Standing Between the Living and the Dead

There’s an amazing story from the book of Numbers, which is the fourth of 66 books that comprise the Bible. In it the children of Israel were murmuring and complaining and the Lord decided He’d had enough and was going to wipe out this ungrateful and stubborn people. As a plague began to spread, Moses, the leader of the band of people instructed his chief priest Aaron to go out into the middle of the people and make a sacrifice to the Lord. There, in the midst of this race of people, where Aaron took his stand, the plague ceased. Aaron literally stood between the living and the dead that day. All who were before Aaron in the throng of people died, over 14,000 of them. All who came after Aaron were spared.

Why do I share this story?. Because I am aware that many of us as parents, especially dads, have the same opportunity to stand between the living and the dead. Recently I’ve had conversations with a couple different men, friends of mine, who were raised by alcoholic, abusive men. Their dads were just not so great at being a good role model and showing their own sons what it means to be a man of honor, strength, character and worth. In fact these men, not only had less than ideal dads, turns out that before them, were generations of fathers who instead of passing on traditions of love, acceptance, forgiveness, passed on their own hurt, fears, inadequacies and insecurities. The abuse and neglect went back several generations. So what did these friends of mine do? Somewhere along the journey of their life, they made a choice to be like Aaron and stand between the living and the dead. They chose to say, “I will break the curse, the tradition of failure that I inherited. And I will begin a new tradition, a tradition of blessing my children, of loving them unconditionally and honoring their worth.” Wow! Maybe you are a dad (or mom) who was not raised by Ozzie and Harriet. Your own childhood was marred and scarred by a less than ideal parent. So what will you do with that loss and pain? Will you pass it on? Why not? Society expects you to. I mean, nobody would blame you for being a dysfunctional parent knowing the dysfunctional childhood you experienced. But thank God that with His help, each of us can make a choice. Each of us can choose to break the generational curse of abuse and neglect and choose to live our lives as an offering to God, standing between the living and the dead, so that our children, and their children, and their children’s children, can inherit a heritage of blessing, love, acceptance, forgiveness and joy.