Slideshow image

Last week’s AAT (Application After Thought) was about actually getting to the practical from theory. This week’s is sort of a part two. Last week was about you personally getting practical with your own walk with the Lord and practically having the foundation of your life as the Word of God. This week it is time to think about how your walk impacts those who come after you: your children.

In the later part of Genesis 9 and the whole of chapter 10, we see three different cultures form from Noah’s three sons. One of these cultures we explicitly see begins in sexual perversion and inferentially continues in his family line. From this, we see the implicit necessity to pass on a culture that is God-honoring and not one of perversion. Ultimately, perversion is cursed (Gen 9:25), and rightly so. God’s order for life was not the sexual perversion of Ham. It is perversion because it perverts God’s way of sexual purity, which is ultimately based on His character and mediated to us through His commands. If God’s order is for us to live based off His character and He has shown us His character through His commands, His Law, His Word, then we ought to live that way and pass this culture on to the subsequent generations.

The obligation to develop and pass on a God-honoring culture is found multiple places in both testaments. In Deuteronomy 6:6-9 we see the teaching of God’s Word in your household. Men, this means you take the ownership. It was implied here that Men take the ownership. In the New Testament it is direct as found in Ephesians 6:4, specifically addressing fathers to children. Does this mean you neglect your wife? By no means; go back to chapter 5 where Paul commands husbands to nourish your wife with the Word. Both testaments testify for all people to live by the Word and to pass the Word on to the next generation. Are you going to walk in faith and obedience, so as to not end up like Ham?

Here are some starting suggestions on practically moving from theory to practice:

  1. Read the Bible with your wife and kids. Invite questions, comments, concerns. If you don’t have the answer, seek it from another man and/or search it out for yourself. We are all still learning, and this will push you even further into learning God’s Word.
  2. Pray with your wife and your kids. Invite prayer requests. Invite them to pray.
  3. Read a devotional together. It can be a kid’s one for their understanding; and you can greatly benefit from the simple truths of the faith!