Lesson Three • Everlasting Father
Jeremy Smith
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
The emphasis this week has been focusing on the “Everlasting Father.” As I read and began to collect my thoughts, I was reminded of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I know it is a bit strange, but as they are traveling through the chocolate factory they make a stop at a machine that is all covered. Wonka is asked about the machine and he begins to explain the idea he had. The idea was to have a candy that someone could get one time and not need to worry that it would only temporarily satisfy them. He agrees to give them each an Everlasting Gobstopper. Everlasting is very simply defined as never-ending. Candy cannot be everlasting. Actually, it often creates a desire for more.
When I think of a father or the role of a father, I begin to think of what is my own expectation and what roles I need to fulfill with my own children. When I have something I have never done before or need help on a project, one of my first calls is to my dad. Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” It seems like an almost weekly occurrence now, but one of my kids asks why I have to go to work. In 1 Timothy 5:8, we are given the biblical explanation of being a provider, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Of course, there is still a balance, and needs to be disciplined from time to time. Proverbs 13:24 adds, “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Also, there still needs to be a relationship there. The relationship can only develop and blossom when we work on it. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 tells us what God’s expectation is, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” These are some of the many verses we find throughout the Bible that give us a biblical direction of the roles and expectations of being a father. God is willing to be our “Everlasting Father” and regularly does all these things with and for us.
To easily and definitively explain an “Everlasting Father,” we can take a look at any of the individual roles the Bible has clearly outlined, and realize that it is a never-ending example or expectation of what it will be like to follow God. It does not matter where we come from or what experiences we have had with our own earthly father. All we need to do is believe that Jesus came to Earth and died for our sins, was buried but rose again, and we have accepted the invitation to be adopted into His family. That gives us an “Everlasting Father.”