“He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.” – Genesis 5:2 (NKJV)
Throughout the history of the World, God has been at work, and He’s been at work specifically through the family.
At the very beginning, He created two people, Adam and Eve, and He made them a family. The next family that was a significant project in God’s plan was Abraham’s lineage, a line of descendants through whom the entire world is blessed.
Abraham received his promised son Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah had a family of their own, Jacob and Esau. Jacob, who God renamed Israel, had twelve sons and one daughter, who are the twelve heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the book of Jeremiah 31:1, the Lord declares, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they will be my people” (NIV).
As God began establishing the families of Israel, one of the very first commands given was to the individual family members, particularly the parents, which is still applicable today. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”- Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NKJV).
It had to begin with parents who were to love God with all they had and pass their vibrant faith to their children by both example and instruction. It was to be a generational legacy developed in the home. The other command says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord [that is, accept their guidance and discipline as His representatives], for this is right [for obedience teaches wisdom and self-discipline]” – Ephesians 6:1 (AMP).
Families are the light in this world, from generation to generation.
Read: Leviticus 20:5; Acts 10:2
Bible Reading Guide: Proverbs 5:15-23; Mark 6:7-29; Exodus 29; Exodus 30
