INSTRUCTING our CHILDREN in GODLY WAYS!
September
20 Bible Reading: Joel Chapters 1-3
INSTRUCTING our CHILDREN in GODLY WAYS!
"The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son
of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the
land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your
fathers? Tell your children about it,
let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." (Joel 1:1-3)
The prophet
Joel, whose name means ‘Yahweh is God’,
may have been a contemporary of the prophets Hosea and Amos who lived in the 8th
century A.D. His prophecies were addressed
to the southern nation of Judah, as
he warned them of God’s judgment that was coming upon them on the ‘day of the Lord’.
However, the
calamity that happened to Judah in recent years was unprecedented. No event in their
recent history could compare to the catastrophe that was caused upon them by
the ‘locusts’. In fact, Moses had
prophesied that God would use locusts to
punish His people if they were disobedient (Deut. 28:38, 42). The locust plague is a pictorial
representation of the impending invasion of Judah by an army from the north (Assyria).
This prophecy was partially fulfilled
when the Babylonian army invaded Judah, but in the future, this prophecy would
be fulfilled completely through an
Assyrian invasion.
Knowing what
had happened already and what was about to happen, the prophet Joel urged the
elders of Judah to tell their children
real-life stories of what God had done among them in the past (v. 3). These
stories would include events of important
things that needed to be remembered that the elders were aware of. These
events were more profound than
anything that had happened during their time and during the days of their
fathers (v. 2).
Today, we as
God’s people should also pass on the stories of what God has done in our personal
and societal lives. For doing this, first
of all we should be able to discern and distill God’s work among us that we
can communicate intelligently to our future generations. We should be able to
tell them both sides of the story - both the good and the bad – and share with
them both our pleasant and unpleasant experiences. We should be careful to pass
on both God’s judgments and His mercies to our future generation (see Deut.
4:9; 6:7; 32:7; Psalms 78:1–8). When we do that, we will equip our younger
generation to walk wisely in godly ways, and be effective representatives of
God’s kingdom in their generation as well.
So, as God’s
people, we should intentionally pass on to our children, our grandchildren, and
even to generations yet unborn, the real stories of what God has done in our
lives. The older we get, the more important it is to transfer our experiential
knowledge of what we have learned about God and about life to our future
generations. We are one of the most
valuable links that our children have concerning their godly ancestral
heritage.
Let us
instruct our children in godly ways as we transfer our experiential knowledge regarding
the nature, character, and wonderful ways of God. When we do that, our children
and grandchildren will get a deeper understanding of how God works behind the
scenes, whether in judgment or through a revival. This profound understanding will
help to avoid our generation relying on worldly sources of guidance. It will
also align their priorities with the purposes of God in their lives.
