PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 380: DO YOU WANT TO LIVE A LONG LIFE? Part 1
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 380: DO YOU WANT TO LIVE A LONG LIFE? Part 1
There are seven things which God has given us to do where He promises He will give us a long life if we are obedient to them. Three of them have a double blessing, a double whammy! Join me today to discover what they are!
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! I’ve got a question for you. Can you tell me, and maybe, if children are listening, see if you know the answer. What do we have to do to have a long life?
. . . Oh yes, I know you got it right. To obey and honor our parents. God has promised if we do this, that He will give us a long life. Our lives will be prolonged.
The interesting thing is, ladies, that God doesn’t only give us one promise for that but He gives us two promises. It’s a double whammy! Did you know that? It’s not only having a long life, but we’ll have a good life. Let’s read the Scriptures and see what it says, shall we?
We go to Exodus 20:12: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
We go to Ephesians 6:2, 3: “Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth.” And so, we see that we get two blessings when we obey that commandment from the Lord.
Now I’m going to speak in another podcast more about honoring our parents but I want to give you something here today, because did you know, lovely ladies, that God actually tells us seven different things in the Word of God that will prolong our lives? Isn’t that amazing? Did you know there were seven? OK, well, we’re going to look at them today. But of those seven, three of them have a double promise.
No. 1. HONOR YOUR PARENTS
That has the double promise. That’s really special. It’s very important to honor our parents.
No. 2. THOSE WHO OBEY THE WORD OF THE LORD
We get a double promise for that too. So, let’s look at these Scriptures, shall we?
Deuteronomy 4:40: “Thou shalt keep, therefore, His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee forever.” ***
Go over to Deuteronomy 5:16: “Honor thy father and mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee.” (This Scripture belongs to No. 1). We see it again. Two promises. We’ll have a long life, and a good life. Isn’t that amazing?
Then let’s go over to Proverbs 3:1, 2: “My son, forget not My law, but let thine heart keep My commandments, for length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee.”
We see the great blessings of keeping God’s commandments, of obeying His commandments. That’s where we get a double blessing.
No. 3. PROTECT MOTHERHOOD
This is the third one that has a double blessing. Are you listening for these double blessings, ladies? This one, No. 3, is one you would never think about. Let me take you to Deuteronomy 22:6, 7. You will think, “Wow, this is interesting! How do I get two blessings from God for obeying this commandment?
“If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in any way, or in any tree, or on the ground, whither they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam” (that’s the word em in the Hebrew, which means, “mother.” Here it’s talking about the mother bird. But when we read about the mother in other passages in the Bible, it’s the same word em for a human mother. In fact, Evangeline, our daughter who lived in Israel for many years, usually calls me Ema or Emi coming from “mother” or “mommy.” So, she usually speaks it in Hebrew to me).
“And the dam,” (the mother) “with the young. But thou shalt in any wise let the mother go, and take the young to thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.” So, ladies, we do hear that. We are promised two blessings, another double whammy, for just looking after a mother bird in a bird’s nest. Wow! We would think that’s so insignificant. But God puts such importance on that, that He adds two blessings to those who will protect the mother.
Let me read it to you in a more modern translation, The New English Translation. So, listen to it again: “If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks’ eggs, with the mother bird sitting on them, you must not take the mother or the young. You must be sure to let the mother go. But you may take the young for yourself. Do this so that it may go well with you, and you may have a long life.”
Well, I see two different important things in this passage.
Firstly, that little things are important to God.
We think, “Oh, that’s insignificant!” Sometimes boys will see a nest and they think, “Oh, I’d like to get the bird’s eggs or even the little chicks.” Maybe they would think, “Oh, and I can take the mother bird too.” They just think it’s nothing. But God looks upon this as very important. I’ve written here just a few statements from some of the commentaries that I’ve read on this Scripture.
One commentator writes: “The majestic and the minute are equally under Divine care.” I love that.
Another commentator: “In all circumstances, benevolence to the creature, and obedience to the Creator will increase happiness of life and meet with the seal of heaven.”
Another one writes: “He who wants only to destroy a bird’s nest along with the mother, may one day break up a child’s home. Little tyrannies of childhood explain the great despotism of mature life.”
