Be Encouraged and Lead

Help Them Know

 

Nehemiah continues to challenge and inspire me.  The heading right before chapter 8 verse 13 puzzled me. I read “Feast of Booths Restored” and about the people being told to cut branches of leafy trees and build booths. I wondered the meaning.  I looked deeper and read the referenced passages in Leviticus 23.  The booths were a temporary shelter, representing the dwellings the children of Israel lived in while they were in the wilderness, while they wandered 40 years.  Nehemiah told the people living in the rebuilt Jerusalem to bring back the Festival of Booths.  This was to remind the people of God providence, guidance and corrective hand.

 

It was a campout for the whole nation.  They set up their little makeshift wigwams on the rooftops, in their courts, the courts around the temple and in the square by the gates. You know the kids were loving it, or at least the boys.  Going out with dad to cut down and haul back the branches, asking why and learning about the ways God worked.  The kids probably ran around comparing their booth to those of their cousins and friends.  The probably annoyed their mom and dad by getting in the way and running around waving branches instead of helping. How many of us loved to set up a “tent” under the dining room table then playing for hours?  We’ve let our kids make tents with bed sheets across chairs or over a table.  We even let them set up a camping tent in the house.  They run from their bedroom to the tent with favorite toys or books.  I bet the kids loved the Festival of Booths for some of the same reasons.  I’m sure the mom’s were not as thrilled….great, camping out for a week when I’ve got all my cooking stuff set up in the house.  But they understood it was important.  The parents knew in this week their children, while running around being kids, would catch some of the message.  They would learn how their ancestors were lead long ago by Almighty Jehovah God out of bondage in Egypt to the promised land. 

 

I think sometimes our understanding of time passage in the Bible is not clear.  It had been about 1000 years since Moses lead the people out of Egypt.  1000 years, that is a really long time.  For us it has been just over 200 years since our nation declared independence from our mother country and around 400 years ago is when settlers arrived.  It had been 1000 years since the Festival of Booths had been celebrated.   During the exodus from Egypt the people lived in very temporary housing so they could be on the move when needed.  There was nothing really special about the booths, the tents, the temporary housing that Nehemiah’s followers built in Jerusalem. It was just a physical, practical tool that God told them to use to remind the generations to come what had happened and how God took care of the people, why the people had to remain in the desert for 40 yrs and how God faithfully lead them into Canaan.  Why do we say they wandered for 40 years.  I always thought they were lost, wandering around.  They weren’t wandering, they were in time out.  A biggo 40 year timeout in the desert. 

 

This Festival of Booths was a 7 day deliberate departure from the everyday routine to teach their children and remind themselves about God’s love, mercy, guiding hand, justice, forgiveness, faithfulness and sovereignty.  They could not work for the first 2 days of the celebration. Much of the days were filled with prayers and special meals.  It was a special time each year to teach, in a very unique way. about what God had done.  It surely made a lasting impression on the children.  God made these festivals, feasts and  holidays for very specific reasons – to have the people stop the every day life and remember, confess, repent, praise and worship. 

 

We have got to make time with our families to teach them.  I have always struggled with this.  As a small child, younger than 2^nd grade, I remember my family having devotion time together.  I remember mom sitting on the couch with my older brother and me reading Bible stories to us.  I remember the whole family kneeling around the living room praying.  It was very structured.  My mom died, dad remarried and none of that was ever repeated or even talked about. I never experienced family devotion time as an older child or teenager. My wife and I tried several times to get the kids together and study the Bible.  It was not easy and normally did not go well due to my own ideas.  I was unrealistic.  I had in mind a high school or college type Bible Study.  What I planned never made sense for a family setting with young kids.  All I knew was a sit down Bible Study: get out your pen and paper and discuss.  I can’t tell you how many years I was so frustrated because I could not teach my children all the great stories of the Bible and things God was teaching me because they would not sit still, be quiet and listen.  Finally I just let go and prayed and prayed and prayed.  I was burdened about it.  God please use me, somehow.  Maybe my ideas are not the right way for my family.  Show me how to do it.  I want to teach them about You and Your Word.  But how?

 

Then one day it just happened.  A simple question about what they learned at church or question about a Bible story came up and it hit me….car time.  That time, whether 5 minutes, 20 minutes or an hour when you are in the car heading somewhere to do something can be a great time to talk about God.  Sometimes I’ll turn off the radio or cd and just talk about what God is doing in our family or with friends or ask the kids what things they want me to pray about for them or tell me about a friend at school.  For a while I was telling them Bible stories in chronological order through the Bible.  They loved that.  The older they get the tougher it gets to pull them into a discussion.  Now that one is driving himself everywhere, he and I have to make different time. 

 

I know that when we get home from where ever we’ve been it will all be craziness in the house.  But in the car I can have their attention.  Instead of getting mad because we don’t have a structured family time with God, I have learned to look for time in other places of our routines.  Sometimes it is with one child, sometimes it is with all three.  Sunday mornings can be a tough time to have a meaningful discussion.  They are all sleepy and grumpy.  But coming home from church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening are great times.  It may take 15 questions to just get a few answers out of them about what they did in Sunday School, but it is worth it.  You are showing them that discussing what they learned is important to you.  You are showing them that they are important to you. 

 

Deuteronomy 6:7 says we should teach our children God’s ways “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  This sounds to me like you should have discussions about God whenever, wherever and often.  For us that verse means on the way to WalMart, on the way to church, on the way to school or sports or music practice.  Don’t let those little times get by.  We all learn in small doses. 

 

Maybe we’ll set up a tent this weekend in the living room and have our own Festival of Booths.  I’m all for it.  I know the two little kids will jump on board…..getting my 17 year old to buy in and my wife…that might be a different story. 

 

Guys we must lead our families. The point is simple.  Take those deliberate steps, even if they are awkward and uncomfortable- teach your family.  It will not happen unless you MAKE it happen. 

 

Lead others to Him,

Philip Buford