Kingdom Come

The ancient definition of father was not exclusively or even essentially sperm donor, or even head of a family, but a leader empowering subordinates to perpetuate his expertise.

• “Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.” Think the ranchers in the American West 
• “Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. (Genesis 4:20-22) the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals…to give thanks and to praise the LORD.” (I Chronicles 25:1-3)

The (in my view) phenomenally relevant television show Breaking Bad demonstrates this concept to a society that has lost touch with this reality. 

Walter White identifies so strongly [AKA I love it!] not only with the innate ability of a former student Jesse, but especially his rebelliousness and independence, that he exerts his heretofore untapped great knowledge and skill into making Jesse in his own self-image as a heretofore unrealized superlative and therefore rightly wealthy chemist.

“For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth / teaches by demonstration him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these.” (John 3:35)

A biblical example of a father who loved his son and raised him up in his own image is Abram.

“And the LORD said unto Abram, Lift up now thine eyes, and look…all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” (Genesis 13)

“And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless…Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” (Genesis 15:2-4)

“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her [as a surrogate mother]…And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid…and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife…and she conceived [out of Abram’s bowels!]…

“And the angel…said unto her…thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael because / meaning the LORD hath heard…and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” (Genesis 16)

Yshma-el combines the words “shama” – to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc) and “El”. 

What exactly did the LORD hear? Abram’s plea for an heir to the land! The statement that Ishmael shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren – Abram’s other seed – confirms this.

“The” Shema (remember Hebrew has no explicit vowels) is also the “name” of a daily Hebrew recitation encapsulating its monotheistic essence.

“Hear / Shema , O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Whether or not contemporary Judaism acknowledges the broader reach of the God of Israel to Ishmael, the Torah absolute states it as a fact.

“when Abram / Father Of A Nation was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him…thy name shall be Abraham; for a “father of many nations” have I made thee…and kings [of many nations, not just a lineage of Israel] shall come out of thee…

And I will give unto you and your seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

This is God’s side of this particular covenant – grantor of the land.

Next, the grantees have an obligation in this covenant

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep / attend to my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which YE shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.…a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.”

In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

And God was with the lad.” (Genesis 17, 21:20)

No question about it – Ishmael’s descendants – the Arabs – have rights to their land.

As for Sarai thy wife… I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her…and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

“Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live [forever, eternally] before thee [in thy presence, serving you in the eternal kingdom of God to come]!

This is exactly what the mother of James and John asked for her sons:

“Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him…Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” (Matthew 20:20-21)

Catch what Jesus says to her in reply:

“to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matthew 20:20-23)

With this in mind, pay strict attention to God’s reply to Abraham. He assents to Abraham’s request.

“And God said…I have heard/ shema / agreed to thee…Behold, I have blessed him…”

Not just generally, but specifically with land ownership and dominion in the kingdom of God.

Abram’s biblical form of fatherhood looking out for his children is a dying breed, part of what is bringing Western Civilization to a close.

From NPR, not a Christian advocacy group. Fatherlessness is growing, and the correlations with any number of risk issues are considerable.

A U.S. Department of Education study…found 39 percent of students, first through 12th grade, are fatherless.

Children are four-times more likely to be poor if the father is not around, with 20 percent of white fathers absent in their children’s lives, 31 of Hispanics, 57 percent of African-Americans.

Seven out of 10 high school dropouts are fatherless.

Girls are twice as likely to suffer from obesity without the father present. They’re four-times more likely to get pregnant as teenagers.

Children growing up without a father are more than twice as likely to commit suicide.

More than half of incarcerated females came from a father-absent home. Youths who never had a father living with them have the highest incarceration rates 

And even when a male parent may be in the home their children can lack a godly father – even and especially in Christian homes.

I grew up under a malignant narcissist father who, due to his utterly rebellious nature against any authority, was unable to hold down a job, even being discharged from basic training at a time when the Army needed every soldier they could get to end WWII. 

He married a teacher who, upon discovering his cruel side, was prevented from filing for divorce by enforced pregnancy, AKA reproductive coercion, a form of domestic abuse.  While on her deathbed with eclampsia from this pregnancy, he was at the local Baptist church staging a public performance of heart-rending pleas to God.

Surviving, she supported the family through six back-to-back pregnancies as he found his “calling” in five years of seminary on the GI bill then in the Fundamental Independent Baptist Movement where he had enough charisma to gather a small following of people to start his own churches. He was inevitably voted out within just a few years as his true abusive nature surfaced, so we moved from state to state and town to town, for which he was acclaimed as a “church planter” by a diminishing group of followers who couldn’t or wouldn’t think for themselves.

Life at home with a misogynist father whose daily prime directive was proving he was the absolute authority was, of course, hell on earth for our mother and the nine surviving children of our mother’s twelve enforced pregnancies, every 18 months, into her 40’s. At the last near-fatal miscarriage from bleeding out at home, her obstetrician told Dad that if she got pregnant again, he would have Dad charged with attempted murder, which Dad proudly announced to everyone as a badge of martyrdom. 

From birth the babies were spanked whenever they cried to teach them to wait silently until being cared for. We children were spanked for every indiscretion from spilling milk at the crowded table to unsatisfactory grades. He used mealtimes to berate or threaten us, and any public performance by one of his children to insert himself and become the focus of everyone’s attention. I was the rare child who under this duress excelled, but every endeavor from piano and violin lessons, and after-school and even church activities were cut short. He refused to sign the college scholarship I won as a minor, and without warning kicked me out of the house the day I turned 18, attempting to force me to quit college. 

Lacking healthy relationship modeling and turned out into the world on our own as soon as he could legally relinquish support of any kind, all of us children struggled as hard to make a decent life as if we came from “unsaved” families broken by drugs and crime.

Worst of all, this father’s unbiblical version of parental authority was embedded into his children, all of whom perpetuated either narcissism or victimization, incapable of functioning as “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life.” (Philippians 2:1 5-16)

All the Christians are so busy scanning for a monster Antichrist in politics they don’t even recognize him in the church.