Passing On Our Heritage

Psalm 127:3.  The Bible says “Children are the Lord’s heritage, and the fruit of the womb is His reward”. In the accounts of the kings in the Bible, we come across different kings who raised up their children in equally diverse ways. By their actions or even inaction, they left a heritage for their children. As our study is about child- rearing for believers, we will focus on the Godly Kings/Guardians, their parenting styles, their successes and failures and pitfalls to watch out for. We will look first at the requirements of God concerning parenting and then go on to examine the parenting and family life of three men in the Bible in order to have more understanding of God’s expectations and the challenges they faced.

The Requirements Of God

As early as Genesis 18:19, the Lord had testified of Abraham, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him". The instruction of children and the passing down of faith and the knowledge of God has always been of paramount importance to God. Proverbs 22:6 says "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it". While the salvation of the parents is important, of equal importance is the salvation of the children. It is so important that God places it ahead of even being a minister/worker in the church. Titus 1:5 & 6 says " ..and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed you: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly". We will now proceed to find from the Bible the examples of Godly parents who have gone before us. We will look at the lives of David, Jehoshaphat and Jehoiada.

King David As A Parent

David the King of Israel was a man whom God declared to be a "man after His own heart". He loved God and sought to please Him in all things. He also had many children by different women. David loved all his children and unfortunately also had favourites. Where his children were concerned, he refused to discipline them and apply God’s law to their crimes. I found something curious in David’s parenting: he parented each child differently. This is shown by the upbringing of two of his sons, Adonijah and Solomon. Adonijah was older than Solomon. In old times, succession to the throne was expected to go to the older brother, except where it was divinely overruled like in this case. The Lord had chosen Solomon. David knew this and brought up Solomon strictly to know God and fear him. He gave him different charges and advice, even while he was on his death bed. In 1 Kings 2:3-4 David told him "And keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways,....that the Lord may continue his word which he spake concerning me saying, if thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth.....there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel". David shared God’s revelations with this son. It would seem Solomon was raised to be a leader - a spiritual and a political one. The upbringing of Adonijah was different, however. 1 Kings 1:6 says concerning Adonijah that "his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, why hast thou done so? ...". Adonijah’s was a classic case of a child left to himself. This son in effect declared himself king while his father was still alive, conspiring with members of his father’s cabinet. 

There was no harmony in David’s family. The children were brought up differently. There was no sharing of a common family vision with all the children; indeed, the children of David got away with serious crimes, and it was no surprise that this Godly man left a legacy of division and bitterness among the children, albeit unintentionally. Do we treat our children differently according to what we see as their perceived talents or we do we train and nurture each child in love? Do we show them that no calling or gift is inferior, and let them know their responsibilities towards God and their family?  I pray the Lord will help us to identify the areas of potential friction and the things we might be inadvertently doing to foster disharmony amongst our next generation.

We will continue next week with the study of the other personalities.

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 
 

Titi Obishai (MRS)