God of the fathers

I trust that all you fathers had a wonderful Father’s day with your loved ones. For the past few weeks I have been writing about mothers of the Bible, so now with Fathers’ day behind us, I think it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention something about fathers and their place in our lives.

Fathers are tough, or most of them are, but they, too, need the guidance and strength that can come only from their Heavenly Father. A father who thinks he is too much of a man to pray or go to church is depriving himself -and his family- of one of the greatest benefits, which is, godly counsel. In Psalm 63:1, David said, " ... early will I seek thee: my soul longeth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;"

David knew the benefits of seeking God’s face regularly not only for counsel, but for comfort. Because even big, rugged men need to be comforted. When the storms of life come against you, as they did for David many times, you need comfort. You may try to mask your feelings with a macho outlook, but inside you hurt just as women do.

Abraham, called by God to be the "father of many nations", also knew the benefits of staying close to God. So much so, that he was called a "friend" of God. And the Lord said, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; ..."( Genesis 18:19).

Such was the confidence that God had in Abraham. And He can have that same confidence in fathers of today if they would seek His face the way Abraham did. But not only did Abraham seek God, he obeyed him in everything, even to the point of taking his only son Isaac to sacrifice him, as the Lord had commanded.

Our society today is in dire need of strong, godly fathers. In many homes the fathers are missing, and in some they are missing in action. Many juvenile offenders come from homes like these. What type of father are you? Are you missing or missing in action? Ask God to bring you back so you can fulfill your divine destiny as the head of the home. If every father would begin to do this we will see a turnaround in our nation and in the world. How about it?

God of the Wilderness

We have been looking at mothers who were rewarded by God for their outstanding acts of faith and sacrifice. This week I want to look at a woman who showed neither, but we shall see what God did in her life.

Hagar was the Egyptian maidservant of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. But Sarah, who was too old to have any children, one day had a bright idea. She thought, why don’t I give my maid to my husband so we can have a family through her? So she sold her idea to Abraham who bought it, and Hagar became pregnant.

Hagar’s status changed overnight, and she became disrespectful to her mistress, who in turn, mistreated her and Hagar fled into the desert. But the angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar and told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her and that "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 16: 10).

So Hagar went back to Sarah, and she bore Abraham a son just as the angel had prophesied. Life went on smoothly after that until Sarah bore her own son, Isaac, whom God had promised. Sarah asked Abraham to put Hagar and her son out saying, "... the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac" (Genesis 21:10).

Once again Hagar found herself wandering in the wilderness, this time with her son and only some bread and a bottle of water. But soon the water bottle became empty, so Hagar placed the child under some shrubs and went and lay down a little way off and wept. But once more an angel of God came to her rescue. He told her to pick up the boy and her eyes were opened and she saw a well of water. The angel again promised, "I will make him a great nation" (v 18).
So the boy Ishmael’s life was spared.

There are many Hagars in our society today. Some of them were raped and became pregnant, or some of them might be unwed mothers, still others might be divorced mothers bringing up their children alone. We might call them unfortunate, victims of circumstance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time or whatever. If you are a Hagar today I hope that this discourse will help you to take heart. God will look after you. He will be with you in your wilderness experience. He will hear your cry, and He will save your children.

Never Give Up

We are continuing to look at mothers of the Bible who showed great faith and made sacrifices for their children. This week we’ll look at two mothers whose faith did not allow them to give up on their children even when all seemed to be lost.

A Shunammite woman, who had been childless, gave birth to a son after the prophecy of Elisha. But one day the boy became ill and died. The woman left the boy on the bed Elisha had slept on, saddled a donkey and rode off to find Elisha. When she told Elisha what had happened, Elisha commanded his servant Gehazi to go and lay his staff on the boy’s face. But the Shunammite woman said, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee" (11 Kings 4:30). So Elisha had no choice but to follow her. When they got to her house, Elisha "went up and lay upon the child ..." (V34) and the child was restored to life.

Rizpah was another mother of the Bible of whom little was known. But her unprecedented act of courage caused her name to be written in the annals of history. She was one of Saul’s concubines and she had borne him two sons. Saul slew some of the Gibeonites, and because of that there was a great famine in the land. Therefore David delivered Rizpah’s two sons, along with five of Saul’s other sons, over to the Gibeonites who hanged them in the hill as an act of revenge for what Saul had done. But Rizpah took sackcloth and spread it on a rock , "From the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night" (11 Samuel 21: 10, KJV).

When David heard what Rizpah had done, he went and gathered the bones of Saul and Johanathan his son, as well as the bones of those that were hanged. Rizpah did not have her sons brought back to life, but her courageous deed reached the king’s ears, and her sons were accorded a proper burial. And the Bible says that after that God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

How many of us would have the courage to equal that of these two women? They did not give up on their children even after they were dead. The Shunammite woman sought to have her son brought back to life, and Rizpah shielded her dead sons’ bodies from the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. If we would have just a fraction of these women’s faith and courage, we too would be greatly rewarded by God.

