As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic, my grandmother's Bible--something I received when she passed--is very precious to me. I have been looking through it and noting some of the passages she has marked. I am not covering everything, because she marked a lot of passages.
Today's passage is Genesis 18:19, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."
The context of the passage is God deciding to tell Abraham about his determination to destroy Sodom and Gonorrah. God ultimately decides to tell Abraham because of the covenant God and Abraham have. A lot has been written about Sodom and Gomorrah and homosexuality, but I don't think this is why grandma highlighted this passage. Instead, I think it is because of what the Bible says about Abraham and his family that led my grandmother to underline this passage.
Grandma believed in the importance of sharing faith across generational lines. I think this passage served as a guideline of the person she wanted to be. She wanted to be someone who taught her children and her grandchildren to keep the way of the Lord. But this was something she had learned from her mother. One of the reasons our family was a part of the Churches of Christ was because her mother--my great grandmother who I never met--was taking her kids into town to church and someone stopped to offer them a ride.
This is the kind of generational legacy I want to pass along to my children, the same one I saw in my grandmother. I want to command my children to follow the way of the Lord. Those of us who are parents are encouraging one type of generational legacy or another. Sometimes that draws our descendants closer to God, sometimes it moves them further away. Generational legacies are not written in stone. They can change for good or ill. What once started out rejecting God can be turned to his service, but the opposite is true as well. So, we should be aware of and working toward a godly legacy that honors the Lord.
I know that I am the person I am today in large part due to my grandmother. She helped to shape me and mold me and tried to show me what was most important in life. She was by no means perfect, and we didn't see eye-to-eye on absolutely everything. But she was a godly woman whose example could be emulated by everyone. Although God didn't speak directly to my grandmother, I do believe God has made some general promises in scripture to us all. And so, I do believe we could revise this verse and say that God knew Mae March that she would command her children and their households to keep the way of the Lord so that he would bring on her what he has spoken.
