Genesis 6:1-22
Introduction
Two men drank heavily, they were father and son and they got drunk together, Benjamín Rodríguez, 43, was about to beat his son up for an angry argument, but instead he took out a revolver-type pistol inside his clothes and challenged his son. son so that if he was so brave he would dare to shoot him. Cornelio Rodríguez, 20 years old, received the gun from his father, he was trembling with it in his hands without knowing what to do, he pointed it at his father’s head and with all the contained courage of years he pulled the trigger and shot him directly at the head without giving him a second chance, seeing him lying on the ground directed the gun to his head and pressed again making the tragedy double. This raw story can become so common around us, although to a lesser extent parents are ceasing to be a good example and model for their children; copied only the negative of the parents.
In these controversial times it is difficult to find role models when it comes to fatherhood. Throughout history, the role of the father in the family as head has not been performed well by the vast majority. It is for this reason that his importance within the family nucleus is simply pigeonholed as a provider of goods and now in times of feminine relevance, only as a carrier of germ cells for procreation. Although it is true that there is no human school to learn to be a father of a family, there is the instruction of the greatest and best example that is God and his Word, that through ordinary men like us, without any unusual characteristic , more than the availability to do the will of God; They show us today that being an exemplary father is possible. Adjustments are required, primarily obedience to God’s plan; Let us meditate on the life of an extraordinary man named Noah who in times of moral crisis was able to help his family forward and his decision led them to be the only surviving family of the destruction that God brought.
I. An exemplary father has firm convictions about God and his will
A very relevant aspect in Noah’s life was the role that God and his will played in his life; this was not a hobby, or just an area of his life, it involved his whole being. Noah was a man of more than 500 years, when the conditions are met to fully display his attributes as an exemplary father.
– Goes against the current (vv. 5, 11, 12) “The Lord saw that the wickedness of men was great… the earth was corrupted before God… because all flesh had corrupted its way…” Noah was immersed in a society that was corrupted more and more, mixed marriages between the children of God and pagan women, was the custom, violence was unleashed in all its forms, what to say about the expression of each human being about his idea of God, the corruption, dishonesty, lies, envy, promiscuity, etc. It was a difficult means to exercise a behavior attached to the will of a holy and perfect God. However, the narrative tells us that Noah was a righteous man in the midst of injustice and that can only be achieved with firm convictions about God and his plans. We cannot argue that our times are so difficult to manifest a spiritual conviction in Jesus Christ and the values of him, just because the vast majority believe that it is impractical or true. Noah also faced this situation, now we hide behind saying that exemplary men cannot exist as fathers because the situation is difficult, a diabolical lie, because Noah faced the same circumstances. It is a lie that the evil of human beings today are more depraved than those of yesteryear, now they have only invented new ways of expressing their evil, but the degree of evil is the same. God does not change, he does not “evolve” as some rascals believe, he is eternal and firm and with the same character, because he is integral in his personality. Noah firmly believed in God and in everything he wanted. Being an exemplary father is one who believes in God and his Word as if he were a little child. His convictions are expressed when he begins to act in favor of God’s plans, since he must show courage in putting God’s will into action, in believing that he will destroy the earth and that only he and his family will be saved in an ark that commands them build up.
Convinced of these words, Noah sets off, had he been carried away by the current of society, he would have died along with his family. If you want your family not to perish along with the others, you must build strong convictions
– Has the favor of God (v.8) “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” We already mentioned that God explores the earth and only observes evil and disorder in the midst of human beings, but found a man with firm foundations in God, named Noah, who in the eyes of God found favor, that is, God looked at him with pleasure because Noah kept his heart in fidelity, love and hope in the creator God. This is reflected when God decides to warn Noah of his plans to destroy the living beings on earth through a flood. For Noah that was new, because he had never before had it rained on earth, only a dew fell that bathed the earth. But God had determined to open the heavens and pour out his judgment with water, and it is Noah whom God warns to be saved with his family, along with a couple of each animal species. When you are an exemplary father, the Lord grants us unmerited favors so that our families may be blessed, unlike families that let themselves be carried away by the current of society without God. God gives the humanity of Noah’s time a period of 120 years to seek his face, but there is no evidence of that, and it is during that period that Noah together with his family build the means by which they will be saved. of death.
