Significance of family (2)

God created the family

Psalm 68:6 NASB95

God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

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God cares for the families of those who honour him

Genesis 7:1 NASB95

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

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God judges families who disobey him

Exodus 20:4–5 NASB95

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

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Families in Israel

The extended family was the basic social unit

Nehemiah 7:5 NASB95

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

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Family heads were community leaders

Numbers 36:1 NASB95

And the heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel,

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Families had religious obligations

Deuteronomy 12:7 NASB95

“There also you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings 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 NASB95

For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence 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 NASB95

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

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They are his children

John 1:12–13 NASB95

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 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 NASB95

For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

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The salvation of families

Acts 16:34 NASB95

And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.

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Good family management as a qualification for church office

1 Timothy 3:4–5 NASB95

He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),

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Christians are to support their families

1 Timothy 5:8 NASB95

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those 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 NASB95

And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

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