Weird Ideas: God's Son, Our LordSample

There’s another aspect to sonship worth noting in the Bible. Israel is called God’s son.

In some sense all people can think of themselves as children of God by virtue of being his creation. But as the story of Genesis tells it, God disinherited all people at the tower of Babel over their continued wickedness and rebellion. Yet just on its heels, God entered into a relationship with one man, Abram (aka Abraham), adopting him and his descendants as his own. And so when Abraham’s later descendants found themselves enslaved under the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt, God sent Moses to say, “Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go” (Exod 4:22-23).

This is important for understanding Jesus’s ministry. In the Gospel of Matthew we see Jesus reenacting Israel’s history. But unlike Israel, Jesus fulfills what Israel failed to. He stood in the place of Israel where Israel failed. He redefined true Israel in the wake of Israel rejecting him as God’s one and only Son. Jesus is the true Israel. Jesus is God’s “firstborn son.”

Through the people of Israel God sought to bring his blessing back to all people and enact his rescue plan for the world. Through Jesus he did.