Iain Duguid reminds us that Genesis is a book about God’s blessings, from the very beginning. He wants them to know he loves them and that God is going to bless them, undeservedly.
He wants to assure them, that despite their sins, despite what hardships they brought upon him, Jacob wants them to enjoy God’s covenant blessings. Well, what about Jacob? While it’s true that Jacob never uses the words, “I love you” to his 12 sons, the idea of his love and affirmation for them is there in the sense of the blessing he gives them. I’ll let you read the book to find out what happens, but the author deals with tough issues for many adult children, such as the deep pain of a broken relationship with a parent the question of “If I forgive an estranged parent, do I have to let them back into my life?” and “Is it possible to forgive a parent who has passed away?” The book illustrates how you can repair damaged relationships through authentic, gospel-centered forgiveness – the type of forgiveness that will lead you to comfort, hope and freedom. So she takes a number of long trips from Alaska to Florida to help her dad, hoping for a breakthrough with him, praying that he will ask forgiveness for what he did, and most importantly, that he will say those three little words that she has never heard from his lips: “I love you.” Leslie Fields craved to have the blessed assurance of her father’s love. In this book she tells her story of how her father abandoned and abused her family, and then decades later, when she’s living in Alaska, news comes that her dad is living in Florida and his health is failing. Leslie Leyland Fields wrote a book entitled: Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers: Finding Freedom from Hurt and Hate. He knows not only the names of his sons, but also their groupings, according to their four mothers: first the six children born to Leah, followed by the four sons born to the two handmaids, and lastly the two sons born to Rachel.Īnd what Jacob tells his adult children is what everyone needs to hear from their parents, and what we all yearn to hear from our Heavenly Father.Įvery (adult) child craves to hear his father or mother say, “I love you.” Though Jacob is old and close to death, his mind is sharp. There’s tension and anticipation in the room, because a number of family sins and skeletons are still in the closet and need to be dealt with. Father Jacob has rallied his strength to sit up, and now he’s going to pronounce a prophetic blessing on each of his sons. His 12 sons are gathered around him at his bedside. Imagine the scene: The patriarch Jacob is close to death. But in line with our overall series, Divine Hope for Dysfunctional Families, I want to emphasize the blessing aspect of Jacob’s words, and how God’s covenant of grace would work out with his 12 sons. Now, in this sermon, if I had chosen to focus on the prophetic aspect of Jacob’s words, and then we would have looked at where the 12 tribes settled in the Promised Land, how each of them fared there, and the messianic fulfillment of the prophecy for Judah’s tribe. Think of Jacob’s speech to his adult children as a prophetic blessing. Notice that Jacob’s words are both a prophecy (v.1) and a blessing (v. Let’s see how this plays out in Genesis 49. I would suggest that this deep-seated desire is a reflection of the yearning that we have to be accepted, affirmed and loved by our Heavenly Father. Even if you’ve had a tumultuous relationship with your mother and father, you crave their blessing and their affirmation of their love for you, just because you are their child.
Let me ask you: What do you think every boy and girl, every man and women, longs to hear from their parents? That’s right it’s the three vital words of “I love you.” We yearn to know that we have their approval, their blessing, and their love.
Pastor Louis Prontnicki Maple Glen Bible Fellowship Church Today’s Message: “What Adult Children Need to Hear from Their Parents” (Part One) Series: Divine Hope for Dysfunctional Families
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