Good Morning Friends,
“Abijah committed all the sins his father had
done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the
heart of David his forefather had been. Nevertheless, for David’s sake the LORD
his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making
Jerusalem strong. For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and
had not failed to keep any of the LORD’s commands all the days of his life —
except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.” (1 Kings 15:3-5)
Abijah was the great-grandson of David and
ascended to the throne on his father’s death. By the time Abijah took the
throne David had been dead for between 50 and 60 years … but Abijah still
reaped benefits from the heart of David.
Solomon made many mistakes in life. Toward the
end of his life he allowed his foreign wives to lead him into idolatry.
Rehoboam took his father’s sins further and did not follow the Lord. Abijah was
cut from the same cloth as Rehoboam he committed the same sins. But the kingdom
was not taken away from Abijah. The crown would pass to Abijah’s son upon
Abijah’s death. Jerusalem would not be conquered during Abijah’s reign. The
city would remain strong and free.
Those were blessings that Abijah did not
deserve and the Bible says that Abijah and Jerusalem received those blessings
because of the heart of his great-grandfather. David followed the Lord – not
without sin – but he did follow the Lord. The blessings that came to David because
his heart was right before God continued to bless his son, his grandson, his
great-grandson and down to more generations, too.
I don’t know anything about the spiritual lives
of most my ancestors, but I have heard the story of my great-grandfather on the
side of father’s mother. Roscoe Teagarden was his name and he was a man of God
… active in his church, faithful to the Lord. He died as a relatively young man
in a mining accident and the obituary speaks volumes about his character and
his heart for God. His oldest daughter, my grandmother, Sylvia Lee, followed in
his footsteps. She had a heart for God and solid knowledge of the Bible. That
heritage of faithfulness has been passed from my great-grandfather to my
grandmother to my dad to me to my daughters and now is being passed to my
grandchildren. Our family has been blessed in so many ways. I wonder how much
of the blessings we have received are because of my great-grandfather’s heart
for God.
My prayer is that my descendants will reap
benefits that flow from my faithfulness to God. How about you?
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment