A play on words. Nations that father. Nations that are fathered. Of course, it is not possible to father a nation that refuses to be fathered, or be fathered when no fathering nation is available to fill the role.
First, there are dynamics of spiritual fathering that function at a cultural level. God has always had a fathering strategy for the nations. He has planned to invest Himself and His revelations within cultures that would be remnants seeded into the world, lights set upon a hill that give light to other nations.
Second, spiritual fathering can only be illustrated by natural fathering in a limited way. The analogy won’t walk on all four legs, so to speak. Yet, the goal of all fathering is to work yourself out of job by growing and maturing the children you are fathering. In spiritual fathering, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have a father or require fathering, however; it means that the function of a father matures at the same rate the child matures.
Third, fathering of any sort requires honor. Without honor the value of a father is lost to the children because they are wasting what is available to them. Even though they have a father, they may live without one if they lack honor.
Fourth, fatherlessness is a foundational fault and failure as deep as an earthquake in terms of leaving children without something to build on. Nations can be rebellious sons: they live without fathering influence and impact.
So, the nature of rebellion against God and His designs for human life and living is set to frustration fathering leadership in any form, to present a different model and design for life and living, and to bring individuals and cultures into alignment with a substitute for God’s design that appeals to their desire to do what they want without accountability to someone else – God, father, leaders, and law.
Since God has a purpose, that purpose is seen as a restriction instead of fulfillment. Since God puts purpose into the hands of fathers who can prepare inheritors to bring greater fulfillment of purpose in their generations, the purpose is vulnerable to fulfillment when fathering fails to function.
If we see the purpose of God as the what-God-wants, the will of God, we can see the goal of fathering is to prepare people who can receive His purposes and bring them to greater fulfillment, one generation to the next. Spiritual generations are different from natural ones. Fathering nations is different from natural fathering. Yet, some similarities can be seen.
Culture is Behavior
Think of behavior in an individual as culture in a nation. Culture is more complex than behavior, and behavior has challenged those who analyze it for all history. “What we do and why we do it” is an ocean only partially discovered with deep places men cannot invade. God knows the heart. God knows the nations.
In order to see the call we have to father nations, we need to think internationally. Think about this: the farther America moves away from Her redemptive purpose, the less she is inclined to provide a fathering influence and say, “We have enough problems of our own to be involved in other nations.”
