Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Hebrews 11:20-23.

 

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.  By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.  By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.”  Hebrews 11:20-23.

 

————————

 

By faith, we believe that God blesses us.  By faith, we pronounce a blessing on our children believing that God will also bless them.

 

When we read that God promised:  “I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations… to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17:7), we believe that such covenant and blessing includes us and our children.

 

So, what is this covenant?  What is this blessing for us and our children?   

 

Professor David J. Engelsma wrote in his article “THE COVENANT OF GOD AND THE CHILDREN OF BELIEVERS”:  “The covenant is the relationship of friendship between the triune God and His chosen people in Jesus Christ.”  Click here: THE COVENANT OF GOD AND THE CHILDREN OF BELIEVERS

 

He further writes:

“But above all, the place of the children in the covenant is important to God.  He said at the beginning of the history of the covenant with Abraham, “I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations… to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17:7).  He inspired the apostle, on the very day that the covenant became new, to proclaim as gospel, “the promise is unto you, and to your children… even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39).  Rebuking His unfaithful wife, Judah, in Ezekiel 16:20, 21, God exclaims, like an aggrieved Husband and Father, “Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain My children…?”  In Malachi 2:15, God condemns the divorcing that was prevalent in Judah, because divorce jeopardizes the “godly seed.” (And still today the unchangeable God hates divorce in the covenant community because it is destructive of the children who, as covenant children, are His children.)

How important our children’s inclusion in the covenant is to God is shown in the New Testament (Covenant) by Christ’s command, “Suffer little children (infants) to come unto Me… for of such (infants of believers) is the kingdom of God (made up)” (Luke 18:15ff.).  It is shown also by the careful provision God makes for the children, as members of the congregation, in Ephesians 6:1 ff.:  “Children, obey your parents in the Lord … and, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:  but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

And so, by faith, we bless our children.