Why Do Children of Believers Stray from God? Unit 1: Hard Sayings of the Old Testament

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1 Why Do Children of Believers Stray from God? Unit 1: Hard Sayings of the Old Testament SESSION 1 Scripture Focus Proverbs 22:6; 1 Samuel 2:12-17, The Word to Live By Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6). Session Truth Our character, beliefs, and behaviors are shaped from the time we are children, so we should teach people about Jesus from the start. Christian parents train their children in God s ways because they want them to continue in the faith. God calls us to faithfully shepherd the children He has entrusted to us. Recipe for Success? The Bible Friend gives the following recipe for raising children: 1 cup of Proverbs 22:6 2 Tablespoons of Proverbs 19:13 1 Dash of Proverbs 23:13 1 Teaspoon of Proverbs 3:5 1/2 cup of Titus 2:3 through 7 Mix all the ingredients, add a pound of persistence, one cup of love, and whip until right consistency. This recipe is recommended by the Creator of Mankind. (Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations [Rockville: Assurance Publishers, 1985], 234]). The ingredients cited in the recipe contain valuable wisdom about parents responsibility to discipline and love their children while committing them to God. In the end, it sounds like a promise that if parents faithfully follow the principles outlined in Scripture, their children will grow up to love and live for the Lord. However, it s not always that simple. We have all seen cases where the recipe 2 September 7, 2014 Adult Faith Connections

2 seemed to fail situations where, though the parents did their utmost raise their child in God s ways, the child ultimately rejected Christ. How do we reconcile the instructions of Scripture with the devastating reality of children who turn away from God? In this week s session, we will more closely examine these passages within their context. As we do so, we will gain a glimpse into the heart of our loving Father who always seeks to draw us back to himself. Scripture Exposition Devoted Christian parents desire that their children grow up to have a meaningful relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Passages such as Proverbs 22:6 appear to promise that children raised in believing families will retain that faith as their own in adulthood. Yet the Bible also contains stories that show children of faithful parents departing from that faith in their own adult lives a sad reality known to us from our own contemporary experience as well. Bible-readers should understand the statement in Proverbs 22:6 in light of its context within the book of Proverbs and the type of literature known as Old Testament Wisdom. This label refers especially to the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, as well as some other selected books and passages (e.g., Song of Solomon, the Joseph story [Genesis 37 50]). These books offer principles for a good life A Hope-filled Observation Proverbs 22 6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. that focus on ordinary aspects of everyday human existence (friendship, finances, work, marriage, and more). They also wrestle with the big questions of human existence (reasons for suffering, the reality of evil, the meaning of life), and do so in sometimes complicated ways that sound more like an ongoing conversation than a solid answer. The background of the Old Testament wisdom tradition was a widespread, long-standing cultural feature that ancient Israel shared with WORDpicture Who were the priests in ancient Israel? What were their lives like? What do we know about their families; how did they raise their children? These are intriguing questions. Let s explore what we know about The Life of a Priest in this week s Illustrated Bible Life article. september october november September 7,

3 its neighbors. The tradition centered on teachers and sages (wise persons), whose work gave rise to a wide variety of wisdom texts that stretch back to such civilizations as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Within this larger tradition, the Old Testament Wisdom books have a crucial theological goal: they invite readers to go all-out in the search for wisdom and learning, but with the insistence that this can only be done rightly when one begins from an orientation to the worship of God ( the fear of the Lord, Proverbs 1:7). What the Wisdom books offer is not a set of unbreakable principles, but a call to live life with a certain posture a reverent confidence that God has placed an order within creation and that seeking to live in harmony with that order is the best way to a blessed life. The book of Proverbs in particular contains expressions of what its authors believed were some of the general ideals and patterns of a life lived in harmony with God s life-giving order and the good results that flow from that way of living. Unlike the Old Testament Prophetic Books, however, the teachings in the Wisdom books do not come with a Thus says the Lord attached. Wisdom writings from the Bible and elsewhere show that proverbs are not promises or guarantees. Notice, for example, how many of the sayings that surround Proverbs 22:6 in the same chapter are observations of what is typical or expected when one follows particular paths, but certainly not guarantees of assured results. Verse 4, for instance, describes wealth and honor as the outcome of humility and the fear of the Lord, and verse 11 links purity of heart with the outcome of being befriended by the king. These statements cannot be absolutized; they are observations that represent the most tried and true practices and results but not guarantees. The same holds true for the statement in Proverbs 22:6. It states a general observation about how best to achieve the goal of leading the next generation in the way they should go. The concern for training the young is a theme throughout the book of Proverbs (see also 19:18; 29:17). The specifics of this verse reflect the imagery of a young apprentice being trained over the course of time in a skill or trade. The Hebrew root for start off is used in the Old Testament to refer to a dedication ritual or rite of passage, and the term for child here (Hebrew na`ar) is a designation not just of age but status ( squire, youth, servant ). Proverbs 22:6 affirms that the best approach for leading young people to faithful living in adulthood is an apprenticeship of faith that forms their thinking, conscience, and behavior. Still, the results are not guaranteed. A person s free-will responses to grace, as well as other factors they may encounter in life, make exceptions possible. Those apprenticed 4 September 7, 2014 Adult Faith Connections

