Generational Faithfulness
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Intro:
Intro:
Good morning.
I want to talk to you this morning about generational faithfulness.
Hopefully we all desire generational faithfulness for our families.
For some of us, our faithfulness has been influenced greatly by faithful Christians who have gone before us — Our parents, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles, our elderly next door neighbor growing up …
For others of us, perhaps we do not have a family history in the Lord’s church — Perhaps you are the first generation of faithful members of the Lord’s church in your family. (The picture in our title slide kind of represents that).
Hopefully for ALL of us, we are concerned with the faithfulness of our DESCENDANTS.
Either way, the importance of generational faithfulness is still crucially before our thoughts — or at least it should be.
As we begin this morning, I want to take you to something the kids and Lindsey and I noticed the other night during family Bible time before bed.
We had been going over some of the lessons they have been learning in Bible class, reinforcing that at home.
And we came to a reading in 2 Kings and as we were reading through it, I thought: “Wow, I’ve never noticed that before.”
READINGS FROM 2 KINGS:
READINGS FROM 2 KINGS:
Now, when you think about the period of the kings in Israel’s history — and in the Southern Kingdom of Judah’s history, you will read about (mostly) a lot of WICKED, wicked people.
Saul — Okay king at first, but ended up a very bad king!
David — a Good king with his fair share of mistakes though.
His son Solomon — started as a great king and the wisest man of all the wise men of the east, and yet because of the influence of 700 wives and 300 concubines, he fell away for a very long time (probably repented at the end).
Then you have the kingdom divide with Rehoboam in the South (Judah) and Jeroboam in the North (Israel).
Jeroboam begins a long line of nothing but wicked kings in Israel’s history after the kingdom divides.
But in the southern kingdom, we do have *some* GOOD kings, but mostly wicked kings too.
This is where we want to pick up with the reading though, and we are picking up after the wicked Queen Athaliah — (If you want to read about her, read 2 Kings chapter 11).
But what we want to notice is the kings that came after Athaliah in the southern kingdom of Judah.
(Read 2 Kings 12:1-3) — (Jehoash is the same as Joash you read about in chapter 11) — Jehoash was faithful (for a time!).
In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
(If you keep reading, he oversaw some repairs to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem).
(And he also kind of invented the piggy bank system) — (Read it and you’ll see). :)
Now, it is unfortunate that if you read the 2 Chronicles account of Joash - (2 Chronicles 24) - We do find that Joash falls away later in life.
(Read 2 Kings 14:1-4) — Jehoash’s son Amaziah was faithful - (for a time!).
In the second year of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his father David; he did everything as his father Joash had done. However the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
He wasn’t necessarily wise though, as he went to battle with Israel, and got himself defeated by them).
The account in 2 Chr. 25 tells us that Amaziah ends up falling away too at the end of his life! :(
(Read 2 Kings 15:1-4) — Azariah the son of Amaziah was faithful.
In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king. He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, except that the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
Was he perfect?
No, like his father and grandfather, he couldn’t convince the people to give up their idolatrous high places.
But Azariah himself was faithful.
(If you keep reading, unfortunately he ended up with leprosy, which is sad but it does show that sometimes bad things happen to good people).
(In 2 Chr. 26, you can read about Azariah, but he is called by the slightly different spelling “Uzziah.”)
(2 Chr. 26 does tell us the reason Azariah was struck with leprosy, and it was because he did sin at one point by burning incense in the temple, something only the priests were allowed to do).
Overall, though, Azariah was faithful.
So where are we so far?
Wicked Queen Athaliah - 2 Kings 11 -> Jehoash (faithful) [at first at least] - 2 Kings 12 -> Amaziah (Jehoash’s son - faithful) [at first at least] - 2 Kings 13 -> Azariah (Amaziah’s son - faithful) [at first at least] - 2 Kings 15.
Do you see where we are going with this?
Three faithful generations in a row! (at least enough faithfulness to presumably pass on faithfulness until the next generation — again, it’s unfortunate that these guys kept falling away at the end of their lives though!) :(
Well, we’re not done yet.
Next up is Azariah’s son Jotham:
(Read 2 Kings 15:32-35).
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the Upper Gate of the house of the Lord.
