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The Eternal Fatherhood of God
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“Here boy. Here’s a rock. This will make a man out of you. Here.”
“Yeah, but daddy I’m hungry. I’d like some bread.”
“Rock! That’s what you’re getting. Rock.”
“Yeah, but I want bread.”
“Yeah, but I know better. I know you’re hungry, and you think you want some bread, but I know
better than you what you need. You need a rock.”
Why did Jesus say this? Because there are so many millions of ignorant folks trying to tell us we
don’t have enough sense to know we need bread when we’re hungry for bread. There are folks
with education telling us God sometimes gives you a rock, and you just never know why. But if
you get rock, you just have to make rock stew. Do the best you can with what you have to work
with because God in His sovereignty and vast understanding has chosen to give you a rock.
Everybody knew and thought you wanted bread, but God just knows better.
Millions of Christians believe that sometimes God gives you rocks, and they have all these
sayings. “Sometimes the Lord gives you lemons, so you just make lemonade.” That isn’t a
scripture. There’s no verse in there about making lemonade. Or they say, “Sometimes you pray
for money to pay your bills, and God just gives you more bills because He’s teaching you
something.” No. If a son asks his daddy for some bread, and he’s hungry and needs some bread,
will a good daddy give him a rock? No!
Verse 10 says, “Or if he asks [him for] a fish, will he give him a serpent?” The dad says, “No
boy, a snake is what you need. I know you like fish, and I know you’re hungry for fish, and I
know you think you want a fish, but I’m your daddy. And I know that what you really need is a
snake, so here is a snake boy. It will make a man out of you.”
Now this is humorous, but religion is telling myriads of Christians that God is giving us rocks
and He’s giving us snakes, and we don’t know why, but by and by, we’ll learn all about it if we
don’t die first. I mean, eating rocks and handling snakes is rough business. You may not last long
enough to learn anything, right?
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. There are millions of Christians who are eating gravel in
life, and they are experiencing one thing after another that is biting them, stinging them, and
hurting them. They have dust and gravel in their mouths, and their preachers are telling them,
“God has given it to you. Just be strong and eat your gravel. Just be strong and be thankful for
your snake.”
People are being told this, but Jesus never said such a thing. He taught us, talking about a natural
man and his natural son. If the son asks him for bread, is he going to give him a rock? No, he is
not. If he asks him for a fish, is he going to give him a snake? No, he is not.