A Father's Role - Planting The Seed

"And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also." - Gen 38:8-10


The father's primary role in these New Testament days has not changed from the days of the Old Testament. We have been and always will be called to proclaim Christ and God's salvation in Jesus as the Messiah (the Anointed One) for we know that there is "no other name under heaven by which a man may be saved".

In the days of the prophets before Jesus, they were called to preach the promises of the covenant of God to His people. However, that was not their only duty. They also, in faith looking forward to the Messiah, were partakers in the procreation and proliferation of the seed knowing that one day the seed would bruise the head of the serpent and defeat death which had entered through Adam's sin. [Gen 3:15]

Today, the seed is no longer the way in which the Messiah would come in the person of the Lord Jesus. However, our role fathers has not changed in principle. We are still to plant the seed, but that seed is now the planting of the Gospel into the hearts of our families. Let us do it in faith by the power of the Spirit rather than defiance and shame as Onan had done.

Happy Father's Day to my fellow brothers out there. Praise God for revealing to us our sin and His righteousness.