But there is a flip side to tall of this, namely, there are parents who raise their children right, and that the children grow up to be all wrong. "No," we say. "Can that really be? I mean, doesn't the Word say, 'Raise up a child in the way he should go,' or as the New American Standard Version renders it in the margin, 'Raise up a child according to his own way,' meaning, get acquainted with your child, his uniqueness, his personality and so forth, and then when he is old, he will not depart from it, that is depart from mom and dad's faith. Doesn't the Word say that?" Oh, yes, it does. We have that promise, and in many places, we as parents are told to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and God Himself mandates us in and through His Word to be very diligent and intentional about this high calling. For example, in Deuteronomy in chapter 6 and in verse six God says, "These commands that I have given you are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Now, saints, no matter how you cut into that verse exegetically, what it really means in the common vernacular is that you and I are being held accountable before Almighty God to propagandize our children for Jesus Christ. They are to know nothing else. We are to use every opportunity to make them understand that they are in this world for the glory of God.
And how different our world would be if more parents had given themselves to that task right at the very outset when their little ones arrived in this world. And sometimes Christian parents do that; indeed, they do it to the very best of their ability; they raise their kids right, and their children, nevertheless, grow up to be all wrong. It sometimes happens, and right here in the morning lesson, we find that it happened to Mr. and Mrs. Manoah. This very fine couple worked very hard at parenting. I'm quite sure of that from my understanding of this text, one that I have looked at and pondered for many, many years. They did not have access to Dr. James Dobson, but what they did get was a set of directions from the angel of the Lord, and they heeded every word of it. They were very godly people. If you will look at Judges 13:8, it tells us that Manoah was a man of prayer and that he frequently entreated the Lord. Manoah, after learning that the Lord was sending a baby son into his life, entreated the Lord and said, "Teach us what is to be done for the boy who is to be born." Do you really understand here what Manoah is praying for? Do you understand what this says about his character and heart? He is, in effect, asking the Lord to carefully direct him in the raising of a child so that the boy will grow to have a profound romance with the Lord. Every child needs a dad like that. Every child needs parents like that, parents who want to be just that focused and diligent. Now, Manoah, apparently, did not know a great deal about parenting, but he knew enough to know that raising his son would require his own utter dependence upon the Lord, and that is a good thing. The Bible says, "Put no confidence in the flesh."
