Nehemiah 1:4-11
1 Samuel 3:1-14
Romans 4:13-25
Dr. Tony Evans “Kingdom Man”
“I was walking through the various security checkpoints in a local prison where I was due to speak to a group of inmates. The scene was what I expected to see: guards, bars, weapons, and fences. But what struck me most on this particular day was the fact that each man confined behind these walls, at one point in his history, had been under the care of a man whose job it had been to lead. Yet most of them had not only lacked a man to protect and guide them but had also suffered under the negative impact of men. In fact, roughly 70 percent of all prisoners come from fatherless homes. Approximately 80 percent of all rapists come from fatherless homes. Outside the prisons the numbers are just as alarming. Fatherless homes produce 71 percent of all high-school dropouts and 63 percent of all teen suicides. But a man doesn’t have to physically leave to create a void in the home.
In suburbia many fathers are missing in action through divorce, neglect, overindulging children in an effort to replace real parenting, putting their careers first, or loving the golf course more than their kids. Virtually every adult social pathology has been linked to either fatherless homes or homes with an absent, abusive, and neglectful man.”
Chuck Swindoll comments on this Biblical story
“Are there times when you know something wrong is going on at your house, but you refuse to be involved in correcting it? We carelessly pull the shades on reason and say, ‘Well, somehow it’s going to work out.’
Listen, God has appointed the father to one of the most difficult leadership positions in all the world: to lead his home. He motivates, sets the pace, gives guidance and encouragement, and handles discipline. Eli knew all this, but he would not rebuke his sons when they disobeyed God. Maybe he figured the leaders at the temple would straighten out the kids. It’s tragic how many people leave the job of child-rearing to the church, and therefore the church lives under that constant indictment, ‘The worst kids in the world are the church kids.’ The church gets the blame. But it’s not a church problem, it’s a HOME PROBLEM. The church can seldom resurrect what the home puts to death.”
