Family

The Finding Emet radio program is about understanding and living the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The host, Daniel Rendleman, teaches lessons on spiritual topics and offers resources on their website. The importance of the family is discussed, and the impact it can have on future generations. The story of two families is shared to illustrate the difference between a broken family and one grounded in biblical values. The command to be fruitful and multiply is emphasized as a key aspect of Yahweh's plan for families. The importance of bearing the fruit of Yahshua and living according to the Torah is also highlighted. Hello, and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual, including a free online Bible search program or submit your prayer request. www.emetministries.com or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher, Daniel Rendleman, as he helps us find the Emet. After an overnight flight, this mom of many, many kids, she arrived at the Air Force Base in Germany and she had her eight children, all under age 11, if you can imagine. So she's collecting all the suitcases and the nine of them enter into the cramped customs area. We know that's a lot of fun if you've never flown before. And the young customs official watched them in disbelief. And he said, ma'am, do all these children and does all this luggage belong to you? Yes, sir, the mother said with a sigh. They're all mine. So then, of course, the customs agent began his interrogation. Well, ma'am, do you have any weapons, any contraband, any illegal drugs in your possession? And she said, sir, if I had any of those items, I would have used them by now. Isn't that the truth? Isn't that the truth? Sometimes, like mom, it feels like that. Like dad, it feels like that. Sometimes our living quarters resemble a war zone. I don't know about you, but on Shabbat, I try not to clean up. I try not to. I will step over a mess. I'll let the baby's diaper go on for a couple hours. I mean, I'm trying not to do any work. For some reason, my wife doesn't agree with that. But sometimes, I guess not the baby. Shouldn't do that. But instead of a sanctuary, our home seems to be, you ever feel like it was a hotel where people try to hang out, and they drift in and they drift out. They hang their hat and they go their own merry ways. And if you're like me, your childhood was not perfect. Show of hands, whose childhood was not perfect? Who needs to get a check from the government because, okay, you're like me. I mean, I remember my family. My family is very unique. We would get together for family movie night and watch Dirty Dancing. True story. True story. Most of the times, if we got together, we were going to have a family meeting. It was a group therapy session. I mean, really bad. It was so stressful in my house, the cat was on Valium. And you know how cats are kind of laid down. So I remember the day that I realized that our family was not perfect. We all gathered together. We're going to have our family conversation, and it started out with this phrase. Put the gun down, and then we can talk. I mean, it was bad. That was bad. All right. I'm going to stop. Can I stop now? Can I stop one more? It was so bad that my bath toys were a toaster and a plug-in radio. That's how bad my family was. My mother had morning sickness the day after I was born. I'm talking about bad. Anyway, maybe it wasn't that bad. I get no respect. Get no respect. Could it be said, and I think it's true, that most of our homes are not perfect now. They've never been perfect. They're never going to be perfect. But we could use an extreme makeover, biblical style, for our families. And our families, our homes, need to return to the way they were set up by Almighty Yahweh. I want you to think about the words of Rabbi Chaim Gonen. Here's what he said. He said that the family is the core of the Hebrew society and the center of its religious life. If the home is strong in biblical values, stable and healthy, then all the life and all its institutions, religious, educational, and social, will be alive and vibrant. Now, what that means is that the power of a Bible-based home and its influence will affect generations to come. Now, we know this. And who else knows that? Or as Rabbi Moshe Konachowski calls him, S.A.T. Now, he does that because he says that his derriere is going to burn. It's going to be tanned one day. And that since HaSeTan has taken the name of Yahweh from the people, that he is going to defame his name by calling him S.A.T. Now, I like to say HaSeTan, which is the, you could say the correct Hebrew, which means the adversary. Also, HaHaSeTan, laughing in his face. But we know that HaHaSeTan, S.A.T., whatever you want to call him, he knows that the family is important because he's been attacking the family since the very beginning. And he's tried to stop the family's influence to lose its power. Now, I want you to think for a minute about two families. Two groups that were studied together for many, many years. The first one was the Max Jutz family. And Max was an unbelieving man. He married a woman of light character who lacked discipline and principle. And among their descendants, there were 1,200 of them were studied. This was a Harvard study. 310 of them became professional crooks. 440 of them physically wrecked their lives by their lifestyle. 130 of them were sent to the prison for an average of 13 years each. 7 of them for murder. There were over 600 admitted alcoholics. 60 of them became habitual thieves. 190 were public prostitutes. Of the 20 who learned to trade, 10 of them learned their trade in the state prison. And Harvard came to say that this family cost the state of New York at least $420,000. Now, at the same time that this family was growing up, there was another family who they studied was another religious man named Jonathan Edwards. He married a wife of light character. Of their descendants, 300 of them became pastors, clergymen, missionaries, seminary professors. 