The Environment of Wisdom for Fatherhood & a Prayer Request
This is my fourth revised chapter. I have already added a chapter to the revision and reinforced the nature of the environment for fatherly instruction. These are short and digestible chapters.
I am working on revising my little work on fatherhood, published eleven years ago. It’s a rewarding and humbling process, especially to see how my writing has evolved and how much more clearly I understand things now, having been a father for 17 years. I hope subscribers enjoy these revisions, which will eventually be re-published with additional chapters (including a chapter on the Singing Father). All paid subscribers will receive a PDF copy of the revised book once it is completed, and I hope to send out several physical copies as well.
If you would like to follow the progress, here is the revised introduction and the opening chapter, Chapter Two, “Glad Fathers and Glad Sons,” and Chapter Three on “The Proverbial Father.”
For those who are not paid subscribers, I’d be happy to comp you for 90 days so you can follow along. Send me your email via Substack.
Chapter Four
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” —William Shakespeare
The Environment of Wisdom
Fatherhood is wisdom-saturated. But what is the environment best suited for the furtherance of wisdom? The Bible places an enormous emphasis on the place where such education is instilled. In the great Shema text of Deuteronomy 6, we find indications of how wisdom was passed on to our children. It included sitting, talking, instructing, walking, sleeping, and rising. The entire framework assumes an ordinariness to the process of participation. There is not a hint of forcefulness, but commonality in the day-to-day discourse between parents and children. The nurture and admonition presuppose an environment where wisdom can be cultivated daily, one in which it can flourish without competition.
When raising sons, a father has the dual duty of training his sons and encouraging his wife to join in this royal vision of raising godly kings in the world. Wisdom needs to be a shared goal in the home. Such an environment of shared vision is essential if boys are to become kings. In cases where mothers are functioning alone with an unbelieving husband, or as a widow, or divorced woman, she needs to seek the wisdom of her local body and invite godly men to shepherd and aid in the discipleship of her son.
Baptism and the Cultivation of Wisdom
Our Lord Jesus was not incarnated into a neutral home. Instead, he was sent into an environment where the covenantal principles of the Shema were articulated. In the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), the Father sent his Son to dwell in the home of faithful Israelites (Matt 2:19-21; Luke 2:41-42, 52). He was catechized correctly and participated in the ceremonial and ritual life of Israel (Luke 2:21). When Jesus took on human flesh, He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man, because His earthly parents provided Him with the environment for proper growth in wisdom. Joseph’s fatherly protection of our Lord at birth was a picture of his Father’s protection in heaven. Our Lord was raised in the knowledge that the Father’s love was evident in his life. He knew that the Father would be present in his mission and that He would be glad in him.
Wisdom is passed on in many ways, but it is primarily the father who establishes an environment that fosters the cultivation of wisdom. We see a picture of this vision in the baptism of Jesus, as described in Matthew 3. In a culture where fathers were often absent, the Father of our Lord Jesus was present at His baptism. It is this presence that testifies to the culture of wisdom.
In the baptism of Jesus, we see a model for the baptism of our own children. Baptism is the initiatory rite, the entrance into a society of grace and truth. Baptism is the genesis of fatherly instruction. It is the introduction of sons into the Shema-life we see in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of wisdom. And right from the start, the Father was there. God the Father knew that his presence would be an essential ingredient to the commissioning of the Son into the world (Jn. 3:16).
The presence of the Father in the Son’s baptism is a commitment to form the environment where wisdom is communicated. The presence of the Father was necessary as the Son was led to fight the serpent in the wilderness (Matt. 4:19). In like manner, earthly fathers are to be present in the lives of their children from their baptisms—initatory rite—to the point when they leave and form their own gardens, establish their own homes, and protect their own families from the deceitful ways of serpents.
Another reality accompanies this fatherly presence. In the baptism of Jesus, the Father also affirmed the Son. He verbalized and expressed his profound love for the Son (“In whom I am well pleased”). When the Father affirms the Son, He is providing a safe environment and training ground so that the Son will go forth and fulfill his calling in the world.
The Father is pleased with his Son before the Son even begins his mission. He is pleased with his Son because the Son is his mission. It is the Father’s role to protect, provide, and pass on the glory of wisdom, so that when the Son is accused, mocked, betrayed, and tempted to take an offer from another father—the father of lies (Jn. 8:44)—He knows that his status in his Father’s house is incontestable, his sonship undeniable, and his Father’s love undisputed. We do not just need more men in the home; we need fathers who understand their profound influence in shaping godly sons.
Nuntium
My daughter and I are headed to D.C. in a couple of hours. It will be a long day once we arrive. The opening conference dinner will honor and award the Beaconsfield Prize for Distinguished Public Service to Mr. Christopher DeMuth, Chairman Emeritus of the National Conservatism Conference, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to promoting national conservatism in the United States.
Let me also add this prayer request. My daughter’s E-Visa has not arrived, and we are scheduled to leave for Brazil on Thursday afternoon. Please pray that God would overturn the bureaucracy of the Brazilian Consulate and allow her Visa to arrive in time for us to fly to Porto Alegre this Thursday.
Continued prayers for Abigail’s E-visa!🙏🏼