Opening Doors That Cannot Be Closed

This past Sunday while on our way home from the kids swim practice, my family stopped to eat out for dinner. In the establishment, there were a couple of televisions and one had two shows, back-to-back, that we do not allow our children to watch.  We monitor what our kids take in at their ages because we firmly believe that they can see and hear things that their brains are not mature enough to process.

On the drive home, this led to a discussion with our kids (who are 14 and 12 respectively) about why we do not allow them to watch certain TV shows and it boiled down to this. There are some things that are shown on TV that may well look innocent, but has adult language and content.  There brains may not be ready to handle that type of information yet, and with children today they look things up.  With the internet, everything is right at people's finger tips to get all the information they want - both good and bad.  One thing can lead to another and the next thing you know, you've gone down a rabbit whole and opened up doors to seeing things that you should not have seen in the first place.  And, once you see something, it is very hard to "unsee" it.

As the parents, we want to help our kids to avoid opening doors that can spiritually, emotionally, and physically have a negative impact on their lives. In Genesis 2:15-17, Yahweh gave specific instructions to Adam about what he could and could not have in the Garden of Eden.  He said,

(15) Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (16) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

This was the Father doing the same job that we as parents try do for our kids, however, we know that life is never simple.  In the very next chapter we see that temptation in the form of a serpent comes and plants doubt into the mind of Eve.  It said, "...You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:4-5).  In her naivety, Eve goes along with it and not only did she eat of the tree, but she then gave it to Adam. Even though Adam was given the instruction, directly from God, HE STILL ATE THE FRUIT!!!

Once they both ate of the tree of knowledge, something immediately happened.  Their eyes became opened just as the serpent said, but they now had to deal with things that they didn't have to worry about before.  When God approached them in the garden, Adam and Eve hid and in Genesis 3:10-11, it says,

(10) So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (11) And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Yahweh knew what they had done because his response was, "who told you that you were naked?"  They covered themselves in shame, but if we go back at the end of Genesis 2 after God had created woman, it said,

"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

If you gloss over the end of chapter 2, you will miss the impact that it has in Genesis 3:10-11.  You see, for us to think about walking around naked today is weird. Even when talking to our kids in the car, our daughter said how strange it would be for everyone to be naked. However, our response was that had Adam and Eve not opened that door, none of us would know any different. We went on to talk about how they hid and tried to cover themselves, but that's when my wife, in her brilliance, recognized something. She said (and I am paraphrasing) that usually when someone does something wrong, they spend time trying to cover themselves. Whether it be to find cover and hide from their actions or to cover up and hide their actions through deception or silence, time is spent doing a cover up. Why would people do this?  It is because they are aware of their wrongs!

By them eating of the tree of knowledge, it opened a single door that led to the fallen state of man today. It started with temptation, but temptation is all around us and it is upon us to recognize it.  Even as adults, it is our job to find the door that God provides to avoid temptation when it comes our way. As a parent, we are to help our kids avoid the pitfalls of life and to keep doors closed that could lead them to knowledge that they are not prepared to handle.  If we ever forget what could happen, we have to look no further than Adam and Eve as an example of what could happen. Some doors may give shiny appetizing reasons to open them, but not all doors are meant to be opened.

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Go Earn It!

In Ruth's time, to go out into the fields to "glean after the reapers" signified that those people went out in the fields after the reapers had gone through to pick up what was left behind.  Those people were poor and working to feed their family. See, in Leviticus 19:9-10, the Lord commanded the farmers to not harvest their entire field, but to leave a corner for the poor. Not only that, but whatever bundles of grain they dropped, they were to leave them for the poor as well.  This was an awesome way of having a farmer to provide for his family, but also left means for the poor to go and work to provide for their family as well. No one gave the poor anything, but they put in the hard work to do so.

When we see Ruth becoming closer to Boaz, he didn't spoil her by giving her anything. Ruth didn't ask for anything either. He still allowed her to work for all the grain she needed for herself and Naomi (her mother-in-law), but was nice in providing extra for her to gather.  Granted, it was the law that said the portion of the field was for the poor, but Ruth didn't feel that she was entitled to it.

Contrast that to today. There is a ton of entitlement going on. So many people feel that they are owed certain things just because.  And to think that today, there are no laws that says that someone owes you anything. The point that I am getting at is that there are opportunities for many to work to provide for themselves. The work may not be elegant or beautiful, but could be rather difficult and ugly labor. Whatever it may be, do what you have to do and go earn it for yourself and for your family because if someone gives it to you, you will not appreciate it.

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Idols Give You False Hope

We as a humans have an innate quality to worship things that give us hope.  This is a good quality but it also is a bad quality. You may be wondering how is it bad, but first let's start with the good.

The good thing about the desire for hope is that it gives us motivation. It drives us to continue in the face of adversity. It allows us to dream even when the dreams seem far fetched. It let us to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) the Christ and understand what Yahweh did so that we could have everlasting life.  God has been trying to have his people love Him,since the beginning of time, but even in the midst of all the miracles the hope we have in Him tends to waiver.

This leads us to the bad quality about worshiping things that give us hope.  In times when it appears that God is silent, we tend to navigate towards things that appear to make us happy. Or, we put things up on pedestals and make them the gods over our lives.  What do I mean by this? Well, I am referring to things such as jobs, money, material things, objects, etc. Anything that takes our focus off the Lord has become our idol and our idols can never save us.

Let's look at Micah in the book of Judges.  In Judges 18:22-24, it says:

(22) When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. 23 And they called out to the children of Dan. So they turned around and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you have gathered such a company?” (24) So he said, “You have taken away my [a]gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. Now what more do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What ails you?’ ”

Now, I could go on with my own explanation here, but I think David Guzik does an excellent job of breaking down these verses and shedding some like on Micah's situation in his Commentary Study Guide on Judges 18. He states:

You have taken away my gods which I made: This is powerful irony. Micah had to rescue his own gods. Obviously, his gods should be able to care for themselves. We wonder if Micah saw the foolishness of this. 

1. We each either worship a god of our own making or we worship the true God who made us. But the gods we make are always less than we are. Idol worship is just another way of worshipping self. 
2. And the priest: Micah was foolish enough to have a priest who could be taken away, and it reminds us of how wonderful it is to have a High Priest who cannot change, and who can never be taken away from us. As F.B. Meyer wrote, “Whatever can be taken from us has the mark and signature of man upon it.” Yet Jesus Christ, our High Priest, can never change; will never leave us out of a concern for someone else; and our sins and failures cannot rob us of Him.

Now what more do I have? This shows how empty Micah’s idolatry was. His false gods didn’t bring him any lasting good.

I think the biggest takeaway here is that your idols cannot save you and that they cannot bring you lasting good. Idol worship is only temporary and if you hope isn't in Christ who can save you, then you will find yourself creating new idols to take the place of the old ones.

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