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A Home God Can Bless, July 5
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after
him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.
Genesis 18:19
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In God’s sight, a man is just what he is in his family. The life of Abraham,
the friend of God, was signalized by a strict regard for the word of the Lord. He
cultivated home religion. The fear of God pervaded his household. He was the
priest of his home. He looked upon his family as a sacred trust. His household
numbered more than a thousand souls, and he directed them all, parents and
children, to the divine Sovereign. He suffered no parental oppression on the one
hand or filial disobedience on the other. By the combined influence of love and
justice, he ruled his household in the fear of God, and the Lord bore witness to his
faithfulness.
He “will command ... his household.” There would be no sinful neglect to
restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism,
no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham
would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just
and righteous laws.
How few there are in our day who follow this example. On the part of too
many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, which is manifested in
leaving children with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the
control of their own will. This is the worst cruelty to the youth and a great wrong
to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It
confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the
divine requirements.
Parents and children alike belong to God to be ruled by Him. By affection and
authority combined, Abraham ruled his house. God’s word has given us rules for
our guidance. These rules form the standard from which we cannot swerve if we
would keep the way of the Lord. God’s will must be paramount. The question
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for us to ask is not: What have others done? What will my relatives think? or,
What will they say of me if I pursue this course? but, What has God said? Neither
parent nor child can truly prosper in any course excepting in the way of the Lord.
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