Can there be any way to know with any certainty that your child will grow up to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength? How is a God fearing legacy instilled in children? The scripture is consistently proclaiming that we need to love God and love people as we seek to cling to God. Can we really worry about our children’s faith when holding to our own faith is all consuming? Faith is the evidence of things unseen and the assurance of the hope we have in Jesus Christ for our future. Is the raising of children a great test of our faith? As we live out lives seeking to hold fast to our growing faith in God we will be an example for our children but in the end it is only by the grace of God that our children will grow to know and trust in Him. It feels like a great burden to know that we are powerless but in our weakness God’s faithfulness will be proclaimed.
In 2 Kings 21 Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, walked away from God and the example of his father? Why did this happen? All the high places of idol worship that had been torn down by Hezekiah were rebuilt to a greater extent by Manasseh. This wanton debauchery provoked God’s anger against the remanent of Judah. After the God fearing example of Hezekiah the people of Judah were led by Manasseh to do more wickedness than the first inhabitants of promised land. God promised that the fate that befell Israel would now come upon the remanent of Judah. Is this judgement a good thing? How does this foreshadowing of exile bring hope? The future misery and pain that will fall upon Judah will make the hearts of the people turn back to God. The sons of Israel were warned when they entered the promised land that they needed to be on guard against becoming complacent in the easy life and in turn seeking out the gods of the native inhabitants.
Lord help the church today to keep us pure and not wallowing in the sins of the world. We are all frail humans who are inept and inherently bring ruin upon ourselves. We need your intervention to bring forth any good thing in this world of sin. Help us Lord, help us.
After the sinfulness of Manasseh his son Amon ruled for two years acting as evil as his father. Josiah, the son of Amon, became king of Judah and followed God unlike Manasseh and Amon. Is there a rhythm or reason to the faith of some of these men and the wickedness of the others? Josiah is brought a copy of the book of the law of God and he is instantly worried for Judah. Have we become too complacent today because we are surrounded by God’s Word? Josiah didn’t have a Bible sitting by his bedside that he could read anytime and the truth of God’s law showed him how far Judah had strayed from God. Judgement was coming upon Judah and there was nothing Josiah could do to prevent it but God honored the heart of Josiah by preventing the calamity from happening in his lifetime.
How do we live our lives today in light of these truths? We need to guard ourselves from falling away from God. We need to beseech God to enable us to love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength. We need to pray for the faith to see God raise up our children to fear Him. God needs to be the center of our concern and desire in life. Don’t turn to the left or to the right keep focused on Jesus Christ your only hope for tomorrow. In He alone we can make it through this turbulent life.
