Relating To Our Lord #2

RESTORING THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

Q.   Would you mind sharing your knowledge of God's word on just how we relate to Jesus during the time we are living? I believe conservative Christians avoid being a cult type "Jesus person" and avoid Him completely except for a closing to prayers. Do we only talk thru Him as our mediator or do we also talk to Him directly? I don't want to ignore Him but I don't want to assume a relationship that is in any way disrespectful. - JWW. - - answer page #2

Concerning the Babylonian captivity, the OT prophet Jeremiah had prophesied, “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (3:22). God’s desire for Israel is “Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me” (3:19). However, it was not long after the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity that they were set on returning to their former pattern of forsaking God and forgetting they were supposed to be God’s children. According to Malachi, this included their still not honoring the fatherhood of God. “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?” (Malachi 1:6).

Flash forward to the time of the 4 gospels. “Elias [John the Baptist] truly shall first come, and restore all things” (Matthew 17:11). What does this mean? In what way did John the Baptist “restore all things”? Was it an earthly reign or repentance? It was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2).

Restoring All Things. John’s preaching of repentance then is equivalent to calling for a “restoration” of the righteousness of God. Jesus said that obeying John’s commands were “doing the right thing” (Matthew 3:15, ESV). Would not restoring the right things include restoring honor to God as “Our Father” as prophesied by Jeremiah: “Thou shalt call me, My Father.”

Indeed, "Father" was Jesus’s favorite term for addressing God. It appears on his lips some sixty-five times in the Synoptic Gospels and over one hundred times in John.

What About “Our Daddy”? Joachim Jeremiasⁱ, a German Lutheran theologian, concluded in his writings a few decades ago, that Jesus introduced the “daddy” idea when He used the Aramaic word “Abba” (in the Garden of Gethsemane). His idea was that God could now familiarly be referred to as “Daddy”; i.e., “Dear Daddy.” He claimed that it was a “new (intimate) relationship” of God that opened the doors to God’s reign [Kingdom] in a new age.ⁱⁱ

But Abba did not mean “Daddy.” During the 1960’s Abba was thought to be the language of a child and not an adult. Therefore, Joachim’s misunderstanding. This has since been proven to be false; adults used this Aramaic term Abba when addressing their parent with respect. Jesus is quoted as using two terms in the Garden of Gethsemane; i.e., the Aramaic Abba and the Greek Pater (Mark 14:36). The Jewish populace spoke both Aramaic and Greekⁱⁱⁱ. So then a Jew could say both “Abba” and “Pater” as is recorded for Jesus and as Paul later uses^iv.^v

The “Fatherhood of God” is not unique to the NT.^vi It was not a new revelation. In the OT, Jehovah is addressed in many forms and the family relationship is one of them.^vii Although the specific term “father” is applied to God only a few times in the OT, yet the times are significant.

“Father” As A Metaphor. It is not that God is identified as male.^viii He is not flesh but Spirit (John 4:24). He created both male and female in His image. “When God is referred as a father, this is simply the use of a metaphor in which he is like a kind and loving father.”^ix God is described by many metaphors; e.g., He is metaphorically pictured as that of a mother caring for her children (Isaiah 46:3) as is also seen in the word “compassion” (a word that means “in the womb”, Jeremiah 31:20). This metaphor is used in the expressions “conceiving these people” (Numbers 11:12a) and “giving birth to Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:18). God’s parental love is shown in His acts of feeding, clothing and protecting His people (Deuteronomy 29:4-5). Even in the NT Jesus uses the metaphor of a hen and her chickens for God’s love in Matthew 23:37. But “Father” is obviously the metaphor of choice for addressing God.

Examples Of God’s Fatherhood in the OT.

To Pharaoh, Israel is proclaimed to be God’s firstborn son (Exodus 4:22).

“Do you thus requite the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you” (Deuternomy 32: 6). Deuteronomy is an appeal to Israel to love Jehovah and respond to Him as a son to a father (Deuteronomy 30:6,20).

“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation” (Psalm 68:5).

“With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and E'phraim is my first-born” (Jeremiah 31:9).

What is later assigned to Jesus in the NT as “my son” (Matthew 2:15) was originally applied by God’s call for Israel in Egypt (Hosea 11:1-4).

OT Prayers:

“He [David] shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation” (Psalm 89:26).

“For thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer from of old is thy name” (Isaiah 63:16).

“Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

Restoration of God as Father. Rather than teaching a new revelation then, Jesus was restoring a “treasure” of the Old. Jesus was not giving a new doctrine to the first century “backslidden” Jews but was restoring God’s love and forgiveness as a “father” and calling upon them to repent and honor Him as their Father (e.g., in sermon on the mount). Hosea prophesied that God will accept those that were no longer His people (1:9) as “sons of the living God” (1:10). They will be recipients of the new covenant (2:18-23).

- Gaylon West

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