Today as we honor our fathers, we must realize what the world is telling us. A father and mother is no long the norm. Homes with two moms or two dads is just as viable as the traditional home with one mother and one father. The fact is, credible studies show the opposite.
To hear some feminists speak, the only thing men are needed for is procreation. But the facts show otherwise. Children raised without a father are more likely to live in poverty, have emotional or behavioral problems, commit suicide, be sexually active before marriage, engage in delinquent behavior and get a divorce when they are grown. [1]
The presence of a Father in the home makes a tremendous difference in a child’s future. Did you know that children from a fatherless home are:
5 times more likely to commit suicide;
32 times more likely to run away;
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders;
14 times more likely to commit rape;
9 times more likely to drop out of high school;
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances;
and 9 times more likely to end up in state-operated institutions? [2]
We are going to look at one father today. One father who God even bragged about. The man named Job.
Job 1:1–5
We know the story of Job. Of how God allowed Satan to take everything from Job but His life and how job maintained his integrity. This morning I want to look at Job’s character that enable him to endure the trials he was put through. And I want to consider his family.
Job 1:1 (NKJV) There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
We see first of all, as a Father, that Job:
1. Job set a good example before his children.
God called Job a blameless and upright man, one who feared God and shuns evil. We read that in verse 1. But God pointed this out to Satan, these virtues of Job:
Job 1:8 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
This begs the question, how would God characterize you? The question is not how would the world characterize you, but how would God characterize you?
Job set the example for his children. How could Job expect his children to be godly unless he himself was godly and lived a life of godliness to show them what godly living looked like?
The story is told a of a little boy that a father was watching him pray. The little boy prayed before going to bed, “God make me a good man like my daddy.” The Father later prayed,
“God make me the man the son thinks that I am.”
Job was that man. God even said that Job was blameless and upright. The HCSB and CSB says Job was a man of “perfect integrity.” In the KJV, the word used for blameless is perfect. another word for being perfect and being complete. Jesus tells us to be perfect:
Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Job was complete, and there was not a dishonest bone within him. That did not mean he was sinless. Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned, but Job strived to live for the Lord every day. At the end of the book of Job, we find Job repenting before God when he realized how far from God he truly was. (Job 42:6).
Job’s life involved not only in doing right, but He feared God. To fear the Lord means to respect who He is, what He says, and what He does. It is not the cringing fear of a slave before a master but the loving reverence of a child before a father, a respect that leads to obedience. “The remarkable thing about fearing God,” said Oswald Chambers, “is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” [3]
Job feared God and shunned evil. Job turned away from Evil in both of its forms: the evil that confronts us from the world, and the evil that confronts us from within. Job worked at being morally upright.
Job 31:1 (NKJV) “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 that to lust after a woman is to commit adultery in your heart. Job was not that man. Job set a good example for his family.
2. Job was a good provider and steward of all that he had.
The Scriptures tells us that Job was greatly blessed by God.
Job 1:2–3 (NKJV) And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
Large household here means Job have many servants. Other translation say "many servants." Job had a great number of people in his employment. And Job attributed all that he had to God.
Job 1:21 (NKJV) And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Job used his great wealth for the benefit of others.
Job 29:12–17 (NKJV) 12 Because I delivered the poor who cried out, The fatherless and the one who had no helper. 13 The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban. 15 I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame. 16 I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know. 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth.
It is not wrong to be rich. The problem is, few people really know how handle great wealth. We see this in those who strike it rich by winning the lottery, over 70% are bankrupt within 7 years. But Job used the wealth God blessed him with for good.
1 Timothy 6:17–19 (NKJV) Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Job had a big happy family and his children obviously enjoyed one another’s company.
Job 1:4 (NKJV) And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
“On their appointed day” could have easily meant on their birthday of some other like event. They enjoyed the wealth of Job, as they each had their own house. They celebrated with a feast, which has more meaning than merely throwing a party. These feasts would have probably lasted several days. Obviously Job had a happy family. But what else did Job do?
3. Job earnestly prayed, interceding for his family. Job was the Priest for his family.
Job 1:5 (NKJV) So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.
Job would send for his family, regularly. Job interceded for his family because he did not know whether or not they may have sinned. Job set the example, but he did not know what was in their hearts. “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” In making merry and in celebration, they may have done a number of things that may have offended God. They might have taken the credit for what God has blessed them with. They may have expressed ambition against God. They might have been arrogant. They might have even said in their hearts-there is no God.
Job regularly sent for them, even though they were obviously grown and out on their own, he sent for them, and he would have counseled with them, providing direction. And Job offered sacrifices to God on their behalf, whether they sinned or not. Job knew that each of his children were accountable to God. In other words, Job lifted his family up before God and interceded for them.
The one thing I remember about my father, that I will never forget. I remember getting up out of bed, perhaps to go to the bathroom. As I crept by my parents room, their light was on and the door was cracked. I peeked in and saw my father, on his kneed next to the bed praying. He never knew I saw him and I will never forget and that scene and it had huge impact on me.
The job of priest is a go-between God and man. How many fathers intercede regularly for their families and represent God to them? Fathers are to be the priest of their families. The father is responsible for the well-being of their families. Physical well -being as well as spiritual well-being. Scripture tells us that we are to provide for our own. Not providing for our families is the same as denying the faith.
1 Timothy 5:8 (NKJV) But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Other places the husband is told to love his wife. On the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Ephesians 5:25 (NKJV) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
And fathers are charged with teaching their children. The command, to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength (Deut 6:4), is to be passed on.
Deuteronomy 6:7 (NKJV) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
There was a saying I saw on Facebook. It said that if a father taught his son to keep his eye on the ball (as in baseball), but failed to teach him to keep his eye on Jesus, then he has failed as a father.
If you leave it up to the church to teach your children, you have failed. At church, we can only reinforce what is taught at home. Anything that is taught here, can be completely undone at home. Let me recap what we learned by the example of Job.
1. Fathers set the example. By their lives and in all that they do.
2. Father provide and are responsible for the wellbeing of their homes.
3. Fathers are the priests of their families. They represent God to their families and intercede for them. A good father is a praying father.
I do not apologize to my children the things I tell them and the restrictions I place on them. I tell my children that I shake in fear, because one day I have to answer to Almighty God for the things my family has done or failed to do.
Fathers, how are you leading your families. Are you their priest, or their doormat?
It is all about Jesus. I cannot do this father thing alone. I must go to Jesus often for guidance, direction and strength.
[1] http://www.freshministry.net/illustrations/data/FATHERS.htm#END
[2] ibid
[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Patient, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 14.
