Father’s Day - Great Fathers Redefined

Most Father’s Day messages will not complete without sharing the story of how it all began. Father's Day was attributed to an American woman Sonora Smart who advocated the tradition because of her father. The father raised five children after the death of his wife during the birth of their sixth child.

Sonora was the first born and was 16 years old when her mother died. She helped her father raise the boys and grew to admire her fathers ability, devotion, and love as a parent.

To gain spiritual insight on any topic, most Christians turn to the Bible, and today will not be an exception. On the subject of fathers, I will like to look at families and fathers from the Bible.

The Bible presented the image of some memorable families and fathers:

The first parent, Adam and Eve had two sons but one killed the other, Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother out of jealousy. In the contemporary world, that should make headlines. While we did not know the ages of the boys when the event occurred, many professionals may attribute the cause to the parents, even parents may blame themselves for the occurrence. This is not the primary issue here, the point is, all human beings can be traced to this weird family.

Lot was Abraham’s nephew, and the Bible recorded that his two girls raped him and they had children, they became the ammonites and Moabites in the Bible. Gen 19:36-38: Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. While Lot was not a strong role model, the Bible presented him as an obedient father to the Lord. When God told them to depart from Sodom and Gomorrah, he did not hesitate, even though his wife was a different story. We can also see that the girls turned out to be unusual. Although, the reason why the girls went into their father was because they said “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth“ (Gen 19:31). We do not know whether this was true but that was their reason. Nonetheless, Lot was not blameless because the Bible made us to know that the girls gave him alcohol and he got drunk. Here was another example of a father.

You will remember that the descendants of Lot’s first daughter were the Moabites. Ruth, the great great grandmother of Jesus was a Moabitess. This means that Jesus came from a lineage of weird families, a family that committed incest.

Abraham was the friend of God, he had a wife Sarah and had a child with his wife’s maid. Yet he was still considered a friend of God? What kind of father was this?

Isaac had one wife Rebekah, but he liked Esau more than Jacob. He was a father that showed favoritism, and the family knew it. Isaac did not look like a great dad.

Jacob was an unusual father. He married two sisters. He had children with their maids. He also showed favoritism by loving Joseph more than the other children.

David was a man after God’s heart. As a father, he was an adulterer and a murderer. He committed adultery with Beersheba, and murdered Beersheba's husband Uriah.

Solomon - umm don't go there. I CAN GO ON AND ON.

What is the point of all these? Dads and fathers - you fit into the picture nicely. If yours is the picture of what the society calls normal, you are the abnormal one. Biblical fathers practiced incest, adultery, fornication, polygamy, committed murder, and many more. Yet many of them were considered men of God, friends of God, men after God’s heart and many other accolades were associated with them.

Don’t be under an illusion, because I want you to know that “great fathers are imperfect fathers”. Just as you saw from the Bible. Peter was a liar, Paul was a murderer, likewise Moses (the meekest man on earth).

The above examples are NOT very important, what matters is what you plan to do from today. The Bible says in Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Everyone has a type of skeleton in their cupboard - everybody ALL.

I asked myself what kind of a father Sonora's dad was during the first 16 years of her life, after all, it was not until after 16, she was able to conclude that her father should be honored. Guess what, during the first 16 years, he was not there (physically). Many fathers are there physically but not emotionally - but how on earth can Sonora still campaign for this absentee dad even though he was not part of her life for 16 years?