Education: Continuing the House

Letters to My Family Solomon's GloryLeave a Comment on Education: Continuing the House

Education: Continuing the House

We are all the recipients of an inheritance. The great blessings God has given us in this nation. The inheritance of our families: their history, name, and reputation. The freedom to worship the Lord and proclaim His gospel of forgiveness, redemption, righteousness, and holiness. Many more could be listed.

What are you doing to pass on your inheritance to your children?

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Pro 1:1-7 KJV)

The phrase “perceive the words of understanding” uses two words that at their root mean to “continue the house.” A second purpose of education is to continue the house–to pass on to sons the necessity, the reponsibility, and the means for making sure that the family, culture, and society go on and thrive in glorifying the Lord. This phrase could be expanded as “continue the house by passing on to your children the necessity of continuance, the responsibility of continuance, and the means of continuance.”

In the physical, literal sense, a house only continues by constant attention to it. It must be cleaned. It must be repaired. It requires refreshing and renovating from time to time. It must be looked at as a stewardship and inheritance to be improved and passed on to children or whoever may follow you in ownership.

As true as this is with literal houses it is even more true of families, churches, cultures, and nations. Education of young men must constantly emphasize the need to receive, maintain, and improve on what has been given them. That they have received an inheritance and they must strive to better it and pass it on to their children. This instills in them a vision and purpose in their lives.

This means a clear picture must be given of what the inheritance is. We need to teach all the truth about our nation: its greatest ideals and deeds; and its failures and wickedness. This is so we and they can clearly to effect the repairs that must be done, while preserving that which is wholesome and good.

We have cycled between several failures in doing this in our education system. We teach myths and legends that whitewash and obscure what really happened. Remedying this, we swing to teaching students only tales of failure and corruption. The net result is they see their inheritance as a thing to be used and tossed aside. Their attitude towards life is arrogant, nihilistic, aimless, and selfish. We have taught them this and this lesson they have listened to very carefully.

Because of the monolithic nature of our education system, the whole thing is like a gigantic ship with an impossibly small rudder and wheel to steer it. The inertia is so large that it is impossible to change course. We are hitting the first of the rocks, the worst is yet to come. This system has to be abandoned–we must enter the life boats and set forth in different directions at the local scale. This is not to say that it is impossible, because nothing is impossible with God, but that change must happen at the family level.

This will be difficult, because it requires repentance of a great many sins by parents, churches, and communities. Without an outpouring of grace from God it will not happen, because too many wear the name of Christ, but bow down to Baal.

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