The Grandson of Moses

Is it a good thing to have a parent or grandparent who is faithful to God? Surely, this would be an ideal household for a child to grow up in. From a child, the child would be taught to know and apply the Scriptures, just as Timothy was taught the Scriptures from the time he was a child (cf. 2 Timothy 3:15; 1:5). From a child, the child would be “trained up in the way he should go” (cf. Proverbs 22:6).

However, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that the faith of parents and grandparents will automatically “rub off” on their descendants. It is a fallacy to assume that “just because I am faithful, my children and grandchildren will automatically be faithful”. God told Moses to tell the Israelites that they not only needed to love and obey God, but that they needed to teach their children to do so as well. This is recorded in a famous passage in the book of Deuteronomy, called the “Shema”, after the Hebrew word that means “Hear”:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

The Scriptures are very clear that ultimately, every person is individually responsible for his or her own actions. Even if a parent or grandparent were faithful to God, this does not automatically mean that the child or grandchild would be faithful. Likewise, if a parent or grandparent were unfaithful to God, this does not automatically mean that the child or grandchild would be unfaithful.

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

To drive home the point, let us look at the actions of a certain Levite, as recorded for us in Judges chapters 17 and 18. In Judges 17, we read of a Levite who was traveling and came to the house of a man named Micah (Judges 17:7-8). Micah’s house was full of idols (Judges 17:5), and he invited this Levite to be his “household priest” in exchange for material compensation (Judges 17:10-13). Subsequently, men from the tribe of Dan, backed up by 600 armed men, entered Micah’s house to steal away his household idols (Judges 18:14-17). The children of Dan then enticed the Levite to follow them and be a priest to an entire tribe, instead of just one household (Judges 18:18-20). This Levite and his descendants subsequently served as idolatrous priests to the tribe of Dan, until the Assyrian invasion about 600 years later (Judges 18:30-31).

Who was this certain Levite? The Scriptures tell us his name, and the names of his father and grandfather as well.

And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves, and Jonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. (Judges 18:30 ESV)

And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. (Exodus 2:21-22)

Imagine that – the grandson of Moses becoming an idolatrous priest! The same Moses who told the people to love God with all their heart, the same Moses who told the people to teach their children diligently, the same Moses who told the people to talk frequently about God to their children. This is of course not meant as a criticism or indictment of Moses, but rather as a solemn reminder that we cannot assume that our children and grandchildren will automatically be faithful, just because we are faithful.

May we strive diligently to love God every day, to know His Word and do it – but equally important, to teach our children to do so as well.

***Postscript: The KJV and NKJV translates Moses’ name in Judges 18:30 as “Manasseh” (מְנַשֶּׁה), while the ESV translates it as “Moses” (משה). We can be confident that Moses is the correct translation, due to the supplementary information given in the verse (his son, Gershom, was named – cf. Exodus 2:21-22). As to why there is a difference in translations between the KJV / NKJV and the ESV, please feel free to approach the author of this article and he will be happy to share his research with you.