Bring the Boy to Me

Monday Devotional

He was seeking godly offspring.

Malachi 2:15

The royal servant Obadiah told the prophet Elijah, “I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth” (1 Kings 18:12). It seems likely from this confession, and from his name, that Obadiah must have had believing parents. Obadiah means “servant of Yahweh [the LORD]”—this in a time when Ahab and Jezebel made killing the Lord’s prophets a royal blood sport. Any parent wanting to curry favor with the prevailing royal court wouldn’t have dared to label their son with such a name. Instead, they’d choose “servant of Baal” or “follower of Chemosh” (or some other false god touted by Jezebel). But Obadiah’s parents chose “servant of Yahweh,” and their boy proved it was more than just a name. During the great persecution, Obadiah used his influence to courageously hide a hundred prophets of the living God, whom he fed and gave water to until the pogrom had passed.

Obadiah’s life provides a true parable of the prophetic nature behind having kids. People choose to have children (or not to have children) for the flimsiest of reasons: carrying on the family name, a desire to experience the intimate parent-child relationship, because we want someone there for us in our old age, because we fear we would feel lonely without children—and our future actions as parents will be shaped by these purposes. If my goal is simply to raise “happy” children, I’ll buy them whatever they want instead of teaching them to be responsible and caring with money. If my goal is to have “successful” children, I will spare no expense helping them to rise above others—they’ll get the best coaching, the best equipment, maybe even the services of a sports psychologist. I’ll act as if the most important thing in the world is that they get in the right school, with the right classes and the right diplomas, so they can get a job with the right company in the right industry.