Heavenly Father Never Fails

Throughout the Old Testament, it is constantly proven that all human beings fail, “for no one is righteous” (Romans 3:10). However, it is also fascinating to recognize that all the major characters who failed in the Old Testament are also those who failed as fathers. From this unique perspective, it proves that the Bible records only the truth without idealizing anybody. The failures and struggles that the great men of the Old Testament experienced as fathers are the same as those that are now in our daily life. Those failures, besides the obvious implications of providing great lessons for the fathers nowadays, also warn parents to seek God’s wisdom in their parenting. God, as Father of Israel in the Old Testament, set up a perfect example to His people of what fathers should do to their children—love, discipline, and protect. In this, it is encouraging to notice that though the earthly fathers may fail, God never fails as the Heavenly Father.

Perhaps, most Christians will think of Eli and David when this subject is mentioned. Indeed, God judged Eli’s family for he, as the high priest, “failed to restrain” (1 Samuel 2:12) his own sons. Solomon’s weakness with women and of having numerous concubines can likely be traced back to the sin David had with Bathsheba. Also, it is not unlikely that David’s failure to discipline his son Amnon after he raped Absalom’s sister, David’s lack of recognition of Absalom’s heart in inviting Amnon, and David’s unwillingness to intervene Absalom and later Adonijah being rebellious, indirectly caused all these sons to die.

To continue throughout the Old Testament, Adam, as the first human being as well as the first father, failed to supervise his sons. Furthermore, he unfortunately succeeded in passing down his sin nature. It is not that surprising to find out that there is no record of Adam when his sons were offering sacrifices to God. However if he was not with them, then where was he at that significant moment? If he was there, then why did he not pay enough attention to Cain’s anger and jealousy towards his brother? If Cain is to be blamed for viewing himself as a judge like God when he killed his brother and Abel is to be sympathized for being so naïve to trust someone he should not trust, how much should their father Adam be blamed for his intention to be like God and his trustfulness of the snake’s lie when he ate the fruit in the garden?

Noah, “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” (Genesis 6:9), cursed his son Canaan to be the lowest slave when he found the insult Canaan did to him. However, was it not also his fault to get drunk and to be naked in the garden? Was it not his own failure to set a good example for his sons? Even after his son Canaan failed he gave no discipline nor did he correct him, but rather he cursed him.

Abraham, the Father of faith, is not exempt. He deceived the Pharaoh and said that Sarah was his sister. Even though it happened before Sarah gave birth to Isaac, it is possible that Isaac heard the story from Abraham’s servants. Isaac probably observed his father’s weakness in how he treated people around him, and sending Hagar away with nothing but a little food and one skin of water shows a lack of compassion that Abraham could have modeled for Isaac. Thus, it is understandable how he responded when he was asked the identity of his wife during the “famine in the land” (Genesis 26:1) Also, it is interesting to trace Jacob’s flaw of favoring Joseph over other sons, and to Isaac’s mistake of favoring Esau over Jacob, and to Abraham’s failure in favoring Isaac.

Therefore, what can Christians learn from these fathers who failed? Actually, when one looks at these characters closely there is one significant mistake that all these fathers had; that is they failed in modeling a godly life and they lacked administering proper discipline. This is the same as society today. A lot of great leaders at church, in business world, and in mission field are actively training other people, or other people’s children, but neglect God’s commandment in taking care of their own family and their own kids. There are so many fathers like Eli that are too busy with their ministries and discipleship, like that of Samuel, that they are incapable of intervening in their own sons’ lives; like that of Hophni and Phinehas. If a father does not “train a child in the way he should go”, how can he expect that “when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)? Furthermore, even if he trained the child in a certain way, if a father does not keep “these commandments… upon (their) hearts”, how can he “impress them on their children” (Deuteronomy 6-7)?

In spite of all the failures human beings have made, God, as their Heavenly Father, is still showing his love, providing protection, and constantly disciplining His children. It is very important for fathers to remember that they are only channels through which God makes transformations, because even though our human fathers may fail, our Heavenly Father never fails.