We live in a day of self-indulgence. Many people have eschewed marriage and long-term relationships because they are afraid that they will be left by their wife or husband. This is foolishness to the utmost highest. To avoid a relationship because you fear that your relationship will fail is really a form of self-harm. Why would you live under such cowardice and fear? Why would you let that control your life.
I would find
this completely shocking, that someone would avoid ever pursuing a relationship
for fear that it would fail, if I did not remember that I thought this way
myself when I was about 15 or 16 years old. I remember there was a girl who
liked me that I knew liked me, but I never pursued her. I was too shy in this
arena. But it was not long after that situation that I learnt from that and
things changed dramatically. But I was a teenager at the time. Being an older
teenager is when you work these things out. It is unseemly, and unbecoming for
a man to still be in this place of fear of approaching a woman when he is in
his twenties, thirties or forties. Yet, the truth is that many men have settled
into this mindset, and nothing can shake them from it. Or so it appears at
least.
It is common
for those of us in the nationalist camp to tell people that if they do not have
kids then they cannot win the future. This is most often the case. I say most often because someone could bring up the exceptions of Jesus or Paul.
But this is a bit retarded, because you are never going to be Jesus, and you
are almost certainly never going to have the impact on civilisation that Paul
had, either. Jesus is a one off the situation. He is the Lord and King of all,
his role was singular in humanity. His role was to be the second Adam, the God
Man who achieved for us salvation. And Paul’s role was also to some degree
singular. He was called to be the chief of the Apostles with regards to the
impact of scripture and of explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ to world. This
is a high calling.
Paul even
appeared open to having a wife. He says in 1 Corinthians 9,
“3
This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to
eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do
the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or is it only
Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?” (1 Cor.
9:3-6).
Though he did
make it clear that in some way he was gifted to singleness,
“6
Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I
myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of
another. 8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to
remain single, as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should
marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion” (1 Cor. 7:6-9).
So, there is
a gift to singleness, but Paul notes it is rare, and we can observe that those
who can’t control themselves far outweigh those that can. Bringing up
exceptions to disprove a rule is sub-standard thinking, though that is common too,
is it not?
When all is
laid out at the end of the day the best chance that you have for having an impact
on the future is children. Having children allows even the humblest of people
to have a mighty impact on the world. I think it is right for the nationalists
to emphasize that in general all young men and young women should be pursuing
righteous marriage and posterity through children. I have seen way too many
avoiding this completely, or delaying it for a host of reasons, usually because
of influence from their parents that want them to delay, or because of some
idea that they need to have a lot of money before they can get married. Either
way, a lot of young adults are delaying marriage.
There is also
something broken in Generation Z when it comes to sex and having children. An
increasing number of young men are not finding relationships, and are not
having sex, but instead are turning to things like porn and Onlyfans.[1] “There has been a more
than 50 per cent increase in men 18-24-years-old not having sex since about the
turn of the millennium.”[2] I have even heard young
men in this generation say that they are happy not to marry, and are happy to
stay at home indefinitely. The cost of living today, and a host of other
issues, have driven a lot of young men out of the dating pool and away from
marriage, and this is an issue in the church and outside the church. So there
needs to be a healthy correction pointing these young men to marriage and
children. So they can lay a claim more surely on the future.
And yet, I
have been reminded by my own devotions over the last few days just how much
this is not simply a physical or material problem, but a spiritual issue. It is
simply not completely true to say that those who have the most kids win the
future, because it is more biblical to say those who have God’s favour do. This
is highlighted well by a few examples in the book of Kings.
Let’s look at
Ahab because this serves to really emphasize this point. God said to Ahab,
“20
Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have
found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of
the Lord. 21 Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you
up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 22 And I
will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the
house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me,
and because you have made Israel to sin. 23 And of Jezebel the Lord also said,
‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’ 24 Anyone belonging
to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in
the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat” (1 Kings 21:20-24).
Ahab so
angered the Lord that God told him that he was going to destroy all his descendants,
just as he had done to Jeroboam and Baasha. And though Ahab repented and this
prophecy was delayed (c.f. vv. 25-29), it truly came to pass. First Ahab died
in battle, and then later Ahab’s son Joram was judged, and then Jezebel was
judged (2 Kings 9). We read in 2 Kings 9 how the servant of Elijah anointed Jehu
as king and prophesied that he would fulfil this duty,
“6
So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his
head, saying to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anoint you king
over the people of the Lord, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house
of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants
the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. 8 For the whole
house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or
free, in Israel. 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah” (2 Kings
9:6-9).
