For "Fathers"

 

Let the Fear of God Come Back Into Your Bones — The Judgement Upon Abusive Fathers

In the beginning, God—אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)—formed man in His image. Not just in flesh, but in nature. In design. In responsibility. A man was made to represent God to his family. To be a priest in his home. To cover, like the mercy seat covered the Ark. And when he fathers children, he steps into a sacred office.

But what happens when that father, who was meant to reflect אֲבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם (Avinu Shebashamayim – Our Father in Heaven), becomes a source of terror instead of tenderness? When his voice is thunder not from Heaven, but from hell? When his touch bruises, and his silence wounds deeper than words?

The Word of God speaks. NOT YOU.

Malachi 4:6 declares a prophecy with fire: “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

Do you hear that? If the hearts of fathers don’t turn—God doesn’t just rebuke. He curses. The Hebrew word there for curse is חֵרֶם (cherem)—utter destruction, something devoted for judgment. When the father-child relationship is broken by abuse, Heaven prepares for devastation unless repentance comes.

The cry of the abused child reaches the throne. Go back to Genesis 4:10, when God said to Cain: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” The word for “cries out” in Hebrew is צָעַק (tsa’aq)—a desperate, anguished scream. And if innocent blood cries, how much more the wounded spirit of a child?

Abusive father, their cries are incense to a righteous Judge. You think God is passive? The same Jesus who blessed the children is the Lion of Judah. The same God who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,” is the One who also said, “I will repay.” (Romans 12:19)

You use your strength to destroy what God gave you to protect? You raise your hand like Pharaoh, forgetting you are not God but dust? You use your tongue like a serpent’s fang, forgetting you were made to speak life and to teach with kindness?

Hear this now: “A bruised reed He will not break,” (Isaiah 42:3) but you did. And unless you fall to your knees in trembling, the same hand that once reached for you in mercy will reach for you in judgment.

Psalm 103:13 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” But you? You had none. And what you sowed in secret, God will reveal in the light. Luke 8:17: “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”

And don’t think to twist the Word to shield yourself. Don't dare use “spare the rod, spoil the child” as a license to beat and berate. That “rod” in Proverbs is not a club of violence—it’s a שֵׁבֶט (shevet)—a shepherd’s rod. Yes, it corrects, but it also guides, protects, and rescues from wolves. You became the wolf.

But I’ve got to warn you deeper.

Hebrews 12:29: “For our God is a consuming fire.” That is not a metaphor. That’s identity. πῦρ καταναλίσκον (pur katanaliskon)—fire that devours entirely. Not like man’s fire that burns and fades, but eternal fire that separates wheat from chaff, flesh from spirit, sheep from goat.

And if you die in your abuse, unrepentant - not just to God, but to those children you injured and abused -  your works will follow you. Revelation 20:12: “And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.” Every word, every slap, every manipulated prayer, every time you used the name of God to silence the cries of your own child—written. Inked in eternity.

But now hear the mercy too. Because God’s justice is fierce, but His mercy is endless—for the broken and repentant.

Ezekiel 18:21-23 says: “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die… Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live?”

There is still a chance. But it’s very narrow. You don’t get to continue in evil and expect grace to abound. The grace of God is not an excuse. It’s a call to fall on your face.

So fall.

Fall before the King whose Son died to save even the likes of you—if you’ll humble yourself. Let Him rip the pride and contempt out of your chest and replace it with a heart of flesh. Let the Holy Spirit convict you so deeply that you can’t breathe without whispering, “God, forgive me.”

And to the children who survived: God saw you. He still sees you. And your Father in Heaven will not let injustice go unanswered. He will restore. He will defend. He will judge. Psalm 68:5: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.”

Let it be known: the fear of God is NOT a myth. It is a fire, and it is falling.

 

 

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