Father's Day

Malachi 4:⁶ "And he will turn
      The hearts of the fathers to the children,
      And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
      Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."  

 

The verse above is the final verse in the Old Testament.  The verse is wrapped up in the last chapter of the Old Testament, of course, and that chapter seems to tell of a coming time of judgment.  There will come a time when the reality of God will not be something that people debate.  We will be directly before Him and all our phoniness will dissipate.  But today is Father's Day and I was struck that father's are central to the last thoughts of the final prophet to speak before Jesus actually arrives in the New Testament.  I don't completely know the significance of this verse.  One thought I have is that when fathers are focused on their children and children are focused on their fathers there is a priority given to "passing on" important truth to the next generation.  We tend to be self-absorbed throughout our lives but there is a truth about the reality of God, the reality of knowing God and the reality of ultimate judgment and eternity that must be lived out before children and that must be communicated to them...so that they can also live and pass on that perspective to their children.  For this 'passing of the baton' to take place father's need hearts that love their children with eternity in mind and children need to realize that it is necessary to listen and observe as their father's earnestly seek to hand off the greatest of truth to them.  Praise the Lord that fathers and children have followed this model for thousands of years and hundreds of generations, so that we have also come to know the Lord and find our true Heavenly Father.

 

Happy father's day with thanks for the children God has blessed me with (Meredith, Courtney and Bethany), so that I could be a father.

Rob Smith