Kid’s Q&A – David Guzik Answers Bible Questions from Kids
Today we have a special Q&A featuring Bible questions from kids! Our idea for today’s episode is based on a question that my granddaughter Sirena had for me a few months ago. We decided to do a live Q&A featuring questions from kids. We spread the word to our Enduring Word audience, inviting them to send in their kids’ questions on video.
Who made God? Where did God come from?
The first question comes from Hannah, who is eight years old, from Nevada:
“My name is Hannah. I have a question for you. Who made God by? Thank you!”
Well, you’re very welcome, Hannah. Great question. I’m glad that you asked it.
We have a similar question from Levi, who is five years old, from Georgia:
“Where did God come from?”
That’s a good question too, isn’t it? Thank you for your question, Levi.
These questions bring us back to our basic understanding of who God is. God is what we call an uncreated being. You guys understand that everything has to be made by something else. A big apple tree is made from a little apple seed, and that little apple seed was made from an apple tree that came before it. You know that mommies and daddies make children. You know that dogs make puppies. You know that people make buildings and automobiles and computers and lots of other things.
Everything is made by something or somebody except for God. By definition, God is not created. God has no creator. Somewhere along the line there has to be something or somebody who begins everything, who is the uncreated Creator.
So, Hannah, who made God? Nobody. God has always existed.
Levi, where did God come from? God came from His own being. God has always been.
Why does God not go to bed?
The next two questions are from Kinsley, who is six years old, from California:
Why does God not go to bed?
Why does God let evil in the world?
Let’s talk about the first question: Why does God not go to bed? It’s because He’s God, and there is no limit to God. There’s no limit to His understanding. There’s no limit to His power. There’s no limit to His wisdom. There’s no limit to His authority. God has no limits. You know that we as people, we live with limits all the time. We can only go so many hours before we get tired and have to sleep. We can only go so many hours until we’re hungry and we have to eat. We can only go so many hours until we’re thirsty and we have to drink. God is not like that. He never gets tired. There’s a verse in the Psalms that says, He who keeps Israel that means God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). It’s a poetic way to say that God never gets tired.
In a moment, I’m going to answer a question from Tristan, and that answer will give a little bit different spin on the answer I just gave you. But before we get to Tristan’s question, I want to answer Kingsley’s second question.
Why does God allow evil in the world?
Why does God let evil in the world? Kinsley, there’s not just one answer to that question. There are several reasons and several purposes. But I’ll give you one of the biggest reasons. One of the biggest purposes in God allowing or letting evil into the world is because in the ultimate and best world that God is bringing forth, evil had to be present, so that God could do a greater work in redemption than He did in creation.
Most of us think that God’s greatest work is creation. I’m not surprised by that. We look around at the world and see how amazing the world is that God has created, from the starry skies above, to the mighty oceans, to the beautiful mountains, to the most intricate beauty, to a little puppy. There is beauty in all sorts of things in this world. We see that God’s creation is glorious.
But Kinsley, there’s something even more glorious than creation, and that’s God’s work of redemption. God cannot bring forth the greater work of redemption without allowing evil into the world. Thank you for your question, Kinsley.
Did God have to be potty trained?
The next question comes from Tristan, who is four years old, from California:
Did God have to be potty trained?
Okay, Tristan, let me answer that question in two ways. The first answer is: No, absolutely not. God is God. He’s not a man. He’s not a human being, in the sense that God is surpassing. He doesn’t get hungry in the way that people do. He doesn’t have to sleep, like Kinsley asked about. He’s not thirsty. The Bible specifically tells us these things. When the people in the Old Testament brought sacrifices to God, it wasn’t because God was hungry or thirsty. It was because He wanted them to honor Him with the things that they had. So, Tristan, the first answer to your question is no, of course not. God does not have to be potty trained.
But I’m going to give you a second answer to that question. When I say a second answer, I mean that both of these answers are true. You’ll see what I mean. Yes, Tristan, God had to be potty trained. And yes, Kinsley, God had to go to bed. What do I mean? When God added humanity to His deity and came in the person of Jesus Christ, then yes, He absolutely got tired, and He had to go to bed. And Tristan, the baby Jesus absolutely had to be potty trained. He wasn’t born from the womb already potty trained.
Jesus was a perfect human being, but still grew up and lived with the non-sinful weaknesses that are common to humanity. So, God in heaven didn’t have to be potty trained. But when God added humanity to His deity, when Jesus Christ came who was God among us, yes, He did have to be potty trained.