II. An exemplary father is a man of vision
Noah, as we have already seen, was a man attached to the things of the Lord, but in decisive moments when destruction is revealed to him, that is the vision of life that he has to implement for the good of his family. As an exemplary father, his vision of life comes from God for his salvation. Every man who seeks to be an example for his children must seek God’s vision of him and direct his efforts so that he and his children become and be where God wants them to be.
– Humanity lives in the present (v.5) “…every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was continually evil…” The recurring desire of society at the time of Noah was only to do evil in the eyes of God , we are not told that they will think about improving their situation before God, on the contrary, when they observed that Noah and his family began to build the ark, the mockery of the predictions of the end was cause for mockery and laughter by the neighbors of Noah. In our times the situation is no different, most people do not visualize their life in at least 3 years ahead. There is no culture of planning life, there are no goals to achieve. someone said. That if we aim at nothing, that is precisely what we will have, nothing. Humanity lives for the moment, that’s not so bad, the problem is that they only seek immediate satisfaction and don’t think about tomorrow and the consequences of what they do today.
– He prepares for the future of his family (vv. 3, 13, 14) “…he will live a hundred and twenty years… I have decided the end of all being… Make yourself an ark of gofer wood…” But for Noah it was not like that, God told him that there were 120 years ahead for him and his family to build what would save their lives and of course the lives of hundreds of billions of people, being us blessed with that vision of Noah to build the ark that God had ordered, even though the concentration of water was about 900 km. away from where Noah was. An exemplary father with vision is one who can see into the future his life and that of his children, their husbands or wives, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Noah could see the destruction of God, because he had vision ahead, he did not live in the past and what he had not been able to do, he saw ahead and in that future he saw his sons and daughters-in-law alive and enjoying the favor of God.
III. An exemplary father is obedient to the voice of God
Here we enter a difficult aspect, Pr. Luis Gabriel Cesar Isunza, from the PIB de Satélite says that God has called us to believe in unusual things such as the resurrected dead, coins in the mouth of fish, etc.. and that this is about the Christian life in believing and doing things out of the ordinary. Noah did something out of the “normal”, because the normal thing was to be violent, corrupt, promiscuous, drinker, and others. Noah responds obediently to the voice of the Lord.
– Obedience, the key to blessing (v.22) “Noah made it so; he did everything according to what God had commanded “God speaks to Noah and reveals his plans, Noah can visualize that future both the destruction of human beings, and the salvation of his family. Then, moved by these reasons, he obeys God and begins to work on this project that will be a blessing for all his family. But he not only decides to obey in terms of doing what God says, but he does it as God wants, because according to the measures and materials that God ordered. Gofer wood (v.14) such was the obedience that he put the window that God indicated to him where God wanted: “A window you will make the ark one cubit high…” (v.16) Noah could well think and say that beast somewhere else, but he put it where he had said it could. The end of chapter 6 says that Noah did EVERYTHING, according to God’s command. An exemplary Father must be obedient to God to show consistency between what he says and what he does. If we want our families to enjoy God’s blessings, we must follow the following order established by God and that no step can be skipped. Obedience, then release, equals blessing. Noah obeys God building the ark, God frees Noah and his family from death and then they are blessed by God (9:1) “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth… ”. If you want to be an exemplary father, obey God without question and you will get a blessing.
IV. An exemplary father has authority over his family
When a person is consistent between what he believes and what he does, we can say that he is someone with authority.
– Define authority. Traditionally we believe that authority means power that one person has over another, however this definition leaves us with the idea of the oppression of the weakest. But Brother Ricardo Mian shared with us that the most appropriate meaning for the word authority is: one that makes one grow. So we deduce that a person with authority is one who helps, encourages those who are under his responsibility to grow. A father has authority over his children when he helps them grow, not physically, but on the intellectual, emotional, character, spiritual, and social levels. Authority is not something that is held for…