Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:17 And he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

I’m sure Zechariah knew his scriptures well enough to recognise that Gabriel was essentially quoting the very last words of Malachi: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else …” In these few words, Gabriel bridges those 400 years of waiting and sets the framework for John’s ministry. From our vantage point, of course, we understand that John’s ministry will make ready a people prepared to listen to Jesus, a connection Luke returns to later referring to people accepting or rejecting Jesus based on whether or not they had been baptised by John.

Yet what grips my attention most in this verse is that phrase “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children”. It comes in for a variety of interpretations, not helped, it seems to me, by the latest NIV changing words routinely translated elsewhere as ‘father’ into ‘parent’! Most commonly it is taken to refer in some way to a wayward generation returning to the righteousness of the patriarchs. But would that not be turning the hearts of the children to their fathers rather than the other way round? Surely in some way it points to a correction of the waywardness of fathers in regard to their children.

At a time when so many family units have at heart an absent father, or an unloving or even abusive father, or a father who is simply too busy or selfish to give the time, love and nurture that is due to their children, this challenge to fathers rings out to me “Turn your heart to your children!” For, as a father, I’m sure this is part of God’s will for me, no matter how much our culture would excuse my busy-ness or champion my me-time. Indeed, surely my life and character as a Christian father should exemplify, however imperfectly, the character of our perfect, loving heavenly Father. Now there’s a challenge!