Lessons From Our Four-Fathers

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due...honour to whom honour. – Rom 13:7

The Bible places great emphasis on respect to the elderly. Other than the charge to honour all men (1Pet 2:17; Rom 13:7), it enjoins us to “rise up before the grey headed, and honour the face of the old man” (Lev 19:32). The fifth of the Ten Commandments, (which Paul points out is the first of them with a promise attached), says you should “Honour your father and your mother,” (Dt 5:16, Eph 6:2). Even our respective cultures show great reverence to the “ancestors” and “forefathers”.

With increasing modernisation seems to come an increasing disregard for the aged. Yet without them, there would be no us – both literally and philosophically. Our current successes and achievements are based on their previous works – research, discoveries, blunders, errors. Even the “failures” among them have lessons to teach us; for their failures show us what not to do.

This is especially true of the Bible Patriarchs. “Patriarch” not in the Jewish usage of the word (Abraham, Isaac, etc.) but in the literal, direct sense. Because we sometimes forget that it isn’t only Adam that is our common father. From Seth down to Noah, humanity has TEN different men that we are all descendent from!

These are the real, ancient forefathers that make our cultural “ancestors” look modern in comparison. Their average age then was an incredible 857.5 years! How much could you learn from an 857-year-old man? A lot. That is why this week we’ll be learning and paying homage to the forefathers; or in this case, just FOUR Fathers: Adam, Enoch Methuselah and Noah.

For whatever things were written before were written For Our Learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. – Rom 15:4

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN