A Stiffnecked People
By Kathryn Taylor
The more I read God's word, the more I am sure that He knows how
we feel when we deal with our hard-to-love, RAD, and other
frustratingly diagnosed children. In our family Bible reading about
the Israelite's exodus, a certain situation got my attention.
Moses had been up on the mountain for 40 days getting the Ten
Commandments from God. God tells Moses that the people are down
below being wicked. He is furious and tells Moses that He is going
to wipe them all out. He wants to bless Moses' offspring instead,
and just forget those rebellious, stiff-necked people. But, Moses
begs God to reconsider, and asks Him not to react in anger towards
them. He reminds God that the world has seen Him deliver His
people. What would they think if He destroyed them now? God
Concedes. Moses heads down to confront the people. Then, when Moses
arrives and sees what those Israelites are up to, he gets irate ……………
then intercedes for them, and shows them the path to repentance.
It is not very often that you hear this side of God preached
about. Yet, time and time again, situations like this arose. What
does this say about the character of God? What does God want us to
learn from it? Why didn't God just make them obey? Why did He get
so frustrated? I don't know all the "whys" and "wherefores" of God,
but I do believe that God does understand when we feel that way,
because He felt that way too. I do not think that God wants us to
feel like that about our children, anymore than He wanted to feel
that way towards His. It is human nature to hate what our children do
in rebellion. It is frustrating when our children continually turn
from the path which we know to be right. We are angry because we
cannot force good behavior and obedience from our children. God was
angry because he would not force it. He wanted them and us to freely
choose it.
I see ourselves in the position of Moses, as well. The
Israelites grumbled and rebelled against God and Moses. They wished
for bondage rather than obedience. They wished for slavery rather
than godliness. They grumbled rather than were thankful. They
doubted rather than trusted. Even after all God did to prove his
love for them, they could not, or would not, trust him. Our children
are this way towards us. We are hurt because they will not trust
us. We are upset because they refuse to see what we have sacrificed
for them. We are angry because they are ungrateful for what we have
given them. We feed them and they are unappreciative. We clothe
them and they ruin and soil them. We protect them and they want
others to believe we are their abusers. We guide them and encourage
them. We try to show them the Promised Land while they long for the
desert. Time and time again, Moses interceded for the Israelites,
even when he was upset with them. I think God wants us to be that
for our children. That is what Christ is for us. Moses continually
asked God, "Why did you have me lead them out of bondage for this?
What was the point? They grumble against me. They grumble against
You. I do not understand." Despite it all, Moses brought God's word
to the people. Moses confronted the people when they rebelled.
Moses interceded for them before God. Moses spoke truth into their
lives. Moses judged their disagreements. Moses showed them what to
do to repent. That is our role as parents for our challenging
children, as well as our obedient children.
But, we also must remember that we too, like Moses, are disobedient
with God at times. We doubt, we grumble, we complain, we do not
trust Him, we pull away, and we try to live our lives without his
help at times. Think of it, forty years is more than two lifetimes
of raising a child. Yet, I carry on thinking I cannot survive ten.
What I need to do is stay close to God, above all else. I need to
trust my life to Him knowing He wants what is best for me, even if I
cannot see it. I need to be Moses for my children. I need to
believe that despite my suffering, despite my circumstances, God is
leading me to the Promised Land. God does love and care for me. I
am wandering in the desert, and God is waiting to see if I will
blindly obey Him, or whine and complain.
May we burn up our children's idols of fear with our love, and
grind it to powder, casting it onto the water of everlasting life
that when they drink it, it will restore them. Like Manna from
heaven, May God send people into our lives to encourage us, help us
manage our children, and give us relief. May He give us faith to
strike the rock of living water to quench our thirst for love and
acceptance. May He give us courage as we defeat the enemies that
come against us. May He give us vision to follow the pillar of cloud
by day, and the pillar of fire by night. May He give us wisdom to
stand in the midst of the spreading disease of anger and fear, with a
serpent raised upon a pole. May our goal in life be to enter the
Promised Land with our loved ones who will follow, and may we not
fear the giants in the land.
Ex 32:7-20
7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people,
which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves:
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded
them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and
have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel,
which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold,
it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against
them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great
nation.
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy
wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out
of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he
bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them
from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of
this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou
swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your
seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of
will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his
people.
15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables
of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both
their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the
writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he
said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery,
neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the
noise of them that sing do I hear.
19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that
he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he
cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the
fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and
made the children of Israel drink it.
