Generation After Generation

 “Then I set some bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”  But they replied, ‘We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine.  Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but you must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’  We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives or our sons and daughters have ever drink wine or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops.  We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us.  But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.  So we have remained in Jerusalem.”  (Jeremiah 35:6-11)

 

The word of the Lord then comes to Jeremiah telling him to ask the people, if the Rekabites follow their forefather’s commands and then have kept this for generations, how is it that the people of the Lord do not obey the Lord when He has spoken to them again and again to stop sinning, making idols and turn back to the Lord? They have ignored his commands and continue to live in Jerusalem and Judah, refusing to surrender. (Jeremiah 35:12-17)

 

When Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon invaded their land, they went to Jerusalem to escape their armies and remained there.  The Lord was now pronouncing disaster upon them as they failed to listen, live in obedience or even repent. But for the Rekabites, He promises them that they will never fail to have a descendant serve Him as a result of their following their forefather’s instructions in faithfulness.

 

Here we see an unusual generational fast.  Generation after generation, the Rekabites sacrificed and abstained, not only from wine, but from making any permanent dwelling.   This is so impressive by the Lord, that He pushes it out to the surface and points it out.  The purpose of this fast was to live a long time in the land.

 

Here the forefathers of the Rekabites had taught their children to follow specific ways, learning to fast all their days.  They never let go or fell short, not once giving in, this commitment to abort.   God commends their faithfulness and their sacrifice, but at the same time speaks of all of them living in lies. They tow the line without waver, looking to honor and earn the Lord’s favor.  

 

Generational activities can be powerful.  We see this with circumcision.  The Israelites followed this same activity all the way down generation after generation. Looking at this group of people, they wandered around, lived in Egypt for a time as slaves, were called out, and then wondered around again before taking the land of Canaan that Abraham had claimed years before, yet they never lost their practices and ways.  They lived them out day after day and carried them forward, never to stray. 

 

Perhaps their practice of generational circumcision played a part in the Israelites keeping their traditions.  The Lord tells the people in Exodus and Numbers that He curses to third and fourth generation but blesses us 1,000 generations down.  Numbers 14:18 says, “He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.”

 

Ever notice generational blessings or curses in your own life from generations prior?   Sometimes I will hear a pastor mention how they are the third or fourth generation serving in that role.  They speak of being called and then God meeting them in it.  Joel Osteen is an example of this.  He didn’t know he had what it took to take over for his father.  But when he stepped out in faith and believed God to meet him, he had all he needed and more.  All the generational blessings came upon him..

 

This can be the same with curses.  For someone else I know who is a pastor and whose father was a pastor, and their father’s father, they also had this physical generational issue of pulmonary fibrosis.   This pastor’s father died from it and his grandfather as well.   Then he got it too.  A generational curse that he is now, by faith, breaking off his family by the much stronger promises in the Covenant. 

 

In my own family, I can see how hard work is generational.   From back to my grandfather on my father’s side, hard work has been part of our family.  You can see it all the way down the line.   But what has also been handed down this line is this generational anger that had to be broken off. It carried from generation to generation.  

 

In many cases, substance abuse and drinking seem to be generational.   Because of my husband and my prior use, none of our boys have ever touched a drink or used.  We know if they did, they would step right into the same generational issue of abuse.  So they have broken that generational issue and found freedom by abstinence – refusal to step into it.

 

In the Bible, we have this interesting story of Moses as he was headed to Egypt to fulfill his calling to set the people of Israel free.  He had lived as an Egyptian his whole life and not as a Hebrew.  He had been trained in Egyptian ways and not Hebrew ways.   As such while he was probably circumcised before being adopted, he had not circumcised his son.  In Exodus 4, Moses is at death’s door as a result and Zipporah, his non Hebrew wife, circumcises their son and touches the foreskin to the feet of Moses.

 

Moses was outside of the promises of God for healing because it was based upon this covenantal promise between God and Abraham, way back long before.  In Genesis 17:11-12,14 the Lord tells Abraham, “You are to circumcise the flesh of our foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.  Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old…even those who are not your offspring… But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

 

By circumcising their son, their family identified with and entered into this covenant made initially with Abraham that included these generational blessings that encompassed physical healing. In entering into the one, it released the other, a generational blessing, to Moses. In Isaiah 51, the Lord says to look to the rock which you were hewn to Abraham and Sarah, your father and mother. Even if we did not have the best childhood, we can receive a different lineage.
With the Rekebites, they were under this covenant of circumcision, but then also, they followed additional practices throughout their generations.  It was a little like the Nazirite vow, that was for a period of time of separating themselves onto the Lord discussed in Numbers 6.  They denied themselves for the purpose of being near the Lord

 

The Rekebites followed ongoing generational vows to deny themselves so that God might let them live in the land.   Because of their ongoing separation onto Him, the Lord noticed their faithfulness and promised that they would always have someone to serve the Lord throughout their generations.  