Jotham was faithful (although he couldn’t convince the people to get rid of their high places).
(But we don’t hear of any sins of Jotham either in the Kings account or the Chronicles account!) :)
That’s now FOUR FAITHFUL GENERATIONS IN A ROW (at points in their lives at least) in the Southern kingdom of Judah.
(I hope the ones who did apostatize — I hope they repented before their deaths).
But still, we’re reading of men who at least for parts of their lives it says they did what was RIGHT in the sight of the Lord.
Unfortunately, there’s a black sheep in every family, and that’s where Ahaz comes in next … Because he was totally unfaithful.
(Read 2 Kings 16:1-4).
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
If you keep reading in this chapter, Ahaz also makes some unauthorized alterations to the Temple.
Inspired by an altar he saw in Assyria (so a pagan altar), he wants one like that for the temple in Jerusalem and instructs the priest to make him one and perform the offerings on it.
Let’s read this about Ahaz - (Read 2 Chr. 28:22-27).
Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. This is that King Ahaz. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. So Ahaz gathered the articles of the house of God, cut in pieces the articles of the house of God, shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every single city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers.
Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem; but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
Thankfully, the last king we will look at this morning — Hezekiah — a good, faithful king!
(Read 2 Kings 18:1-7).
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
Hezekiah was one of the few good faithful kings of Judah who was mostly without fault!
Of course he wasn’t perfect, but we don’t read about his imperfections — We read about his faithfulness!
Hezekiah does end up acting foolishly by showing the Babylonians the treasures of the temple, which they end up coming for some time later!
Well, we’re talking about generational faithfulness this morning, and at least for PORTIONS of their lives, we’ve seen 5 out of 6 generations exhibiting a lot of faithfulness!
That’s pretty unheard of, isn’t it?!
But it doesn’t need to be unheard of.
We need to be rearing children and grandchildren with the end goal of faithfulness in mind!
Scott Cain and Matt McBrayer and I recorded a couple of episodes of Father Time Podcast the other day, and I want to point you to one of the verses we look at:
Speaking of Abraham, Gen. 18:19 says …
For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,
It’s safe to say that Abraham had a GAME PLAN to keep his children faithful, and it wasn’t to just “take life as it comes,” and approaching parenting with an attitude of “I guess we’ll figure it out as we go.”
No, he COMMANDED his children and his household.
That is, he LED THEM, spiritually speaking.
And we must do the same for our children if we expect to see generational faithfulness.
We went through these accounts in Family Bible Time the other night, and here’s the discussion with the kids:
“Andrew, we need to do our best — everything we can — to try to lead our families to heaven — multiple generations to heaven!”
“We’re talking 4, or 5, or 6 or more generations” — “Do you think we can do it?”
“My dad is an elder in the church, and then me, and then you, and then your children, and your grandchildren ...”
“If we’re all faithful, that’s FIVE generations of faithful Christians in our family!”
“And we can all be together in heaven one day!”
We had a similar discussion with the girls as well.
Are we having these types of talks with our children? We need to be! If not, why not?
Next, I want to take you an earlier period in Israel’s history for just a quick couple of points …
JOSHUA COMPARED TO JUDGES:
JOSHUA COMPARED TO JUDGES:
So this is AFTER the Exodus, but BEFORE the period of the kings.
Joshua — (We have an episode of Father Time coming up about him as well) — Was he a good leader, or a bad leader?
(GOOD leader!)
And what was the result?
Judges 2:7
So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.
But what about after the death of Joshua and his contemporaries?
Judges 2:8-10
Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.
And the result?
Judges 2:11-14
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
Leadership matters! Family leadership matters!
And so I ask …
WHAT ABOUT US?
WHAT ABOUT US?
Are we in active pursuit of generational faithfulness?
Or, are we just barely scraping by spiritually ourselves, and hoping for the best when it comes to the rest?
Are we just hoping we OURSELVES will be faithful; meanwhile, letting our children fend for themselves?
Shame on us if that’s the case, because we can and MUST do more!
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
I hope that this lesson has been an encouragement to you, and a PUSH to do everything in your power to “command your household” spiriutally speaking.
Especially to us fathers/husbands … as spiritual leaders of the home.
But mothers/wives need these encouragements too!