I’ve got a lot of respect for Kinsley and Tristan for the theological sophistication of their questions. They are asking questions of deep theology about the incarnation and all the rest of it. So, thank you so much for your great questions.
How can I know the Bible is true?
Our next question comes from Ella, who is ten years old, from Germany. I saw Ella and her mom and dad just a few months ago:
How can I know the Bible is true?
Selah, who is eight years old from California, asks a similar question:
How do we know the Bible is true?
Thank you both for this question. How do we know that the Bible is true? There is not only one answer to that question. There are many ways to know that the Bible is true. One of the most outstanding pieces of evidence that the Bible is true is the phenomenon of fulfilled prophecy. In 2 Peter 1:19 (KJV), he says that we have the “more sure word of prophecy” given to us in the Word of God. God has predicted very specific things like the rise of kingdoms, and sometimes even specific rulers by name, hundreds of years before those rulers ever emerged. So, we have this really striking phenomenon of God telling us, “You can believe that this book, the Bible, has a supernatural origin, because I’m going to tell you very specific things that happen hundreds of years before they ever happened.” This tells us that there is a supernatural origin to the Bible that makes it unlike any other book.
Another way that we can know the Bible is true is by the way it changes lives. Sometimes people will say, “I watched a movie, and it changed my life” or, “I read a book, and it changed my life.” Some of the books I have on my shelves have changed my life, and that’s great. Different things have an impact on our lives. But there is no book which has ever had the impact across the centuries, across the continents of the world, across the generations of humanity, in the way that the Bible has. Its truth and its power have shaped humanity unlike any other book.
One other reason we know that the Bible is true is because it says, with great validity, of itself that it’s true. It claims to be the Word of God. And we have good reason for believing it to be the word of God.
So those are just three quick things that come to my mind. We have fulfilled prophecy, we have the life-changing impact of the Bible, and we have what the Bible says about itself to be true. Those are just three of the reasons that we can take great confidence in God’s Word.
I’ll give you just one more. Jesus Christ was affirmed to be truly God by His resurrection. And Jesus said that we can and should trust the Word of God. He said that heaven and earth would pass away, but God’s Word would never pass away. That gives authority to the Word of God.
If you love God your whole life, but never pray to be a Christian, will you go to heaven?
The next question is from Emma, who is seven years old, from Georgia:
If you love God your whole life, but never pray to be a Christian, will you go to heaven?
Emma’s question is about salvation. Again, I’m impressed by the theology of these young people. Emma, I want you to know first of all that if somebody truly loves God, they will also love Jesus Christ, and they will love His Word. That’s one of the important things that Jesus revealed through His life when He was on this earth. He was the perfect representation, the perfect picture, of who God is. That means that if somebody doesn’t love Jesus, then they don’t love God at all.
For somebody to love God means they will love Jesus too. They will have a heart attraction, a devotion, and a surrender to Jesus. The way that God causes people to love Him goes far beyond simply admiring God. It means to submit your life to God, to trust in Him, to rely on Him, and to cling to Him.
Now, in your question, you put it like this, “If you love God your whole life, but never pray to be a Christian, will you go to heaven?” Emma, going to heaven isn’t really a matter of praying a specific prayer. It’s more about doing what God tells us to do, being followers of Jesus, and loving God with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole soul. It’s about loving Jesus as God, as who He is, as the Bible presents him to be. I’m not talking about someone trying to save themselves by works. The kind of love that God looks for from His people is a love that believes God and what He says in His word about how we need to trust Him. Loving God means to actually trust God. So, being saved is not a matter of praying a certain prayer, but of truly loving God.
If I answer your question just the way that you asked it, Emma, I would say that the person who loves God their whole life would go to heaven, because they would love Jesus Christ. They would believe Jesus Christ, and they would put their trust in Jesus Christ, even as He said we should do. Thank you for that question, Emma.
We’ve talked about questions about God, the Bible, and salvation. We also received a couple of questions about Satan.
If everything in heaven is only good, how is it possible that Lucifer was able to be evil?
This question comes from Glorie, who is 11 years old, from Germany:
If everything in heaven is only good, how is it possible that Lucifer was able to be evil?
Thank you so much for your question, Glorie. That’s a very good question. We talked before about why God allowed evil. God did not create evil in any direct sense. I’ll tell you why. The Bible says that God can’t create evil, and He can’t do evil. But what God did was He created beings with the capability to do evil. Lucifer and the rest of the angels were those beings. And later, when God created human beings, He created us with the capability with the possibility of doing evil too. So, God created beings that had the ability to do evil, and then Lucifer and the angels who fell with him did evil.
