A Father's Blessing

A little late posting it, but......


Father’s Day has lost a little bit of its meaning for me. My dad passed away just about two years ago, and I myself am not a dad.

But the day has not lost all of its significance for me. Who knows, if I ever get married again someday, I may become a dad, or a stepfather. On Father’s Day, it is easy for me to reflect on what kind of dad I would like to be if God ever blesses me with that opportunity.

More significantly, however, I seek to reflect, as we all should, on the Fatherhood of God. Jesus taught is to address God in prayer as, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” In Romans 8, Paul says that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are able to call God, “Abba,” which means, “Father.” Actually, a more literal translation would be, “Dad” or “Daddy,” which is much more a term of familiarity and endearment than “Father.”
Indeed, God is the perfect Dad. Every good quality that a dad possesses, or at least ought to possess, God possesses to the nth degree. Every good thing a dad does for his kids, God does for His children.

While this was not the direct focus of Pastor John’s Father’s Day sermon, we can certainly learn some things about the Fatherhood of God from our study of the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob.

The situation was tainted by the fact that this blessing rightfully belonged to Esau. Jacob and Esau were twins, but Esau was the first to come out of the womb. He was the firstborn. According to cultural norms at that time, two things to which the firstborn was entitled were the family birthright and the father’s blessing. Together, these gave him the majority of the family estate, as well as authority within the family after the father had passed on.

Several years before this event in Genesis 27, Jacob had tricked Esau into selling him the birthright. Now, he deceived Isaac, stealing the blessing away from Esau. Isaac intended to give this blessing to Esau. When he gave it to Jacob, he thought he was giving it to Esau.

What happened next teaches us something about the power of a father’s blessing. When Esau finally came home from hunting to receive his blessing, Isaac realized the mistake he had made. He had been tricked and had given the blessing to Jacob. However, the blessing could not be revoked. Isaac did not have the option of calling Jacob in and saying, “Because you lied to me and tricked me, the blessing is no longer yours. I am taking the blessing away from you and giving it to Esau.” The pronouncement of the blessing was irrevocable.

The custom of bestowing a special blessing on the firstborn is not followed today. However, I do believe in the power of the blessing. And, unlike Isaac, who played favorites, every father should equally bless each of his children, and not just one time. As we learned from PJ, there are ways a father can bless his children every single day.

This is because, as we looked at the blessing Isaac bestowed upon Jacob, there are four ingredients in the blessing. As we look at each of these ingredients, we see that these are indeed things that a father should give to his children, as well as to his wife, every single day.

Briefly, these four ingredients are affection, communication of affirmation and love, attributing high value to your children, and picturing for them a great and glorious future.

I will not rehash the ways in which a father can do these things. I will leave it to you to consider how to make them practical in your life. instead, let me return to my original point. God is the perfect Father. He is the ideal Dad. So let me show you that God has done and does do these things for us.

Let’s start with affection. Is God affectionate toward us? Well, Ephesians 5:1 tells us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Now, the Greek word for beloved is a derivative of agape, which signifies the perfect, pure, unconditional love of God. It is the highest, purest form of love. When you look agape up in a Greek Dictionary, the first definition found is “affection.” Those who are beloved, as in Eph. 5:1 are the recipients of such love and affection. God is intensely, perfectly, purely affectionate toward us. We are His beloved children.

The second ingredient in the blessing is the communication of affirmation and love. This goes hand-in-hand with affection. And if anyone ever asks whether or not regularly communicates His love toward us, the answer is yes. Notice the verb tense in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The verse doesn’t say, “God demonstrated His love toward us…” It says that He demonstrates His love. It is a present tense verb. It indicates continuous, ongoing action. God has demonstrated, keeps on demonstrating, and will forever be demonstrating His love toward us.

Just how does God demonstrate (or communicate) His love toward us? By continually drawing us back to the cross. He is forever seeking to remind us that” while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Additionally, Rom. 8:31-39 culminates with the statement that nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God. But I want you to notice something early in that passage. Verse 32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
This is a promise of God’s provision. One way God communicates affirmation and love to us is by meeting all our needs; physical, emotional, spiritual. Paul says we can be absolutely certain He will do these things for us, because He has already given up His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.

And what of placing high value upon us? This one is obvious, isn’t it? God placed such high value upon us that He gave up His Son for the sake of making us His children. He considered us worth the sacrifice. For God to be willing to sacrifice His own Son for us speaks volumes about how valuable we are to Him.

Finally, we come to the matter of a father picturing a glorious future for his children. And indeed, our heavenly Father has promised a great and glorious future to us. He has given us the promise of heaven; a place of perfect peace, joy, and safety; a place of immense beauty; a place where there will be no pain, no disease or sickness, no cerebral palsy, and most significantly, no sin. All this culminates with the promise of spending eternity enjoying the perfect presence of the Lord.

Some discount this as nothing more than “dreamy-eyed pie in the sky in the great by and by.” But it is the absolute promise of God that we can securely rest all our hopes upon. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to have my piece of the pie, thank you very much.


QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION

1. If you are a dad, how do you bless your wife and children on a daily basis? In what ways to you fail to give them your blessing?

2. Do you have trouble connecting with God as your heavenly Father? Why or why not? In which of these four areas do you need to work on viewing God more as your Father?

I’ve only asked two questions, here. But they are very significant ones. Rather than just jotting down the first thing that pops into your head, really take some time to search your heart and consider these things.