“The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them” - Proverbs 20:7 (NIV).
When King David wrote, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25), he certainly must have observed something extraordinary worth pointing out. While no one can dispute that tragedies have befallen even those that walk faithfully with God, there is something of their conduct that draws blessings eternally to them. “Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield” (Psalm 5:12).
The righteous not only experience blessings in their lifetime but God has given them wisdom to plan and secure a good future for their descendants. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” God gives the righteous wisdom to put in place those plans that will endure. He also, among others, creates those conditions where the inheritance they leave behind is not just easily squandered away.
On the contrary there are many occasions where one chances upon the wealth of the wicked that has disappeared the moment once they depart this earth, or even before. It’s saddening to see how one exerted so much energy to build up something that disappears like a house of cards the moment he is gone. Swords are drawn by almost everyone claiming and running off with a piece of his hard gotten wealth. Who has not seen those castles that used to glitter when the owner was around but now lie in ruins, just a few decades after his death! Here in Africa there is a certain President who at the peak of his power raised a city of gold, which was looted and quickly disintegrated into abject poverty the day he fell from power.
King David’s observation should inspire us to look up to the Almighty God for not just blessings in our lifetime, but also that such blessings should follow us, up to a “thousand generations!”
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, I thank you for not just the favor of the blessings I experience in this life, but also the knowledge that it may be experienced by those that follow me long after, this I pray in Jesus’s name.
