The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 499

who, as did Josiah, will set himself whilst he is yet young to seek the Lord shall surely find him, and also that he who honours God, God will honour.-C. Ver. 18.-Exceptional facts in the law of transmission of character. "Concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah King of Judah." The law is that like begets like. It is so physically and meutally to large extent, and morally and spiritually as well, Generally, blessed be God, the children of his servants become his servants too. An<l, on the other hand, the habit of sin in the parent is reprodnced in the child, so that we have criminal classes, hereditary drunkards, profligates, and much else of a similar sad sort. But the law has frequent exceptions on both 8ides. The two names in this verse are both of them instances of such exception. Now, how are we to account for them? We have frequent instances in the Old Testament. The sons of" Aaron the saint of the Lord;" of Eli, the devout high priest; of Samuel, the upright judge. What a set David's children were! And here we have Josiah the good, father of the infamous Jehoiakim. But we have nothing of this in the New Testament. It does not seem to be recognized there that the children of the godly can be otherwise than godly themselves. Even when one of the parents was an unbeliever, a heathen, the faith of the other was held to have such virtue that of their children St. Paul says, "Now are your children holy." We have very many instances of whole households being believers, but none of the children of believers being other than what their parents were. Would to God it were always so now I And, on the other hand, we have, as in the cases of the pious Heze- kiah, son of the wicked Ahaz, aud Josiah, son of Amon, who "sinned more and more," instances of ungodly parents having godly children. Now, how are these to be accounted for? Consider the sad ease- l, TBAT GODLY PARENTS SHOULD HAVE UNGODLY CHILDREN, We are accustomed to assent to the possibility and frequency of this as an unquestionable truth. But is it so? We would ask two questions with a view to a better understanding of the matter. 1. Is it meant that godly parents who have been both able and anxious to train their children for God may yet have ungodly children? (1) Some godly parents are not thus able, Probably Josiah was not. The might of evil, the fearful sweep and rush of its tide, was probably in those days, and in that court and city, too great for even the godly king to withstand, and it bore away his son before his eyes. For a prince in that age to be godly was almost a miracle. Aud that which we have suggested as perhaps and probably accounting for the ungodliness of Josiah's son may explain so111e similar cases now. (2) But more are not really anxious about it, If parents were as anxious about the godliness of their children as they are about their health, education, and start in life, and took as much pains to secure it, such cases as we are considering would be more rare than they are. (3) The children of believers ought not to need conversion, They should grow up in the kingdom of God in which their baptism declared them to be already members. But there is a deadly doctrine all too influential in thousands of Christian homes, that children must go into the far country first, and there live more or less prodigal-like, and then afterwards come to themselves, be converted, and return. And of course what is expected of such children happens, as far as the going away is concerned: not always the return. But why should they ever go into that far country? 'l'ho elder son, though, like Jonah and many a devout Jew (cf. Paul's "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God," etc.), he was perplexed at the Father's gracious way of dealing with repentant sinners, was the elder son still who had been ever obedient, and to whom the father sni<l, "Son, thou art ,Jver with me, nnd all that I have is thine ; " as much as to say, " Why do you corn-plain of my treatment of your poor wretched brother? Yours is far the better lot; you are so much the happier thnt you assuredly ought not to complain." So did the father "entreat him," and, no doubt, success- fully. But from most mournful forgei,fulness of the fact that there is no need that onr children shJuld go away, and that they ought not to go away, many parents let them go, or at least acquiesce in their going as something that is inevitable. Hence, as it is of no use to be anxious and guard against the inevitable, they take no such pains a.bout their children's godliness as they do about those other moro temporal matters which concern their welfare, and which they know do very largely depend upon the endeavours they, their parents, put forth. 'l'hov cannot avoid desiring 60G 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PHOPB:E'l' JEREMIAH. [cu. nu. 1-30,