So, little things are as important as big things in God’s eyes. And we mothers we have a responsibility to teach our children this commandment because it’s very important to God. It has the two blessings that come with it.
Secondly, God watches over mother’s nests.
But the thing that gets me more than the first, I think the most important lesson that we learn from this is that GOD WATCHES OVER MOTHERS.
I love this quote that I read:
“He who guards planets, guards birds’ nests.”
Don’t you like that? The God who created and guards the planets of the universe, He’s watching over a bird’s nests” And God is specifically watching over the mother. This whole passage is all about the protection of the mother. If God is so concerned about protecting a little insignificant mother bird in her nest, how much more the human mother?
You see, the mother bird . . . it is important that she stays in her nest, because she is the progenitor of the kingdom of the bird life. If the mother is taken, well, there can be no more little eggs or little chicks. Of course, even the eggs and the chicks can provide food for people, but the mother, the mother must be protected because the mother is the nest builder. The bird mother is the nest builder. She is the progenitor of the continuation of the kingdom of the bird life.
MOTHER, WE ARE NEST BUILDLERS
What about the human mother? Dear lovely mothers, we also are nest builders. We also are the progenitors of the human race. Without the mother, all life stops. The mother is so important. That’s why mothers must be protected. Even in society, it was always the underlying understanding that mothers must be protected. There was a time when men protected mothers. They defended mothers. They saved mothers from danger. In times of danger, who do they save first? The mothers, and then the children, and then lastly, the men.
We see that this, looking at it and thinking, “Well, this is insignificant,” but it is very big in God’s eyes because He is very concerned about the protection of the mother. I wrote these words down:
“A mother without a home is like a bird without a nest. It is unnatural, and it is unbiblical.”
“Motherhood and home are synonymous. A home needs a mother, and a mother needs a home.”
In Micah 2:9, we read about people who cast out the mothers from the home. It was grievous to the heart of God. Mothers must be kept in the home. They are the nest builders. Amen? So, when in society, we protect mothers, we have God’s blessing. When we do it individually, we have the double blessing of God that we will have a long life, and a good life. Amen.
All right, ladies, well, those are the three with the double blessing. But then there are four more that also tell us that our lives will be prolonged. So, we’ll look at them.
No. 4. SEEK GOD’S WISDOM
Proverbs 3:13-18: “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding . . . Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand, riches and honour.”
Proverbs 9:1-12: we’ll just read a little bit of it. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me, the wisdom of God” (because its wisdom speaking here) “thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life increased.”
The Passion Translation says: “Wisdom will extend your life, making every year more fruitful than the one before.”
So, as it also says in Proverbs 4:7: “With all thy getting, get wisdom.” There are lots of things we want to get. Often, we think, as we look around our home, we think, “Oh, I need that,” and “I need this,” and “I need a new one of that,” and “I need this fixed,” and “I need this better.” Yes, we do. We must keep always watching over our home and fixing things that break. Isn’t it just amazing how there’s always something breaking down, and something needing fixing, which we must attend to?
But with all our getting, what is the greatest thing to get? It’s wisdom. So, we seek after wisdom. When we read in Proverbs (It’s good to read through Proverbs, isn’t it? Sometimes you can take a season of reading a chapter of Proverbs every day because there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. You can take one for every day of the month).
But, oh, there’s so much about crying after wisdom, searching after wisdom, longing after wisdom, seeking after it. It doesn’t just suddenly fall in your lap. You have to seek after it. But there is a blessing of our days being multiplied.
No. 5. WALK IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD
Proverbs 10:27: “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Which do you want? Do you want your years to be prolonged? Well, seek to walk in the fear of the Lord.
No. 6. DWELL IN THE SECRET PLACE OF GOD
Psalm 91:1 says: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” And it ends with a blessing (v. 16): “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”
That is walking and abiding in Him. That’s John 15, isn’t it? “Abide in Me, and I in you.” That is our walk with the Lord. Abiding in Him, letting Him live and dwell and abide in us. Letting Him live His life through our lives. We can do either one of two things. Either we live our own life, and that is usually our fleshly life (what we want to do, and what we feel like, and go by our feelings) or we live the life of Jesus Christ who dwells within us.
