like father, not like son
part 1 – questions and a little history
As a dad I’m asking myself, ”Are my kids experiencing the love of the Father through me? What’s getting passed on to the next generation of Watts boys?” I want my kids’ relationship with the Father to be more intimate than my own. People say that what one generation does in moderation the next will do in excess. I assume that’s referring to sin, because when it comes to following God things are a little different. With godliness, it seems like what one generation does radically, the next usually does half-heartedly.
Take three generations of kings, for example. You’ve got Azariah (Uzziah), his son Jotham, and Jotham’s son Ahaz…grandpa, son and grandson. The writer of Kings says Azariah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done.” (2 Kings 15:3) Now he wasn’t perfect. He let the people of Judah offer sacrifices to pagan idols. But he did, for the most part, try to follow God’s laws and serve him. The author of Kings says that God afflicted Azariah with leprosy until the day he died. His son, Jotham, had to govern the palace and the kingdom by proxy.
Jotham was basically Azariah II. He did what was right in God’s eyes (2 Kings 15:34), but, like his father, he still did not remove the high places of pagan idol worship. Even though Jotham did most everything else right, the whole national idol worship thing was a huge deal to God. So, like with his father, God afflicted Jotham. In this case he did it by raising up foreign leaders to fight against him. Even so, Jotham was a case of generational status quo. His faith didn’t get stronger, didn’t grow. And growth is a great indicator of life, which means Jotham’s faith was either dead or dying. Bottom line: status quo faith means dying faith, and dying faith is hot on its way to cold, or lukewarm, which God hates ad nauseum…literally (see Revelation 3:16).
So we’ve got a grandpa with leprosy, a son with nauseatingly dying faith and a grandson on the way. Enter Ahaz. Part 2 is tomorrow, but for now I’m examining my own faith. Is it growing? Am I coasting? Are there areas in my life and my relationships with God and others where I’m just relying on past successes, past experiences or past answers? Am I really seeking for fresh perspective, fresh understanding? Am I asking any new questions about my life or the lives of those around me?
