“He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom,
and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.” Isaiah 33:6
Towards the end of 2023, God gave me this verse to hold on to. It provided me comfort and strength, and insight.
The background to this verse in Isaiah is a time of upheaval: “Behold, their heroes cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste; the travelers ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised; there is no regard for man.” Although all of us living in Orange County may not feel that this verse describes us, but in the context of all that we are going through in our generation, in our nation, and in our global society, I believe we are going through all of this. On the outside are problems like inflation and wars. But underlying these problems are deeper problems of social division and identity crisis. There is no regard for man. Perhaps back in the days of Isaiah, this might have meant no regard for human lives. Now, it means no regard for what a human being as God defines it. What is male? A female? What is marriage? We are going through a much greater kind of socio-political and spiritual chaos than ever before.
So, how do we raise our children in this age? What is our strategy? Where is our hope? This verse tells us both.
Our hope is God. That may sound cliché. But this verse is saying that God is the only source of stability in our times. It cannot be anything in creation. The fundamental problem of our generation is not a lack of human knowledge or power. It is the problem of our relationship with God: “covenants are broken.” We do not fear God, so we do not obey God. We have broken our covenants with God. So, before it is too late, we need to return to God, and help our children return to God.
God is the source of stability in our times because he is the source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. God is the source of both what I call “theological depth” and “classical breadth.” We need to make sure that our children have theological depth, that they trust in God for their salvation. We are living in a generation, particularly in Orange County, where kids grow up without a need for God. A comfortable life is taken for granted. They are blind to the reality of life without God, even though our current world and history is filled with examples of them.
We also need to make sure that our children have classical breadth, that they trust God as the source of wisdom and knowledge. We live in an age of irony. With social media and artificial intelligence revolution, people become less social and less intelligent. A deep personal relationship with God leads not only to peace and strength in our hearts, but true wisdom and knowledge that we need to build true societies and change the world for good.
Then, how do we make God the source of our salvation, wisdom, and knowledge? Fear of the Lord. What does fear of the Lord look alike? It means that we take God and His Word seriously. It means we put all our hope in God for all problems and challenges in life. It means we trust God to forgive us from all our sins. It means we listen to God to change the way we live that is aligned to His clear Word. It means that as parents we believe that the treasure of our family is the fear of the Lord.
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