What does Galatians 2:20 say? “I am crucified with Christ, Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Every day, most probably throughout the day, we choose: “Am I just going to live my fleshly life or am I going to let Christ, let His life abide in me, and live His life?” That also has the blessing of a long life.
No. 7. CLEAVE TO THE LORD
Deuteronomy 30:20: “Choose life, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him, for He is thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land.”
Another translation says: “Love the Lord your God. Obey Him, and be loyal to Him. This will be your way of life, and it will mean a long life for you in the land.”
WE ALSO BLESS THE NATION IN WHICH WE LIVE
It’s very interesting, that when God spoke all these words to the Israelites, that He mentioned the land, that they would have a long life “in the land” that God was giving to them. These promises are kingdom principles, so they apply to us today. Every one of these seven things that I have given you, they apply to us today. As we obey them, we will receive the blessings of walking in them.
But another thing is that not only will we be blessed with a long life, and a good life, but the land will be blessed. Because “in the land” is mentioned in most of these Scriptures. We also impact the land. We impact the nation in which we live.
When we live by God’s ways, His principles, His statutes, His commandments, which are all for our blessing, when we live by them, when we raise families that live by them, we are then going to bless the communities in which we live, which will then bless the cities, and then bless the whole land. Because, when we get down to it ladies, really, what is a nation? It’s just the families in that nation, and the nation becomes what those families are. If we are walking in God’s ways and raising godly children who will walk in God’s ways, we get His blessings, but we also bless the land. Amen?
All right, those are the seven things that, as we do them, we will receive God’s blessing of a long life.
Now, I want to talk to you more about the very first one that we talked about. That is honoring your parents. Now we all know that Scripture, to honor your father and your mother, and you will live a long life. We know that.
But, ladies, did you know that there is so much more than just that one Scripture? It is amazing. I have, right here in my hands, as I have searched the Word (and as you know, on any subject, I like to go into the Word and see what God says about that subject from Genesis to Revelation). Now I have here eleven pages of Scriptures about what God wants us to do toward parents!
Wow, did you know there was that much in the Word of God? I’m going to take you into it and show you. It will be mainly Scripture. Oh yes, I might get carried away talking about some things, but I’m going to give you mainly Scripture, because this is the Word of the Lord, and this is God’s heart.
When we read the Scriptures, dear mothers, we’re not just reading the Bible, doing our Bible reading for the day. No, we are hearing God’s heart. We are feeling His heartbeat. He doesn’t give us any of these words just for the sake of filling up a Bible. No, He is baring His heart. When we read these Scriptures, realize, dear mothers and children listening (I want all the children to be listening to this series, and the young people), we all need to know what God says, and not only what He says, but to hear His heart.
All right. Under this heading of what does God want us to do, what is our attitude toward parents, this is the number one!
NUMBER ONE. HONOR YOUR PARENTS
OK, we read Exodus 20:12 before.
Let’s also read Deuteronomy 5:16: “Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land.”
That word is used two times in the Old Testament. Then the same command is written six times in the New Testament. It’s not just Old Testament. It’s not just one of the Ten Commandments, ladies. No, this commandment is written six times in the New Testament, more than in the Old. So, eight times altogether in the Bible.
What does it really mean? The word “honor” in Hebrew is kabad. It means, “to be heavy, weighty, to be made abundant, to honor, to glorify.” In other words, parents are not meant to be treated lightly. Honor is a weighty and heavy thing. Honor given to parents should not be light and shallow, but weighty.
Are you getting the message? This is the word God uses. And, as I’ve shared with you before, not only will you have a long life, but it will go well with you. That word “well” in the Hebrew is yatab. It means, “good, beautiful, pleasant, lovely, glad, cheerful,” and a whole lot of other adjectives as well. It adds wonderful blessings to our lives.
Oh, here’s another passage, which we should think about. Malachi 1:6: “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is My honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you.” When God was speaking to the Israelites there, they were not showing Him honor. But how did He come to them and expose this to them?
