Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: The study of Ephesians Chapter 6. Here is the beautiful promise to the children. It was given to Israel many, many years ago, 3500 years ago, when our nation Israel was going to enter into the Promised Land, to Canaan. God said to our people of old, He said, "Israel, listen, the children are to obey their parents in order that they may live long life in the land."

The Hebrew word in verse 12 of Exodus Chapter 20 is "Lema'an yaarikhun yamekha al ha'adamah," meaning upon the land. God gave Israel the Promised Land, and so that was a national promise. Israel, when the children obey their parents, the children and their parents and their family will remain in the land. When they disobey their parents, God will remove our people of old Israel out of the land and will scatter them upon the face of this earth.

Now, Paul, Shaul, takes this and now applies it to children of the brothers and sisters in the local assembly at Ephesus and every believer upon the face of this world. And he is saying to them, "Children, obey your parents. Why? You are to honor your father and your mother. Why? Because it is the first commandment with a promise." What is the promise? Notice verse 3, "that it may be well with you," that's the first promise, and secondly, "that you may live long." And this time it doesn't say the land, meaning the land of Israel, but "that you may live long on this earth."

You may be a child, a believer in Toronto, or a child, a believer in Jerusalem, or a child, a believer in any place in the world and any country. There is the first commandment, and attached with it is a promise of blessing, a twofold blessing. The first one is that it will be well with you. You know, you notice that when children obey their parents, really there is a wellness in their lives, that those who do not obey, they lose out. Often they think, you know, "If I will get my own way and I will do my own thing, I will be fine and I will be okay, and I'm not going to listen to what my parents are telling me, and I will get my own way, I'll be fine." Well, you will notice that those that obey their parents, it is really well with them ultimately. It's better for them in their lives. They can make better decisions in their life. They can walk in a better path in their life. It is always better to obey than to disobey.

And God made that promise, a twofold promise. Number one, that it will be well with you. And number two, that you will live long life upon the face of this earth. So Paul took what applied to Israel under the law, Exodus 20:12, and he applied it to believers in the present-day dispensation, whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish. It's applied to all of us in the present-day dispensation of the church age. By the way, the word in Greek, "ge," for the word earth, in the Hebrew word in Exodus 20:12, the word is "adamah," and it's applied to the literal Promised Land that God had given to the people of Israel.

Now let's see for a moment, just allow me just to elaborate a couple more minutes on that. I want you to turn to Romans Chapter 1. Look what the Apostle Paul's description of the condition of the world in which we live in is. Romans Chapter 1, Paul says in verse 28, 29, and 30 of Romans Chapter 1, "And even as they," meaning the unbelieving world, "did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient or are not right, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things," and listen at the last point in verse 30, "disobedient to parents."

When men rejected the Messiah, God gave them over. Over to what? Over to the list of what we have before us in Romans 1, verses 28, 29, and specifically in connection with our text in verse 30, disobedience to parents. That's the world. That's the world in which we live in. That's what Paul is describing for us in Romans Chapter 1 and verses 28, 29, and 30.

Now turn to one more verse in 2nd Timothy Chapter 3. The Apostle Paul moves from the world to the professing Christendom, to the professing church in the last days in which we live in today. Paul is now writing to the professing believers. He's writing to Timothy, and he is telling Timothy, "That's what is going to prevail among the professing assembly, the professing church in the last days." And look what he says. Verse 1, "This know ye also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers," listen to this, "disobedient to parents, unthankful, and unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," and listen to the end in verse 5, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away."

While in Romans Chapter 1 he described the unbelieving world, in 2nd Timothy Chapter 3, he described the condition that will prevail among the professing believers in Yeshua the Messiah. And Paul's saying, "Timothy, that's what is going to happen in the last days. Children are also among the professing believers who will take that position of disobedience." And that's why he gives the warning: obey your parents. Why? Because you belong to the Lord, number one. Number two, why? Because it is the right thing to do. Number three, why? Because God commanded it. And number four, because God promised blessing to those believing children. "If you are going to obey your parents, you are going to gain, you're not going to lose."

Now let me read one more verse in connection with that and we're going to move. Turn to the Gospel of Luke and Chapter 2. Let me read there two verses, Luke Chapter 2 and verse 51 and 52. And I think this is the greatest example. And the greatest example is the person of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. You know, He's the creator, the sustainer, the upholder. He is the one who is in charge over all the universe. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made which was made. He took humanity, union with His divine nature. He became a baby boy who was born in the city of Bethlehem in the land of our nation Israel. He grew up, and by the time He was 12 years old, He went up with His mother and father, Miriam and Yosef, to the temple in the city of Jerusalem. And there, listen, after having also sorts of discussions in the temple, look what we read about Him at the end of Luke Chapter 2 at the last two verses. He says in verse 51, "And He went down with them," this is His parents, Miriam and Yosef, "and He came to Nazareth and He was," children listen, young people listen, you and I all of us, "He was subject unto them, but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Yeshua increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man."

