Where Have All the Fathers Gone?
Submitted by Ted Mock
April 3, 2024
Lu 1:15-17 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. 16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
The Scripture in verse 17 says that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elias to “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.” In today’s world, in our country, fathers have given the responsibility to lead the home over to the wives, and sometimes to the children themselves.
The family is a sacred trust, given to fathers by a Holy God, a trust many fathers have broken.
To understand how bad the problem is, here are some statistics from the Census Bureau on children without fathers:
18.4 million children, 1 in 4, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home in the US.
43% of children in the US live without a father.
90% of runaway children come from fatherless homes.
80% of rapists come from homes without a father.
70% of minors who live in state facilities come from fatherless homes.
90% of repeat arsonists are from fatherless homes.
71% of all high school dropouts are from homes with absent fathers.
63% of all youth suicides are children with no father in the home.
These are just a few statistics from the government and other sources. They paint a bleak picture for children with no fathers in the home. The devastations caused by this epidemic are far reaching on more than just social outcome. The economic effects on public welfare systems and the drag of generational poverty are staggering.
In Malachi 4:5 & 6, God says that the forerunner of Christ would come to turn the heart of the father to the children and goes on to say—the heart of the children to their fathers. It also closes the book with a warning, that if they do not turn, God will smite the earth with a curse.
I believe that because our fathers’ hearts are far from the children today, and the children have turned their hearts from their fathers, we are experiencing a curse as a result.
May the Lord turn the hearts of our fathers back to the children again!
Consider: Control Your Child with Your Heart, NOT Your Hand
Smiley: Corny Dad joke—What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.
