In a previous meditation, we saw how the Torah identifies God as a Father to Israel because he created them (Med.#A), as he promised Abraham he would do. Yet the Torah also says God ‘made’ the other nations too. So, at least as their Creator, God is the Father of all nations. But God is also a Father to all nations in a second way. When he gives each nation a bounded territory to live in, the Torah uses family language and calls this an ‘inheritance’. And the prophet Jeremiah seems to confirm this. When God gives a ‘land’ [Heb. erets] to Israel as a ‘heritage’, he is ‘setting’ them ‘among’ his other ‘children’—the other nations.

At the same time, God is a Father to Israel in a third way that is unique. While placing each of the other nations under the guardianship of ‘a heavenly being’, he establishes a direct relationship with Israel by ‘calling’ them out of Egypt into a place of honor as his Eldest Son among his other ‘children’. So Israel's special relationship with God as Father had to do with their calling. A later nationalistic view of God as only a Father to their nation (Is.63:16,19) is contradicted by both Jeremiah (3:19) and by Isaiah (45:9-23, Med.#E)

This Eldest Brother role, though, involves more than a special position. It implies, fourthly, a Father-son relationship that is to be characterized by both intimacy and family responsibility. On the one hand, the people of Israel have a Father: who is ‘present’ among them. He frequently speaks to them, and he experiences their distresses with them. On the other hand, both when he speaks to them as a unit (with the singular ‘you’), or as individual members of this 'holy nation' (with the plural ‘YOU’), he expects them to  to ‘be holy’ like he is (Ex.19:6; Lev.11:45)[ii]—by obeying his voice and keeping his covenant as a ‘kingdom of priests’ among all the other ‘nations.[iii] Each one is responsible to remember what their forefathers saw him do in Egypt and during the wilderness years of hardship—how he as a father ‘carried’ them and lovingly disciplined them (Med.#B).

From Israel’s experience we all can learn, fifthly, that sin is not just about individual guilt, but also about family shame. Israel’s relationship with God as Father involved a responsibility to honor his ‘holy (family) name’ among the nations. Yet sadly, their ‘conduct’ brought ‘shame’ to his name instead. While people from Western cultures don’t always get this, those from group-oriented societies do. No doubt they also find it easier to understand why the first line of the Lord’s ‘family’ Prayer is: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy’ (Med.#13).

In group-oriented cultures, sons and daughters who dishonor the family name must be sent away. And this is what God eventually does with Israel. But first he gets angry with them and disciplines them. Yet instead of asking why their Father might be angry, the Israelites, as a nation (‘you’), just get annoyed with him for ‘always’ getting angry. Like some modernist theologians in the early 20^th century, they began to think of God as an indulgent Father. For even when they are dishonoring the family name and defiling the land he gave them by their evil behavior, they think he should just be loyal and nice to them—like a ‘long-time friend’.

People of other nations often make a similar mistake when they read about God’s anger in the Bible. They picture him as a tyrannical cosmic ruler, or like the distant, angry father figures they grew up with, even though he is a Father who neither gets angry quickly, nor stays angry for long (Med.#B). And unlike fathers in many honor-and-shame cultures, he never disowns Israel. Even when he sends Israel away, he continues to love ‘him’ as a ‘son’; and Ephraim—a leading tribe during the early days of Israel—he still considers to be a ‘firstborn’ ‘son’.[iv] Yet when he brings one group of Israelites back to the land he gave to their forefathers, he does so ‘for the sake of his holy (family) name’, not merely out of a legal obligation! So through Israel we learn, sixthly, that our Father is more like a committed and caring ‘shepherd’ than an earthly ruler (Jer.31:9-10). . 

A final lesson all nations can learn from Israel is that a nation’s territory isn't about ownership. Yes, the ‘land’ [Heb. erets] that God as a Father gives to each nation is referred to as ‘their inheritance’. However, even for Israel, it is only given on trust for a ‘time’ (Acts 17:26). All ‘the land’ [erets] on earth belongs to God (Lev.25:23), and he can take it away anytime (Jer.27:5-7). Or give it back. Further, earthly territory is only a ‘little thing’ in comparison to a greater family-kingdom ‘inheritance’ that our Father—even before the creation of the world—had prepared for all nations (Mat.25:31-34, Med.#89; Lk.16:10-12), including Israel. Being given a territory, like living under the guardianship of a ‘heavenly being’ (Dt.32:8), only represents the first stage in a nation's relationship to God as Father. For even Israel, the nation that God calls his ‘firstborn son’, was only a ‘child’ when he brought him out of Egypt and into the promised land  (Hos.11:1-2). The ‘blessing’ promised to Abraham for all nations, according to Paul, is about an adult ‘inheritance’. And this inheritance that is greater than a bounded territory, will only come to people of all nations, beginning with Israel, through a unique ‘offspring’ of Abraham: the Messiah (Med.#4, Med.#30 & Med.#89).

So while the people of Israel never had an exclusive claim on God as their Father, their unique calling and ongoing relationship with him as his ‘firstborn’ nation remains an important witness about the ways that God has chosen to relate to human societies—to families, tribes and nations—as a Father. In the next meditations from the Tenakh (Med.#D & Med.#E) we will see that our Father who does not give up easily on any of his rebellious and ‘lost’ children.

Father, thank you for not disowning Israel, even when they brought shame to your name. Your mercy to them reveals your desire to show mercy to all peoples. [Ezk.36:19-28; Rom.11:31-32]

And we bless your ‘firstborn’ nation; for, as the first to hope in the Messiah, they shared with all nations the blessings of the Spirit—who is the deposit on the full inheritance you planned for all nations. [Ex.4:22; Eph.1:11-14; Rom.15:27b; Mat.25:31-34 RSV].

How rich the depth of your wisdom, how untraceable your ways! All things are from you, through you and to you, Father of all—the One over all, through all and in all. [Rom.11:33,36; Eph.4:6]

[i] ‘YOU’ in caps indicates when the 2^nd person in the original text is plural and members of a group are being addressed. A lower case  ‘you’ indicates when the 2^nd person form is singular and an individual person, tribe or nation is being addressed as a single unit.

[ii] As Jesus will later point out to a group of Judeans, being a child of God is not just about a family identity or a position, but about behaving like a son or daughter—about obedience and ‘doing what your Father does’ (Jn.8:37-44, Med.#64).

[iii] The priestly role of Israel among the nations is like that of the Levites among the other tribes of Israel. See 1 Kings 8:41-43.

[iv] This text in Jeremiah 31 shows us that God is also a Father to ‘clans’ and tribes, not just to individuals and nations (See also Rev.7:4,8; 14:1, Med.#90, where Ephraim and Manasseh—the two tribes descended from Joseph—are reunited as ‘the tribe of Joseph’).