This was possible because it was in God’s plan to bring something better than the innocence of creation. We commonly think that the innocence of the world before evil was the best thing. We think it must be greater than the world of redemption that God will make, which we read about at the end of the book of Revelation, when all things are finished, and God has finished His great plan of the ages that He reveals to us in His Word. But Glorie, I want you to know that God considers His redeemed world, which He accomplishes at the end of the book of Revelation, as even greater than anything that He did in creating the world.
So, everything in heaven was only good, but God allowed evil. God allowed Lucifer to do evil, so that something even better could come forth. And the better thing is the world of redemption. What God gives us in His work of redemption is greater than even a world of innocence.
If Satan has been defeated, why does he still deceive people today?
We have another question on Satan, from Remy, who is 11 years old, from California:
Hi, Pastor David. I have a question about Satan. The Bible tells us he’s been defeated. Why does he still deceive people today?
Great question, Remy. If Satan has been defeated, then why does he still deceive people today? First off, considering the big picture, it’s in God’s purpose to allow Satan to deceive people today. God is still working out His purpose in His great plan of the ages. God’s use for Satan and for the evil that Satan can bring is not finished yet.
But I want you to consider this, that even a defeated foe can still deceive people. If you take away all my weapons and make me lose, I can still tell lies about you or about someone else. So, deception is definitely a work that Satan can do even while he is defeated.
Secondly, why does Satan do it at all? Why doesn’t he just give up? He’s been defeated. He knows his doom is certain. Why does he still try at all? Usually, the people who are the worst liars believe their own lies. We know that Satan is the worst liar the world has ever seen. I believe that Satan believes his own lies and is self-deceived. That’s how much Satan is a liar. He’s called the father of lies. To that same degree, Satan has it in his mind that somehow, in some way he can win in his battle against God. But it will never happen. It’s impossible for it to happen. Yet Satan, being a liar, believes his own lies.
Does God love Satan?
The next question is from Kaleb, who is six years old, from Germany:
Does God love Satan?
Kaleb, good question. I can’t get over what great questions these kids are sending in. This is a question a lot of adults ask as well.
No, God does not love Satan. You might say, “Now, wait a minute, David. Doesn’t God tell us to love our enemies?” Well, of course He does. And isn’t Satan God’s enemy? Well, yes, he is. So, should not God love Satan? And that’s where I’d say we have to consider something.
God does not have the same relationship with Satan that people have with one another, or that God has with humanity. Human beings are made in the image of God. But nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that angelic beings are made in the image of God – not Satan, or his fallen angels, or even the angels who never fell. That means there is a fundamental difference between deity (who God is), and the angelic. Deity is closer to humanity than it is to the angelic. God has a different relationship with Satan and other angelic beings than He has with people, because human beings are made in the image of God, while angelic beings are not.
So, it’s true that God loves people, even though they may be against Him. Yet God does not love Satan, because he’s not of a compatible type made in God’s image the way that people are. God doesn’t love Satan, and He doesn’t ask His people to love Satan either.
People can say they are Christians, but their life shows that they aren’t. How can I know that I really love God with my life, and not just my words?
The next two questions are from Aslan, who is ten years old, from Germany:
Hi, Pastor David, I’ve got two questions for you. The first one is I heard in Sunday school, that some people love God with their lips, but not with their hearts. Some of my friends say they’re Christians, but they do not act like that. How can I know if I’m a Christian with my lips or with my heart?
Great question, Aslan. People can say that they’re Christians, but their life may show that they aren’t. Aslan is asking, “How can I really know that I love God with my life, and not just with my words?” It would be easy to say, “Well, just obey God in your daily life,” but here’s the problem with that. Every person sins. Even Christians who really love God fall short of God’s standard. Even Christians who really love God will sin sometimes in their lives. But here’s the difference. When real Christians sin, they feel bad about it, and they want to get it right with God, through the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
Aslan, dear friend, you are correct. There are a lot of people in this world who say that they are Christians, but they have no real relationship with God. There’s no change in their life. Their words about being a Christian are just words they say with their lips. There’s nothing in their life that demonstrates that they really love God.
