Summary: Fathers are in Covenant with God

My Father’s God: A Godly Man as a Patriarch

Exodus 15:2; Hebrews 11:23

Some of us did not have godly fathers but we are a new generation with God’s call to holiness! We are to have an authority that is heavenly. We are men who are pressing our way forward to God’s higher call, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, {we} press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."(Phil 3:13-14). The social structure described in the Old Testament is known as a "patriarchal" society. The word patriarchy means "the rule of the father." The father commanded a high position in the family of Old Testament times and his word was law. The father was responsible for the spiritual well being of the family. In the earliest ages, the father functioned as the priest of his family, sacrificing on their behalf (Gen. 12:8; Job 1:5). The father was to be the religious leader in the home. This involved the training of the children in godliness (Ex. 12:3, 26-27; Proverbs 22:6; Eph. 6:4).

Your sons and daughters will worship what you worship. The role of father is the most important role in the spiritual welfare of the home. If a father is to have authority in his home he must love God with his entire being (Deut 6). "Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." (Deuteronomy 10:15-16)

They see themselves as someone ancestor in covenant with God or the descendant of men who are in God’s covenant. They are covenanters, "that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant." (Isaiah 56:6). This is a pact God has initiated with fathers based on his promises. We have God’s sworn commitment to us as fathers and we have pledged all we have and are to him in love and truth. "O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." (Ps 105:6-15).

Amram: A Quiet But Godly Dad

"Great men of God were your fathers, and Christ himself was one of you, a Jew so far as his human nature is concerned, he who now rules over all things. Praise God forever!" (Rom 9:5TLB). We do not see Amram at the Nile River pushing the basket with his son Moses in it committing him to God’s mercy. We never read any of his words. We do not see Amram’s actions, but we hear his quiet unity with his wife and his godly concern for his family very loudly.

Moses in his song praises God as the God of his father. Moses and Aaron’s father was Amram who lived 137 years (Exodus 6:20). Their ancestor was Levi and of course the he was the descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15-16). Amram was the first born son of Kohath, therefore he was a Kohathite. You will remember that they were a tribe in Israel responsible for the care and protection of the most sacred things concerning the worship of God (Numbers 3).

A godly man does not see his wealth in terms of just money and hard work he sees his wealth in the spiritual welfare of his wife and children. "From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." (Ps 17:14). A man of God sees himself not only under the hand of God, guided by the hand of God but as the hand of God. This is evident in his life. His boys Moses and Aaron, his daughter Miriam became among the most famous saints of God in the world. That really says something. What a goal to shoot for: your son being the next Moses or your daughter the next Miriam. How would our priorities change!

A godly man is concerned with the woman he marries because he is interested in godly seed. We need to recover this attitude. Men need to be men again! "Has not [the LORD] made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth." (Mal 2:15NIV)

A godly man cares about what God cares about. He loves what God loves. He hates what God hates. "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure."(Isaiah 33:6NIV)

Honey, Where Did You Hide the Baby This Time?

In Exodus 1:22 the Pharaoh put out an edict to have all the newborn sons of Israel put to death. What a frightening time this must have been. Despite the fact that only the mother of Moses is mentioned in Exodus, yet, by what is here said, it seems his father not only consented to it, but consulted with her about it. It is a happy thing where people who are married are yoke-together in faith, as heirs of the grace of God together. They do this in a religious concern for the good of their children, to preserve them not only from those who would destroy their lives, but from those who would corrupt their minds. There is a real call to separatism in this hour. I did not say isolation I said separation. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (2 Cor 6:17)

They have heard God’s command, "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen." (Jer. 10:2). Moses warned people that learning values of people who do not know the Lord who be like a snare and would become a constant irritation to a godly society and families. A godly man teaches his children about godly principles so they can avoid evil practices like they were traps set by Satan to wound and kill them. Jesus prayed, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (John 17:15).

That is the prayer of a godly man as well. "I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan’s power." (John 17:15TLB). We need to pray for our families, and offer our prayers for their protection spiritually from the traps and snares of the enemy of their souls who does not want God’s covenanters to endure as a testimony to his goodness.

God Thinks My Kid is Beautiful!

No doubt, natural affection could not but move them; but there was something further. They saw he was a proper child, a goodly child (Exodus 2:2), exceedingly fair. In Acts 7:20 it says he was fair to God. God had four boys in Babylon with all the evil around them he had preserved for himself, "Young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace." (Dan 1:4NIV). God loves your children and wife. You can see it in their faces that God loves them. You can see it in their minds and hearts that God has a special affection for them. Your ministry, your raising of your children, every word and attitude we have would be drastically changed if we saw our families as BELOVED of God! "And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD." (2 Sam 12:24-25).

Matthew Henry comments about Moses, "There appeared in him something uncommon; the beauty of the Lord sat upon him, as a foreshadowing that he was born to great things, and that by conversing with God his face should shine (Exodus 34:29), what bright and illustrious actions he should do for the deliverance of Israel, and how his name should shine in the sacred records." We raise our children in light of the fact that God not only does love them but he has a purpose for them. "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Ps 127:3).

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."(Eph 6:4). Though God has given you authority, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are, in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves, and therefore you should administrate your home with great tenderness and love. Do not be impatient and unreasonable with them by being too rigid. They have to be convinced of truth through reason not wrath. "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." (Col 3:21). Bring in the discipline of proper and of compassionate correction, and in the knowledge of what God requires of them and by which they may become better acquainted with him. Give them a godly education.

Brave Guardians of The Flame

They were not afraid of the king’s commandment, (Exo. 1:22). That was a wicked and a cruel edict, that all the males of the Israelites should be destroyed in their infancy, and so the name of Israel must be destroyed out of the earth! God intended, "the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame." (Isa 10:17). But Amram, "was a burning and a shining light." (see John 5:35) and was not about to give up his child because they realized if none of the males were preserved, there would be an end and utter ruin of the church of God. Even though they were slaves they believed that God would preserve his people, and that the time was coming when it would be worthwhile for an Israelite to live. He knew God said, "I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed." (Ps 132:17)

There are, "Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 15:26) among the church today! "Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment." (Eccl 8:5) Some must put their own lives in danger to preserve their children. We must be resolved to do it! "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." (Prov 28:1). "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29). They knew the king’s commandment was evil in itself, contrary to the laws of God and nature, and therefore of no authority nor obligation! Faith is a great preservative against the sinful enslaving fear of men, as it sets God before the soul, and shows the temporal futility of people and princes to the will and power of God.