Set in a God-Governed Family
What is a Family?
A family is a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit. The family typically consists of a father, mother, and children. Families have several functions within society. These include companionship, emotional support, socialization of children, economic support, etc. However, economic support is one of the most important functions of the family. Families provide the economic support necessary for their members. This ranges from basic things like food, clothing, and shelter; to economic empowerment such as career development, entrepreneurial initiatives, etc.
How Do Families Get Economic Support?
The provision of economic support (finances) within the family is the responsibility of the father in the home. While working mothers and children can support this function, the father must take primary responsibility to ensure the house has the provision it needs. The Bible in 1 Timothy 5:8 supports this assertion. It says: “But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers.”
Fathers provide for their households by working to earn money. This protects the family members and gives them a good future in life through education and career empowerment.
The Fatherless House
A fatherless house is not necessarily one in which the man of the house has passed into glory. It is rather one in which the fatherly function is absent or suboptimal. There are houses in which the man is no more, but the fatherly function is provided by the mother in the home. There are several reasons why we have fatherless houses. It can be due to the abandonment of duty by a father, or other reasons such as economic crises, disability, etc. Whenever this occurs the key function of economic support is usually negatively impacted.
The Common Mistake of Fathers
The function of providing for the economic needs of a family is really that of the Heavenly Father (God). The job of the father in the house is to connect with the ways and plans of God for the economic support of the home. However, most fathers in our world today depend on their human wisdom, efforts, and friends rather than God alone. This is a mistake. Fathers in the house must connect to God to know what work to do for the economic support of their homes.
This was the mistake of Elimelech the husband of Naomi and father of two sons (Ruth 1). Elimelech decided to relocate from Israel to another country without consulting God. He relocated because of the economic crises in his country. In just over 10 years, Elimelech died together with his two sons. The family was left without a breadwinner in the house. We know Elimelech did not consult God because all this happened to his family while his brother Boaz became a great man of wealth in the same country Elimelech had left behind (Ruth 2).
God’s Remedy to the Mistake of Fathers
There is hope in God for families in which the fatherly function is suboptimal, has ceased to exist or does not exist. God usually takes on the fatherly role in such families. This is the assertion of Psalm 68:5-6. It says: “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary into families. He brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. “
If you are a widow or fatherless child in need of economic support, you must relocate to God’s habitation to connect to His fatherly care. God’s defence of the widow and His fatherhood of the fatherless child only exists in His holy habitation. You are rebellious if you choose not to relocate. You will dwell in a dry land (a metaphor for a life condition that lacks the benefit and support of God’s word).
The first thing God does to help fatherless houses is to connect members of the family to an individual, church or ministry that will teach them God’s word and support them economically from time to time. Following the death of the three breadwinners in her house, Naomi decided to relocate to Bethlehem when she heard God had visited His people with bread (Ruth 1). Please follow Naomi’s example today by locating yourself under the tutelage and care of a God-Governed family. The Boaz Family is one of such.
