The Why Men Cover
Hebrews 1:1-3 reveals something that is essential for the man to understand. It reads:
“In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at
many times and in various ways, (2) But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. (3) The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is the only person able to represent the Father in the earth. The point is made that Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things, but more importantly is the fact that everything was made through him. Then a revelation is shared for us to meditate on. The Son has the responsibility to sustain everything by the power of His word. In short, Jesus is the source of all creation. Because He is responsible for what He has created, He has the responsibility to sustain it.
This revelation cannot be overlooked by any man. Every man has the potential to be a father because the Bible reveals that ‘the life of anything is in the seed.’ This is why every created thing can reproduce after its kind. The conclusion must be made that the seed is in the man. Thus, the man is the source of every child born. The baby comes into this world through his or her mother, but the woman is not the source of the baby. Whether it still is the standard of today’s culture, there was a time when the mother of a child could have expected covering for both her and her child. Men accepted their responsibility as a husband and a father to take care of their family. It has always been the responsibility of the man to cover his wife and children. Even if the man and the woman were not married, the expectation remained the same—the man was still responsible for the child he was the source of.
We live in a culture today where men have forgotten their responsibility to cover. The devastating consequence of this reality is the absence of fathers in the lives of their children. The absence of the man in the context of the family has opened the door for the redefining of family, and a general shift in the perception of how much the man is needed. Manhood, as a whole, is being redefined while the role of the man is being questioned. We continue to witness generations of men who have no inward sense of their responsibility when it comes to being fathers. Everything that exists in this world comes from a source. There is nothing that exists without a source. The text used in this blog testifies of the fact that God takes this seriously. God, the Father, appointed His Son, Jesus, as the heir or the one responsible for all things. Also, it was made clear that there was an expectation that the Son would be responsible for sustaining the creation He was not responsible for. Jesus is the source of all things.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word, sustain has many meanings. It means ‘to give support.’ It also means ‘to supply with, or to nourish – understood as providing sustenance. It also is defined as ‘to support the weight of or to bear up under.’ The man is the foundation of the family, and as the source of everything, he is accountable to see that his wife and children are supported in a way that is acceptable to God and them. The relevant question for all today is how do we help men grasp the greater purpose for which they were created? If mothers and children rightly expect to be covered, then men must respond. However, they must not just respond because they are responsible for responding, but must respond because they realize they will be held accountable for their response. God created every man with the expectation that he would take care of his garden. Adam, the first man, was responsible for the Garden of Eden which included the woman, and ultimately their children. Let us pray that God will help us wake up a generation of men that covering is not just something they are expected to do, but rather something they were born to do.