Proverbs 14:26 ESV
In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+14%3A26&version=ESV]
The world is a precarious place nowadays. Politics are crazy (whatever position you hold), false religions are abounding (from child murder to mere castration, the rituals are impressively depraved), and the economy is… interesting (let’s not even go there). In all this maelstrom, a firm foundation is a constant necessity. The winds of the world will sweep away all but the most secured; the tide rises upon all men at one time or another, spiritual or physical, and without a rock to build upon, there’s only one end for that.
For the Christian, though, this news is without fear. Why should the Christian fear when the world encroaches? Does not Paul proclaim, in words which we may chorus, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39)? Do not these words form a perpetual reminder to us of the truth that despite our finitude, the infinite God still preserves us? On the basis of this may the Christian say, ‘I have a strong confidence’.
The ‘fear of the LORD’ (capital letters indicating that ‘Yahweh’, not another title, is in the original text) bears fruit. To so regard God, to regard Him as we ought, bears fruit first in our own lives. In our own lives, the fear of the Lord is the foundation of growing wisdom (Ps. 111:10), of a growing knowledge of the world, of ourselves, and of the Creator of both (Prov. 1:7). Out of this ‘fear of the Lord’ and the faith it accompanies, which it is a result and catalyst of, out of the second-birth which gifts us with a more proper apprehension of Him (John 3:1-14), out of this grows good works (Ps. 119:119-120). It is this necessary result which James teaches on in his epistle. True faith, necessarily accompanied by a right fear of the Lord, will inevitably result in a life characterized by striving for virtue, for good works (James 2; 2:17).
This proverb, however, focuses on a different result of the fear of the Lord: the generational fruit it bears. In the Americanized world of modernity, we often forget about familial heritage, sometimes even denigrate it. This impulse has some grounds: people who make of themselves nothing save what their parents gave them are sluggards, condemned by the Bible (Prov. 21:25). The problem is, we’ve taken this too far. Family heritage is a fundamental part of each person, for good, ill, or fabulously wealthy. The heritage of families like that of Octavian, emperor of Rome, is sin, hatred, and a vicious disregard for God’s law. The heritage of families like David’s, however, is everlasting, even if bad apples did seem at times to be the dominant phenotype.
Let’s look at some examples, New Testament and Old Testament both.
In Psalm 106, verses 30-31, the Psalm is recounts the story of Phinehas in its essentials, concluding with these words: “And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.” To whom was Phinehas’s deeds counted as righteousness? It could not be to Phinehas himself; the man was only a single generation. If this were the only verse of this sort, of course, we could maintain that ‘from generation to generation forever’ was a fancy way of saying ‘forever’ or ‘so long as the world continues to have generations’. Indeed, that interpretation is not without merit. The examples of Caleb (Num. 14:24) and of David (2 Sam. 7:1-17) stand alongside this verse, however. In both these instances God promised faithfulness to a man and his descendants. In Jeremiah 35, however, we find the strongest instance of this, wherein God promises through His prophet: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before Me” (19).
In Isaiah 59, God gives another promise which He explicitly directs to perpetuate through a family. “This is my covenant…” He says, “My spirit that I have put upon you and My word that I have put in your mouth shall not depart… out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of you children’s offspring” (21). In this God speaks to “those in Jacob who turn from transgression” (20). In words appropriate to this era and to today’s proverb, He speaks to the faithful in the church (Rom. 11:17), to those who live in the fear of the Lord. God here promises a perpetual blessing, extending not merely to children but to their children (and the promise, considered rightly, is spoke to the children and the grandchildren as well, to bless their grandchildren till the world be no more).
‘All this,’ you might say, ‘seems quite right, but that was the Old Testament. Things are different now. Israel is gone, and we have the church, whose membership is not inherently familial.’ Leaving aside the many indications that the only-family limitation to Israel is an artifact of that nation’s sin, not their right state, the question is still worth answering. On the face of it, of course, we have the concern for family which is reflected in genealogy, a concern two of the four Gospels (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) share with Genesis (ch. 5) and the rest of the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 1-9). The evidence, though, doesn’t stop there.
In Matthew 19:14-15, Jesus states, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” This statement is not nearly as clear as the evidence of Jeremiah 35:19, true, but the clear implication, seen by men like Matthew Henry and Samuel Rutherford, is that to the children of the faithful as a group (not these particular children only, as indicated by ‘to such’ rather than ‘to these’ or ‘to them’) belongs the kingdom of heaven, of which the church is the vanguard and crown. Christ Himself blessed the children, and we can hardly dispute this. As for the rest of the New Testament, consider 1 Corinthians 7:14. regardless of your opinion of how much bearing this passage has on baptism, its general import is clear. Paul instructs the believer, “[Your children] are holy.” God explicitly considers the children of His people ‘set apart’ (the original meaning of the word ‘holy’).
The fear of the Lord is a great gift. In our re-birth, He gives us hearts which see Him ever more perfectly, though on this earth we are yet imperfect of sight, imperfect of heart. In heaven, when we have been glorified, then we shall see truly (1 Cor. 13:12). Till then, we may live in firm confidence, stood upon the rock which does not shift, which the tide is helpless before, who determines the tide’s coming and going. Till then, we may raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), teaching them the truth which God has given to us and trusting that God, in His grace, will call them to Himself, children of the covenant taken captive by it.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
