Their Children Did Likewise

  1. 1 Kings 17 is depressing. The chapter ends with the note that their children did likewise, and their children’s children.
  2. Israel passed on a heritage of fearing the Lord but serving carved images. Yet, the Scriptures also say they didn’t fear the Lord and they are repeatedly commanded to fear the Lord and not other gods.
  3. Why does it say they feared the Lord when obviously they didn’t really fear Him, not enough to actually obey? Is it because they thought they feared the Lord? Did they think they were honoring Him with their high place sacrifices without recognizing how they didn’t honor Him by also serving other gods?
  4. I wonder if that was true. They certainly knew they worshiped other gods. They had their idols literally in front of their faces.
  5. The Pharisees who had Jesus killed thought they were honoring God by killing this lawless man, Jesus, who didn’t follow God’s Sabbath laws and talked like He was equal to God.
  6. God says your lips praise me but your hearts are far from me.
  7. Children learn from what we do more than from what we say.
  8. Their children learned to worship false gods and to put the letter of the law above the love of the law.
  9. And then their children learned the same.
  10. And we pass on our false religion, developing our Christian traditions that honor our lifestyles instead of the one, true God.
  11. It happens on all sides.
  12. The Pharisees were ultra-religious. Paul says that he was blameless according to the law of the Pharisees. They knew God’s word and had their one right, true way to apply it.
  13. They loved their law over God’s law.
  14. It’s not just those enthralled with demonic power, or those wrapped up in worldly affairs. It can be those who dress modest and can their foods and have daily family Bible time, passing onto their children their culture of Christianity instead of a true heritage of loving the true word of God, Jesus Himself.
  15. It can be those declaring Sola Scriptura who honor their academia more than the Spirit’s ability to be their teacher.
  16. Ask the Lord if you are loving just Jesus, or Jesus And. Ask if you have created your own god in any way.
  17. We need to know, fear, and love the one, true God, for the sake of our children, and our children’s children.