He said: “Now, if I am a Father, where is My honor?” Because it is intrinsic, it is instinctive in every person to honor their parents. It is there intuitively, to give honor. Sadly, we are living in an age where people don’t often know how to give honor. They’re not even taught how to give honor.
Children aren’t taught how to give honor to their parents, to give honor to older people. Did you know that the Bible says that when an older person walks into a room, that you should immediately stand up to show them honor (Leviticus 19:32)? Does anybody do that today? Well, hardly.
They do in some countries. They do that. They still hold to that, but in the West, oh, goodness me! Who cares about an older person? Take no notice of them. And yet, the Bible specifically says: “Stand up to honor the gray head.” So, He’s saying, “If you will give honor to an earthly father, what are you doing about Me? Because I am your Father.”
The great Bible commentator Albert Barnes writes about this Scripture. “God appeals to the first feelings of the human heart, the relation of parent and child, or failing this, to the natural self-interest of those dependent on their fellow men. A son, by the instinct of nature, by the unwritten law in the heart, ‘honoreth his father.’ If he fails to do so, he is counted to have broken the law of nature, to be an unnatural son. If he is, what by nature he ought to be, he does really honor him. He does not even speak of love, as to which they might deceive themselves. He speaks of honor, outward reference only, which whoso showeth not, would openly condemn himself as an unnatural son.”
That’s pretty powerful, isn’t it? This, of course, speaks of the father and the mother, because in all these Scriptures, God brings the mother along with the father.
But then, some of you may be saying, “Well, OK, that’s all very well, but really, my parents don’t deserve honor. If you only knew what they have done and what they are doing. How do I show them honor?” Well, the Bible doesn’t really give us any loopholes. It says: “Honor your father and your mother.” It doesn’t say whether they’re the best parents in the world, or the most incredible parents, or, oh, they’ve been bad, so you don’t have to take any notice.
No, because God is speaking about honor. The status of father and mother is very weighty and high in God’s eyes because God sees parents in the place of Him. God gives children, and he gives them to parents to raise on His behalf. Sometimes they do not raise them as they should. They don’t raise them according to the ways God wants them to be raised.
God still does not want us to undo the powerful status of fathering and mothering because we are in the place of God. We’re showing what God, the Father is like, what God as a nurturing mother is like. It’s all in God. So, God sees the roles of father and mother as very high. I think when there is behavior in parents that cannot be honored, somehow God can give us the grace to honor who they are, and who God intends them to be. Honor that status of fathering and mothering.
John Piper, who is a current well-known teacher of the Word of God, wrote these words regarding this passage. He says, “Some may say that they do not deserve honor.” John Piper replies, “There is an honor we freely and graciously bestow on the undeserving. We treat them better than they deserve. We assume the position toward them as servants. We exalt them as though they were worthy to be served, when, in fact, they’re not worthy to be served. We bestow a free honor upon them, which is called grace, the way Christ did to us.”
So, if you are in that situation, you may have to have boundaries, but you will seek God as to ways you can honor your parents, your father, your mother. They gave you life. You would not be here if it wasn’t for them. Seek God. Ask Him to show you how you can show them honor. God will give you ways. Yes, there are ways you can honor them. As you honor them, you will be amazed that they will rise to that honor. When they are belittled, they’re going to stay under, but when you honor them, they’re going to rise up to that honor.
All right, ladies, well, we’ve come to an end of this session. We’re going to continue next week, because I have 10 points here of the attitude God wants us to have toward our parents. So, we’re going to continue looking into what God says. There’s so much more to go.
As I leave you today, just remember this beautiful lesson we learned from a bird’s nest, that God wants to protect mothers. If He has written in His Word about the protection of a little insignificant bird in her nest, how much more mothers raising their children in their homes. Oh, God is looking on, and He wants mothers to be protected and defended and cared for.
“Lord, we thank You so much for Your Word, and how we learn from it, and the way You want us to live, and how You feel about things. Lord, we feel Your heartbeat, and we pray that You will teach us, Lord, teach us, so we know Your ways. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”
*** Notice also, ladies, that we see a third blessing in Deuteronomy 4:40, and that is that our children will also be blessed. It is a generational blessing.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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