The Pastor's Kids You Hear About

And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel.  Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba.  His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.  Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:1-5 NASB)

Growing up in church, part of the "church-culture" was that the kids of the pastor(s) were the worst of the bunch.  There are a variety of reasons for this, most of them are stereotyping rather than fair, and few of them are accurate.  The ironic thing is that the stereotype is biblical.  For whatever reason, kids of famous Bible characters just can't seem to keep the faith going.  It's really weird.  Solomon is probably a notable exception, but that only depends on how you look at his life.

Abraham had Isaac, who has the fewest references to him and God in all of Scripture (okay, that might be an exaggeration).   Then you have all but one of Jacob's kids (that's 11 gone wrong for 1 good egg).  Before these there was Noah's bad egg, Ham (yes, that was a pun).  Then Moses has a son, but you never hear of him, Joshua takes over.  Then the judges are not of Joshua's family (...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord...for now).  Gideon had sons he installed as judges, but one illegitimate one killed all but one of the others.

And so it goes in Scripture, David and Absolom, Solomon and Rehaboam, and Hezekiah and his son Manasseh (best king, worst king).  So Samuel and his two corrupt sons isn't really a surprise.  And it isn't really or necessarily Samuel's fault.  Anyone who has kids worries about what they will be like when they grow up.  This is partly because we have so little control, and so much influence.  And partly because parents are by and large ignorant of how to raise kids.  For whatever reason we can't remember what our parents did right, just mostly what they did wrong.  They did something right, they had to, we survived.

But parents do have a huge influence, and parents are responsible for what their kids are like when they grow up.  Scripture may not shrink from painting the kids of righteous parents as losers, but it also holds parents responsible for keeping their kids in line.  In fact, the laws require parents to put out of control kids to death (I wonder if anyone kept that one).

So, that Samuel's sons "did not walk in his ways" is Samuel's responsibility.  He, like Eli before him, was responsible to correct aberrant behavior in his sons.  One problem was that he sent them a days walk or more away, so he couldn't see what they were doing down there (partly why he was responsible).  But it is also possible that these sons didn't go off track until they were that far away, corrupted by bad elements in that area, hit the "slippery slope" of one taste of dishonest gain, and it became their method.  Chances are really good that they knew the right thing to do, but out of dad's reach, opted for the easy and lucrative thing instead.

I'm a parent, I have a kid who will grow up and enter the world, and I can't control what she will be like.  But I have influence.  I also have the God-given responsibility to influence her to follow God.  I know I'm not perfect at that influence, and I know I have growth to do in the next four years before she's no longer in my house.  But, I'm neither a pastor, nor a famous Bible character, so my odds of releasing a good kid on society just radically improved!  Still, I have a responsibility from my Master to drive her to Him.  So, here I go again.