Jehu then
fulfills this word, by going after Joram, the king of Israel and the Son of
Ahab, and Ahaziah the king of Judah, whose mother was Athaliah, a daughter of
Ahab. And then he takes out Jezebel, as we noted. Then, after this, Jehu went
after the 70 sons of Ahab,
“6 Then
he wrote to them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you
are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me at
Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king's sons, seventy persons, were with
the great men of the city, who were bringing them up. 7 And as
soon as the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered
them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at
Jezreel. 8 When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought
the heads of the king's sons,” he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance
of the gate until the morning.” 9 Then in the morning, when he went
out, he stood and said to all the people, “You are innocent. It was I who
conspired against my master and killed him, but who struck down all these? 10 Know
then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord,
which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has
done what he said by his servant Elijah.” 11 So Jehu struck down
all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his
close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining” (2 Kings
10:6-11).
But Jehu was
not yet finished. Next, he ran into the relatives (NKJV says “brothers”) of
Ahaziah, who was, remember, also related to Ahab and an idolator,
“12 Then
he set out and went to Samaria. On the way, when he was at Beth-eked of the
Shepherds, 13 Jehu met the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah,
and he said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the relatives of
Ahaziah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen
mother.” 14 He said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive and
slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he spared none
of them” (2 Kings 10:12-14).
A few verses
later we read, “17 And when he came to Samaria, he struck down all
who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out, according to the
word of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah” (2 Kings 10:17). And after
this he went after the religion of Ahab and struck down the prophets of Baal,
and the idols of Baal, “26 and they brought out the pillar that was
in the house of Baal and burned it. 27 And they demolished
the pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a
latrine to this day” (2 Kings 10:26-27). Jehu went about making sure that Ahab
had no posterity. And he was pretty thorough at seeking to fulfill this task,
especially in Samaria.
Even after
Jehu was gone, this word continued to be fulfilled in Judah. Athaliah, who was
the grand daughter of Omri, and the daughter of Ahab, took control of Judah and
killed almost all her descendants (2 Kings 11:1-3). Only one survived, Joash,
the son of Ahaziah, who was taken by his aunty and hidden in the temple. This
Joash, or Jehoash, was technically a descendant of Ahab, but really he was
preserved so that God’s promise to David would be fulfilled, because he was a descendant
of David as well. His being raised in the temple ensured that this put an end
to the Baal worship of Judah for a time, after his grandmother, Athaliah, was
eventually defeated,
“1
In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign, and he reigned forty years
in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 And Jehoash did what
was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the priest
instructed him. 3 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people
continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places” (2 Kings 12:1-3).
All of this
shows that you can have all the children you want and if God’s favour is not on
your side you will still lose the future. Ahab had no posterity left just as
God had prophesied, “21 ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away
your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and
free” (1 Kings 21:21). Ahab had 70 sons, that is just his sons, he had daughters
as well, and God took it all. And one of his few technical descendants left was
more closely related to David and raised in the faith of David, instead of the
faith of Ahab.
So, if we
want to win the future it is not just a case of having lots of children, though
we should do that. It is a case of making sure that we have a physical and
spiritual legacy of righteousness. Because you can have a large family but then
war, disease, pestilence, or some other calamity from God can take them all
away. But a spiritual legacy is a sure foundation, and a spiritual legacy that you
build into your children is an even more sure foundation.
I am not seeking
to rebuke or disagree with anyone who says we should be encouraging young men
to get a wife and have kids. I am all for this. I just think what I saw in my
devotions over the last week or more, about God taking away the posterity of
the wicked is an important addition to this conversation. Ultimately this is
not just a physical world, it is a physical and spiritual world, and we cannot
forget this. As we read in Job 18 about the wicked, “5The light of the wicked
indeed goes out, And the flame of his fire does not shine…19 He has neither son
nor posterity among his people, Nor any remaining in his dwellings.” When God’s
favour is not upon you there is nothing in the physical that you can do to
overcome this. But if God’s favour is upon than you can overcome everything
this world has to throw at you.
May you look
up God for his favour. And may God favour you with an incredible posterity.
List of References
