PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 430: GUARDING THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 430: GUARDING THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE
Today we begin a new series discovering the Hebrew word shamar, which means "to guard, preserve, watch over." What is the first thing God wants us to guard? Check it out.
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: Hi, ladies! Well, last week we finished our series, “The Flourishing Mother.” I hope you were able to listen to all those podcasts. I trust that they have helped you to become a flourishing mother.
Now I’m going to start a new series today. But first, I thought I would talk to you about all the amazing words that God uses to call our children. Beautiful words like “arrows, blessings, princes, rewards.” Even “gold” and over 20 different amazing words.
But then I realized I had already completed this series with you, and I’d forgotten. Well, if I’d forgotten, you maybe have forgotten too. So, if you never got to listen to that series, you can go back. It’s podcasts 297 - 306. And then I noticed that I’d also talked about it way back in podcasts 63 and 64, so you can go back and listen to those. They’re worth listening to.
But there is one word that the Bible doesn’t use that we use very frequently today. And that’s the word “kids.” That’s the most common word for children today. Most mothers call their children “kids” when they’re talking about them or if they’re talking to them. And I have to admit that way back in the early days, I used to do the same. It shows us how we are so easily influenced by society around us.
But it’s not actually a Bible word for “children.” I first was awakened to this years ago, when we were living in Australia. I was reading an article about a New Zealand farmer. We actually originally come from New Zealand. This farmer had diversified from sheep farming to goat farming.
He said in this article that he noticed a big difference in the way the mother goats mothered their little ones compared to sheep, and how the goat mothers would often leave their little kids on the knoll of the hill. Off they’d go to forage, just leaving them there. And then, eventually they would come back to them. But they never stayed with them all the time.
When I read that, my ears pricked up! I began to think that before I got carried too far away, I thought I’d better talk to my father. My father was not a goat farmer, but my father was a sheep shearer, and he knew sheep. He sheared over a million sheep in his lifetime. He was the champion shearer of the world in his day.
I said to him, “Is it true?” And he said, “Oh, yes.” And he said, “What’s more, Nancy, an ewe (a mother sheep) will never go any further than earshot from her little lambs.” As I understood this, I thought, “Oh! Is this why, in our society today, that mothers called their children ‘kids’?” We’ve become goat mothers, because so many mothers today will leave their little ones, even their babies! They take them to daycare, or leave with someone else, or even with grandma for the day while they go and do their thing or do their career.
Now that is goat mothering. It’s not sheep mothering. And do you remember, of all the animals in the whole wide world, God chose to call us His sheep. He doesn’t call us by the name of any other animal, but He calls us His sheep. “My sheep . . . the sheep of My pasture . . . My sheep hear My voice.” We are His sheep and His lambs.
I can remember back in New Zealand, I remember one time, I thought, “I want to get a lovely picture of a little lamb nursing from the mother and take it back to the USA where we live now because a lot of people here don’t know a lot about sheep. So, I was getting up close to take this picture, and this sheep began to run away because she didn’t want to be around a human. But I noticed that she stopped and came straight back, because even though she was afraid of me, she would not leave her little lamb. She stayed by her.
But anyway, go back and listen to those podcasts. Can I give you a little challenge? If you're not aware of the challenge, do you think it would be a good idea to stop calling your children “kids”? Because it’s not a biblical word. It’s actually a very humanistic word because the character of the goat is opposite to the character of the sheep.
The goat is very independent and very proud. If you've ever had anything to do with goats, you’ll know they always want to be standing on the topmost thing because they’ve got to be ruling the place.
It’s interesting too. Let me take you, I won’t get too long on this, but just a little reminder about it in Matthew 25:31 at the end of time: “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall he sit upon the throne of His glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
“And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
But then, we go over to verses 45 and 46, talking about the goats. It says: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” And so, we see here how God separates His sheep from the goats.
Dear ladies, when I realized, wow! Why are we calling our children “kids” when that’s goat mothering? I decided I was going to kick that habit, and I did it cold turkey. I actually stopped immediately because I realized I did not want to be part of goat mothering. And so, you can kick it cold turkey. Some people, it takes a little bit longer. But I challenge you to stop calling your children “kids” because whatever words we use, they have impact upon our children’s character.
Now, the most common word for “children” in the Bible is “children.” That’s the Hebrew word ben. It literally means (you can go to the Strong’s Concordance, and you will read) “the builder of the family name.” Isn’t that a wonderful meaning? Because that’s what our children are. They’re helping to build the family and build the family name.