We can know this in our own life by observing this: do we feel bad when we sin? Do we have what the Bible calls the conviction of sin? Do we feel convinced that we are sinners? Is that real in my life? Do we have the desire to get right with God through the work of Jesus Christ when we have done wrong? These are good, valid, and important questions for us to ask. What is our attitude towards sin? If there’s a Christian or someone who claims to be a Christian, and they don’t care about sin, but they go right on sinning, it’s fair to ask whether that person’s Christian life is for real. If somebody is listening to this, looking at their own life, and saying, “Hey, that’s me,” you should be concerned for your soul. You should say, “No, I want to have a Christian life with God. I want to have a love for God that’s not only in my words, but in the way I live my life as well.” We can really learn a lot by looking at a person’s attitude about sin.
How do we know what rewards there are in heaven?
Aslan’s second question is:
How do we know what rewards there are in heaven? It says in the Bible that when you go to heaven, you’ll get a reward there. How do we know what rewards we’re getting?
Well, some of the rewards spoken about in heaven are crowns. The Bible speaks of two different kinds of crowns. There’s one kind of crown that’s like a trophy for someone who wins an athletic contest. That’s one kind of crown. There’s another crown of royalty that is given to God’s people as well. So, crowns are one kind of reward.
But I think that there’s another special reward that God will give to His people in heaven. That’s the reward of being able to enjoy God, to love Him, and to know Him even more and in an even greater way. The greatest glory of heaven will not be whatever rewards we have, but it’ll be our relationship with God, our knowledge of Him, and the capability to love God more and know God more. That in itself will be a great reward.
On top of all of that, there may be much more that we don’t even know about. Who knows? Maybe there are going to be awesome rewards that aren’t even mentioned in the Bible. That’s just the kind of thing that God would do, to make awesome things in heaven for His people that He never even tells us about. Thank you, Aslan, for your question.
Do you have to get baptized?
Our next category of questions is about the Christian life.
This question comes from Lucas, who is eight years old, from Georgia:
Do you have to get baptized?
My answer is yes. But you don’t have to get baptized to go to heaven. It’s a little bit complicated. Look, there are people in heaven who never got baptized, but that was because of some strange circumstances. I think that if a person refuses to get baptized, that shows that there’s a real problem in their life. Let’s say there’s a young person who really believes on Jesus, but they just haven’t had the opportunity to get baptized yet. I believe that if they died, they’d go to heaven. God sees, and God knows.
But that’s a very different thing from somebody refusing baptism. Lucas, for a person to call himself a Christian but refuse to get baptized, it shows that they have a heart of disobedience or ignorance before God. Now maybe it’s just ignorance. Maybe nobody sat them down with the Bible and taught them about the importance of baptism. That’s entirely possible. Then there should be some loving Christians or pastors in their life who sit down them with them, open the Bible together, and tell them about the importance of baptism.
Here’s the other thing. Baptism is necessary for obedience. Jesus told His people to get baptized. We as the people of Jesus, as followers of Jesus Christ, should insist that we get baptized. So, you asked the question, “Do you have to get baptized?” I would say that to be an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ, yes, you have to get baptized. Is it possible for someone to make it to heaven without getting baptized? Yeah, it’s possible. But that shouldn’t be our standard. We want to live in ways that are appropriate for obedient followers of Jesus Christ.
What is love?
Here’s the next question from Alexandria, who is eight years old, from Nevada:
What is love?
Thank you, Alexandria. What a great question. There is no better definition that I could give you of what love is, than for you to simply read 1 Corinthians 13. Alexandra, that’s your assignment. You’re eight years old; you could probably read it for yourself in a simple translation. But if it’s not quite at your reading level, although I’m pretty sure that you could at eight years old, then ask your parents or someone in your life to read 1 Corinthians 13 to you.
That is God’s chapter in the Bible where He most specifically describes exactly what love is in every aspect of its character. What is love? It’s everything that God says it is in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love doesn’t seek its own. And here’s the other way to think of love, Alexandria. If you want a definition of true love, look at the life of Jesus Christ. As you read through 1 Corinthians 13, you find out that you could substitute the name Jesus for the word love all throughout the chapter. Where it says love is kind, love is patient, love doesn’t seek its own, you could say Jesus is kind Jesus is patient, Jesus doesn’t seek His own. That’s a wonderful way to think of the greatness and the power of love. We know what love is because God describes it very beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13. But we also know what love is by looking at the life and the teaching and the ministry of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?
This question is from Micah in South Africa:
Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?
Micah, thank you for that question. The first thing I want to tell you is that I’ve searched the Bible diligently, but there is no mention of Adam and Eve having belly buttons. No mention of that whatsoever. However, having thought about it, I would simply say no, Adam and Eve did not have belly buttons. I’ll give you some reasons why.
