Three Godly Fathers

Vance Gatlin has recently published a series, in honour of Father’s Day, on ‘Godly Fathers’. Or, as he put it ‘Good Bible Dads’. Along the way he and I had some conversations about who were good dads in the Bible, and he encouraged me to make my own list.

Now, in the light of my recent ‘Patriarchs’ post, I thought I would steal some ideas from there in making my list. So this post is NOT a list where I go through and do my own analysis of how the patriarch did raising children. What it is is is my examination of what GOD said about the patriarch vis a vis his parenting.

I will be examining them in the light of two things:

1. God’s literal words about their parenting and

2. The echoes of their parenting down through the Scripture.

If that list isn’t clear, hopefully it will become clear as I go through the sections.

Jonadab the Son of Rechab

And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites,

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel;

Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

Jeremiah 35:18-19

I am going to begin my study with a man that few modern Christians have ever heard of: Jonadab the son of Rechab. As far as I can tell, this is the only place in Scripture that this father is listed (although he might be mentioned in II Kings 10:15). No one in any later story is compared to him, either positively or negatively. We know nothing about him, about his parenting style, how many children he had, how many were boys or girls… literally nothing. (Well, except we know he did have children!)

What we do know about him was that his children were obeying his commandments long, long after he was dead. And we know that God Himself choose not only to congratulate those children on their obedience, but to give their father (their great, great… grandfather) one of the most powerful blessings in all of Biblical history.

And to use their obedience as a judgement upon the house of Israel, which were as disobedient to God as the Rechabites were obedient to their long dead father.

David

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David

Luke 1:32

Most sermonisers and Bible commentators have almost nothing good to say about David in his role as father. Not so the Scriptures. Time and time (and time and time…) again the Scriptures bring up the words ‘father David’ or ‘son of David’; and they pass on a blessing or cursing depending on how the person involved lived up to their 'father David’. Generations and generations live on in the light of the blessing of God on their father, and are blessed or cursed by their ability to live up to his standard.

And this culminates in Christ Himself; who is said to have come to take the throne of ‘His father David’.

Abraham

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Genesis 18:19

So of Jonadab we are told of God’s blessing directly on his parenting. Of David we learn of God’s using him as a metric against which later kings are to be measured. Of Abraham… we get both.

Let us begin with his name. The word ‘Abram’ and the word ‘Abraham’ are both ‘father’ words. God changes his name from ‘high father’ to ‘father of many nations’.

And then let us look at God’s opinion of his fatherhood. God says, before Abraham even has Isaac, that ‘he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD…”.

And then, in the rest of Scripture, time and time again people are judged by how they did compared to Abraham. If they walked with God… like Abraham. He is not only a father of many nations, but a father of the faith.

Conclusion

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7

The temptation, as I mentioned in my ‘patriarchs’ post, is for modern Christians to use modern values to judge the patriarchs. What I have done here is the opposite. I have ignored the modern condemnations of David, and the modern ignorance of Jonadab, and pointed out what God has to say about them. In His word. For our edification.

If any of us think we are Godly fathers let us ask ourselves: Will God be judging our great… grandchildren by our standard? Will He be praising them for their obedience to our commands?

---

Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!

Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.

If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!

If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.

Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von