Day 32: The Greatest Problem of Our Age

Now I'm going to deal with a difficulty that can arise within the close relationships of a family to see if God has any promise related to it. Unfortunately, it is a difficulty that arises very often today: problem children. Does the Word of God offer us direction and encouragement in such a situation? I believe that it does.

Let us turn to the last prophet of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi, chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. This is a scene that will be fulfilled at the close of this age. It applies particularly to the time of the end, the time in which I believe we are living today. The Lord says:

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. [Sometime before the tremendous climax of this present age.] He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." (NIV)

The Word of God pinpoints so accurately, with its prophetic insight, the greatest single social problem of our age: the problem of disrupted families – disharmony between parents and children. This is the thing on which this prophecy focuses: the wrong relations within the family between the fathers and their children. And the indication is that if these relationships are not adjusted and the situation is not changed, the result will be that the whole land will suffer a curse.

I am firmly convinced that this describes the situation in especially the Western world today. This is our greatest single problem, greater than other problems: military problems, political problems, economic problems. The greatest is the social problem: the family problem, the disrupted homes, the fathers and children out of right relationship with one another. And unless we accept God's solution and turn back to God and meet His conditions, the result will be that a curse will settle upon the land.

In this Scripture that I have quoted, God places the primary responsibility for healing the situation upon the fathers. He says that He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. The hearts of the fathers have to turn first, then God says the children will turn back to their fathers. So, the primary responsibility is with the fathers. This is logical and in accordance with the principles of God's Word because the primary responsibility for the right order in the home, according to the Word of God, is placed very clearly upon the fathers.

That does not mean that mothers have no responsibility. Indeed, they have a great responsibility to stand with their husbands and to be the kind of wives and mothers that the family needs. But the initial and primary responsibility for the order of the home and the family is placed by God upon the fathers.