Tell your children what it means, and start calling them “children.” Start calling them your “rewards” and your “blessings” and, of course, you can use your own endearing names, like “my darlings,” and “my precious ones,” and “my little lambkins,” and whatever lovely names you want to call them. Anything is better than “kids.” OK?
So, the new series that I’m going to start sharing with you is something I’m studying in the Word myself at the moment. And, of course, I love to share it with you. It all began with my reading again Genesis 2:15, where God put the man in the garden. It says here: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
Last session, I was sharing with you how I looked up the Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible and found out that it says therein the Hebrew, because I checked the Hebrew as well, that God put the man in the garden for rest. Another version says: “And God rested the man in the garden.” That was a beautiful thought.
But then, He also gave him the mandate “to dress it” which means “to work, to till” and “to keep it.” That is the word shamar. Shamar is a wonderful Hebrew word. The word shamar means “to guard, to observe, to give heed to, to keep watch over, to protect, to watch, to hedge about.” The main theme of that word is to guard over something, to hedge about it, to keep it from being destroyed or lost, and to preserve it. What a beautiful word!
And why do we guard things? Well, we guard the things that are precious to us, don’t we? The things that are special, the things that are precious, the things that we do not want to lose. People guard their money. They put it in the bank for safekeeping. Some people put their jewels in the bank for safekeeping. But if we have something very precious and valuable, we’ll want to guard it. We’ll put it in a safe. We’ll make sure that it’s protected and it won’t be lost. It won’t be tarnished. It won’t be destroyed.
So, I thought, “Wow! I want to find out all the things that God wants us to guard in His Word.” I went to the Hebrew, and I looked up every single Scripture with the word shamar. Well, it’s been such an amazing, wonderful study.
I’m going to share some of it with you. I began to write down what specifically are the things God wants us to guard? I got all the Scriptures written so I could then go through them and see particularly which things He specifies that He wants us to guard.
No. 1. GUARD AND KEEP THE HOME
The first one, number one, is the one I’ve just shared with you from Genesis 2:15. This is the very first time the word shamar is written in the Bible. In studying the Bible, there is something very important to know. And that is, the law of the first mention. Did you get that? The law of the first mention. When something is mentioned the first time, it is very important. God will never deviate from that statement. He will add to it throughout the Word, but it is a foundation of a truth. When it’s written the first time, we must take notice.
Isn’t it amazing, ladies, that the first time that this is used is regarding the home? God put the man in the garden to guard, and protect, and preserve the home. That is the first thing we have to guard because it’s precious. God is the one Who created marriage, family, and the home. God created the home.
In fact, He created the home before He even created the mother. Man was created before the home but not the woman. God created the home, the Garden of Eden, the place of delight before He created the woman because He created the home for her. It was where He wanted her to be, and to find her place, and her enjoyment, and her fulfillment, and her purpose in that home. So, when she woke up to life, there she was, in the home, that place of delight.
And it was a very precious place because God created it. It was His plan and it was beautiful. It was called “delight.” This is the first prototype of all homes. He wants us to make our homes a delight. And He wants us to watch over them, and to guard them, because God Himself is a Guarder. He is a Keeper.
Oh, yes. I think that’s the most common word that is used for the word shamar, is “to keep.” We even read in Psalm 121, that beautiful psalm, how God says that He is the “Keeper of Israel.”
Verse 3: “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy Keeper.” This is all the word shamar.
Every time we read this word “keeper” it’s shamar. The Lord is thy Shamar, thy keeper, thy guarder, thy protector, thy preserver.
“The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand . . . The LORD shall preserve thee (that’s shamar) from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
Those words were literally spoken about Israel because Israel is precious to God. God says: “I will keep Israel.,” Of course, we know how that even though they were scattered to the four corners of the earth, God keeps His promises. He is bringing them back to the land.
One day He is going to reveal Himself to them again. God is keeping Israel. They will never be lost. They will be forever because God is their Keeper. But they are also His promises to us too. He is our Keeper, our Preserver. Oh, how wonderful! The Preserver of our soul. And He’s a great Keeper.
You know the best place to keep your treasures, ladies? You know, don’t you? It’s in the eternal realm. Look, we see here in Matthew 6, when Jesus was speaking on the Sermon on the Mount.
He says here in Matthew 6:19: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
So, remember, the best Keeper of our special and most valuable things, our treasures, is God’s keeping power in the eternal realm. We need to be laying up treasures in Heaven.
It makes me think of 1 Peter 1, where it says that we have been “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God.” Oh, yes, God is our Keeper, and our Guarder, our Preserver, and He also gives this mandate to us too.
