Are children a gift or a heritage from the Lord?

[Marcia]

Rdwhite asked this on a different thread regarding my statement that children being a heritage from the Lord is different from being a gift:

Please expound, maybe in a different post, so as not to hi-jack this one

I was thinking of starting a thread on this earlier. I am going out of town for a few days tomorrow (with no laptop) but I'll go ahead and start it anyway.

Psalm 127 NKJV

Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

The NASB does have "gift" instead of "heritage," but I think "heritage" is more applicable in context (please do not argue Bible versions).

"Heritage" is more than a "gift" imo, especially in the OT context of Israel. I think this passage relates to the promises made to Abraham and how the Lord rewarded people in the OT by opening wombs and giving them children (also see Deut 7:13 and Gen 48:4). This is talked about in the OT but not in the NT that I know of.

I've been told that "Unless the Lord builds the house" is not talking about a regular house, but the House of David. So the context here is Israel. The second part here about children should be interpreted as part of the first part, not separately.

When Christians today say children are a gift from the Lord, they often cite this passage, but I am not sure that is what it is talking about or that it is applicable in the same way.

Thoughtful comments are welcomed.

 

[Marcia]

Here is part of Spurgeon's commentary on this:

This points to another mode of building up a house, namely, by leaving descendants to keep our name and family alive upon the earth. Without this what is a man's purpose in accumulating wealth! To what purpose does he build a house if he has none in his household to hold the house after him? What boots it that he is the possessor of broad acres if he has no heir? Yet in this matter a main is powerless without the Lord. The great Napoleon, with all his sinful care on this point, could not create a dynasty. Hundreds of wealthy persons would give half their estates if they could hear the cry of a babe born of their own bodies. Children are a heritage which Jehovah himself must give, or a man will die childless, and thus his house will be unbuilt.

http://www.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps127.htm

 

[Marcia]

And from Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on the psalm in general and on the lines about children as a heritage:

The theme of this Psalm, that human enterprises only succeed by the divine blessing, was probably associated with the building of the temple by Solomon, its author. It may have been adopted in this view, as suited to this series especially, as appropriately expressing the sentiments of God's worshippers in relation to the erection of the second temple.

.....Posterity is often represented as a blessing from God (Ge 30:2, 18; 1Sa 1:19, 20). Children are represented as the defenders (arrows) of their parents in war, and in litigation.

http://jfb.biblecommenter.com/psalms/127.htm

I think it's really helpful to let the text speak for itself and not try to make it say something it doesn't.

 

[ReformedBaptist]

When Christians today say children are a gift from the Lord, they often cite this passage, but I am not sure that is what it is talking about or that it is applicable in the same way.

Why would there be discontinuity between the OT and the NT on this point? The Bible also says God desires godly offspring.

Malachi 2

14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

15And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

 

[pinoybaptist]

don' matter to me none if they were heritage or gifts.
I love children, and especially I love my children and their children.
I'm proud of the ones that bear my last name, but don' love them more than those who don't.

 

[Jim1999]

My children are my children, the product of my wife and I. They are a blessing most of the time, and sometimes a trial. They are my responsibility to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[annsni]

From the 1828 Webster dictionary:

heritage: 1. Inheritance; an estate that passes from an ancestor to an heir by descent or course of law; that which is inherited. In Scot's law, it sometimes signifies immovable estate, in distinction from movable.
2. In Scripture, the saints or people of God are called his heritage, as being claimed by him, and the objects of his special care. 1 Pet.5.

gift: A present; any thing given or bestowed; any thing, the property of which is voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation; a donation. It is applicable to any thing movable or immovable.

 

[Johnv]

"Heritage" is more than a "gift" imo, especially in the OT context of Israel.

It's important to apply contextual criticism here. This is an example of a Hebrew word not having an exact or perfect English translation.

"Heritage" means something that someone is entitled to by reason of birth. "Gift" means something given voluntarily without payment in return. The word in the source text Hebrew is "nachalah". The word denotes a blessing given by God to a person, and that blessing spills over from generation to generation. A nachalah is a gift, but it's one that goes on to bless future generations. It's not just a gift that the person alone is blessed with, but it is not an inhierited entitlement either.

Hope that clears it up.