Good morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Generational influence is one of the most fascinating things to me about the human race. Similar to how animals teach their offspring how to fly or swim or survive, humans should do the same, but with us there’s much, much more, isn’t there? God’s design is that the FAMILY is to be an INCUBATOR for children. An incubator in which parents and grandparents have profound influence upon their children in EVERY aspect of life!
By God’s design, no one should be more influential in the life of a person than their parents and grandparents. Many Scriptures challenged Jewish families to prioritize the development of their children to become God honoring adults who could repeat the process as they got married and had children. (Deut. 6:5-9; Psalm 78:1-7; 71:17,18)
So pause for a few seconds and consider this question: How much of who you are today is the direct result of the influence of people who were significant in your childhood, especially your parents and grandparents?
I wonder if you’ve noticed there are two great forces undermining this wonderful God design for family and influence of parents and grandparents. One is from the outside the family. It’s social media, captivating our children and filling their hearts and minds with information and pictures which destroy the family. Another is government increasingly restricting parental involvement in what takes place when the kids are in school.
Another is the destruction of God given moral values at all levels of society. As you look at those under about age 25 today, almost anywhere in the world, do you see the dramatic destructive effects of these forces outside the family?
But there is another great force destroying our kids. Sadly, is the demise of the family itself as adults abandon their God given responsibilities to care for and raise up children. Millions of parents choose to kill their children before they are even born. Millions more allow the babies to be born but then brutalize them in a wide range of ways during their childhood. And millions of other adults simply abandon their parental responsibilities, sometimes handing their kids to other people to care for, or leaving them to a social network system, or outright abandoning them on the street!
Let’s be honest, my friends. This is a dangerous time to be a child in many places in our world, including some of the most affluent, well educated societies!
Join me again back in Jerusalem about 840bc as we look at a very unusual time immediately following the death of King Jehoram. Yesterday we watched Jehoram die a terribly painful death. He was still hard hearted in his rebellion against God. (2 Chron. 21:16-20) One summary statement says it all: “King Jehoram passed away to no one’s regret, and he was buried in the City of David, but NOT in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chron. 21:20) The people expressed their disdain for this king by the manner in which they disposed of his body, in an unmarked grave in a common cemetery, without fanfare.
Beginning with King David, almost 200 years before, the people of the southern kingdom of Judah were very careful to honor the royal line God had chosen with David, by installing a royal son as King, usually the ELDEST son, as sons followed fathers on the throne of Israel. But when Jehoram died, it was his YOUNGEST son Ahaziah who was announced as king. Why?
The Biblical record makes it clear: “…the raiders, who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons of King Jehoram.” (2 Chron. 22:1) This slaughter of the royal family had been part of God’s judgement upon Jehoram who had so defiantly turned the throne and the people of Judah away from the God of Israel; the God who had both protected and blessed the people of Judah under the wise leadership of his father King Jehoshaphat.
The Biblical record says: “Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem for only one year! His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri and daughter of King Ahab of Israel.” (2 Chron. 22:2) This boy Ahaziah had grown up in a very dysfunctional, angry home totally opposed to the God of Israel, even though he was part of the royal family, a descendant of King David! His father was wicked King Jehoram, and he had obviously disregarded any good influence from his grandfather King Jehoshaphat.
Like many young men in our day, his mother was profoundly influential in his life. Look at this powerful Biblical statement: “Ahaziah followed in the ways of the house of Ahab for his mother Athaliah encouraged him to act wickedly! Ahaziah did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father Jehoram’s death, they became his advisors, to his undoing.” (2 Chron. 22:3,4)
I’m not aware of any other woman in the Bible who had the reputation of intentionally instructing her son to do evil! What a dramatic contrast to the reputation of Timothy’s mother Eunice and grandmother Lois! Do you remember this observation from the apostle Paul when writing his second pastoral letter to Timothy??
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I am persuaded now lives in you also.” (2 Timothy 1:5) Generational influence is very powerful and here are two young men, profoundly shaped by the influence of their mothers and grandmothers, yet they became dramatically different men in the eyes of God!
Timothy, you may recall was selected by Paul to accompany him from Lystra on his second missionary journey. (Acts 16) Timothy ended up becoming a strategic Christian leader in the Roman empire in the first century as the church of Jesus was being developed especially through the Apostles of Jesus and the missionary trips of Paul and his partners in ministry. Oh the power of family influence!
Ahaziah, on the other hand, was so wicked, he only served one year as king in Jerusalem and he was murdered by his own people! (2 Chron. 22:5-9) Upon his death his wicked mother Athaliah did something almost unbelievable! 2 Chronicles 22:10 says: “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah, the descendants of King David. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took infant Joash, son of Ahaziah and stole him away from the royal princes who were about to be murdered and hid him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehoshaba was the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, and was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill the infant boy. Joash remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land!”
Now that’s almost more than our minds can grasp, would you agree? Baby, prince Joash, kidnapped from the royal nursery by his aunt Jehoshaba, along with his nurse, was hidden in the Temple, while Athaliah instructed soldiers to slaughter everyone in the royal family! I doubt we can imagine the chaos, the terror of that time in Jerusalem. And when the blood had stopped flowing, Athaliah declared herself Queen in Jerusalem!
Never before had the throne of either the northern or southern kingdom of Israel been occupied solely by a woman. Wicked queen Jezebel had shared the throne with her husband King Ahab. Now, however, and for the ensuing 6 years, wickedness reigned in Jerusalem under the evil oversight of Athaliah, self-declared Queen of Judah!
Let’s pause here friends and see if we can understand the depth of wickedness which reigned BOTH in the northern kingdom Israel, in the years following wicked Ahab & Jezebel; and also in the southern kingdom Judah with wicked Queen Athaliah! Wickedness was flourishing unrestrained and for God’s people, both in Israel and Judah, it was times very much like our day in places like North Korea, some parts of China and India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan, and many other places where the God of Israel is rejected or the name of Jesus Christ elicits a violent response!
Maybe that’s even where you and I live! Can God still work among His people even in such terrible times? Oh yes my friends, and tomorrow, join me here again and we’ll see what God did in Jerusalem in that terrible time. And as we worship with this song, let’s pray for the persecuted Christians all around the world. . .
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 22:1-12.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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