God's Firstborn Son

The sovereignty of God’s will is such a great mystery that it causes some people
to fear God — not simply to revere him, but actually to be afraid of
him. However, God’s people should never be afraid, because God’s sovereignty
includes our sonship. The reason God hardened Pharaoh’s heart was
to prove his love for his own children. God said to Moses, “Then say to
Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told
you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him
go; so I will kill your firstborn son’” (Exod. 4:22, 23).
These two verses disclose the very heart of the exodus. They explain
why God cared what happened to the Israelites, why out of all the nations
in the world he went to the trouble of rescuing them from slavery. They had
little to be proud of from a worldly point of view, and thus God seemingly
had little reason to save them. But Israel was the son of God’s choice. At
the very deepest spiritual level, the exodus is a story about sonship, about a
Father’s love for his only son. Israel’s deliverance is the true history of a
loving Father who rescued his children so they could be together as a family. Thus it is not simply a story of emancipation — the release of a slave
— but also of repatriation, the return of an only son to his father’s loving
care.4 Later, when God reminisced about the exodus, he said, “When Israel
was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11:1).
Israel’s status as God’s firstborn son explains why God had a quarrel
with Pharaoh. To Pharaoh the Hebrews were lowly slaves, but to God they
were beloved sons. Thus the problem with Pharaoh was not simply that he
was a slaveholder (although that was bad enough), but that he was preventing
God’s children from serving their Father. Instead of being free to call God
“Father,” the Israelites were forced to call Pharaoh “Master.” So in order to
reassert his claim on Israel, God said to Pharaoh, “Let my son go, so he
may worship [or serve] me” (Exod. 4:23a). God demanded that Israel be
released from Pharaoh’s bondage so that his son would be free to serve him
once again. More specifically, he wanted the worship of his firstborn son.
This is the grand theme of the exodus: God saving his sons from slavery so
that they could serve him.