A study on four fathering styles
A rejecting father (Genesis 29:15-35, 34:1-31, 37:3)
- What
was the name of Jacob’s first wife?
- How
did he feel about her?
- How
do you think he felt about her sons? (Compare with his feelings for
Rachel’s son Joseph.)
- How
did Simeon and Levi, two sons of Jacob’s first wife, behave?
A dutiful father (1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 69:1-12)
- Where
did David rank in age among his father Jesse’s sons?
- What
task did Jesse give David to do? (This was a job that few people wanted.)
- How
can you tell that Jesse was a religious man who probably wanted to treat
his sons right?
- How
did Jesse treat David on the day Samuel came to visit?
- How
do you think David felt about this?
- How
was David feeling when he wrote Psalm 69?
An unstable father (1 Samuel 18:5-16, 19:1-10, 20:24-34)
- How
did Saul respond the first time his son Jonathan spoke well of his friend
David? The second time?
- How
did Saul respond when his people praised David, his best soldier?
- How
did Saul feel when he saw that the Lord was with David but not with him?
- How
did Saul react when David tried to calm him with music?
- How
did Jonathan feel about the way his father treated him and his best
friend?
A possessive father (Matthew 2:1-18, Mark 6:14-29)
- Herod
the Great was a jealous tyrant who would stop at nothing to protect his
throne. He even had his first wife Miriamne and three of his sons murdered
out of suspicion. What other people became victims of his jealousy
(Matthew 2)?
- The
Herod in Mark 6 was a son of Herod the Great. His birthday party, planned
for his Roman friends, would have been a scene of drunken and immoral
behavior. Write your own character sketch of this spoiled son of an
overprotective father.