Tag Archives: Posterity

The Relationship Between Posterity and God’s Remnant

As a former teacher who has taught a history class, not many Americans have heard about the spiritual heritage of the United States. Did you know that local education began at churches serving as an outreach to the illiterate in their communities? Or that the New England Primer introduced each letter of the alphabet with a verse from the Bible? While completing his summary on the life of Joseph, Moses refers to the relationship between posterity and God’s remnant.

God sent me before you to preserve for you a posterity and to continue a remnant on the earth, to save your lives by a great escape and save for you many survivors, Genesis 45:7.

Posterity refers to all future generations of people. Meanwhile, remnant is a small remaining quantity of people from a specific place or share a common interest. What Moses is trying to say in the passage above, Joseph’s life via God’s providence protected and secured the future of the Israelites. By moving from Canaan to Egypt, God will provide all they need to survive this drought.

For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things [n]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, 39 Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 8:38-39.

Due to the shrewd and shift actions taken by Joseph as governor of Egypt, the Pharaoh welcomed Joseph’s family with opened arms. However, over the years as Israelites prospered, new Pharaoh’s forgot how Joseph saved their country and placed them into slavery for 400 years. This is why the promises of God in the Bible are needed to carry on through from the tough times in life so that future Christian generations will endure the trials of today.

by Jay Mankus

To Your Posterity

Posterity refers to all future generations of people based upon their descendants. This is much different than posture which is the position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting. Yet, the Psalmist blends these two terms in Psalm 1:1-3. Human nature influences individuals to copy unwholesome behavior. The friends you chose and make in life will often pressure you to conform to their ways. If you join in and sit down with these individuals, your posterity will change for the worse.

Abram passed through the land to the locality of Shechem, to the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him, Genesis 12:6-7.

However, if you chose that which brings life, your posterity will result in future blessings like God’s promise to Abram, Deuteronomy 30:15-17. As God continues to reveal himself to Abram in the book of Genesis, Abram is introduced to a vision of a spiritual legacy. To a man married to a woman who is unable to have children, this seems preposterous when God paints a picture of Abraham’s descendants being like countless stars in the sky, Genesis 22:17.

Also I [the angel], in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood up to confirm and to strengthen him [Michael, the angelic prince]. And now I will show you the truth. Behold, there shall arise three more kings in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than they all. And when he has become strong through his riches he shall stir up and stake all against the realm of Greece. Then a [a]mighty [warlike, threatening] king shall arise who shall rule with great dominion and do according to his [own] will, Daniel 11:1-3.

Human beings can only do so much to alter their posterity. While talking to a group of relatives last summer on my wife’s side of the family, I was praised for how well the lives of my three children have turned out. Instead of taking credit, I immediately quoted a spiritual mentor from Delaware who encouraged me to daily pray for each of my children. The hours that parents pray for their children annually can alter their path and lead to a successful posterity in the future.

by Jay Mankus