Is there a right time for the government to parent instead of the parents?

I woke up this morning and before getting started there was a text message about taking away parental knowledge and control of the children. The text was shocking but being political that didn’t surprise me at all and so wanted to check out the bill they were talking about. So I pulled the document from the government website and it had a different tile it was talking about “protected health care” and it took a lot of reading and scrolling to get to the part of the document where it was defined. It was shocking to me that the state would want to be taking away the parental rights when it comes to medical treatment of our kids. It’s probably not the first and probably won’t be the last but it caused me to pause and ask the question “Is there a right time for the government to parent instead of the parents?”

Getting to serve kids who are in the foster care system over the years from young kids and into their teens, I realize there are many reasons why kids are taken from their parents and the government needs to step in like when there are cases when the kids have suffered abandonment, abuse and neglect. The trauma of the abandonment, abuse, and neglect must outweigh the trauma of being taken from their parents and in some cases having their family torn apart. It saddens me that there are so many parents who aren’t being the dads and being the moms their kids needs and that the kids end up suffering through abandonment, abuse, and neglect because of it. It saddens me when the system that was to protect them fails them too. If the government is going to step in for the children and provide protective services, then they should be services that will help and not harm the kids.

So, is there a right time for the government to parent instead of the parents?

Is there a time when parents need to get up and take a stand because the government is overstepping their bounds?

When will parents choose to be the dads and moms their kids need them to be in raising them up and loving them and helping them to become the people God created and purposed for them to be?

When is enough going to be enough? When will parents take a stand for their rights and be the dads and be the moms they were called and created to be for the benefit of their kids and their families?

Are you ready to be the parents you are supposed to be and take a stand for the wellbeing of your kids and family? This isn’t about 1 bill it’s about calling parents to prioritize properly and put first things first! It’s about calling parents to wake up to the day and time we are living in and asking them to choose to be the dads and be the moms God created you to be so that you can be the husband or wife your spouse needs, be the dads and moms your kids, needs and living your lives in a way to be the people this world needs you to be! Will you intercede for parents and their kids? Will you intercede for the politicians so that they will have the wisdom to be able to do what is right?

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Today’s Reading:

• Numbers 14
• Numbers 15
• Psalms 90

My Notes:

It’s important to know when to intercede for people. It’s important to know when to step up and step in for the well-being of others. It’s a prompting from the Holy Spirit that tells us that enough is enough and that we need to step up and step in now.

Numbers 14

• The People Rebel
  • ‘Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” Then Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel. Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothing. They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!” ‘ Numbers 14:1-12
• Moses Intercedes for the People
  • ‘Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” Then Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground before the whole community of Israel. Two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothing. They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!” But Moses objected. “What will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” he asked the Lord. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people from Egypt. Now if you destroy them, the Egyptians will send a report to the inhabitants of this land, who have already heard that you live among your people. They know, Lord, that you have appeared to your people face to face and that your pillar of cloud hovers over them. They know that you go before them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Now if you slaughter all these people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of your fame will say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he swore to give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’ “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’ In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.” Then the Lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it. But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land. Now turn around, and don’t go on toward the land where the Amalekites and Canaanites live. Tomorrow you must set out for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. ” ‘ Numbers 14:1-25
• The Lord Punishes the Israelites
  • ‘Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. “‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness. And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness. “‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!” The ten men Moses had sent to explore the land—the ones who incited rebellion against the Lord with their bad report— were struck dead with a plague before the Lord. Of the twelve who had explored the land, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive. When Moses reported the Lord’s words to all the Israelites, the people were filled with grief. Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us.” But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The Lord will abandon you because you have abandoned the Lord.” But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah.’ Numbers 14:26-45

Numbers 15

• Laws for Canaan – Laws concerning Offerings
  • ‘Then the Lord told Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “When you finally settle in the land I am giving you, you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep and goats. When you present these offerings, you must also give the Lord a grain offering of two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of olive oil. For each lamb offered as a burnt offering or a special sacrifice, you must also present one quart of wine as a liquid offering. “If the sacrifice is a ram, give a grain offering of four quarts of choice flour mixed with a third of a gallon of olive oil, and give a third of a gallon of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a pleasing aroma to the Lord. “When you present a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord, you must also give a grain offering of six quarts of choice flour mixed with two quarts of olive oil, and give two quarts of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. “Each sacrifice of a bull, ram, lamb, or young goat should be prepared in this way. Follow these instructions with each offering you present. All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ‘ Numbers 15:1-13
• Law of the Stranger– Laws concerning Offerings
  • ‘And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, they must follow these same procedures. Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation. The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. “When you arrive in the land where I am taking you, and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the Lord. Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor. Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the Lord each year from the first of your ground flour. “But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses. And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering. With it the priest will purify the whole community of Israel, making them right with the Lord, and they will be forgiven. For it was an unintentional sin, and they have corrected it with their offerings to the Lord —the special gift and the sin offering. The whole community of Israel will be forgiven, including the foreigners living among you, for all the people were involved in the sin. “If one individual commits an unintentional sin, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering. The priest will sacrifice it to purify the guilty person before the Lord, and that person will be forgiven. These same instructions apply both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you. “But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the community. Since they have treated the Lord’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.” ‘ Numbers 15:14-31
• Sabbath-breaking Punished – Penalty for Breaking the Sabbath
  • ‘One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.” So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ‘ Numbers 15:32-36
• Tassels on Clothing
  • ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!”’ Numbers 15:37-41

Psalms 90

• God’s Eternity and Man’s Transitoriness. A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
• A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
  • ‘Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals!” For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury. You spread out our sins before you— our secret sins—and you see them all. We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan. Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. O Lord, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory. And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!’ Psalms 90:1-17

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What can we learn from the Old Testament, inspired by God and showing us the ways humans forget God’s goodness and the benefits of obedience to God’s plans and purpose? How can we respond to the incredible gift given to us who live in the New Testament era with the promises and power of Jesus available to us, calling us to a higher standard built upon the solid rock and powered by love and grace. Are you ready to be the men and women of God and live up to the calling and purpose He has for each of you? Will you answer the call and accept the purpose He has given you single or married, parents or children, young or old, for the glory of God? We each have to choose for ourselves. We each have a decision to make of where we will spend eternity, with or apart from God. Are you ready to receive Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior and be transformed? Are you ready to be born again and start living a new life? The decision is yours! Will you be the dads and moms your kids need you to be? Will you be the men and women this world needs you to be?

Did you read something today that felt like a new revelation? Would you be willing to leave a comment or question? Are you walking your life with God? Have you made the decision to invite Jesus into your life so that you can have the divide covered? Have you invited Jesus to be Your Lord and Savior, paying the ultimate price to cover the original sin for we have all missed the mark, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we all need Jesus, our Lord and Savior to help us be forgiven and reconciled back to God! Could today be your day? Let’s pray: