Ye Fathers

"Ye fathers" is the arresting voice of God. It is the voice of divine authority. God, who made homes, has something to say to the heads of homes. He speaks to fathers in every place and in every age, including here and now.

God is intensely interested in our homes because home is the place of beginnings. Here, new life is brought into the world. Here, Children are taught and molded. Here, morals and values are shaped. Here disciplines are learned. Here, lives are forged, lives of children that go on and begin homes of their own.

No wonder it is said that as the homes are, so will the nation be. We know too that as the homes are, so will the Church be. Most important of all, from our homes souls are moving toward an endless eternity, deeply affected by their beginnings.

If God had merely wanted people on the earth, He would never have destroyed the people with a flood. That flood was God's emphatic way of saying what He thought of men who "begat sons and daughters" but did not take responsibility to raise them in the fear of God.

But past disasters do not mean that God has become cynical about the possibility of raising godly families. God gave us another clear signal when He saved Noah's family, the one godly family left, and used it to start mankind over again. He still wants to uses faithful fathers.

Notice it was Noah rather than his wife whom God addressed. fathers are to take responsibility for the welfare of the family the command in Ephesians 6:4 rivets this on us. Notice that in the Bible all God's direct commands on how to raise children are given to fathers. Naturally, mothers are greatly involved, as the Book of Proverbs often points out.

God has assigned the father to be the primary authority figure in a child's life. In a sense and in the child's eyes. he represent God, for as a father exercises his authority, a child develops his idea of what God is like. the way the child learns to obey his father greatly affects his concept of how God needs to be respected and obeyed.

Children's tendency to look up to their fathers is something God built into them. You probably recall this in relation to your own father. remember how you thought your father knew everything and could do everything? And unless he betrayed you completely, his world probably carries an authority with you that you cannot shake off. "The glory of children are their fathers". Proverbs 17:6 tells us that children naturally admire their fathers.

Today, those fathers are us. what a responsibility! does it seem like too much?