Fathering God’s Way Series

As Barbara Kay said this week: Happy are those for whom Father’s Day means a barbecue and a card poking fun at Dad’s foibles. Not so much for children whose "father" was an anonymous sperm sold to create a child he would never know or likely care to know. For them "Seed Provider’s Day" would be more accurate.

Like the U.K., Canada nominally bans the sale of sperm and eggs. But unlike the U. K, which regulates effectively, Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act, passed six years ago, is extremely porous. Its oversight agency, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada is, according to one involved MP, "an agency set up to do nothing" (though it costs $10-million annually). It is merrily bypassed by fertility industry entrepreneurs. Eyes, kidneys, blood -- human parts with no mind or soul are not bought and sold. Why life itself? As one donor child put it: "If my life is for other people’s purposes, and not my own, then what is the purpose of my life?" (Barbara Kay, National Post • Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010)

In Deuteronomy 6, Moses was explaining the purpose of life for the Israelites in General, and Fathers in particular. He exhorts Israel to obey the commandments of the Lord (4:1; 5:1; 6:1).

Obedience meant that Israel would live; it would protect the people from God’s displeasure; Israel would be respected as a wise people by other nations when they obeyed God’s laws; and the law of God was unique for its high spiritual quality. The result of obedience to God is that we will “fear the LORD,” which will help us keep His commandments. Fear must stem from respect and reverence for the Creator God.... It requires the knowledge that God first loved us and has our interests at heart. God has a right to command our love, and He does (Maxwell, J. C., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1987). Vol. 5: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 5 : Deuteronomy. The Preacher’s Commentary series (114–116). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.)

In order to father God’s way, a father must engender obedience in a child through respect. As a child respects his father, this respect become a bridge to understand the fear of the LORD, which is the beginning of wisdom. Like our relationship with God, a child must know that he or she is loved by their father and he has our interests at heard. Fathers have a right from God to command obedience, for this is what God charged them to do that it may go well with him and his family.

In order to father God’s way, a Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3), 2) Loves God (Deuteronomy 6:4-6) 3) Shows his love for God (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)

A Godly Father 1) Knows God (Deuteronomy 6:1-3)

Deuteronomy 6:1-3 [6:1]"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, [2]that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. [3]Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (ESV)

The formula as found in verse one of “commandment, statutes/decrees and rules/laws” is an expression of the covenant document as a whole which appears here as a response to the command already given by the Lord to Moses that he should teach it to the nation (Deut. 5:31). In line with such “command-response” formulae elsewhere, one can observe the similarity of language between 5:31 and 6:1, especially in the connection in both places between the technical terms of the covenant and the need to observe it in the land they were about to enter as an inheritance.

Please turn to Hebrews 12

To be a follower of God, or disciple means that we are disciplined, the root of which is "disciple". God teaches us through discipline so we may in turn teach the children that He has entrusted to our care:

Hebrews 12:9-11 [9]Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10]For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. [11]For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (ESV)