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As our world struggles with several strands of evil and the family which is the basic unit of the society continues to lose its foundation place, it becomes incumbent on the voice of

reason and truth of the society—the Church to use every |God- given avenue to call fathers to their duty of building godly homes which alone can build godly society.

The world has discounted the importance of fathers, and fathers themselves seems to haave lost the God-given place and position in the creation, yet the biblical definition of a family is fatherhood. Paul writes,” for this reason I kneel before the earth derives it name.” (Eph.3:14-15).

The Greek word “father” is patria and it is derived from the root pater. For those who know either Greek or Latin, you recognize that this word means “father”.

To define a family in the biblical sense, therefore, is to call it “fatherhood”. Without a father, there is no family. The proof of this that the family gets their name from the father.

This concept should clearly show the importance of fathers. Also, the biblical definition of an orphan is to be “fatherless”. Its not to be without both parents, but to simply be without a father, and so we have a whole flock of children in our land who are orphans.

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Without fathers the family cannot grow to become all God intended for it. The father is the root of the family, and if the root is bad, the family will likely have trouble. On the other hand, where there is a godly father, the

children often are godly. It is at this back drop that we introduce the theme of this massage — :WHEN THE MAN LEAVE THE HOME; THE ENEMY TAKES OVER.”

Our society has been struck with a curse. In the last of the previous century we saw an incredible increase of crime, violence, drug

and gangs – and although legislators and economists offer various solutions, the real root of the problem is negligent fathers and unparented children.

This began with the first family in the garden of Eden. As we read from the first chapter of the book of Genesis, God created man, made him the head of all creation, including his wife, with specific instructions as to how to live, what to and what not to do and eat.

It should be noted that these instructions were given before the addition of woman. So whatever the woman knew, understood and

believed God’s instructions depended on how they were communicated to her by the man- Adam. So whether Adam’s family obeys and follows the ways of the Lord or not lies on the shoulders of the man and father of the house.

On the other hand, I believe that, in his quest to cause man to disobey God, Satan, understood how difficult it could be to get Adam to personally and willingly disobey God,

Waited for a moment of Adam’s absence from the home. So in chapter 3 of the book Genesis, Satan found the moment he was waiting for – a time when the man left home. The absence of Adam gave satan the confidence knowing that the spiritual coverage of the home is not in place. Knowing that the image of God, the very

representation of God in the family is missing, it became easy for the enemy to come in and plant the seed of discord and disobedience in the family, the scene should be familiar to us.

No one walks freely to invade some one’s house when they know the house owner is at home and awake. To leave the home may be

physical or by irresponsible life or both. In Adam’s case, he was guilty of both. Adam was not at home physically and that cleared the home for the enemy to come in . He was also absent from the home by not satisfactorily passing to his wife the terms

and conditions of their relationship with God and this made it easy for the enemy to get the woman to succumb to his trick. Whenever fathers fail to root our families in godly values and Christians principles, we make vulnerable to the schemes of the world and evil.

Another example of the grave consequences of the failure of the man in his duties to his family is the life of our father Abraham. We recall that Abram ( Abraham) was seventy

five years when the Lord called him and promised to multiply and make him a great nation even though he had no child. We know this promise continued till he was ninety. Again, Abraham, the man to whom the promise was made did not have any problem waiting on the Lord.

But the wife, became inpatient with the Lord and pushed Abraham into disobedience to God thereby bringing catastrophe into the world of which we are suffering till today- Islam against the rest of the world.

So because Abraham failed to impart his faith in the Lord unto his wife, he was unable to stand ground against her ungodly option, and so he gave the enemy the chance to come in and distort God’s plan for the entire world.

Our next example demonstrates that even personal goodness in a father cannot save his family from the danger of his failure to pass such goodness down to his family. Lets look at Eli. The priest.

Please observe that Eli had excellent character qualities.
Note his morality. In his long life you will find any record of terrible sin. He did not drink steal, lie or swear. He never divorced his wife, committed adultery, or abused his children. observe his kind treatment of the boy Samuel.

Eli knew that Samuel would be his replacement as spiritual leader of Israel. Yet there is no trace of jealousy. Istead, when Samuel revealed God’s Judgment against Eli, Eli responded quietly and submissively: “ He is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes” (1sam. 3:18).

Furthermore, it is clear that the old man had a deep love for the ark of God, which symbolized God’s presence. When the ark was carried into battle, Eli’s heart feared for it (see Samuel 4:13)

and when he heard of the capture of the ark of God, he fell off his seat , broke his neck and died (see verse 18). Right to his death, this man was deeply concerned about the things of God.

But Eli was a Colossal Failure.
Eli failed miserably both as a father and as a priest. He knew God, and yet God pronounced judgment upon him and his descendants (see 1 Sam. 2:27-36; 3:14). Why?

Two clues point us to the answer. The first is in1 Sam. 2:30: “those who honour me I will honour, but those who despise me will be disdained.” Eli despised the Lord.

1. The second clues are in verse 35: “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest.” Eli was unfaithful as a priest. So how did Eli despise the Lord? Both questions fine their answer in a common malady: Eli was a passive father.
   
   Shalom..
   Question
   Whom do you think that takes over your home in your absence?