4 well may not ultimately embrace their training. But the fact that Proverbs 22:6 is only an observation also means that even those who were not brought Eli and His Sons up in the faith may come to a faithful adult life. Thanks to the work of divine grace, even those not trained well may still end well! 1 Samuel 2 12 Eli s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. 13 Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled 14 and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, Give the priest some meat to roast; he won t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw. 16 If the person said to him, Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want, the servant would answer, No, hand it over now; if you don t, I ll take it by force. 17 This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord s sight, for they were treating the Lord s offering with contempt. 22 Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 So he said to them, Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24 No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the Lord s people is not good. 25 If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them? His sons, however, did not listen to their father s rebuke, for it was the Lord s will to put them to death. 26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people. 27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, This is what the Lord says: Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor s family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? 28 I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your ancestor s family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites. 29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel? September october november September 7,

5 30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. 31 The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age, 32 and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. 33 Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life. 34 And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you they will both die on the same day. The story of the priest Eli and The sons actions are a corruption his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, illustrates the open-ended quality of the ite priests that were designed to honor of the important duties of ancient Israel- general truth of Proverbs 22:6. It can God and allow the people to encounter help us understand the kinds of factors that can result in exceptions to the Phinehas cheated both God and the God in worship. Instead, Hophni and hopeful observation in Proverbs. The people. The customary practice of sacrifice described in verses included story does not tell us the specifics of how Eli raised his sons. Yet, the fact that a way to provide for the priests who they had been raised in the household oversaw the sanctuary. As worshipers of a priest and had seemingly become boiled their sacrificial meat so that priests themselves suggests that they God would symbolically receive the received the kind of apprenticeship first, best portions, a fork would be put and training about the reverence of into the pot and whatever it brought out God that Proverbs 22:6 recommends. would be the priest s proper provision. In fact, verse 17 refers to Eli s sons But Hophni and Phinehas insisted on with the same Hebrew word (na`ar, taking a choice cut from the raw meat, young men ) that Proverbs 22:6 uses allowing them to take for themselves to describe the young who are in need the best portions (including the fatty of being trained in the way they should portions designated for dedication to go. Still, the passage portrays the two God) and not simply whatever came sons as following a different course. out on their fork during the cooking And in the story s larger context, the process. Additionally, verse 22 reports sons corrupt behavior becomes the that Hophni and Phinehas had been cause for divine judgment against the sleeping with women who served at whole priestly house of Eli. the tent of meeting, perhaps exploiting 6 September 7, 2014 Adult Faith Connections

6 their positions of power to coerce those under them and certainly engaging in inappropriate sexual activity that could defile the purity of the Lord s worship place. Clearly, Eli s efforts to start off his sons in the way they should go had not produced the results he had surely desired. According to verses 22-26, Eli confronted his sons about their behavior. The text makes it clear that he offered a very strong rebuke. He called their actions wicked deeds (v. 23) and sins against the Lord (v. 25). But the sons refused to listen. Perhaps Eli s efforts just came too late in the process, or perhaps he himself was complicit somehow in the sons behavior. In verses 27-34, a man of God (a prophet) appeared to Eli and announced a decisive judgment on Eli s priestly house. In the larger context, 1 Samuel depicts the downfall of Eli s house as a counterpoint that makes way for the rise of Samuel, whose growth and behavior contrasted with that of Hophni and Phinehas throughout chapter 2. But the man of God also accused Eli of being complicit in his sons behavior and putting their honor ahead of his duties to the Lord (v. 29). Whether Eli personally participated or simply failed to do enough to stop his sons, he and his household are judged as a group based on the sin that was allowed among them. While Proverbs 22:6 is a general truth, the story of Eli s sons illustrates that this general truth is not a guarantee. This is a story of sinful choices and their consequences. Hophni and Phinehas were ultimately responsible for choosing their course (see v. 25), even though their actions had consequences that affected an entire priestly household. Even the harsh statement in verse 25 that it was the Lord s will to put them to death does not contradict this conclusion. Within the story s context, this statement does not represent a chess-master-like determination by God who desired the sons deaths. The text makes it clear that the sons have chosen their particular path. Rather, this word of judgment acknowledges that God gives them over to the path that they have chosen and the consequences of sin that accompany it. As we see in this story, there may be many reasons why children of believers choose not to follow the path of their parents. Perhaps Eli s initial leadership was poor or came too late. And we must certainly recognize the place of free will, as well as other factors children encounter in their formative years that can introduce them to harmful paths. Even so, the hope of Proverbs remains that helping children orient themselves toward the love and worship of God at the start sets them in a posture of openness toward God throughout their life. by BRAD E. KELLE professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA September october november September 7,