?

March 11, 2007

Good Morning:

“And the cry of the people and their wives was great against their brethren….”  Why were the people of Nehemiah’s time crying out against their brethren?  What we read in the book of Nehemiah is that there were two groups of people in the Land of Judea at the time of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah 1 tells us that in the former promised lands of Israelites were men of the tribe of Judah who were remnants from the exile by the Assyrians and had not been bothered with by the Babylonians during their invasion of the Kingdom of Judah and capture of Jerusalem.  There was also another class of people in the land at this time and these were the people who came back from Babylon.  The people coming back from Babylon in the Persian Empire were no longer the same people that had left.  It had been over 80 years and several generations had come and gone since these two groups of people had interacted.  The people of Judah and Benjamin who had been left behind by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians still practiced the religion of their fathers, they still worshiped God as their ancestors had done when they were Hebrews in the wilderness.  The people who were coming from Persia had never worshiped God as the Hebrews had done.  They brought with them new ideas, new and foreign practices, they were the people we would come to know as the Pharisees.  The Pharisees were socially elite compared to the modest people of Israel.  The Pharisees were of the social elite in the Persian Empire, they worked, and socialized in the king’s palaces, they were merchants, bankers, and aristocrats.  The Pharisees were politically connected and politically correct.  With their wealth and political power the Pharisees looked down at the original inhabitants of the lands of Judah and Benjamin.  They were nothing more then peasants to be used for labor and to prophet from.  Soon the Pharisees were even selling the descendents of Israel as slaves. 

What had happened to the family of Israel?  The ancient nation of Israel was more then just a country it was a family.  Yahweh gave the people of Israel a set of laws to live by, each individual was considered an equal member in the family, and each individual was responsible for supporting the family of Israel.  But the family lost its way and started down a path of self-destruction that it just couldn’t comprehend.  What happened to the family of Israel is the very same thing that is happening to families in America and around the world today.  Once a family looses its cohesiveness then Satan can begin to work on each member of that family individually, attacking the members from without and within.  As each member falters the family becomes weaker and weaker until it is unable and unwilling to take care of itself.  Self-interests become more important then family synergy and as members are neutralized the ability of the family to pull together to help one of their own starts to irreversibly erode.  Soon the resources of the family are depleted with no hope of ever recovering them and the forthcoming generation is left with no inheritance of shared recourses to invest and manage in a brighter tomorrow.  The ancient people of Israel took this path because its leadership, the judges and then the kings failed to stand up to their roles and responsibilities.  They became week and inept in their ruling over the people.  They became afraid to do what was right in Gods eyes because they were too worried about what their peers from the neighboring nations would say about them.

Why would someone be afraid of following Yahweh’s ways?  Why would someone worry about what there peers would say if they did what Yahweh wanted?  The world can be a scary place and when a person isn’t sure of what it is that Yahweh would have them do, and then fear creeps in.  Believing in God is one thing but knowing Yahweh is what really counts, because even Satan believes in Yahweh.  Let me read what the scripture says in Isaiah 43:10 “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”  Hear what God said that ye might know him and understand so that you will trust him.  Trust him, the head of our spiritual family, the father of all who call themselves believers in the Messiah.  It doesn’t say have faith and everything will be all right.  No-no my friends the scripture says to know him, it is a fact that he is there, and we are his.  What you may or may not believe doesn’t change the fact about who and what Yahweh is.  Listen to what Yeshua (Jesus) tells us in Matthew 7:9-11, “Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him.”  Yahweh is our father and we are his children, his family.  Now look at what Yeshua (Jesus) says a just a little later in Matthew 7:21  “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”  How can you do the will of Yahweh if you don’t know it?  You can’t all your faith and beliefs are useless without the knowledge of God’s (Yahweh’s) will.

Now I want to jump ahead just a little and tell you what else Yeshua (Jesus) said about us being family.  In Mark 10:14-15  “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”  Listen to what Yeshua said about these children, us who follow God’s ways.  Matthew 25:40 “And the king will answer and say to them, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.”  Now I will begin to tie all this together for you.  Listen to what Yeshua said in Luke 16:10 and I think you will begin to understand why our earthly families are so important.  “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.”

Yahweh has given us our earthly families as a model of what his heavenly family is all about.  Sure it is a much smaller scale with fewer members but that is the whole point.  It is hard to keep a family together and strong here on earth, so can you imagine how much more complex it will be to keep our heavenly family running smoothly.  That is why Yahweh created families on earth the way he did, he created families by creating fathers and mothers first.  We don’t have to figure out which came first the chicken or the egg, because Yahweh tells us.  Parent’s ultimate goal in Yahweh’s eyes is to ensure that subsequent generations have the knowledge, the resources, and the empowerment to survive.  You know if you can’t figure out how to protect your simple family here on earth, how can Yahweh trust you with his family in heaven.  Yahweh is our father, and just as he is forever, so is parenting forever.  Once you become a parent you are always a parent, you always have the responsibility for those children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren until the day you leave this earth.  Think that is a tough call then just imagine the work Yahweh has protecting us and picking up the mess we make of our lives.

In our story the true people of Israel, God’s children, his chosen family had really messed things up.  The older generations had stopped guiding and caring for the younger ones.  The younger generations were growing up with out guidance and without hope.  Their parents wasted their spiritual on foolishness and self-righteousness and without a future the younger generations were basically left in a spiritual vacuum.  Generation after generation suffered from a lack of common sense by the generation before it until God had no choice but to deliver his people from their own folly before they totally self-destructed.  When I look around today I see family after family self-destructing.  You see on the TV talk shows all these parents who can’t control their children, or won’t do what is right by them.  Then you find out that the parents’ parents did the same to them.  God’s plan for our families has been flipped upside down and inside out.  Parents are looking to the young for salvation and not laying up for the next generation as scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:14 but are squandering away our children’s inheritances burdening them with not only their own debts but the debt of the generations before.  Is it no wonder our younger generations are turning away from the proven paths of God’s truth and love?  If we as believers in Yahweh can’t properly manage our families and their resources, then how are we to exist with him for eternity?

 As I look around me today I also hear the cry of our brethren as they and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters are repressed by the forces of greed and commercialism, which are driven by Satan and his servants.  And, just as those people did in Judah so many centuries ago God will send a mediator to redeem his children.  Yeshua the Messiah waits at the door of this world not to bind our generations with an oath but to redeem us by blood from those who bind us with ignorance, and with selfishness, and with fear.  For those of us who have proven our trust with the “least”, our earthly family, the reward will be an eternity of peace and joy.  While for those who have served the causes of Satan by ignoring God’s words will be banished from the presence of our Lord and Savior forever.  Amen.