Children, obey your parents. Why? Because it is the right thing to do and you belong to God and this is the right thing to do. But look at the blessing that flows out of it. And look at the example that we have in Yeshua our Messiah. He became subject unto His parents. Here the Son of God as man subjected Himself as a boy to His mother and father, and look at the result. Verse 52, Yeshua increased, number one, increased in wisdom. Number two, increased in stature. Number three, He increased with favor with God. And number four, He increased with favor with man. Mental growth, physical growth, spiritual growth, and social growth we have in verse 52. That's the result of submissiveness to God and submissiveness to the parents. Children, obey your parents. The Apostle Paul gave us the instruction in Ephesians Chapter 6 and verses 1 to 3.

Let's go back now. In verse 4, now that he dealt with the children, now he's talking to us as fathers. And notice what he says to the fathers. He's speaking directly to the fathers and now he's saying to believing fathers, and that applies to you and I who are parents. Some of us have already grown children, they are no longer under our authority in our own home, but when we were parents and dealing with our children in our own home, that's the instruction that Paul is giving to the fathers. And look at this, what he is saying in verse 4. Paul appeals to the believing fathers not to provoke their children. "And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

Those of us who are fathers know very well how often we fail in the responsibilities that God had given unto us as fathers. And here again I would like to suggest certain things that the fathers are exhorted to do as they raise their children, and this is what the scripture teaches us. This is what the Apostle Paul is telling them. The first thing he's saying to them in verse 4a, the first part of verse 4, that the fathers are not to provoke their children but to encourage them. You see, the opposite of provocation is encouragement. You know how often we abuse our responsibility, how often we exasperate our children by the way in which we conduct and the demands in which we are putting upon our children. And so he's saying to them, "Listen, don't arouse your children to anger, don't exasperate, fathers, your children. Don't do so because when you exasperate the children you end up ultimately not benefiting, not giving them any benefit."

So the opposite of provoking is really encouraging. How we need to encourage the children, how any parent needs to really encourage the children. In Colossians 3 and verse 21 he said, "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger." Provocation can bring someone to get very angry. That's what he said, "Instead of provoking them to anger is really encouraging them and then the blessing will flow unto the children." Secondly, notice that and I am in the same verse, verse 4b, "Fathers are to bring children up and to nourish them." You know that word, you notice that he used that word and I am reading again in verse 4, "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up." That word for bringing them up comes from the word to nourish.

Anyone who knows who has a garden in their own home knows very well if you want to bring up nice flowers, you need to spend the time of watering them and nourishing them, taking care of them. And it's good and it is important in every area, the fathers are to bring up their children or nourish them in a right way. If you just look at Chapter 5 for a moment and verse 29 speaking to the husbands, he says, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but he nourishes," the same word, "nourishes and cherishes it." In other words, we nourish ourselves, we cherish ourselves, and therefore the fathers, Paul is saying, are to bring up, are to nourish the children. A time we fail in that and that's why Paul would remind us of it. We need this reminder all the time as we read the word of God. So nourishing speaks of bringing them up, of stimulating them and encouraging them instead of discouraging them.

Thirdly, and I am still in verse 4, the Apostle Paul is now speaking to believing fathers and he says, "Fathers are not only to nourish to bring up the children, but also to nurture them or to chasten, to discipline the children." And here's the verse again in connection with our chapter and I am reading verse 4, "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition," and that word for nurture is chastening, has to do with discipline. The same word is mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 12 about chastening, discipline. Turn with me please to Hebrews Chapter 12 for a moment and verse 5. The writer of Hebrews quoting what Solomon wrote to Israel many years prior to it, and he says in verse 5, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, saying, 'My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,'" here is the same word, chastening, that comes the same word for nurturing, chastening, "the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."

In other words, when we receive discipline from God, we receive discipline because He loves us. He's our Father. When God disciplined His nation Israel, He disciplined Israel because He loved them, He cared for them. Well the fathers are to discipline their children not out of anger, sometimes we have failed in that, but out of love and care because chastening suggests that one cares as a father for his son or for his daughter. And therefore nurturing the children simply has to do with chastening. It is a chastening out of love for the children.

Hebrews 12 and now verse, and I'm continuing on further down verse 7 and 8, "If ye endure chastening," notice the same word, "God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Verse 8: But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." You are illegitimate son or children if you don't receive chastening. So sometimes when we receive chastening from our parents, it is because we needed correction and our parents, our fathers loved us and therefore they have chastened us out of love towards their children.

