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.