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From Eternity Past
Abraham’s household comprised more than a thousand souls. Here,
as in a school, they received such instruction as would prepare them to
be representatives of the true faith. He was training heads of families,
and his methods of government would be carried out in the households
over which they should preside.
It was necessary to bind the members of the household together,
to build up a barrier against the idolatry that had become widespread.
Abraham sought to guard his encampment against mingling with the
heathen and witnessing their idolatrous practices. Care was exercised
to impress the mind with the majesty and glory of the living God as
the true object of worship.
God himself had separated Abraham from his idolatrous kindred
that the patriarch might educate his family apart from the seductive
influences in Mesopotamia, and that the true faith might be preserved
in its purity by his descendants.
The Influence of Daily Living
Abraham’s children and household were taught that they were
under the rule of the God of heaven. There was to be no oppression on
the part of parents and no disobedience on the part of children. The
silent influence of his daily life was a constant lesson. There was a
fragrance about the life, a nobility of character, which revealed to all
that he was connected with Heaven. He did not neglect the humblest
servant. In his household there was not one law for the master and
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another for the servant. All were treated with justice and compassion
as inheritors with him of the grace of life.
How few in our day follow this example! On the part of too
many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, miscalled
love, manifested in leaving children to the control of their own will.
This is cruelty to the youth and a great wrong to the world. Parental
indulgence confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination
instead of submitting to divine requirements. Thus they grow up to
transmit their irreligious, insubordinate spirit to their children and
children’s children. Let obedience to parental authority be taught as
the first step in obedience to the authority of God.
The teaching which has become widespread—that the divine
statutes are no longer binding—is the same as idolatry in its effect on