God the Rewarder

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers’ Day basking in the love and attention of your loved ones. I hope you also took the time to reflect on the great honor God has paid you through the gift of motherhood, and to thank Him for it. Never take this gift, nor your family for granted. Last week’s blog dealt with two mothers who suffered broken hearts because of the sacrifices they were forced to make. This week we’ll examine how God rewarded the sacrifices of Jochebed, mother of Moses, and Hannah, mother of Samuel.

It must have taken a lot of faith and courage for Moses’ mother to hide him near the river to escape being killed by the Egyptian king. But Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to wash herself, spotted the basket and asked her maid to fetch it. Pharaoh’s daughter "... had compassion on the baby and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children"(Ex 2: 6, KJV). His sister, who was watching, asked her if she should go and fetch one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and Moses’ mother had the unexpected joy of being able to nurse her own child again.

Hannah was another mother who did something that most women would have found unthinkable. After being barren for a long time, Hannah poured out her heart to God and made a vow that if God would remember her affliction "... and give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life ..." (1 Samuel 1:11, KJV) Why would she promise to give up something she so desperately wanted? I think the answer lies in this prayer that Hannah prayed. "They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry hath ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble." Hannah knew God would reward her for her great faith and sacrifice. And He did. Samuel became a great prophet and the Lord blessed Hannah with three sons and two daughters.

Yes, as mothers we are called to sacrifice for the good of our children. It may not mean giving them up the way Hannah did, but someday we have to let them go to fulfill God’s call on their lives. They may go to college, work in a foreign land, get married or even enlist in the army. Whatever it may be, we have to be willing to give them up, as these two women did, confident in the knowledge that God has told us, "... Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ..." (Jer 31:16, KJV).

crude gems

This week we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many non-Christians cannot understand why we as Christians make such a big fuss about the cross. But the cross is the undergirding of our faith. Without the cross there would be no remission of sin, no hope of eternal life with God, no basis for Christianity.
The cross was a symbol of sin and shame. After all, only those believed to be sinners and worthy of condemnation were hung on the cross. The Bible says, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal 3:13, KJV). But God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has a way of using the simple and crude things to make something unique and wonderful. He used a lowly stable as the birth place of the King of Kings; a handful of dust to create man, a stick in the hand of a stuttering leader to part the Red Sea, and an old rugged cross to save mankind.
This week I want to highlight two women, crude and shameful, whom God used to achieve His purpose. The first is Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus had cast seven devils. This woman, shunned and ostracized by society, followed Jesus to His crucifixion and later had the honor of being the first person to see the risen Lord.
The other woman is Rahab in the old Testament who hid the spies that Joshua had sent to scope out the land. Rahab was a well known prostitute in te city, but because of her act of faith she and her family were spared from destruction. But even greater than that, Rahab became an ancestress of Jesus Christ.
Yes, two crude and despised women, but they were gems in the eyes of God. What is your situation today? Are you shunned, talked about, misused, abused? God loves you and wants to use you for His purpose. Will you let Him?

WOMEN OF INFLUENCE

Recently I watched a movie on the life of Leona Hemsley, owner of the Harley chain of hotels. Leona was a beautiful and wealthy woman who used her wealth and influence to manipulate and abuse people for her own gain. And she ended up paying dearly-a seven-million-dollar fine and four years in prison for tax evasion and other crimes. But as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. This week I want to highlight two women of the Bible who used their power and influence in distinctly different ways and with differing consequences.
The first one is Abigail, described in 1 Samuel 25: 3 as "intelligent and beautiful", wife of Nabal, a wealthy man, who was "surly and mean in his dealings." When Abigail heard that Nabal had spurned King David’s request for help while he and his men were in the desert, and that David had sworn to kill all of Nabal’s men, "Abigail wasted no time." She gathered a lot of food and wine, loaded it on the donkeys and sent the servants with it ahead of her. She said nothing to Nabal. Abigail met David and his men coming toward her. She dismounted her donkey, fell at David’s feet and begged him to blame her instead of her husband, who she said was a fool. After her eloquent speech and great show of hospitality, David was greatly moved and changed his mind about killing Nabal’s men.
But that’s not the end of the story. When Abigail got home, her husband was holding a banquet and was drunk, so she waited until the next day to tell him what had happened. When Nabal heard the news, the Bible says he got a heart attack and died a few days later. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he sent for Abigail and married her.
Now let’s look at Jezebel. She was the wife of King Ahab, an evil man. But Jezebel surpassed her husband in doing evil. She killed the prophets and struck fear in Elijah’s heart when she threatened to kill him. Later she arranged to have Naboth stoned to death because he refused to sell his property to Ahab. She used her power and influence for her own gain, supporting her husband in his wrong doings. But in 11 Kings 9: 33, Jezebel dies a horrible death and the dogs ate her flesh, just as Elijah had prophesied.
What kind of woman are you? Whether you’re wealthy, in charge of a large corporation, doing a simple nine-to-five job or just a homemaker, you do have some influence. The Bible says when we try to manipulate others for our own ends we are practicing witchcraft, like Jezebel did. Which type of woman would you rather be? An Abigail or a Jezebel? You can be an Abigail and reap the rewards of the King in heaven, or you can be a Jezebel and reap the rewards of your father, the devil. It’s your choice.
Next week we’ll look at two other women and the choices they made. Let me hear your comments.