86 of them became university presidents. 100 became attorneys. 30 of them were judges. 60 were doctors. And 75 authored books. Three of them became United States congressmen. And one even became the vice president of the United States. It's pretty powerful difference there. One family led to total destruction. One family led to just the opposite. Now, in Bereshit, in Genesis chapter 1, in verse 24, it tells us, Let the earth bring forth a living creature after its kind. So wouldn't we agree that like begets like? So if we come from a good family, life seems to be paid with success and happiness. Those with broken families kind of pass along that from their parents. What about us? What about us? We're going to talk about that a little bit. So let's consider the first family. In the book of Bereshit, with Hebrew for the beginnings in Genesis, the original family, the first family, not the Bushes, but the first family, it shows us the plan for the future for all mankind. The very first words, I believe the first commandment given to Adam makes it clear. So turn to Genesis, Bereshit chapter 1, verse 28. And in Bereshit 1, 28, we see this, and it says, And Yahweh blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. So do it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Now many times we hear that verse in reference to the dominion. We hear preachers talk about you've got to have dominion over the serpent. You've got to have power over him. But here it's talking about to be fruitful and multiply. That's key for a family. He didn't say you had to have a budget, though that's a good idea. He didn't say you had to have a fire escape route. That's a good idea. But he told them to be fruitful and multiply. That was the purpose of Yahweh's family. Then it's his purpose today. To be fruitful. Notice he said to be fruitful first, then to multiply. Not just to multiply, multiply, multiply, but be fruitful. Life is not about numbers and material possessions. Fruit should come before growth. So be fruitful. Let's talk about that. When Yahweh instructed Adam and Kava, Adam and Eve, to be fruitful, he used the Hebrew word para. Everybody say para. Say it louder. Say para. Para. All right. That means to grow. That means to increase. To bear fruit like a vine. To bring forth. And it's used many, many times in the scriptures in reference to the fruit of a vine. Now the family is not a vine. But it's to produce the life and the goodness from the vine. Who is the vine? Yahshua. Yochanan, John chapter 15. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Yahshua said, I am the vine. So what is fruit? It's nothing more than the life-giving source or substance from a plant. So our families are to do what? To bear the fruit or the life of the vine. Whatever Yahshua would do is what we should do. Whatever he would approve of is what we should approve of. Amen? Think about that for your family activities for a minute. Would Yahshua be doing that? Would Yahshua be watching that? Would Yahshua allow that? Now, the book of John, John chapter 1 verse 14 says, Yahshua was the word made flesh. Amen? So when we bear the fruit of Yahshua, what are we bearing the fruit of? Torah. If he's the Torah made flesh, to bear the fruit of Yahshua is to bear the Torah. To resemble Yahshua is to resemble his life. So let's put it plainly. Put all that together. The family is to live out the divine will as revealed in the Torah. To be fruitful and multiply means follow Torah. And teach your family to do so. When Yahweh told Adam and Kava to be fruitful, he was telling them to connect to the vine. They were also to multiply. The word for multiply is rabah. Rabah. In this Hebrew word, it means to increase, to excel, to enlarge, to nourish, to store, to shoot out like an arrow, to cast together, to multiply by tens of thousands. So if someone does something for you and you want to say thank you very much in Hebrew, you say todah rabah. Todah is thank you or thanks. And rabah is thank you very, very, very much. It says by the tens of thousands. Thank you to the ten thousandth degree. And then they say you're welcome, which in Hebrew is bevakashah. Bevakashah. That is Hebrew for you're welcome. So you say thank you very much. You say todah rabah and they say bevakashah. There's your Hebrew lesson for today. So the first family is to bear the fruit of Torah and then to multiply it to ten thousand generations. To shoot out like an arrow throughout the generations. Now, wouldn't you agree that as families, as parents, we set examples for our children, I mean? We set examples for those around us. Sometimes the example is good. Sometimes it's not so good. Sometimes I'm like the dad off the Walton television program. Most of the times I'm like Homer Simpson, okay? I will agree. As parents, we set examples. So we've got to connect them, our children, our grandchildren, those around us, and give them a positive sense of what Torah says. Now, many commands in the scriptures, like using the name of Yahweh, like the set-apart feast, it says are to be performed throughout your generations. Do you remember that? This is the essence of biblical faith. It was never meant to change. It was to be passed down to Adam and Kavah and down to Abel and Cain and to their descendants and their descendants and down to Noah, all the way down. It is through reproduction that family lifestyle is passed on. Don't we know about generational curses, generational blessings? Adam and Kavah were to obey and pass that down to their children. What did they do? Disobeyed, brought death, and what did their children do? Cain killed his own brother. Like begets like. And because of that wickedness as it increased, it tells us in Genesis chapter 6, Yahweh says that he was going to destroy the earth. That was with the flood. Remember the flood? Lots of rain. At that point, at that point, Yahweh does something really interesting. In Genesis chapter 8, verse 18, it says that they went into the ark, they went through this, and in Genesis 8, 18,