Fathers in the Bible: Lamech – A Destiny-Shaping Father
Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” – Genesis 5:28-29
The next father we are spotlighting is the second Lamech in the Bible. This should not be confused with the first Lamech, who was the first recorded polygamist as well as the second murderer in the Bible (Genesis 4). The second Lamech, however, is the grandson of Enoch, or the firstborn of Methuselah.
Unlike his own father, Lamech did something unusual in his days that cemented his status among the notable fathers in the Bible, one that is worthy of a positive reference by bookmakers and our spotlight in this series on biblical characters. He demonstrated a sense of awareness that was not common in his days.
The first way he did was by defining the life and destiny of his son, Noah. While naming a child in accordance with the cultural or socioeconomic realities of the time was not a strange occurrence at that time, Lamech was the first person who decided to put the weight of redressing the economic ills of his era on his baby, Noah, by saying “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed” (Genesis 5:29, NIV).
Now, that sounds like a lot of pressure to put on a newborn, and Lamech might have taken some flak from family, friends and neighbors for putting such a weight on the shoulders of a new baby instead of taking on the responsibility himself. But then there lay his sense of awareness.
Lamech probably recognized his own limitations and the fact that he did not have what it takes to reverse the curse of the ground that God placed hundreds of years before him. A curse that was still raging and undoing all the hard work and labor of both men and women until that time. Knowing his limitations and aligning himself accordingly was in itself is a lesson worth taking onboard for everyone.
Secondly, Lamech also demonstrated his sense of awareness by acknowledging the devastating effects the curse was having on all humanity at that period. The thing is everybody else was obviously feeling the pangs of the hex, but he was not going to just let it slide as part of their lives. He wanted a change and wanted to have a hand in the transformation process. That was why he saddled his newborn son with the responsibility of being the one to reverse the curse and make life better for everyone else; thereby defining the destiny of the young boy, as soon as he was born, in the process.
Another lesson we can learn from Lamech was that, by so defining the destiny and life purpose of his son, Noah, and making it a public knowledge as he did at Noah’s christening, he also placed himself under pressure as a parent to ensure that Noah grew to fulfill his calling. That means, having charted the course of Noah’s life with his declaration, he, as the father, was also committing himself to raising Noah to be a man worthy of fulfilling the calling upon his life. An assignment he must have devoted 595 years of his life to accomplish.
The fact that Noah indeed lived up to the billing of his calling tells us that Lamech succeeded as a father. All parents can learn from that.
Selah!
Also read:
- Men in the Bible: Methuselah – A Man of Opposites
- The Ordinance of Firstborn (6): Common Factors Among the Firstborns that Thrived
- How to Amuse Yourself
- Everything You Have Done
- Prayer that God Will Grant Me Favour in the Eyes of the Examiner
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