Grandparent Links

Here's some articles and resources about Grandparents and the Bible:

Why Kids Need Their Grandparents, excerpted from James Dobson's book Bringing up boys

The High Calling of Grandparents by Bernice Vandervalk

Katherine Kehler has "a dream about God reviving and mobilizing grandparents." Read about it in A Vision for Grandparents.

"Family Expert Helps Grandparents Explore Their Biblical Role" is an article by the American Family Association that recommends the following DVD:

IN GRANDPARENTHOOD: MORE THAN ROCKING CHAIRS (at grandparenthood.org), YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO:

Pass on a great sense of blessing to each one of your grandchildren.
Be a light to guide the way for the generations that follow you.
Set a clear and reliable standard for your grandchildren to emulate.
Help your grandchildren if and when their parents go through a divorce or difficult times.
Respond graciously if your grandchildren move in with you.
Be an effective grandparent to your step-grandchildren.
"Spoil" your grandchildren in a positive way.
Avoid crossing the fine line between intervening and interfering.
Process the inevitable conflicts that go with grandparenting.
Grow even closer to your grandchildren as they grow older.
Leave a legacy that will go on forever.

Lesson #6 - Grandparents in the Bible

For this lesson, we link to David Hertzler's Family Bible Study, Grandparents in the Bible.

Compare Naomi's condition with no grandchildren:

Ruth 1:20 But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi;[pleasant] call me Mara,[bitter] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

With Naomi at the birth of her grandson:

Ruth 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! 15 And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”

Lesson #5 - Grandpa loses God's ultimate blessing, but a grandson is restored...until grandson follows grandpa's example.

Note the progression of Grandpa Saul's sins:

Saul’s Unlawful Sacrifice - Saul disobeys the commandment of the Lord and loses the right to pass the kingdom to his children and grandchildren (their inheritance):

1 Samuel 13:13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue..."
Poor planning (no weapons for the army). The rash oath (unwittingly curses his own son).

Saul Spares King Agag, the Murderer - Saul rejects the word of the Lord and loses the kingdom:

1 Samuel 15:26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

He persecutes God's Anointed (David), he murders priests, and he consults a medium (1 Samuel chapters 19 - 28). {Note: Saul tries to outsmart God by getting David to marry his daughter, thus attempting to continue the line of Saul's kingdom thru David, but it doesn't work out [2 Samuel 6:23]. By the way, God has never been and will never be outsmarted.)

1 Samuel 31
The Tragic End of Saul and His Sons
1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons. 3 The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers.
4 Then Saul said to his armorbearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.”
But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. 5 And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. 6 So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.

Mephibosheth, Saul's Grandson

2 Samuel 4:4
Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

David’s Kindness to Mephibosheth

2 Samuel 9
1 Now David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
2 And there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. So when they had called him to David, the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
He said, “At your service!”
3 Then the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, to whom I may show the kindness of God?”
And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.”
4 So the king said to him, “Where is he?”
And Ziba said to the king, “Indeed he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar.”
5 Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar.
6 Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, “Mephibosheth?”
And he answered, “Here is your servant!”
7 So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.”
8 Then he bowed himself, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?”
9 And the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “I have given to your master’s son all that belonged to Saul and to all his house. 10 You therefore, and your sons and your servants, shall work the land for him, and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so will your servant do.”
“As for Mephibosheth,” said the king, “he shall eat at my table[a] like one of the king’s sons.” 12 Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha. And all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet.

NOTE: This is a great picture of how God can restore broken people (Psalm 147:3 and Isaiah 61:1, the verse Jesus quotes to begin his ministry in Luke 4:18). Jesus gives us his kingdom and lets us eat and drink at his table (Luke 22:30). Are you brokenhearted? Tell it to Jesus.

Mephibosheth Betrays David?

2 Samuel 16
1 When David was a little past the top of the mountain, there was Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth, who met him with a couple of saddled donkeys, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred clusters of raisins, one hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine. 2 And the king said to Ziba, “What do you mean to do with these?”
So Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who are faint in the wilderness to drink.”
3 Then the king said, “And where is your master’s son?”
And Ziba said to the king, “Indeed he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me.’”
4 So the king said to Ziba, “Here, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.”
And Ziba said, “I humbly bow before you, that I may find favor in your sight, my lord, O king!”

David and Mephibosheth Meet: who lied: Ziba or Mephibosheth?

2 Samuel 19
24 Now Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. And he had not cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he returned in peace. 25 So it was, when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?”
26 And he answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go to the king,’ because your servant is lame. 27 And he has slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is like the angel of God. Therefore do what is good in your eyes. 28 For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king. Yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. Therefore what right have I still to cry out anymore to the king?”
29 So the king said to him, “Why do you speak anymore of your matters? I have said, ‘You and Ziba divide the land.’”
30 Then Mephibosheth said to the king, “Rather, let him take it all, inasmuch as my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house.”

Saul's descendents pay the ultimate price for Saul's sins; Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth spared, but not Saul's son, Mephibosheth.

1 Samuel 21

1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, “It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.
3 Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”
4 And the Gibeonites said to him, “We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us.”
So he said, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”
5 Then they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, 6 let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose.”
And the king said, “I will give them.”
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Michal[a] the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 9 and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD.

Lesson #4 - Grandparents

The only mention of grandfather or grandmother in KJV is 2 Timothy 1:5
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

Verses which contain "children's children." Note the impact of a grandparents actions on his children's children. Blessings or curses.

Genesis 45:10
And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

Deuteronomy 4:25
When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

2 Kings 17:41
So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

Psalm 103:17
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

Psalm 128:6
Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

Proverbs 17:6
Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

Jeremiah 2:9
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.

Ezekiel 37:25
And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

GRANDPARENTS IN THE BIBLE

Cain, the murderer was great, great, great grandpa to Lamech, the murderer.

Seth (Godly Abel's substitute), great, great, great grandpa to Enoch, who "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24), and Enoch was great grandpa to Noah, who "walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)

Ham, cursed by Noah (Genesis 9:24), and grandpa of Nimrod, first king of Babel & Shinar (eventually to become Babylon)

Shem, blessed by Noah (Genesis 9:26), 7 greats grandpa to Abraham, blessed by God (Genesis 12:1-3)

Jacob, blesses his grandchildren, specifically Joseph's sons, effectively giving Joseph a double portion of his inheritance, a privilege traditionally reserved for the firstborn, in Genesis 48. (Jacob was himself a younger brother who got the firstborn blessing, by the way)

Joseph, was blessed to see (and teach?) his great grandchildren (Genesis 50:23).

Jethro, gave wise advice to his grandchildren's father, his son-in-law, Moses (Exodus 18:17).

Rahab, prostitute, great, great grandma to King David, and 28 generations later, (or 30 greats grandma) Jesus

Ruth, foreigner, great grandma to King David, and 28 generations later, (or 29 greats grandma) Jesus

QUESTION TO CONSIDER: How are the decisions we are making today going to affect our grandchildren?

BAD NEWS - Iniquity of the fathers upon descendants to 3rd and 4th generation

Exodus 34:7
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

GOOD NEWS - God can break the curse, if we choose to love him. And God's mercy is to a thousand generations of them that love him.

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;