The Children for Christ by Andrew Murray

Twentieth Day – The Father as Intercessor
`And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and
sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings
according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have
sinned, and renounced God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.’ Job 1: 5.
What a beautiful picture of a man in whose heart the fear of God lives!
He fears lest his children sin against God or forsake Him in their heart.
He is so deeply conscious of the sin of their nature, that, even when he
does not know of positive transgression, the very thought of their
having been in circumstances of temptation makes him afraid. He so
fully realizes his position and privilege as father, that he sends for them
to sanctify them, and takes upon himself the continual offering of the
needed sacrifice. Job is here another example, among Bible saints, of a
servant of God in whom faith in God takes up the whole home in its
intercession, and whose fear of God extends to the sin of the children
too. God could hardly have said of him, `There is none like my servant
Job in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God,
and escheweth evil,’ if this element of true piety had been wanting. The
book might have been complete without it, as far as the record of Job’s
patience and faith is concerned, but we should have missed the so much
needed lesson — a man’s entire consecration to God implies the
consecration of the home life too. Let us study the lesson his example
teaches.
1. A deep sense of the sinfulness and the sins of his children is one of
the marks of a godly parent. It is to conquer and free from sin that God
entered into the parental covenant with Abraham. It was on account of
sin, and to deliver from its cause, that the blood of the lamb was
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