Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And in Exodus chapter 1 we hear that this Pharaoh cursed the seed of Abraham. And as ever, the promise was set in motion: "Those that curse you will be cursed." Pharaoh said, "Every son who is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the river." But what Pharaoh did not realize was that he was dealing not merely with the sons of the Hebrews, but with the son of God.

This is why God tells Moses to say to Pharaoh, [4:22-23].

Israel is described as the firstborn son of God. What does it mean to be the son of God?

We could start in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image and likeness; what does it mean to be created in the image and likeness of God? (Genesis 5:1-3) Just as Adam was in the image of God, so Seth was in the image of Adam. Luke 3:38 traces the genealogy of Christ back to Adam, the son of God. We saw this morning how Paul connects "image" and "firstborn." To be in the image of God is to be the son of God. Adam is created in the image of God; therefore, Adam is created the son of God. 

In other words, Adam was created to look like God. Adam was created to be a reflection of the holiness and righteousness of God. God created him to participate in the fellowship and communion of the Trinity. And Adam's fellowship and communion with God was expressed in a covenant. Covenant is the expression of the relationship between father and son. Have you ever wondered why the covenant with Adam is expressed only in the negative? God tells Adam that in the day he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will surely die. Why didn't God say, that if you obey me you will live forever? He didn't need to. Adam was his son. The son is the image and likeness of the father. The son knows that he will receive the inheritance of his father. The covenant with Adam is implicit in his very relationship as son to father. If the son continues in the fellowship and communion of the father, then he will receive the inheritance. If he continues to reflect the father, then of course he will live forever! That is inherent in the relationship of father and son. God gives only a warning: if you break covenant--if you disobey me--in other words, if you fail to reflect my glory, then you will die. If you do not live like my son, then you will not receive the inheritance.

Or more precisely, you will inherit death from your new father, the devil. (Recall how Jesus spoke in this fashion to the Pharisees: You are of your father, the devil. Why did he say this? Because they were reflecting the devil in their lies.) And notice how in the curse that God proclaims he distinguishes between the seed of the woman and seed of the devil. You will either be a son of God or a son of Satan. 

God has not cast humanity away. Though his image in us is tarnished and we do not reflect the glory of God, yet in his grace and mercy, God has preserved a holy seed, in order to bring about redemption. Genesis 6 refers to this when it says in verse 2 that the sons of God began to intermarry with the daughters of men. Some have come up with fanciful interpretations that speak of angels intermarrying with humans, but this has no foundation in the word of God. Rather, chapter 5 has just told us that Adam's son Seth was in his image, just as he was in the image of God. Therefore we ought to see the godly line of Seth as the sons of God referred to in chapter 6. But the godly line--the sons of God themselves--are not reflecting the image of God. Therefore God brings judgment upon the wicked through the Flood, saving only Noah, the one who alone reflected the righteousness of God.

In this 'new creation' will Noah, the son of God, succeed where Adam failed? God makes a covenant with Noah in which he echoes the covenant of creation: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." Will Noah be a true son of the Father? You know the story. Noah fails just like Adam. And yet in God's mercy the holy line is continued until we come to Abraham.

Now Abraham is never called "the son of God." But the blessing God gives him in Genesis 12 is very clearly Abram's adoption. (Gen 12:1-3) God first removes him from his father's house, thereby establishing himself as Abram's father. Then he also promises Abraham an inheritance. Abram was the firstborn of Terah, and therefore would have expected to receive the blessing and birthright of the firstborn. But God calls Abram to be his son, and to look for an inheritance from Him. And as Paul tells us in Romans 4:13, this inheritance was not merely a piece of real estate in the Middle East, but consisted of the whole world. The fact that Paul says that Abraham was promised the inheritance of the whole world ought to convince us once and for all that Abraham is indeed a son of God. He is no longer merely the firstborn of Terah, he is now the firstborn son of God. 

But God wants to make it clear that HE is the one who chooses his own son. To be a firstborn according to the flesh is not sufficient. Abraham had a son before Isaac but Ishmael was born according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit. Therefore Isaac was chosen to continue the covenant blessing. Likewise, Isaac had two sons and Esau was the firstborn; but God chose Jacob to be His son. Indeed God renamed Jacob "Israel," which means "prince of God." And when God spoke through Moses to Pharaoh, saying "Israel is my son, my firstborn," He was claiming Jacob (and all who belonged to his house) as his son.

There is nothing that Israel did to earn or deserve this relationship. God did not choose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of their goodness. God chose them out of his mere good pleasure. And when God sent Moses to bring his people out of Egypt, it was not because of the righteousness of the Israelites. Rather, as Exodus 2:24 says: "So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." God remembered his promises. He remembered the covenant that he had made with his son. And now he called to Pharaoh: "Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me!" Israel cannot live like the son of God so long as he is in bondage. As long as the Israelites are slaves, they cannot serve God in the manner that he desires. Because a son is supposed to serve his father--not a foreign king.