I would say Adam and Eve did not have belly buttons because belly buttons are a very biological thing, where the umbilical cord for the child in the mother’s womb connects to the mother. Adam and Eve didn’t come out of a mother’s womb, so they didn’t have umbilical cords. That means they wouldn’t have had belly buttons. I suppose that maybe God could have given them belly buttons that were purely cosmetic, sort of the plastic surgery of the day, but I don’t think God did that. I think they had no belly buttons whatsoever. The Bible never mentions it. Knowing the way that they were created makes us think that they did not. Now, if there’s a Bible scholar out there who likes to make the case that Adam and Eve did have belly buttons, I would enjoy hearing their arguments. Otherwise, thank you so much for your question.
How did animals such as polar bears or monkeys get to their correct habitats after the Flood?
Our next question is from Chase, who is 11 years old:
How did the polar bear, monkey, etc., get to their correct habitat after the Flood? It wasn’t as if Noah took the ark like a bus around the world, stopping at different locations. So, if a polar bear was on a boat, how did he make it all the way back to the Arctic?
Here’s what I would suggest. I’m not a scientist; all I’m giving you is my understanding of the Scriptures, and how things could have been. It may very well be true that before the Flood, the earth enjoyed a much more uniform temperature, and there weren’t the same extremes of temperature around the globe. If that was the case, then variations within biological species, such as polar bears, could have developed after the Flood. Different variations within animal species which answer to wide swings of climate in different geographical places on the earth would have come about after the Flood, not before the Flood. That’s the quick answer.
Beyond that, some people speculate that the geography of the continents was somewhat different before the Flood, and maybe some of that was still in movement and motion immediately after the Flood. That’s speculative in nature. But I would regard that the world before the Flood had a much more uniform climate globally, and that the changes to the earth after the Flood made for much wider temperature variations as well as variations in genetic differences in the animal kingdom. All those things were no doubt managed by God.
Why was Jesus chosen to be the newborn King?
Our next question comes from Nyah, who is seven years old:
Why was Jesus chosen to be the newborn King?
Thank you for your question, Nyah. I’m glad you’re tuning in today. Why was Jesus chosen to be the newborn King? The reason is because it was in God’s plan from the beginning to bring forth the Messiah. Way back in the Garden of Eden, God promised a Deliverer, someone who would defeat Satan and push back his work. That deliver was the Messiah of humanity, Jesus Christ Himself. He was the fulfillment of thousands of years of prophecy and expectation. He was the chosen One, specially created and conceived by God in Mary’s womb, not under normal human processes, but by a miracle. Jesus was created as God’s chosen Messiah.
Why would there need to be a new heaven if Heaven is already paradise?
Our next question comes from Caleb, who is 12 years old from Washington State:
Why would there need to be a new heaven if Heaven is already paradise?
Caleb, great question. In English, we differentiate between the blue sky, the night sky, and the heaven where God dwells. But many languages, including the biblical languages, use the same word for all three. In fact, they classically consider the blue sky to be the first heaven, the night sky to be the second heaven, and the heaven where God lives to be the third heaven.
This means that the heaven where God lives is not remade, but the “blue sky” heaven and the “night sky” heaven are going to be re-created and made into a new heaven and a new earth. The confusion just comes from the way they use the same word heaven in all of those circumstances.
Why does God appear to some, but not to all?
I’m trying to get at the essence of your question here. There are some people in the Bible, for example, who had remarkable visitations from God. Why? I don’t know if that question could be answered. An easy or simple answer would be because they needed it, and it was God’s plan. But that’s all kind of obvious. I think the more honest answer is that we don’t really know for sure why God believed it necessary to give some people remarkable visions of Himself and not to others.
I don’t know if there’s a quality answer to that question, other than that these things are done within the wisdom of God. He knows. He acts. He does what is right. But I will tell you this as well. God has appeared to all of humanity in two ways. First, He has appeared to us in creation. Everybody has had a witness from God in creation. Secondly, God has revealed Himself and testified to all of humanity through their conscience. Thirdly, He has revealed himself to humanity through His Word, God’s greatest and most complete revelation. That’s why Christians should have a passion to getting the truth of God’s Word spread all over the world, because people need to hear what God has said in His Word.
Is it possible for someone to walk away from the faith yet remain saved?
My sister used to be a pastor’s wife. She has walked away from the faith and does not follow God any longer. Is it possible she remains saved?
