10 Broken Families in the Bible (and Where God Was in Each One)

When your grown child stops calling, it is easy to believe your family is the only one that has ever broken like this. You look around church on Sunday morning and every family seems whole. You wonder what you did that no one else did.

Then you open your Bible, and you find broken families on nearly every page. The very first family split apart. Brothers betrayed brothers. Mothers were sent away. Fathers wept over sons they could not reach. God did not hide these stories. He put them in His Word so we would know we are not alone, and so we would see that He was present in every one of them.

Download the free printable chart to keep in your Bible or journal.

1. Adam and Eve: The First Broken Family

The first family on earth lost both sons in a single day. Abel was killed, and Cain was sent away as a restless wanderer. Before it happened, God came to Cain and warned him. Afterward, God came to him again with a question.

"Then the LORD said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?'"
Genesis 4:9

God did not abandon Adam and Eve in their grief. He gave them another son, Seth, and new hope through him.

2. Hagar: Sent Away

Hagar was rejected and sent into the wilderness with her son, Ishmael. She had no home, no family, and no one to defend her. But the God who sees found her there.

"So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, 'You are a God of seeing,' for she said, 'Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.'"
Genesis 16:13

3. Jacob and Esau: Twenty Years Apart

Betrayal divided these brothers, and they lived apart for about twenty years. Jacob spent those years afraid of what would happen if they ever met again. When the day came, it looked nothing like his fears.

"But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept."
Genesis 33:4

4. Joseph: Rejected by His Brothers

Joseph's own brothers sold him into slavery. He spent years as a slave and a prisoner, far from his father. Yet God was with him the whole time, and in the end Joseph forgave his brothers and his family was reunited.

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."
Genesis 50:20

5. Naomi: Empty and Bitter

Naomi lost her husband and both of her sons in a foreign land. She came home so heartbroken that she asked people to call her by a new name.

"She said to them, 'Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.'"
Ruth 1:20

Naomi was honest about her bitterness, and God did not turn away from her. He gave her a new family through Ruth, and a grandson in the line of David.

6. David and Absalom: A Father's Grief

Absalom killed his brother Amnon and fled. He spent five years in exile and distance, and after a brief reconciliation he rebelled against his father. When Absalom died, David's grief poured out.

"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
2 Samuel 18:33

Not every story in Scripture ends the way we long for. But God remained David's strength even in that grief.

7. The Prodigal Son: A Father Who Runs

Jesus told this story about a son who rejected his father, left home, and wasted everything. The father never stopped watching the road. When his son finally turned toward home, the father did something no dignified man of that day would do.

"And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him."
Luke 15:20

8. Jesus' Brothers: Misunderstood at Home

Even Jesus knew what it was like to be misunderstood by His own family. For years, His brothers did not believe in Him.

"For not even his brothers believed in him."
John 7:5

Later, after His resurrection, His brothers believed. James became a leader in the church in Jerusalem.

9. Paul, Barnabas, and Mark: A Painful Split

Paul refused to take Mark on a mission trip, and the disagreement split Paul and Barnabas apart. They served God separately for a time. Years later, Paul wrote these words about the young man he once refused.

"Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry."
2 Timothy 4:11

10. Job: A Long Season of Suffering

Job lost his children, his wealth, and his health. His friends misunderstood him, and he poured out his pain to God. Through a long season of suffering, God listened, and in the end He renewed Job's life.

"And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before."
Job 42:10

What These Families Teach Us

Every one of these families went through a rupture, a season of waiting, and a God who was present the whole time. Some stories ended in reunion. Some did not. But in every one of them, God was still working.

If you are in the waiting right now, you are in good company. Hagar waited in the wilderness. Jacob waited twenty years. Joseph waited in prison. The father of the prodigal waited at the window. God saw each of them, and He sees you too.

Print the chart and keep it in your Bible. On the days the silence feels loudest, pick one family and read their story. Ask God to show you where He was for them, and where He is for you today.

Robin Sampson is the author of When the Bond Breaks: Biblical Hope for Parents of Estranged Adult Children, now in final editing. Many of these families have a full chapter in the book. Read the free 46-page preview. Join our private Facebook group for parents of estranged adult children.