As I am sharing with you now, the No. 1 point, I guess you won’t be taking notes because you could be doing something else as you are listening. Or, if you are just sitting down, you can take notes. This is NO. 1 if you are taking notes, GUARD YOUR HOME.
And, of course, we go over to the New Testament, and we see the same thought there coming in Titus 2:3-5 where it says the older women are to teach the younger women to be “keepers at home.” There’s that word “keeper” again. We read about it so much in the Old Testament and I’ll be telling you many, many things that God wants us to guard and keep, but here, we see it right over in the New Testament regarding the home again. Yes! The very first thing we must guard.
The Greek word is oikourgos, and it means “caring for the home, a stayer at home, a worker and guardian of the household.” The Geneva Bible brings out that “there shall be no gadding about.” That’s an old-fashioned word. “Gadding about” means going here and going there. But instead, we are to be content in the home. This word is a picture of a mother with children. That’s really God’s picture.
In Psalm 128:3, we see the picture of the wife in the heart of the home, in the innermost part of the home with all her children around her and her children sitting at her table which is the opposite today of the woman with her business briefcase. Today we see that a lot, but it’s not God’s picture. Feminism blasphemes God’s Word. Femininity brings glory to God. That’s the word at the end of that passage.
When we refuse to embrace that beautiful phrase of being “keepers at home,” keepers, yes, working in the home, but guarding it, and preserving it, because it’s precious, it’s valuable in God’s eyes. And so, dear mothers, that’s a mandate you have from God, to watch over your household, and your children, and your marriage, and your home.
Oh, it’s a great big task because it’s so vast. It’s in your marriage which you are guarding. Oh yes, you've got to guard your marriage. My, Satan is out to get marriages. He can come in so subtly. We’ve got to constantly guard our marriage, guard over the lives of our children with our beady, watchdog eyes. Oh yes, this is such an important thing, because Satan is always trying to get in and we’ve got to be watching and guarding.
And then, we’re watching over the ways of our household, which it talks about in Proverbs 31, watching over our home as we manage and run the home. So, it’s a beautiful mandate that God has given to women. It’s the No.1. Amen?
So, whatever else you think is precious, and you're trying to guard in your life, well, it’s down the list. Your home, your marriage, your family, your children, are No.1. Amen?
No. 2. GUARD AND KEEP ONE ANOTHER
Isn’t that interesting? Genesis 4:9: “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?” He was answering that in the negative, but God expected him to be his brother’s keeper. Yes, his literal brother.
This is something that we must teach our children, all of our children. They have siblings and each one of them is to keep one another. We’re to be the keeper of our brothers and our sisters. And then, of course, it goes into the more extended church family where we are to also keep and guard one another, look out for one another, protect one another, preserve one another, guard one another, bless one another, pray for one another, and encourage one another, and so on. There are so many “one another’s” in the Bible, but this one here is that we’ve got to keep one another. That’s the second one.
No. 3. KEEP AND GUARD GOD’S COMMANDMENTS
It’s the word shamar, and yet it’s most translated: “Keep God’s commandments.” This particular one, No. 3, wow! God speaks about this so much in His Word. I found over 120 Scriptures saying that we must keep God’s commandments and statutes and so on.
And I noticed that it says the Scripture “Keep God’s commandment,” 40 times just in the book of Deuteronomy. And then it’s 18 times just in Psalm 119. So, I won’t be reading 120 Scriptures, but I’ll give you a few.
The first one, it’s the first time we read it, Genesis 26:5: “Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” then it goes on to say how God blessed him because he did that. But I noticed something there. Did you notice, as I was reading that God calls His commandments “My commandments, My statutes, My laws”?
They’re not just any old laws. They’re not just any old commandments. They’re not man’s commandments. They are God’s commandments, and over and over again, we read where God says “My commandments.” He always calls them “Mine.” That’s why we have to guard them, and watch over them, and make sure we keep them, because they are important. They’re valuable. They’re precious because they’re God’s commandments.
God does not just give anything for the sake of it. Every word He gives is for a reason. It’s not in vain. It’s not just, “OK, here’s something I want to say.” No, it’s for a purpose. It’s for a reason. And so, we must guard them.
As I was writing all these Scriptures where it says “Keep My commandments” I begin to see a lot of different principles about keeping God’s commandments. And I began to see a lot of promises if we do keep them. And so, I have got all the principles on a big list and then I’ve got all the promises.
So, can I start telling you some of the principles? OK, we’ll start with them, the principles about keeping God’s commandments.
Number one. We must keep them from the HEART!
Oh, that is a beautiful thing. Deuteronomy 5:29: “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would . . . keep all My commandments.”
