Reading: “Although my house be not so with God.” 2 Samuel 23:5
If we forsake the paths of righteousness, God may chasten us by allowing our children to do likewise. David’s children had been preserved from open wickedness in their early years. It was not until their father became guilty of aggravated crimes that the restraining hand of God was removed from them.
This should speak to the hearts of parents today. Children in their youth naturally consider the evil example of their parents an excuse to follow in their steps. Matthew Henry wisely observed, “Grace does not run in the blood but corruption does.” We do not find that David’s children followed him in his devotions; we are told that they followed him in his depravity.
There is surely no greater pain than seeing our own sins reappearing in our children. Alexander Maclaren said that “David saw the ghastly reflection of his unbridled passion in his eldest son’s foul crime (and even a gleam of it in his unhappy daughter), and of his murderous craft in his second son’s bloody revenge.”
God save me from having to watch my children being destroyed by sin in order that I might be chastened for my own!
Let this be a warning to us to watch and pray against temptations, lest by the misconduct of one unguarded hour we should occasion such future consequences to our offspring, and such misery to ourselves throughout our future lives. —Thomas Scott.
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