Genesis 50:20 (ESV) 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
I don't know why I was born healthy and have enjoyed a life of physical and material blessings here in America. I don't know why Moses Kollie was born in poverty in Liberia. I don't know why his mother was killed by rebels when he was only weeks old. I don't know why God let Moses lay trapped under his dead mother for a week causing him to live his childhood with a deformed hand.
All I know is that God is sovereign and God is good.
Moses' visa is expiring so we are taking him back to Liberia on Tuesday. I'll be traveling with Moses from Houston to Chicago to Brussels to Monrovia. We'll meet up with our pastor and another brother from the church in Brussels.
Meeting Moses has changed my life forever. If you've noticed my passion on this blog for the poor in this world, Moses is who God used to light that spark.
When our family took Moses in to live with us for a couple of months, we really thought God was opening a door for us to adopt him. We believed this was God's calling for us to get involved in living out God's love. However, that was not what was in God's plan. You can read more about that in other posts here on Moses.
Moses is a typical 12\13 year-old in a lot of ways. We had our ups and downs adjusting to a teenager in our home but we prayed our way through it and God softened ours and Moses' heart. He'll always be a part of our family. We love him because of who he is and because of how God has used him to change us from the inside out.
I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop but we are pretty sure that God has much bigger plans for my family than we have or can imagine, which is usually the case. Now that I know what I know and have felt what I have felt, there is no going back to life as I knew it. Step one in my journey is my trip to Liberia. I don't know God's end game. I just know He has told me He wants to show me something in Liberia. It might be the people, it might be the poverty, it might just be me.
Please pray for our safe passage to Liberia and back. Please pray for Moses as he leaves this Disneyland we call America and returns to real life in a Liberian orphanage. Pray for God's sovereign will to continue to reign in Moses' life.
And a special prayer...God has brought forward a Liberian couple in our area that has met Moses and wants to adopt him. They have two children in college already and two younger children still at home. There are a lot of obstacles still to be overcome but God is supreme.
I'll be out of blog contact for the next week. I look forward to sharing when I return.
Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV) 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land."
The bible is very clear about admonishing children to obey their parents. In fact, this precept made God's top 10 list. Most people that read this blog may say "Amen" to this commandment, as many of us are parents. But, why is this precept so important to God?
I can think of a couple of reasons. One is that a rebellious heart is a sinful heart and rebellion often starts in the home. While all children of all ages should be obedient to their parents, I think this commandment is especially directed at older children, those that are starting to reach adulthood and starting to think they know more than mom and dad.
God first gave this command to the Israelites. He knew that the new generations would be tempted by the other peoples in their land. He had warned their parents to teach their children about Him and how He led them out of Egypt. However, if the children did not care to listen to their parents, these lessons would be lost. As you read the book of Judges you see this happening on an ongoing cycle.
What about us older children? Do we still honor and obey our parents or are we exempt once we get married and have our own children? I think as mature adults it is easy for us to forget the wisdom of our parents.
The other reason I think this command is so important to God is because if we do not honor our earthly fathers and mothers, we may have a hard time honoring our heavenly Father. How often do we choose our own way over God's ways?
A couple of other points about my thoughts on this passage...
Sometimes, parents can be ungodly parents, even evil parents. It's a sad and shameful reality of our broken world. I had loving parents so it is hard for me to imagine the pain of those whose parents really let them down. I think God would still have us honor our parents regardless of the pain they may have caused. However, I know that is easy for me to say, not having to experience that kind of pain myself.
The other point I want to make about this passage is the commentary added by Paul. He says this is the first commandment with a promise. Just what is this promise?
Some translations like the NIV and even NASB read the promise as, "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." This makes it sound like a promise for a long life if you are an obedient child that honors your parents. However, does this mean that children, teenagers, or young adults that die at a young age were disobedient and dishonoring to their parents?
Paul is quoting Exodus 20:12 here, which is actually being given as the sixth of the ten commandments. The promise is that if the young Israelites obey and honor their parents it will go well for them in the new land. Even in the NIV and NASB the word used is land rather than earth in Exodus. I think this makes the ESV version more accurate and we should assume that Paul is quoting the commandment as stated in the Old Testament.
So the promise is not a long life on earth but a long life in the land. As mentioned above, we find the young Israelites unable to live up to this commandment and all is not well for Israel.
The point is that this is not necessarily a "promise" for every child that obedience and honoring your parents will lead to a long life. An early death does not mean a young person was a rebellious child. That said, I do think this is a Christian principle. A child that obeys and honors his parents will have a life that honors God, regardless of the the number of days on this earth. A rebellious, disobedient child that dishonors his or her parents is more likely to have a life that can lead to an early destruction, again, regardless of the number of days on this earth.