But here Paul gives to the father a challenge and saying, "Listen, fathers, do not provoke, don't provoke your children to anger, to wrath, but encourage them, build them up, nourish them and nurture them, so there will be a blessing flowing for their children." By the way, the word for nurture in Hebrew is the word "musar." It's found in Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. And it is there that God said to the people of Israel through King Solomon, "My son, despise not the musar, the chastening of the Lord." In Hebrew it sounds "Musar Adonai beni al tima'as." Don't set this aside, recognize that it is the Lord who loved you, who chastened you, who disciplined you because He loved you and He cared for you. So my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. The Lord sometimes have to deal with us as well when we are wrong. As a father He deals with us in chastisement, in musar, in order that we will walk in a way that is pleasing to Him.

So number four now, in verse 4, the fourth thing that he is saying to the fathers, and the fourth thing is that the fathers are to instruct their children as well. Not only to nurture them, to chasten them, but also to instruct them. And here's verse 4: "Fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and," notice the last thing, "the admonition of the Lord." And this is also so beautiful what a blessing it is when the children are being admonished and instructed by the Lord. One of these people that were very much instructed by the Lord and by his parents, specifically his parents, this young man, he was younger than Paul, who was instructed by his own family and that was Timothy himself. And you notice what Paul reminds us of Timothy, if you just read with me 2nd Timothy 3 verse 14, "Timothy, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hadst learned them." In other words, Timothy, you continue to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and now accepting Yeshua the Messiah. Continue because you have learned this and remember who you have learned this from when you were a child.

And then he tells them in verse 15, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua, in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Timothy, don't neglect, remember all what you have learned that now that you are grown up, he is encouraging him to continue on to serve Yeshua the Messiah and he reminding him, "You remember who have instructed you, Timothy. You knew the holy scripture already from a child." And apparently Timothy's grandmother and Timothy's mother, his grandparents they've already instructed him concerning the things of God, the things of the Messiah. And when Yeshua the Messiah came and the gospel had been preached unto Timothy, Timothy have embraced Yeshua because he was prepared already by the scripture. His heart was plowed you might say by the spirit of God, that when the gospel was preached unto him, the spirit of God convicted Timothy and he accepted the Messiah. And now Paul saying to him, "Timothy, you continue, don't be discouraged, you continue to serve and remember where you have learned all these things." The scripture taught Timothy when he was already a young boy in their home.

By the way, Timothy did not have a Jewish father, but he had a Jewish mother. And you can see that even when the time that the father is not a believer, the mother was there and the grandmother was there. And you remember Paul took Timothy and he circumcised him because he was Jewish for the testimony to our nation, the Jewish community. But Timothy was influenced by the scripture already when he was young. Amazing to see this how this person was instructed and so Paul is saying to the fathers not to provoke their children to anger, to wrath, but to instruct them and to encourage them to continue to follow the scripture.

Now one more thing I want to mention in the Psalms, if you turn to Psalm 78, we have an encouragement that were given to Israel and this is helpful for us as well. It is a Psalm that was written by a man by the name of Asaph. And look what Asaph is saying in Psalm 78. Psalm 78: "Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us." Our fathers told us. "We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children." Verse 6: "That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children."

Now you notice there are four generations here. Verse 3, "we have heard it." Verse 3b, "our fathers have told us," already two generation. Verse 6, "that the generation to come," this is the third generation, "they will tell them to their children," here's the fourth generation. From generation to generation to generation to generation. Verse 7 and 8: "That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." You see, among our people there were those who were right with God and there were those who didn't follow God. Same thing with us as believers today. There are those of us who follow in the instruction of the Lord, but there are those of us who don't and that's why Paul is emphasizing so much: children obey your parents, fathers provoke not your children to wrath.

Here's the third group that he is speaking. I'm back in Ephesians Chapter 6 and this time verses 5, 6, 7, and 8 he is speaking to the servants, to the believing slaves. So Paul appeals to the believing slaves to be obedient to their masters. You and I might not apply it to ourselves as we are all servants, we are all have somebody under whom we work for, our bosses, our superiors, and we are all one way or another are servants. We're not slaves like in the Roman Empire there were millions and millions of slaves in the time of the Roman Empire. They say that they have been about six million slaves under the Romans at that time. There were many, many, many slaves. Some of them accepted Yeshua the Messiah. And now because they've accepted Yeshua the Messiah, they become children of God, born again, Messiah followers you might say it in Hebrew, Messiah followers. So what happened now when they became believers? They are now to set an example even though their status didn't change, they remained slaves in the Roman Empire. But they became believers in Yeshua the Messiah, born again.