Indeed, the service that God requires from his son is none other than the service of worship. If being in the image of God is to be the son of God, and if covenant is the relationship between father and son, then service/worship is the response of the son to the father. God calls Pharaoh to let Israel go, so that Israel may sacrifice to Him in the wilderness. The sticking point in the negotiations with Pharaoh always comes back to the fact that God demands that the whole of the congregation of Israel (not just the men) sacrifice to him in the wilderness (not in Egypt). Sure, it is plain to Pharaoh that Moses really intends to lead the Israelites out of Egypt never to return. But in all the negotiations, that is never explicitly stated. The whole point is that Israel is called to worship Yahweh, in the place and in the manner that Yahweh has determined; and so long as they serve Pharaoh they cannot serve God properly. The son of God cannot serve two masters.

But Pharaoh is given a choice: "But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn." The whole of the Exodus narrative is set up as a power contest between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt, with Pharaoh as their embodiment. Whose firstborn will die? The firstborn of Yahweh, or the firstborn of Pharaoh? To illustrate the deadly seriousness of this, and to remind the Israelites of their own covenant obligations, God uses Moses himself as the case study (4:24-31). Moses had failed to obey the covenant made with Abraham (Gen 17). He had failed to circumcise his firstborn, Gershom. And so God came to kill "him." (Gershom or Moses?) Moses had been called to be the covenant mediator, and he could hardly fill the role if he himself was a covenant-breaker. If Gershom had not been circumcised, Moses himself would have lost his firstborn son. This emphasis on the firstborn is poignant in Exodus: the whole point of the Passover is that those who do not have the blood on the doorposts of their house, will lose their firstborn. In Ex 13:2, as God gives them the regulations for the Passover, He tells them to "sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, Both of man and animal; it is Mine." The firstborn belongs to God. The firstborn of clean animals must be sacrificed, the firstborn of humans must be redeemed through a sacrifice. Ex 13:14-16 explains why: [read].

Indeed even our Lord himself, when he was born, had to be redeemed in this fashion. (Luke 2:22-24) Although he was the redeemer of all things, yet because he took the form of sinful flesh had to be redeemed. He did not need to be redeemed from sin--that is not the redemption of the firstborn! Rather, Jesus Christ himself came as the true son of God. He was all that Israel was supposed to be. And so he relived the whole of Israel's history. Hosea spoke of this when he said in Hosea 11:1, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." Hosea speaks first of the Exodus--how God called his son out of Egypt and brought him to the Promised Land. But Hosea goes on to speak of how Israel turned away from God and worshiped idols. Israel was the son of God, but like all sons of God before him, Israel turned away from the likeness of his heavenly father.

Matthew speaks of this in Matt 2:13-15. God tells Joseph to go to Egypt (like his namesake) in order to protect the holy seed. (Sound familiar?) This was done in order to fulfill what was spoken by Hosea: "Out of Egypt I called my son." If you look at the grammar of verse 15 you will discover that Matthew is doing something very interesting! On the one hand, it looks pretty straightforward. God calls Jesus to Egypt so that he call his Son out of Egypt, right? But that's not all. Where is Egypt? Look at what Herod does: he slaughters all the male children in the region of Bethlehem. Herod is Pharaoh. Jerusalem has become Egypt. Now the Exodus itself is reversed. Once again the world is turned upside down. In the days of Joseph Egypt turned into the land of life, And the Promised Land turned into the land of death. Matthew takes a text that plainly referred to Israel, "out of Egypt I called my son," and says that it is even more true of Jesus. Jesus is the true Israel. Therefore as the true Israel, as the true firstborn, Jesus himself had to receive the redemption of the firstborn, in order that he might succeed where Israel had failed.

In Galatians 3-4 Paul sets this forth plainly: 3:21-4:7. Paul portrays the whole history of redemption as a history of the son of God. The history of the Old Testament is the history of the son of God in his minority. Israel was the son of God-the true heir of God; but so long as he was a child, he was no better than a slave. The law was a pedagogue, a servant employed to discipline the children. But then in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman (the promise of the seed of the woman), born under the law so that he might redeem those under the law. He is the faithful son, the true Firstborn Son of God, who now has redeemed us that we might receive the adoption as sons. He is the embodiment of Israel, the son of God par excellence. Jesus is all that Israel was supposed to be. 

Therefore, all those who are baptized into Christ are sons of God through faith in him. You are Abraham's seed according to the promise. You have been adopted among the true sons of God. You have been grafted into the true vine. If Israel was the son of God in his minority, Jesus is the Son of God come of age. And if you are in Christ, then you are also come of age. All that Israel was supposed to be has come to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

As we move through Exodus and Deuteronomy we must keep this in mind. The New Testament portrays the life of the church as lived in the wilderness. Like the Israelites of old, we live between the great redemption from bondage and the full reception of the inheritance. We live in the wilderness. But unlike the Israelites of old, we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the risen Christ. Therefore we have the deposit of the inheritance already with us. Israel is my son, my firstborn; therefore I say, Let my son go! The firstborn son now sits at the right hand of God. And YOU have been seated with him in the heavenlies. Do you believe it?
 

Copyright © 2002 Peter J. Wallace