 

At the same time, their fast or vow did not make up for the disobedience of the people who were stubborn and no longer following the ways of the Lord.   While many of the Israelites seemed to be good at following their generational practices, what the people failed to learn is how to have a personal  relationship with the Lord.  They were faithful on the surface with giving him honor, but they failed to live a life listening and following the Lord. 

 

The Israelites hated to face the unknown of Babylon as they knew it meant that they would have to repent for being wrong.  They were living in the promises of God.  To be evicted from this would clearly show their disobedience.   Even after sign after sign, they held to the land they inherited.  What they didn’t realize is that they had become comfortable and complacent while living in the land.  They were no longer genuinely seeking the Lord, but only His blessings.

 

Don’t Grow Complacent

Complacent avoids trying the new

Complacent would rather fade into the crew

Complacent never steps out and walks on water

Complacent rather says, ‘Why would I bother?’

Complacent never awakes before the morn

Complacent never rescues others from a storm

Complacent will never stretch our faith

Complacent doesn’t want to stay out too late

Complacent never prays in tongues

Complacent never pretends they are young

Complacent never walks in His power

Complacent doesn't know the time or hour

Complacent will cause us to lack passion

Complacent will be more concerned about fashion

Complacent sits back to be entertained

Complacent will cause us to stay in our lane

Complacent will choose what is most convenient

Complacent, when opposed, will be over lenient

Complacent will be too quick to quit

While in the back seat they will continue to sit.

 

What they were failing to pass down from generation to generation is loving obedience.  Like Solomon in his later days, they were squandering what He gave them, using it for their own gain and interests and failing to leave a genuine legacy to their children.  

 

If they would have been obeying the Lord from the heart and teaching their children to do the same, they would have never been displaced.   Deuteronomy 11:18-24 says, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

 

For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours.

 

How do we genuinely teach our children to follow the Lord? Finding their life in Him, and hungry for the Word?  How we genuinely love the Lord and demonstrate this to our children will carry down for generations.  I think about this with my own mother.  Her latter years of life were so full of God.  Yet it didn’t come by spending a zillion hours studying the Bible.   It came by surrender and trust.  She trusted the Lord in every difficulty that came her way.  She embraced what the Lord was doing even when it was painful.   When she could no longer live alone, she accepted it and embraced what God had for her next.  She did this all along the path until she went home.  In this and the ways she loved people around her along the way, she shined with the glory of the Lord.

 

From her, I learned surrender.  I learned to trust when it was hard.  I learned to pray and hold fast to promises.  I also learned to fight for my children and all God has for them.  Through her faithfulness in difficulty, I learned where to stand.

 

(Proverbs 2:1-4)My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep wisdom’s ways; for they will give you peace and strengthen you, adding life and many days.Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; grab hold of them and let them become your daily pursuit.  Hold them close and bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart and you will not have regret. Through them you will find favor and will have high regard, as you learn to navigate what for others would be hard.

Jesus was the 42nd generation that stepped into the lineage and changed the picture.   As we receive Him as our Savior, we are in His loins as He goes to the cross.  All generational curses are broken and we can refuse them and refute them.  They no longer have power and control over us. We do not have to pick them up by stepping into them.  And all the generational blessings through a life of righteousness we receive and inherit by faith. These as well, we only need to step into them.  

So someone who has nothing but drug addiction and abuse in their lineage all the way back no longer has to walk in this for themselves.  When they receive Christ, they receive it all in the form of blessings.   On day they can be selling drugs on the street (or like Paul from the Bible, murdering people and hunting them down like dogs), then in a blink of an eye, things can change.  They can not only come out of the darkness but be preaching the gospel of light and the good news to others. 

At the time of Jesus, they would always say, “If you knew who it was touching you, you wouldn’t let them get near you.” But what they failed to see is “If you knew who they were touching, you would see that their lives are being totally transformed before your eyes.”

Lord Jesus, help us to live in the place of loving devotion and faithfulness to You and Your ways.  Help break us free from religion and generational sin through receiving your death on the cross and blood.   Let us live in the fullness of Your blessings and let our love for you be genuine and shine through all that we do. 

Generation After Generation Your ways are clear

It is you that we serve and You that we fear

Guide us on a path into righteousness

Let us live in the beauty of your lovingkindness’s

Thank you for the ways that you provide for us

Thank you for the life of blessedness.