Significance of family (2)

God created the family

Psalm 68:6 ESV

God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

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God cares for the families of those who honour him

Genesis 7:1 ESV

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

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God judges families who disobey him

Exodus 20:4–5 ESV

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

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Families in Israel

The extended family was the basic social unit

Nehemiah 7:5 ESV

Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it:

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Family heads were community leaders

Numbers 36:1 ESV

The heads of the fathers’ houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel.

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Families had religious obligations

Deuteronomy 12:7 ESV

And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

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Families were to teach their children God’s law

Psalm 78:5–7 ESV

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

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The relationship between God and his people described in family metaphors

They are his family

Galatians 6:10 ESV

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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They are his children

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

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They are brothers and sisters in God’s family

Hebrews 2:11 ESV

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

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The salvation of families

Acts 16:34 ESV

Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

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Good family management as a qualification for church office

1 Timothy 3:4–5 ESV

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?

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Christians are to support their families

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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The urgent demands of the kingdom of God should take priority over family responsibilities

Luke 9:59–60 ESV

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

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