Making It So That Our Children Can Flourish At Home
“Yahweh bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!” (Jeremiah 31:23b)
“Thus saith Yahweh: A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith Yahweh: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith Yahweh, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. Thus saith Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim of Israel: As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.’ And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17, 21, 23-26)
What an amazing thing it would be to have a dream such as Jeremiah had in this passage! Truly, I would say, “My sleep was sweet unto me!” following such a vision.
1. We see two contrasts in the first part of this passage – children inhabiting the land of the enemy, and children coming again to their own border. We live in a society in which it is considered the norm for our children to inhabit everyone else’s borders. We need to stop and think seriously about this. Would the Israelites have sent their children to the Philistines to be babysat and educated? Would it have been “normal” for all the Israelite children to cross the border into Philistine territory every morning, so that they could learn to read and write and grow up knowing how to “socialize”? Of course this sounds preposterous! And yet this is exactly what is happening in this culture. Families who are seeking after truth and justice are led to believe that it is normal and necessary to send their children to the wolves for their education and socialization. This is wrong! We are casting our children into the land of the enemy! I recently read that the best thing that parents can do for their children while they are at school is pray for them. Now let’s pretend that America is at war with another country, and that we send our children over to the other side every day to be educated. And the best thing we can do is pray for them while they are there? No, I think we would all agree that the best thing we can do is not send them there. This is the decision we need to make for our children. The battle that we are in is far more critical than a physical battle between nations could ever be. It is a spiritual battle. We cannot send our children into the borders of the enemy to be educated, and expect that they will come out without any damage. What a beautiful verse we see here in Jeremiah though, where we read that “thy children shall come again to their own border”. This is the theme of the homeschooling movement. We want to see our children flourish in their own borders.
2. The next section of this passage, though, reveals to us one essential key to our children being truly able to flourish in their own borders. Immediately following the promise of our children being able to return to their own borders, Yahweh directs us, “Set THEE up waymarks, make THEE high heaps: set THINE HEART toward the highway, even the way which THOU wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these THY CITIES.” (While the following thoughts may not be the exact context of this passage, these truths are definitely things that can be gleaned from these verses.) Not only do we want our children to be at home, we need to turn OUR OWN HEARTS back towards our homes. As fathers and mothers, our homes need to be important to us. Our families need to be important to us. Merely bringing our children into their own borders will not guarantee that they will flourish. We need to turn our own hearts towards loving our homes and families. Our children will not thrive at home if Dad’s and Mom’s hearts are not there. If we want to see our children blossom and flourish within their own borders, our hearts and lives need to be passionately involved in the family and home. Our children need to be able to grow up feeling security, love, protection, fulfilment, purpose, and happiness.
3. I particularly like this blessing: “Yahweh bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.” Different versions have varying wordings of this blessing. “Yahweh bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness.” “Yahweh bless you, O righteous home, O holy mountain.” “Yahweh bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.” “Yahweh bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy hill.” These words of benediction fall like soft refreshing rain from the pages of Scripture, encouraging and inspiring us. This is what Yahweh wants our homes to be! This is exciting! This is something worth striving for! Our homes can be righteous and holy places of justice. Our homes can be Yahweh’s habitation. Our homes can be lovely places. Do we want Yahweh’s blessing? This should be one of the greatest things we are seeking after for ourselves and our children. May our homes be pleasing to Him, so that His blessing may abide there.
4. Near the end of our Jeremiah passage, we see mention of the shepherds going forth with their flocks. Let us remember that our children are our flocks, and as guardians of their souls, we are the shepherds Yahweh has set over them. Scriptural parenting is not the priority in our culture. There are many other directions in which our society would like to pull us, to distract us from pouring our hearts and lives into the next generation. Do we remember that in the Egyptian mentality, shepherding was considered disgraceful? “And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? that ye shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” Do we care more about the Egyptians’ (or our worldly society’s) opinion, or do we care more about Yahweh’s opinion? Would we rather flock with the Egyptians and have our homes be full of darkness, or would we rather embrace the shepherding that Yahweh has appointed us to do, and dwell in the land of Goshen, where our habitations shall be illuminated with His light? "There was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." (Exodus 10:22-23)