by Joe Henry Hankins via The Sword of the Lord
“And they went both of them together.” Genesis 22:6 The story of Abraham and Isaac is one of the most beautiful in the Bible of a father-son comradeship. Isaac was born in answer to the prayer of a father’s heart. Long years Abraham had waited on God, believing that He would keep that promise. Then when Isaac came, there grew up between father and son a most perfect understanding and comradeship.
We say a great deal about mother and motherhood, and all too little has been said about fatherhood and the responsibility
that rests upon the father’s shoulders. The necessity of providing for his household takes the father away from home and family. He is deprived of their fellowship. He is deprived of many things — the prattle of the baby, the toddling about, seeing him do the “cute” things. But that doesn’t mean a father’s heart is not in the home while he is out in the battle of life, in the struggle to support his family. There isn’t a true father who wouldn’t take the shirt off his back for his child and make any other sacrifice. Fathers sacrifice far more than you realize; we love more deeply than some give us credit for.
The father is an example to his children. The Scripture says, “Enoch walked with God…three hundred years,” (Genesis 5:22) Most people fail to see something in that Scripture — that the day his fist son was born, Enoch became a different man.
He thought of life differently. Everything was more serious. That day father Enoch made a new dedication of himself to God and began to walk with God.
Father, if you haven’t done that, you have deprived your boy of the greatest thing you could give him — a real Christian
father. Every child is entitled to a Christian home, and the wife can’t make it by herself. I feel sorry for a lot of you women who are trying to carry the responsibility alone. Without the help of the other, it is impossible to have a Christian home the way God meant for it to be.
I read the story once of an unsaved lawyer who told when the turning point came in his life. One morning he started out
to his office. He had to cross the street to catch the streetcar. The snow was deep, and he was taking long steps to avoid
stepping in the snow more that necessary. When he looked back, he saw his three-year-old boy trying his best to step in his father’s tracks in the snow. “Son, what are you trying to do?” he asked. “Just stepping in Daddy’s tracks,” was his answer.
The father said he realized then that his boy was not only stepping in his tracks in the snow, but was literally following
his ways. Every boy makes a hero out of his father. Dad, are you leading him to heaven or Hell? “And they went both of them together.” God, give us men who are willing to lead the way to God! Joshua took all the responsibility for his family — his wife, his children, and his servants — saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
