By his Spirit and by his Word, God created all things. But with human beings, he first spoke of his desire for us—wanting us to be like him and to do something with him. Here we get a first glimpse of how God is our Father. While Genesis does not directly call God our Father just because he created us, it does give a commentary on itself to indicate that a Father-son and a Father-daughter relationship was indeed his intention. Just as he made men and women in his image [Heb. tselem] and likeness [Heb. demuth], so God's Word speaks of Adam 'fathering' a son in his likeness [demuth] and image [tselem]—and 'fathering' daughters as well. The Torah gets more specific later, when Moses is addressing the people of Israel, telling them directly—both as individuals and as a nation (using both 'you' singular and ‘YOU’ plural [iii]—that God is their ‘Father’ because he ‘created' or ‘made’ them. And both the prophets Isaiah and Malachi repeat this truth.

But if human sons and daughters bear the DNA likeness of their mother as well as their father, shouldn't we also think of God as ‘Mother’ as well as ‘Father’. Yes, the Scriptures do occasionally speak of God as ‘like a mother’, yet the Bible never directly calls God 'Mother'. And when using a mother image, it seems that only a group of people is being 'mothered' in some way—like Israel as a nation or Jerusalem as a city (Num.11:12; Is.46:3-4, etc.). By contrast, the Bible frequently calls God, ‘Father’ in relation to individual human beings, as in three of the above passages. He is not just ‘like a father’. And in one of the texts we see that God is ‘our Father’ because he also is the One who ‘establishes’ us (Dt.32:6b). According to the Psalmist, he even maps out all the ‘days’ for each of us while we are still in our mother's womb.

Now, this does not mean we have no choices; for God created us to make choices. Yet even in our choices, he guides us. When he commissioned the first man and woman to multiply, spread out and ‘have dominion upon the earth’ in groups, he blessed them and instructed them (Gen.1:28-30; 2:18-24). He even made a stream flow out of his model  Garden in four directions—for them to follow into diverse geographic regions. When it comes to choosing good over evil, our Father planted two representative trees in the center of the Garden and gave his children a command and a warning concerning the consequence of making a bad choice (2:8-17). He also made it a practice of visiting with them, often enough that they knew when he was coming (3:8a).

After the Fall, God's fathering in this way did not stop; for we still bear his image [tselem] (Gen.9:6). Yes, human faithlessness did bring brokenness, sin and death into the world (Rom.6:12,17-18), but God never disowned or abandoned us. For he still considered all human beings ‘my children’ (Isa.45:11-12), even when they became ‘degenerate’ (Dt.32:5) or ‘lost’ ones (Lk.15:31-32 Med.#20). God as Father-Creator of ‘all’, according to the prophet Malachi, has each individual man and woman in mind based on the second Torah account of creation (Gen.2:7,22-24). And he does not consider himself to be Father only to Israel, or to people only in a collective sense. While he allows people to experience the consequences of their actions, he still comes to them: to confront, to explain things, to receive their worship, and to warn them about making further disastrous choices (Gen.3:9-21; 4:6-15). So before Jesus came, it was still possible to walk with God, and to work obediently with him to help him accomplish his purposes (Gen.5:22-24; 6:9-9:17; 12:1ff)—though many people, like Cain, have chosen to walk away from God's presence and rebel against him (Gen.4:16; 6:5-6; 11:2-4). Yet as our Father he is not far from any of his children (Act.17:26-28), ever ready to show mercy, to forgive and to ‘establish’ any repentant and obedient son or daughter (Med.#B).

Yet if human fatherhood is derived from God’s fatherhood, as is indicated in Genesis 5 (and in Eph.3, Med.#6), then God's plan as a Father to human beings might also involve a second stage—like when human sons and daughters ‘leave’ father and mother in order to become adult members of a society (Gen.2:24). Even so, human beings in their respective societies might be subject to divinely appointed guardians only for a time (Med.#C), until they too come of age in relation to their heavenly Father (Med.#4). In time, they actually might receive a new level of glory and honor with authority to rule over ‘all things’ (Med.#7).

Most Christian teachers have recognized the hints in the Torah about a future redemption in God's plan—through the ‘offspring of a woman’ and through a blood sacrifice (Gen.3:15,21). Yet very few seem to recognize the above hint about the second stage of adult sonship that our heavenly Father planned for us ‘from before the creation of the world’ (Med.#8). Why? Because, according to Paul, we need a revelation to see it, since God kept this part of his plan hidden for a long time (Med.#6). So while the Tanakh (Old Testament) gives some knowledge of God as our real Father, the full partnership in a restored family relationship is only revealed and made available through Jesus the Messiah.  

With precious thoughts and plans for me, (Ps.139:16-17)

You created me in your image and likeness. (Gen.1:27)

Father, I praise you for your greatness and your faithfulness. All your ways are just; you do no wrong. It is only we and other people who have acted corruptly. (Deut.32:3-6)

[i] As in many Christian translations of the Tanakh (Old Testament), the NRSV uses 'LORD' in caps to translate the Hebrew word YHWH.

[ii] When ‘'YOU' appears in caps, it indicates that the 2^nd person is plural in the original language (Hebrew or Greek).

[iii] This is difficult to see in modern English translations, since only in old English is there a distinction in the 2^nd person between singular and plural—where ‘thee’, ‘thou’ and ‘thine’ were singular, and ‘ye’, ‘you’ and ‘your’ were plural. Do ye thus requite the Lord… Is he not thy father… hath he not made thee and established thee (Dt. 32:6 KJV). While the individual meaning of this text is the primary focus of this meditation, the group meaning will be considered more fully in Meditation #C

[iv] Members can click on this link to a musical version of Psalm 139 composed by the author of these meditations..