If
Jesus dropped by your church or home, what do you think he would say? Based on
what we have learned about the Jewish Jesus that founded the Kingdom of God
Movement in first century CE Galilee, it would not be, “Are you saved?”
Instead he would ask:
What are you teaching
your children and grandchildren?
Why
would that be the first thing Jesus would want to know? When God saw that the evil of the man was great
in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil all day long, and that the earth was filled with violence – He
wiped the entire human population (except for one family) off the earth with a
flood. The path that led an entire generation to their deaths can be summed
up in God’s words – “the inclinations of their heart were evil
from their youth.”
In a previous email, Nations
Will Guard the Way of Yahweh With Abraham’s Sons, I discussed why God chose Abraham:
Abraham will teach his children how to guard
the way of God by doing TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT.
A teacher,
in the Hebrew culture, is like a potter who molds and shapes clay
to make things. The teacher molds and shapes the hearts of children. It is
important to understand that in the Jewish culture of Jesus, the Torah
(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) includes laws,
commandments, and instructions – it is a repository of insights from
which wisdom for livings one’s life can be derived. It was the primary
textbook for teaching people that wisdom in the time of Jesus.
Newly born children do not arrive with
instruction manuals. And while hundreds of professions require that you become
pre-certified, a new parent, with no experience at all, is expected to raise a
healthy, productive child by what amounts to on-the-job training. This fact
magnifies the value of shared wisdom among parents, all
trying to do the best job they can. At times, the challenges to succeed can
seem endless.[i]
A
potter must have mental image of what kind of vessel he wants to make. He must
also be able to identify the type of material he will be working with. A
teacher must know the subject matter that he will be teaching. He must also
know the natures of the students he will be teaching. Teaching a quiet shy
child requires a different approach than teaching a charismatic outspoken
child. One
of the great revelations of teaching is that the intervention of a grownup in a
child’s life carries almost as much risk in squashing their ambitions as it
does in nurturing and inspiring them.
My son, hear the
instructions and discipline of your father,
and do not forsake the instructions
and directions of your mother;
for they will be a graceful ornament on your
head,
and decorative chains about your neck.
This
is from Proverbs 1:8-9. God wants every child to be welcomed into the world by
it’s first two teachers – its father and mother. They must discover the
nature of their child before they begin molding and shaping its heart. How
important is this?
Remember
how God described the generation that He destroyed by the Great Flood -- “the inclinations of their heart were evil
from their youth.” God wants the inclinations of children’s hearts to be “good”
from their youth. TOV is the Hebrew word translated
“good” in our Bibles, but “good” does not convey the Hebrew
meaning of TOV to English readers.
For something to be TOV
it must protect lives, preserve lives,
make lives
more functional, and increase the quality of life.
Every
Jewish person, from the time of Jesus until now, knows the verses below from
Deuteronomy 6:4-6:
Hear, O Israel: the
Lord our God. The Lord is one!
You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and
with all your strength.
These words, which I command you
today, are to be in your heart.
The
teacher must have these words in their heart, so he or she will be able to
teach them to the child. Teaching those words begins with teaching children the
meaning of TOV and demonstrating how to do TOV.
This is the first line
of defense in preventing
the destruction of an
entire generation of people.
It is also the
beginning of creating
a society of Peace and
SHALOM for our generation!
Teaching
our children and grandchildren insights from which wisdom for living their
lives can be derived is essential for them and the community. I
will continue this series in my next email.
Choosing
Lives 1st by Doing TOV,
Jim
Myers
Helping People Examine Their Beliefs
● Adopt Shared Morals & Values ● Network to Make SHALOM
● Donate ● Subscribe ● “Like” on Facebook ● Visit our Bookstore
[i] Letters from an Astrophysicist By Neil DeGrasse Tyson © 2019; W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY; p. 60, 89.
No comments:
Post a Comment