This message is part II of our ten-part series on finances. It is about embracing the generational character of God’s blessing.
There is a progression . . . a divine acceleration that functions generationally in the line of righteous parents. The fundamental generational promise that God makes to parents is that if you teach your children the way, they will always walk in it! Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
But the blessing is yet a greater reality: his children will be mighty in the land. Your children are not only going to be saved, they are going to be mighty!
Mighty – Gibur. The word was used of the many men of valor in Josh 1:14. It was what the angel of the Lord called Gideon in Judges 6:12. It was used of Boaz in Ruth 2:1 and of David in 1 Samuel 16:18. And it was how the psalmist described God in Psalm 24:8 – Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty (gibur)! The Lord mighty (gibur) in battle!
The term bears the sense of impetuousness . . . they move forcefully, rapidly . . . there is an acceleration to their success. The blessed man may have acquired blessing through a painstaking and painful process. But his children move quickly and are blessed abundantly. With each new generation, the blessing moves even more quickly. What takes you twenty years will take your children ten years, and what takes them ten years will take their children a year. And in fact, there are certain things that you paid a high price for that they be able to give to their children free of charge. Why? Because they’re mighty like that!
Proverbs 13:22 – A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. How is he able to do this? Because when he got money in his youth he was thinking generationally, rather than materialistically! He knew that the purpose of the blessing of the Lord was not simply to enhance his present experience, but rather to establish his legacy!
Think of Hezekiah . . . In 2 Kings 20, Hez got sick and the prophet Isaiah tells him he’s going to die. When he heard that, he turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly before the Lord. God stops Isaiah in the courtyard and sends him back: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.
Then in verse 12, Babylonian envoys show up to see him, and he decides to show them all of the treasures in the temple. Isaiah comes back and asks, who were those men and what did you show them? Hez says, everything! Isaiah responds, the days are coming when all that is in your house and yours sons will be carried off to Babylon. And Hez says, the word which you have spoken is good, for he said, at least there will be peace in my days . . . I gotta get mine. Hez was not thinking generationally. He didn’t care that what he was doing would one day result in his sons being carried off in chains!
His descendants are mighty in the land . . . and that means that they do something, not just that they have something. They contribute to society, rather than just living off of what their parents amassed. This is because the blessed man is intentional about how he uses money. He is always thinking about the outcome of his present actions on the future of his children. He knows that the way he uses money in the here and now is foundational for the way in which the generations to come will use money.