L’dor v’dor
Shabbat , August 26, 2006
Our sense of God’s purposes and destiny for us and for our children take root and bloom as we become aware of God’s workings in covenant down through the ages.
- The Jewish people are intimately connected with the generations past and yet to be.
- That is because God wants us to remember him, l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation.
- Turn to Exodus 3:15
“ God said further to Moshe, "Say this to the people of Isra'el: 'Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [ADONAI], the God
of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz'chak and the God of Ya'akov, has sent me to you. 'This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation.'”
- In this verse HaShem declares his name—which is why we call him HaShem, the Name.
- But how else does HaShem identify himself? As the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz'chak and the God of Ya'akov.
- He is the God of our fathers, the God who is to be remembered from generation to generation, l’dor v’dor.
- We tend to stress over what is happening at the moment or last month or next month.
- “ Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. ” Psalm 144:4.
- HaShem is calling into being a kingdom of priests that endures from generation to generation.
- If we have His perspective, we might think and act differently. V’eemru?
My sermon today again draws material from Keith Intrater’s book Covenant Relationships.
- Keith now goes by his Jewish name, Asher, and ministers in Jerusalem with Dan Juster’s support.
- Dan was Asher’s mentor at Congregation Beth Messiah in Rockville, MD.
- Specifically, I will be looking at the first of three chapters on Family Priorities.
Asher used to think that putting emphasis on one’s family was a diversion from the kingdom of God.
- Why would he have thought that?
- As Yeshua said, “ If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children,
his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid [disciple].” Luke 14:26
- Asher was radical for Yeshua—he still is!
- However, every word of God must be compared with the rest of Scripture.
- The fifth of the Ten Commandments is to honor your father and your mother.
- Yeshua isn’t canceling what was written with the finger of God.
- Rather, he is declaring what the first and utmost priority of his talmidim must be.
- First and above all, we must love God with all our heart and soul and strength.
- There is nothing that can compare with HaShem, the Creator of all.
- And there no-one that can compare with Yeshua the Messiah. V’eemru?
- The ultimate and only priority is: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
Nevertheless, Asher came to understand that if we see commitment to the kingdom of God as being faithful to God’s covenants and promises, then commitment to one’s family becomes a direct expression of one’s kingdom of God priorities.
- Yeshua wants to redeem and save whole families.
- Indeed, that was the testimony of Rabbi Frank Lowinger in a message he sent to the IAMCS Rabbis forum yesterday:
- “I've been hesitant to tell of a great miracle for fear that it may sound boastful. I write now asking for prayer cover as this miracle continues to unfold before my eyes. During Messiah 2006, someone exhorted us to believe God for entire families coming to faith, not just individuals. I can't remember who it was, it may have been Jeff Forman. On Wednesday I followed up on a lead from a woman wanting me to visit a Jewish friend dying of cancer. The man is at home under the care of hospice. Not wanting to walk into a tense situation I called the man’s wife for permission to come to their home. She was very grateful that I come. After some small talk, the conversation turned to Messianic Jewish faith. With God's guidance the conversation turned to salvation and the need for Yeshua and atonement. In the room were the man’s wife, sister, mother in law and a son. As I prayed a prayer of repentance, forgiveness and receiving of Yeshua, everyone in the room gave their hearts to the Lord. All were in tears and all were amazingly changed. Never have I ever experienced something like that before. But the story gets even better. I just received a call from the dying man’s brother thanking me for being such a comfort to his brother and wanting to meet me. Similarly, the sister's husband, another Jewish man also wanted to be there and it is escalating! I have to ask myself "is this really happening"? God had increased my faith now to believe for families coming into the kingdom and I'm desiring that He will increase my boldness.”
- Baruch Hashem! Frank has experienced what Paul and Silas declared to the jailer in Acts 16:31, “ Trust in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved - you and your household!”
- The Spirit of God wants to save and redeem whole families. V’eemru?
The Spirit of God sees the family as a mini-congregation, with the father as the pastor or priest.
- Turn to Malachi 2:14-15.
- Marriage and children are high priorities in the kingdom of God.
“ The LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. ”
- The wife of one’s youth points to a faithfulness over one’s whole life, from youth to old age.
- HaShem calls the husband and wife to covenant faithfulness.
- It was by covenant that the woman became the man’s wife.
- A “marriage made in heaven” is not based upon feelings of romantic attraction, but on the solid rock of covenant.
- Just last week, I was sharing stories about our marriage with Richard and Sandy and Diane.
- I knew that Pamela was falling in love with me six weeks before she did—and I told her, I wasn’t really interested! I just wanted to be friends.
- But the Lord new better. About 15 months later, after he made it abundantly clear that he had brought Pamela into my life to be my wife, I proposed to her, on the first hour of spring, 1982.
- And the Lord had fun with me. I actually fell in love—had that rush of romantic feelings for Pamela—six weeks after I proposed to her!
- So HaShem made two rather different people one flesh.
- I love telling that story. But the moral of the story is that we knew that God called us together, and we’re still together—24 years next weekend—because of HaShem’s covenant faithfulness.
- Not only that, HaShem has renewed the wife of my youth! Just look at her!
Men: we are not to violate the vows of our marital covenant.
- If we treat our wives treacherously, we have violated a fundamental covenant and have disqualified our integrity before God.
- If we are to be successful in spiritual life, we must be faithful in our marriage relationship.
God’s stated purpose in marriage, according to Malachi 2:15, is to bring about godly offspring.
- Raising children who follow in the heritage of covenant faithfulness is immensely important.
- Biblical covenants depend on transgenerational commitment.
- HaShem wants to transfer His covenant promises from generation to generation.
