“Our Fathers sinned, and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.” -Lam. 5:7
This is the root of the problem in our nation: men and fathers in particular. Our president is only a symptom of our problems because family is the foundation of every government.
For instance, God first created a family of Adam and Eve to bear children who would eventually form into many nations. The same was true of Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation (Gen. 12:2). Like wise, God’s people, Israel, existed and functioned as a family before they became a nation and demanded a king. This is because families make nations. While families make nations, fathers make families. Read Deuteronomy 6:1-9, for instance.
This doesn’t mean that women and mothers aren’t of utmost importance. They are. Look at Mary. She bore Jesus. And think about what women do. Every great man was carried and bore through a woman, his mother. Therefore, the very soul of men depends on women! Or read the story of Ruth where God uses two widowed women, one from Bethlehem but the other from Moab (wicked Moab might I add), in order to eventually give birth to Obed through Boaz who would eventually bring the greatest man into the world, Jesus.
Women are of mighty importance. I feel as if I would be half the man or less than I am today without my wife. She’s my “helper” and as helper, she so often supports me even as I try to protect her.
Nevertheless, God holds men responsible for their families and even the sin of a nation.
That’s why Jesus, the perfect God man, had to be born through a woman and Holy Spirit conceived instead of conceived through Joseph, because men pass on sin unlike women. Hence, God held Adam responsible for the first sin above his wife Eve even though Eve was the first to take the forbidden fruit and convince her husband to eat it (1 Tim. 2:14). Nevertheless, God held Adam the man responsible for this sin because he was meant to protect his wife. Plus, God told Adam firsthand not to eat from the tree (Gen. 2:17) before his wife was created. So God held Adam responsible for the first sin because he allowed his wife to misstep and joined her.
For that reason, Romans 5:12 says, “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” You see, God holds men responsible for sin, above women. I’m not saying that women aren’t responsible for their actions too. They are, but God created men to lead and that will never change. Men have God given and spiritually biological influence in this world:
“Our fathers sinned, and we are no more, and we bear their iniquities.”
Primarily, it’s not the sins or the hogwash teaching of our school systems (morally speaking) or even the laws passed by our government that will destroy our nation or ultimately indoctrinate our children. These are symptoms of our root problem. It’s our Fathers iniquities that we bear. It’s fathers who raise children who vote for our president. It’s fathers who God has called to raise children who have become the members that make up our senate and house of representatives. It’s fathers who, for the most part, have abandoned their wives or been unfaithful to them to create single mothers. It’s fathers who have proven slack in their sacrificial love for women that has caused the feminist’s movement. It’s fathers, or men in general, who are unfaithful to their wives that causes adultery in the land and sexual promiscuities.
Hosea 4:14 says, “I will NOT punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when then commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.”
You can see it plainly. God holds men very specifically accountable for the sins of a land. God’s not ashamed to not only call sin, sin, but to point out who He sees responsible for it. God is not embarrassed to point the finger at a specific divinely created gender as if to say, “hey men, I made you, and I hold you responsible for the “sexual liberation movement” of the land. I hold you accountable for your wives, you daughters, your children (“our father’s sinned and we are no more”), and your land.
Men, this doesn’t mean that you can control the future, but it means that God has given you the ability to shape the future. Not every child of a righteous father will follow the Lord or walk in his footsteps. Nevertheless, God promises blessing to the families of fathers who love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength and use that by loving their families (read the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 6 in order to see this. Highlight the connection of a cause & effect relationship between father loving God and showing through word and deed that love to his children, and the effect being a good future on a great land).
Just as gravity keeps us grounded on earth, even though it can prove to be a fatal if abused (like to jump from a bridge), so it is with fatherhood. God created it as a biological and spiritual law that will certainly keep society grounded in truth, walking in love and living with stability. But of course, kids can abuse this. Citizens can abuse this.
If you are a guy reading this, and you feel pretty good about yourself, perhaps it’s because you are a pretty good & Godly guy, truly (in Jesus). Nevertheless, read the book of Lamentations and you will find that Jeremiah, a great prophet, considered himself a part of the problem of sin, post Babylonian captivity, where the nation of Israel had literally become a waste land.
Jeremiah says, “woe to us, for we have sinned?” Lam. 5:16. And he says that same kind of thing continuously in Lamentations.
