If truth be told, the keeping of tradition has enormous benefits. The Jewish culture has provided a wealth of customs which have sustained them through the centuries. There is a passage in the Talmud which explains what a father should do. It reads: “A father is obligated to do the following for his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him if he is the first born, to teach him the Torah, to find him a wife, to teach him a trade.”
After reviewing the above duties, I assumed these instructions were common, howbeit unique to the culture. However, there is a final addition which is said to be purely traditional. Each father should teach his child how to swim. One rabbi stated that the metaphor is a necessity for life.
The first few obligations are connected to the commandments of the Lord. They include being set apart and honoring the Lord, learning the scripture and fulfilling spiritual endeavors. Learning a trade is next which attends to good work-ethic. Teaching a child how to “swim” is connected to our faith and perseverance. There is a value in learning how to “keep our head above water” and how to face adversity. This idea centers on fortitude and consistency.
The lessons given by the father are numerous and needful. Men are designed by God to deliver truth to their children. Strong societies are established when life lessons are transferred. Yet when men are disengaged, the result is a misguided child and thus a dysfunctional nation. If compounded, a generation of people might live aimless and carnal not knowing truth. In fact, a moral compass was most often set by the words of men.
Men are the leaders of the home and of the church. The husbands is the head of their wife, priest of their home, and spiritual covering for their children. It is given into the hands of a man to guide and teach. There is no replacement for a father! God was so emphatic about fatherhood that in the unlikely case a father was absent, God said He would fill the role: I will be…Psa 68:5 “A father of the fatherless.”
The role of a man is not a trivial thing. He is what Jesus called, “the good man of the house” standing guard against the thief.
We honor our men and our fathers today, but we also recognize the awesome responsibility placed into our hands to teach, lead, and guide. Finally, we count it a privilege to stand as Apostolic men in these last days of time, pointing the lost toward Heaven and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.