- He Genesis 17:7, HaShem declares to Abraham: “ I am establishing my covenant between me and you, along with your descendants after you, generation after generation, as an everlasting covenant, to be God for you and for your descendants after you. ”
- L’dor v’dor: when God makes a covenant with humanity, it is promise with benefits that is meant to last for more than generation—indeed, God’s plan is that the promise will increase and multiply, as we are fruitful and multiply—passing the heritage of his covenant on to our children.
- Yet they say, “God has no grandchildren.” What does that mean?
- Each generation must reconfirm the covenants with God.
- So the covenant HaShem made with Abraham, he reconfirmed with Isaac, and then with Jacob.
- And they are remembered for receiving the covenant with HaShem, bearing fruit and multiplying.
HaSatan is the adversary of the seed of the promise.
- If he could ruin the children of the covenant, he would foil God’s plan for the earth.
- Generation after generation, HaSatan attacks the children of the covenant.
- Pharaoh ordered the massacre of the male babies—yet Moshe was raised in Pharaoh’s own house!
- Herod ordered the massacre of male babies in Bethlehem—yet Yeshua escaped to Egypt!
- In modern times, the Holocaust, abortion, drug abuse, suicide bombers and rockets hitting civilians are aimed at destroying the inheritors of the everlasting covenant.
- HaSatan is cruel and wicked, but his schemes will all ultimately fail, because HaShem’s covenants will endure to a thousand generations!
God made a covenant with King David.
- David wanted to build a house for God. HaShem promised that David’s temple would be built.
- In the Spirit, the temple was established at the moment that God made that promise with David.
- When Solomon built the temple, he was keeping the covenant of his father.
- It was the greatest thing that Shlomo did.
- He fulfilled his calling and destiny, fulfilling the covenant promise of his father.
- We gain revelation about our calling and ministry in the Lord if we respect and honor our parents.
- When I was a young man, I had negative attitudes towards my father.
- Then the Lord gave me a dream about my Dad, and after I woke up, the Ruach made it very clear that he wanted me to honor my father, on his birthday, by telling him what I respected about him.
- When I did, I came to appreciate the character traits that my father has passed on to me: his faithfulness to the wife of his youth, providing for his children, his basic honesty and integrity.
- Once I appreciated my heritage from my Dad, the Lord could develop them as strengths in me.
- “ He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” Malachi 2:6.
Through covenant, God redeems physical families.
- So Rabbi Lowinger is discovering anew!
- May HaShem opens doors for us with our own children and parents! V’eemru?
Through covenant, God also creates new, spiritual families.
- David illustrates this reality in his relationship with Mephibosheth.
- Remember him, Ranj? From the early days of Beit Simcha him as “Mr. Smith.”
- You can read about Mr. Smith or Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9.
- Mephibosheth was a son of Jonathan, the son of King Saul.
- He was crippled in his feet and lived in obscurity and disgrace.
- When Jonathan & David made their covenant, they promised to be loyal to each other’s children.
- After Jonathan’s death, David searched to find if one of Jonathan’s children was still alive.
- In 2 Samuel 9:7, David says to Mephibosheth: “ Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
- David directed special attention toward Mephibosheth “for your father’s sake.”
- In other words, David wanted to be faithful to his covenant promise. That was his character.
- That was why HaShem called David “a man after my own heart.”
- So David treated Mephibosheth as he would his own son, expanding the heritage of a covenant relationship to the next generation: l’dor v’dor.
In Yochanan (John) 19:26-27, Yeshua did something amazing—he established a new spiritual family.
When Yeshua saw his mother and the talmid whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Mother, this is your son." Then he said to the talmid, "This is your mother." And from that time on,
the talmid took her into his own home.
- Though Yeshua was stripped, beaten and hanging on the cross to die, he provided for his family, and the next generation.
- Though Miriam had other children—indeed Yeshua’s brother Yaakov eventually became the head of the congregation of believers in Jerusalem—Yeshua declared that Yochanan was her son.
- Though Yochanan had his own mother in Capernaum, Yeshua asked him to provide for his family.
- Thus Yochanan his beloved talmid would become the goel or kinsman-redeemer for Miriam.
- By establishing covenant relationship between Miriam and Yochanan, Yeshua created a new spiritual family—the nucleus of the new family of God.
- That’s why Paul could say of Gentiles, who had been “foreigners and strangers from the covenants of promise,” are now “the family of God.” Ephesians 2:12, 19.
- That’s why we call the members of Beit Simcha our mishpochah—the Hebrew word for family.
- V’eemru?
- Indeed, my own family is a spiritual family, since Pamela and I adopted both Adam and Abigail.
- When I asked my children last night what they liked about our family, Adam observed that we are special because we all came from different physical families. HaShem has made us one family.
- So we all have been adopted as God’s children, and have become one family, through the New Covenant of Messiah Yeshua. V’eemru?
Asher describes his relationships with the children of his special covenant brothers,
including Paul Wilbur and Eitan Shiskoff.
- Eitan’s older son is David.
- David was a student in the believers’ high school where Asher was principal, in Maryland.
- Asher remembered David as a particularly spiritual, well-behaved, and intelligent young man.
- In the pages of his book, Asher speaks of a kinship with David, knowing that their lives are to be bound up in a united purpose for a long time in the future.
- The book was published in 1989, 17 years ago.
- Today, David partners with Asher in the ministry of Revive Israel, in Jerusalem.
- I look forward to meeting them when we visit in October.
Even more, I desire to walk in their footsteps, with our children.
- That’s why I am delighted that Adam to play the bass for our worship team.
- That’s why I am looking forward to Joy’s bat mitzvah—a week before our trip to Israel!
- That’s why we will devote much of this afternoon’s annual congregational meeting to discussing our vision for our children in the congregation, seeking practical ways to be more effective
in passing on a heritage to them: l’dor v’dor.
V’eemru?
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