The Parents' Prerogative: How is it Used
D. Davies. Psalm 78:5-8 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers… ? — Dr. Adam Clarke reminds us that there are no less than five generations specified in these verses. God has blessed no age for its own sake only. There is a chain of Divine purposes in the history of God's dealings with men, one link of which joins another in continuous progression until all, in their united and related capacity, present one completed purpose which is all-embracing and Godlike. This truth was repeatedly emphasized in the earliest days of God's special dealings with the Jewish people. Moreover, the duty of handing down to succeeding generations the truth which they had received was specially enforced in the case of parents, the natural guardians of the rising race, and, therefore, according to the law of Moses, the first special custodians of Divine truth. It is important to notice how tenaciously the Jewish people clung to the title "the Children of Israel," and how frequently in later days, when the title "Children of Israel" had fallen into comparative disuse, they nevertheless clung to the memory of their "fathers," especially the three great primitive fathers of the race — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All this shows what a large place the family and its associations and relationships occupied in the life of the nation. There can be no doubt that it is God's will that the parent should be the first teacher and guide of the family, and if this is neglected by the parent no one else can fully compensate for that neglect. Hence the repeated emphasis placed in the Old Testament on the duties of parents. I say "parents" because the law demanded filial honour alike to "father and mother." Now, in the household of the Jew there were certain religious duties to be performed by the mother. For instance, the lighting of the Sabbath lamp, as also the preparation of the Sabbath meal, and the fastening of the scroll of parchment upon the door-post, was done, not by the father, but the mother. Thus Jewish children from their earliest age learnt to associate certain religious acts commemorative of great facts in the history of God's dealings with the nation with some of the mother's duties. The child would ask, "Mother, what are you doing?" She would reply, "Kindling the Sabbath lamp," or "Preparing the Sabbath meal," or "Fastening the parchment upon the door-post so that all may know we love and serve the Lord God of Israel." She would also tell the child the spiritual significance of all these customs. Thus the mother was a mighty power in Israel in forming the character, and determining the destiny, of the rising race. Moreover, the mother was the privileged teacher of the child during the earliest and most impressionable period of his life, and, oh, how wonderfully the Jewish mother availed herself of this opportunity! We find a striking instance of the mother's influence, even in a home, far away from any synagogue, where, moreover, the father was a heathen man, in Paul's allusion to Timothy, who from a child had known the Holy Scriptures. Now, parents, will you relinquish that vantage ground upon which God has placed you? Will you give it up instead of availing yourself of your prerogative to the fully Are you willing to send your children forth to the world without the advantage of your unique influence? Is it your will that, though you have the power placed in your hands so to influence your children that they shall find it exceptionally difficult to forget you and your teaching, they shall yet go forth into this fashionable, giddy, sinful world without the advantage of any such training as God calls upon you to give them, and all this because you idly trust that somehow or other some self-denying teacher may compensate for your neglect? Oh, parents, to have a conscience void of offence, and our hands clean so that not a spot of their blood shall remain upon us! (D. Davies.) Parallel Verses KJV: For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: WEB: For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;