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AGAPE LESSON 19
FATHER OF FAMILIES
Put together by Bongie Kuzwayo
When reading the Old Testament, you will notice that a son is known by the father’s name.
[1Samuel 1v1] Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim,
and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an
Ephraimite.
[Matthew 1v1] The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
We, the church, are said to be written in the Lamb’s book of life. We are part of His lineage as the
42nd generation. To be allotted land by Joshua, the son of Nun, you had to be registered in an
authentic register.
Our Father in heaven, the Almighty God is known by many names. Jesus refers to Him as “Our
Father” or “The Father”. In Adam, God created family; this was His idea and passion when He
created Adam/humanity. The intent is that His family puts Him on display and multiply the image
and likeness of God.
[Genesis 1v26-28] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. (27) So, God created man in His
own image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. (28) Then God
blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have
dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on
the earth.
• Make man in our image, according to our likeness = let us enlarge our family.
• Let them have dominion = tend and keep all that God had created.
• Them = family/humanity; male and female.
• Be fruitful and multiply = family had to multiply the image and likes of God.
The original family had God as Father. Adam/humanity was the first-born son of God. Part of his
mandate was to be the gate into the earth; that is, an interface between heaven and earth. This gave
him a priestly position. He was to tend and keep the garden; and this gave him a kingly position. He
communed with God Spirit-to-spirit; and this gave him a position as apostle and prophet on the
earth. Communing with God Spirit-to-spirit means that, he was one Spirit with God. God (the Spirit)
was the very life-support for Adam. This is like when the baby in the womb depends entirely on the
mother’s blood for its life-support. Adam was one Spirit with God. When Jesus prayed in John 17, He
was praying for the restoration of that union/oneness.
[John 17v20—23] I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through
their word, (21) that they all may be one, as You Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may
be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (22) And the glory which You gave Me I
have given them, that they may be one just as We are One: (23) I in them, and You in Me, that they
may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved
them as You have loved Me.
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The Bible records that they were naked (nude), the man and his wife, and were not ashamed
(Genesis2v25). The glory of God was their covering. God referred to the Nation of Israel/the original
church as His son (Exodus4v23).
• The first-born son of God = God referred to the entire Nation of Israel as “My son.”
[Exodus4v23] So I say to you, “Let My Son go so he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let
him go, indeed I will kill your son, your first-born.”
• They were naked = were pure/transparent.
• They were not ashamed = were innocent/had nothing to hide.
• The glory = doxa or weightiness of God was their covering.
• Son = (Ben in Hebrew, from the root bana) – meaning: to build. [1Peter2v5] You also, as
living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
[Genesis2v16—17] And the Lord, God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you
may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
That communion between God and Adam/humanity was tarnished when he disobeyed and ate of
the tree of which God had commanded him not to eat. Adam died, that is, that divine
communion/oneness was severed, and Adam began to live independent of the (eternal) life-giving
support. This is how we were born dead in trespasses after the image of the first Adam
(Ephesians2v1). We had to be born again by the Spirit.
[John 1v12—13] But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name, (13) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God.
The original church, the Nation of Israel was family. The New Testament early church/the Way was
all families.
[1Corinthians 16v19] The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the
Lord, with the church that is in their house.
[Colossians4v15] Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that was in
His house .
The church today is totally misaligned. Institutions have members and not sons. Denominations have
members, and not sons. Fathers align us back to the family of Father in heaven. By God’s design, it is
the fathers who lead the local houses/churches. God yearns to complete His family and He is truly
Father (of us all) in heaven. Hence the fathering-grace to align us back to the family of Father in
heaven.
God gave the dominion mandate to family. That same dominion mandate is given to the church, the
family of Father in heaven. The journey to divine sonship via deputy fathers is mandatory because
dominion and ruling in the midst of your enemies is given only to Son (corporate/the body of Christ.
Inauthentic leaders, those inaccurately positioned/misaligned to God’s agenda do not have the
family legacy to rule. God’s agenda is/has always been Christ. Christ is the head of His body, the
church.
Now God made visible what He had already created. [Genesis2v7] God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
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[Genesis2v18—24] And the Lord said, “It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a
helper comparable to him.” (19) Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and
every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he could call them. And whatever
Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (20) So, Adam gave names to all cattle, to the
birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to
him. (21) And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his
ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man
He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (23) And Adam said, “This is now bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.” (24)
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become
one flesh.
God builds generationally. [Exodus3v15] Moreover, God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the
children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abram, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
It took three generations to complete His name.
The nation of Israel was divided into tribes, further divided into clans and then to father’s houses,
and father’s houses into households [Joshua7v16—18] So Joshua rose early in the morning and
brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. (17) He brought the clan of Judah
and He took the family of Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi
was taken. (18) Then he brought his household, man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of
Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
Land was allotted according to family register.
The encampment in the wilderness was according to family. [Numbers2v1—2] And the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying, “Everyone, of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard, beside the
emblems of his father’s house; they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting.
[Psalm68v4—6] Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His
name YAH, and rejoice before Him. (5) A Father of the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God
in His holy habitation. (6) God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into
prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
According to God – the next of keen was to take the wife of the deceased brother to perpetuate his
name. Tamar. Ruth
Orphanage is man’s idea because the fabric of family is eroded and distorted. God sets the solitary in
families (Psalm68v6). Jesus was set in the house of Joseph, the just.
A son was always known by the name of His father. What is in the name? = the nature, character,
culture.
[Isaiah48v9—11] For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from
you, so that I do not cut you off. (10) Behold, I have refined you, not as silver; I have tested you in
the furnace of affliction. (11) For My own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how should My
name be profaned? I will not give My glory to another.
[Isaiah42v6—8] I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold Your hand; I will keep
you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a Light to the Gentiles, (7) to open blind eyes, to
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bring out prisoners from the prison house. (8) I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not
give to another, nor My praise to carved images.
• Name = nature, character, culture.
• Profane = to make common/pollute/defile/desecrate.
• Will not give = not dedicate, commit, bestow, entrust.
• My glory = doxa (the very fabric/substance that God is made of.
• Another = refers to one who is not a son/ one who is not family/one who is illegitimate.
[Hebrew 12v5–8] And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord;
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves, He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.
(7) If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father
does not chasten? (8) But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then
you are illegitimate and not sons.
GOD IS FATHER OF FAMILIES
A son is known by the father’s name. Those who are His, have His seal/His name on their foreheads
(Revelation7v4)