God starts teaching us about the importance of legacy from the very beginning and continues throughout His Word.
He begins in the lives of the first sons born to Adam and Eve. Cain ends up getting very jealous of his brother, Abel, and kills him. In time, Adam and Eve have another son and name him Seth. Seven generations after Cain, comes a descendent named Lamech. Lamech killed a man who wounded him. A legacy of anger and jealousy was embedded. However, seven generations after Seth, came a man named Enoch. Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him [Genesis 5:24 TM]. Clearly a righteous legacy was established in Seth's line.
But God was persistent about teaching this principle. Twenty chapters later, we read about Jacob and Esau. Esau was Isaac's oldest son and he loved Esau. But Esau was foolish and impetuous. The birthright of a firstborn was a very special blessing in his day. However, he sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, for a bowl of stew when returning from a hunting trip. Rebekah loved Jacob, revealing unhealthy parenting of these two boys. This man - who wrestled in the womb with his brother - became a deceiver and suffered much for this trait. Eventually, however - and this is very significant - Jacob wrestles with God and experiences a transformation! Through this divine intervention, he is renamed 'Israel' and becomes the father of the twelve tribes!
The lesson we learn here is that God can interrupt and change the effect of a legacy - IF WE ALLOW HIM!
David is another illustration of the power of legacy. Being a man after God's heart, we see him chosen by God to be king of Israel. However, he chooses adultery and conspiracy to commit murder. His legacy turns bitter as a result! Incest haunts the royal palace and his sons scheme to kill one another. A legacy that started out so well and enjoyed the blessing of God, in a short time turned sour and became a sordid story of violence and perversion.
A legacy is a delicate yet critical pattern of behavior. What most of us fail to understand is that all our actions, decisions, habits and responses contribute to the formation of our legacy. Even those secret, hidden thoughts and actions! The formation of legacy is knitted into the fabric of living more deeply than we tend to realize. Everything we think, do and say contributes to our legacy. We see our idiosyncrasies begin to surface in our children when they're quite young. By adolescence, their course has been partially determined by our influence in their lives. Free will still exists! They - like us - get to make decisions that could alter their course.
There are many factors that come into play: free will, God's Will, reason, desperation, prayer, divine encounters and many more.
Regardless of our age or stage of life, we must systematically evaluate the impact of our lives on others - especially those closest to us!
Gracious God,
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