0718 THIRD GENERATION FAITH

JULY 18 = 2 TIMOTHY 1

THIRD GENERATION FAITH

As I gathered in our living room with most of the members of our family, children and grandchildren, all joined together in worship and now ready to hear our monthly encouragement from Grampa Read, I was struck with a perspective that I could have said years ago, but hadn’t felt it like this until now.

“It strikes me today that my job as a father is NOT to raise children to adulthood. It is to raise my children to raise THEIR children. The aim is the third generation, after all.

I then went on to enumerate the genealogical line from Adam through the generations, looking for examples of fathers who raised their sons, and whose sons also raised HIS son. Here is what I found:

Adam had two sons. One killed the other. Not a good start. Then he had Seth. Seth became the father of Enosh. We are not told about their spiritual relationship with God, but later we get to Enoch. Enoch “walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

Enoch became the father of Methuselah, who seems to have lived right up until shortly before the great flood, which involved Methuselah’s grandson, Noah. And Noah “found favor in the eyes of the Lord.’

In turn, Noah had three sons (Shem, Ham, Japheth). After the flood receded, God established his covenant (the rainbow is its sign) with Noah and his descendants that he will not destroy the earth with the flood again. And then Noah got drunk, and one of his sons (Ham) made fun of him, and Noah cursed Ham’s SON, Canaan!

Much later, we see the line of kings of Israel, and it seems predictable that about every other generation of king was good, and then his son was bad. Down in Judea, David was a good king (except for the Bathsheba thing), and it was Bathsheba who had Solomon. Solomon was wise, it’s true. He built the temple, to the glory of God. But then he had two sons, who ended up splitting the kingdom of Israel and establishing that awful revolving door of good king/bad king.

In contrast, we see Timothy and what Paul says about his spiritual roots. And I think this is how it should be. Paul says, 

“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.”

‭‭Sincere. Not surface. Not fake.

Faith. Not pretend. Not a set of rules.

That sincere faith first lived in his grandmother Lois. That is as beautiful a statement as you can find. Made all the more sweet by saying “AND in your mother Eunice.” And even better, he says it now lives in Timothy! Such a multigenerational heritage!

My son was starting up his business of home renovations. And it struck us to name the business “Third Generation Restoration.” We are out to help people with their houses. But our mission is to help restore families along the way.

How about you? Are you praying for the NEXT generation to raise the NEXT NEXT generation, that we might pass on a sincere faith to each? It is the most important job we could ever have. Amen.