There is another little gem tucked into the account of Abraham’s conversation with God about Sodom. God is speaking:
For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. (Genesis 18.19, ESV)
There it is, a simple job description for Abraham:
- command his children and his household after him
- to keep the way of the LORD
- by doing righteousness and justice…
We’ll see tomorrow that Abraham didn’t always do a good job of that…nor did I despite a framed version of this poem, attributed to James Gibbon, that hung in my office:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6.4 – 7, ESV, emphasis mine)
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6.4, ESV)