In other words, all of us are a part of the problem of our land and we need to repent and turn to the Lord.
As Daniel says in Daniel 9:8, “To US, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our FATHERS, because WE have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in His laws…we have sinned, we have done wickedly.“
Even Daniel, a man in Scripture who has nothing negative to say about him, includes himself in the sins of his people and he uses terribly rebellious language to depict it.
So what’s the hope for our nation? It’s confessing OUR sins, as men, women and children by turning to God through Jesus.
But it starts with men.
The last verse in the Old Testament says, “4Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and stroke the land with a decree of utter destruction.” – Malachi 4:46
John the baptizer was a forerunner to Jesus and one called Elijah (Matt. 11:14), so it seems like these verses are pointing towards (at least partially) the ministry of Jesus and how He alone will turn people to actually follow the 10 commandment of Moses (v4) which were addressed to fathers. Therefore, Malachi’s verse 6 describes the practical outworking’s of Malachi’s verse 4:
Fathers loving their children (v6) is the context in which the 10 commandments of Moses (v4) were written. That means that if we will follow the 10 commandments (v4), then fathers will model the most basic outline of the 10 commandments to their children, namely, loving God with all of their soul and then loving others, first, being their family. However, fathers have failed miserably at this since the beginning of time. It’s the hallmark of sin…men sinning. Remember Romans 5:12.
But it is through the ministry of Christ, only Jesus, our perfect God man who brings us to the Father, Who can reform fathers hearts to follow God’s law of love by practicing it in the home. In fact, proof of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’s transformation in a man’s life is that his manhood changes. His fatherly nature changes. He is a “new man” (Eph. 4:24).
Therefore, it’s Jesus who our men need to turn to in our land and among our Churches who will turn to their children once again (not their jobs) and their children turn to them. You see, children want to follow Godly fathers who love God and love them. That’s the implication of Malachi 4:6: “And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers,” You can see that children will certainly respond to a father who loves them.
Therefore, if there isn’t a revival with the Church and the families, in particular among the fathers with their children, then there is only one promise awaiting our future nation, “utter destruction.”
You see see the direct effect of fathers whose hearts turn to their children which would mean fathers who simply follow the 10 commandments in their proper context. The result of fathers who turn to their children first of all (not their job) is a land of success (Deut. 6:10). And this is a promise, a covenant from God.
However, in Malachi 4:6, the language for “land of success” isn’t used because it’s a warning of what will happen if men/fathers ignore their role. The consequence is quite the opposite as a successful land.
When a father doesn’t follow the commandments of Moses to love God with all his heart and love his children like himself (Mal. 4:4); hence the father’s heart isn’t turned to his children, and his children are not inclined to him, then eventually his land/nation will be destroyed.
Therefore, instead of receiving a good land, the fathers will assure based upon God’s covenant promise, not only blessings but curses when they fail at loving God and loving their children. The effect is as Malachi 4:6 ends, “a decree of utter destruction.”
Notice, utter destruction in a land isn’t an accident. It’s a decree from the Lord. It’s a direct consequence of fathers failing to follow God’s law. A land or nation that fails falls on fathers who have rejected God. They’ve rejected the first commandment.
So God sends a decree of utter destruction on the families land who has repopulated it to make a national land.
When nations fail, it’s always judgment on the families, not judgement first hand on the government, for the government is built upon and elected through families, so God judges a land filled with failing fathers.
You see, a failing land is not an economic problem or even a judicial problem primarily, no, it’s a family problem.
Therefore, if our nation crumbles, which it is, then during those days, blame it on the paternal root, not the presidential symptom.
In fact, the context of Lamentation 5:7, which I quoted at the beginning, is the context of Babylonian captivity. God’s people and His nation Israel were completely ruined. With that context, Jeremiah laments, “Our Fathers sinned, and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.” -Lam. 5:7
That was Jeremiah’s way of agreeing that, yes, fathers make up the root problem in any disastrous situation in a land.
So what are we to do about this problem today?
While today is today, do your part in turning to Christ as our divine Man, King, and God of every nation.
God gave up His only Son for us so that we can remain permanent children of God and so that men can become fathers more like our Heavenly Father. Christ was destroyed from “the land of the living” so that we can remain. He is our only hope for today, so turn to Him!
paraklesisblog 