Yes, it’s possible. Is it likely? I don’t know. But it’s possible that your sister will repent. It’s possible that your sister will see the error of her ways. It’s possible that the reality of your sister’s true salvation will be seen in her eventual repentance. But the truth is that we don’t know. We don’t know until she does repent. But I’ll tell you this. If she really is saved, she will repent. We can’t say whether she’s really saved now or whether she will be saved later. Look, I don’t really know. But if she is really saved, then eventually she will come to repentance. Yes, it’s possible. But God alone knows. If she is truly saved, she will demonstrate repentance before the end.
In Acts 28:8, why didn’t the Romans believe and free Paul after he miraculously healed a man?
In Acts 28:8, why didn’t the Romans believe and free Paul, when he miraculously healed Publius’ father from his sickness? Did they simply think it was witchcraft? Or did they not see it happen at all?
I’ll try to answer that question from a Roman perspective. In Acts 28, the ship Paul is sailing on towards Rome has finally made it to the island of Malta, following a shipwreck. Paul, being a true servant and not just expecting other people to serve him, goes out to gather firewood. There is a poisonous snake in the bundle of firewood he gathers, and it bites him. Everybody waits for Paul to die. But he doesn’t die. Then Paul prays for another man, the father of Publius, and he’s healed. Yet this question wonders why the Romans still didn’t believe.
It’s not that the Romans didn’t believe. The Roman officials who were guarding Paul and the other prisoners, didn’t have that choice to free anyone. It wasn’t up to them. They didn’t have the authority to say, “We really believe this guy, so let him go free.” No, Paul had to be delivered to Rome. And if Paul was not delivered to Rome, the Roman soldiers or guards who were responsible for him not getting to Rome would themselves be killed. So, the Romans who had Paul in their custody didn’t have any choice about it. They couldn’t just decide that Paul was a good and godly man, and the power of the miraculous was with him. Those responses were not up to the Romans guarding Paul at all.
What is the purpose of all the long lists in the Bible?
Why are there long lists of stuff in the Bible? Knowing how many there were of this and that doesn’t help our spiritual walk.
I love the honesty of your question. You’re reading through Leviticus or Chronicles, and you think, “Man, this is a big, long list. Is this kind of a waste of my time?” No. Let me explain why.
First, maybe a list about how the land of Israel was divided among the twelve tribes, such as in the book of Joshua, doesn’t excite us very much. But do you know who it would excite? It would excite the people who were receiving the land. Not all of God’s Word was written directly for us. Of course, there are things that we can learn about it. I learn from the division of the land that the Bible is talking about real land with real boundaries. This isn’t a spiritual land. But for the people who were actually receiving the land, it was even a greater and better thing.
Secondly, there is a hidden truth and power in these genealogies. I’ve heard a story of a Bible translator who was working on translating the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Luke, for a group of tribal people who didn’t have a Bible in their own language yet. He thought that the genealogies were the least important part of the Gospels, so he decided to leave that part for the end. He translated all of the Gospel except for the genealogy and presented the translation to the tribal people. They thought it was okay. They appreciated the story. But then he gave them the genealogy a week or two later, saying “By the way, here’s the genealogy. It goes into earlier chapters. I forgot to put it in there before.”
But as soon as he gave the genealogies to this tribal people, they were astounded. They said, “You mean this is a true story? This is for real? This actually happened?” You see, the genealogical line demonstrated to this tribal group that the story of Jesus dealt with a real person who had a real father and mother, and a real grandfather and great-grandfather, going back through the generations. In some ways, that was the most important part of the Gospel to them, because it confirmed for them that Jesus was a real person. So, I guess the importance of such lists is in the eye of the beholder. Not every verse can be John 3:16, or Romans 8:28. But there’s good in every part of Scripture that God wants to give to us, even in the genealogies.
Should I feel guilty for staying at home with my family and not working?
Pastor, should I feel guilty for not working and staying at home? I just want to focus on my family. I don’t have much, but I have enough. I’m thankful God is providing enough through my husband.
No, you should not feel guilty. As you present the question, I understand that you are a woman who is married to a believer. And you guys aren’t wealthy, but God is providing enough through your husband’s work for you to stay home. You should not feel guilty at all for staying at home and investing as much as possible into your children, your home, and your family. It’s a good and appropriate thing to do. Instead of feeling guilty about it, you should thank God that you have the opportunity, because not everybody in your general life circumstance has that opportunity. Those who do should not feel guilty about receiving that, and they should regard it with great gratitude, as a blessing from the Lord.