You see, God doesn’t want us to keep His commandments because of, “Oh well, we just have to. It’s the law. I’ve got to do it.” We do it with resignation. Oh, no. In fact, many times the Israelites did that and God said, “No, I don’t want that. I want your heart. I want it from your heart.”
I think that is an important thing too, my lovely mothers. As we are teaching our children God’s ways, and God’s Word, I know you're wanting to faithfully teach them His commandments because it’s such an important thing for them to know, the commandments of the Lord. We’re going to look into more and more of them as we get time. But teach them to do them from the heart. Teach them how God wants their hearts first, before anything else. Unless we’re doing it from the heart, well, it doesn’t really please God.
Let me read a few Scriptures about this. Proverbs 4:20-23: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart . . . Keep thy heart with all diligence.” This is where God wants us to have them, in our hearts.
The New Living Translation says, “Let them penetrate deep in your heart.”
Deuteronomy 20:16: “Do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.”
Deuteronomy 32:46: “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day.” Set your hearts. Yes, not, “Thou must do this, and look out if you don’t!” No, God says, “I’m giving you these for your blessing.” We’re going to look into the blessings later. I want you to do them from your heart. Amen?
Number two: We must keep them ALWAYS!
In that same Scripture, Deuteronomy 5:29: “Keep all My commandments always.” Not just sometimes, but always.
In Deuteronomy 11:1: “Keep His commandments always.”
2 Kings 17:37 talks about keeping them forevermore.
In Psalm 119:44: “So shall I keep Thy law continually forever and ever.”
Number three: We must keep them ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES!
In Deuteronomy 12:8, it says: “These are the statutes and judgements which you shall observe all the days that you live upon the earth.”
Deuteronomy 4:9-10: “That they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth.”
Aren’t these beautiful principles, dear mothers, to teach our children? When we’re teaching them God’s Word, and all the things God wants to say to us, remind your children that God wants us to receive them and do them from the heart. And He wants us to do them always, not just sometimes, when we feel like it, and when it suits us. No, but always and to keep them all the days of our lives.
Number four: We must keep ALL God’s commandments!
We don’t get to pick and choose. It’s easy isn’t it to obey the ones that are easy for us to obey. “Oh, yes, that’s lovely, fits in with our lifestyle.” Oh, boy. But then, many times, we’re challenged. I’m always challenged. I keep getting challenged by the Word of God. “Oh, here’s another thing God wants me to do, but, ooh, that’s not easy to do. It’s opposite of the world. Oh goodness me, I’m going to look a freak doing this!”
But no. Are we prepared to obey and keep all God’s commandments? All? And we go back to that beautiful Scripture we started with. Maybe this would be a good memory verse for your children.
Deuteronomy 5:29: “Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would keep all My commandments.” Yes, not just some of them. All of them.
What about the very first commandment God ever gave? The first words that came out of His mouth to man when He created man were: “Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth.” Yes, “take dominion.” Isn’t that amazing that so many believers don’t even take one tiny bit of notice of that command, and yet, it was the very first one that God gave, the first one that God gave to man. Wow! Help! God says: “Keep all My commandments.” I think it’s very important to keep the first. Don’t you?
Deuteronomy 8:1: “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do.” That word “observe” is shamar.
Deuteronomy 13:18: “When thou shalt harken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments.”
Deuteronomy 32:46: “Set your heart unto all the words that I give you this day.” And many other Scriptures as well.
OK, I think I have come to the end, so we’ll continue with more next time, dear ladies. I do pray that this will be a very precious study that I will share with you over the coming weeks. We’ll see how long it takes. But this is something for us personally, and for our children. Oh, lovely mothers, these are most important and precious principles for you to share with your children. And so, we’re going to keep on discovering what they are. Amen?
“Dear Father, we do thank You so much for Your wonderful Word. We thank You, Lord God, that You make so clear Your ways to us. You show us what You want us to guard. You’ve shown us, Lord, that the first things that we are to guard are our marriage and family and the home.
“Lord, You want us to also keep and guard Your commandments. Lord, teach us, Lord, and help us to be those who don’t just take them lightly, but, Lord, who embrace them with all our hearts. We will have in our hearts to follow them always, and to follow all of them, all the days of our lives.
“And, Lord, we pray that these beautiful principles will get into the hearts and lives and minds of our children, and that they will become lovers of Your Word. And that they will love the joy of keeping Your commandments. We ask this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tell other wives and mothers about these podcasts and transcripts!
FURTHER SCRIPTURES ABOUT KEEPING ALL GOD’S COMMANDENTS:
Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 10:12; 17:19; 11:8, 22; 31:12: and Joshua 1:7, 8. And I am sure there are more!