| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 22 |
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But there is another responsibility – that of children for their parents. Bible incident is always good framework, for it is more than illustration. The Lord said of Abraham, “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” That was God’s plan for Abraham’s life. Then the Lord told how this greatness should be achieved, how this universal blessing of the nations should come about: “For I have known him” – that is, I have chosen him, called him, and blessed him – “to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.”
Thus far it is Abraham’s part and responsibility that we see. He himself could not, personally, with his own life, touch all nations of future ages, to bless them; but he could command his children, and train them in the way of the Lord, and thus transmit through them the blessing to all the nations of the future. If Abraham had failed in his part as a father, failed in his teaching, failed in his example, the fault would have been his, and his the responsibility for the failure of God’s purpose of blessing for the nations.
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