Like Father Like Son?: August 8-14, 2019 (Thurs-Wed): Read through 2 Chronicles, Psalms, and Hebrews

What kind of parental heritage do you have? Some people have godly parents who follow the Lord. Others have ungodly parents who follow the world and the devil’s ways. Of course, you may be someone who lacks or lacked a parent or two in your growing up years. They’ve been non-existent in your life through neglect or tragedy. Regardless, parents have a major effect on their children, but children do not always go the way of the parents. Godly parents can still have ungodly children, and ungodly parents can end up with godly children. Although parents and grandparents should work hard at training their kids in the ways of the Lord, children have a choice, and their choices will make them.

Rehoboam was an ungodly king of Judah whose father and grandfather were Solomon and David respectively. Solomon ended up going off the rails spiritually and that surely led to Rehoboam’s downward spiral. Rehoboam had a kid named Abijah who followed in his father’s footsteps. However, Abijah had a son named Asa who followed God. Then Asa had a son named Jehoshaphat who followed God. Then Jehoshaphat had a son named Jehoram who did evil in the Lord’s sight.

• Here was the progression from David to Jehoram.
  • David begat
  • Solomon who begat
  • Rehoboam who begat
  • Abijah who begat
  • Asa who begat
  • Jehoshaphat who begat
  • Jehoram.

• The simplified version:
  • Good begat
  • Good which turned Bad and begat
  • Bad which begat
  • Bad which begat
  • Good which begat
  • Good which begat
  • Bad.

Now we can’t really see their parenting styles, but we get a quick glimpse of the general direction in which they led their lives and the nation of Judah. We can see that no matter what your familial background is, you have a choice to follow God or not. God is able to work in the child in the hopelessly ungodly household or in the one who’s in a godly home. If you read 2 Chronicles 13-21, you’ll read about Abijah through Jehoram and see the progression. Some of it is spelled out better in 1-2 Kings. Here are some takeaways from the passage.

• You may have had some ungodly parents leading you in some horribly ungodly ways, but you still have the choice to continue the ungodly legacy or break the mold and follow God.
• You may have raised your kids to follow God, but they’re not following Him. Realize that your children make their own choices and that their bad choices are not necessarily because of you.
• If you’ve raised your children to follow God, and they’re following Him, give God the glory.

This week you’ll read…

2 Chronicles 12-24: “‘Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn’t ask God for help, you’ve lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram. Didn’t the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and He gave you the victory. God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to Him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God’s help’” (2 Chronicles 16 in The Message Bible).

Psalms 109-115: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever” (Psalms 111 in The Christian Standard Bible).

Hebrews 4-10: “I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. So come on, let’s leave the preschool finger painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ” (Hebrews 5-6 in The Message Bible).

• August 8 (Thurs):
  • 2 Chronicles 12-13 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 109 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 4 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 9 (Fri):
  • 2 Chronicles 14-15 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 110 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 5 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 10 (Sat):
  • 2 Chronicles 16-17 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 111 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 6 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 11 (Sun):
  • 2 Chronicles 18-19 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 112 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 7 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 12 (Mon):
  • 2 Chronicles 20 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 1113 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 8 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 13 (Tues):
  • 2 Chronicles 21-22 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 114 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 9 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
• August 14 (Wed):
  • 2 Chronicles 23-24 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Psalm 115 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)
  • Hebrews 10 (CSB) (MSG) (NLT)

CSB are daily readings linked to The Christian Standard Bible on BibleGateway.com.

MSG are daily readings linked to The Message Bible on BibleGateway.com.

NLT are daily readings linked to The New Living Translation on BibleGateway.com.