Fathers in the Scriptures
Today I ran across one of the only instances I can find of a father and son walking in the fear of the Lord. King Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and so did his son Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43).
Are there other examples in Scripture of fathers who have had faithful, believing children?
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7 comments:
David's so nSolomon started off well...
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sort of. They all blew it big time in major ways and patterns but they all lived by faith and stuck with God.
It makes me wonder about the proverb that says, "Train a child in the way he should go, When he is older, he will not depart from it."
If that's generally true, then the seeming implication would be that most of the fathers recorded for us in Scripture didn't "train a child in the way he should go." I think it's very easy for a Christian to be so self-focused in their faith walk or to be so outward-focused (excluding family) that children and/or spouses are ignored to various unhealthy degrees.
I don't have any offhand, but there have to be more examples in Kings or Chronicles, don't you think? Please post if you find more -
Jen
Dylan, I think your preception is keen. And I think there is a great danger for fathers to ignore their families.
And Jen, I'll keep looking as I go through second Kings to see if there are signs of others.
Obviously what we're looking for is not perfect people, but those who persevere in trusting God and obeying Him - not like Ahab . . .
In terms of fatherhood, I think it takes more than just faithfulness with God. Look at Samuel for an example. he grew up under Eli whose sons were bad apples. Samuel was about as faithful a man as we have recorded for us in Scripture and yet his son(s) too were not righteous men. (It was part of why the people demanded a king!)
Right, Dylan. I wasn't clear. I was trying tp speak of the faithfulness of the next generation - which was exactly your point.
I think I found an example of decent fathering. In 2 Kings 14, Amaziah, son of Joahs is described this way, "And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father. He did in all things as Joash his father had done" (14:3) who restored the temple, but did not remove the high places (14:4). So Amaziah didn't totally fall apart, although he did become proud, and attacked Jehoahaz king of Israel and was both defeated and taken captive . . .
I found another potential one this morning in the next chapter of 2 Kings (which actually makes 3 successive generations!). Not only did Amaziah walk in the way of his father, Joash, but his son, Azariah, "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places." (2 Kings 15:3-4)
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