A Firstborn Son
God first appeared to Moses at the burning bush on Mount Horeb, in Midian, where Moses had been shepherding his father-in-law’s flocks. God instructed Moses to go back to Egypt and demand that Pharaoh free the enslaved Israelites. In fact, He told Moses exactly what to say: “Thus says the Lord: Israel is My firstborn son. Now I am telling you, let My son go and worship Me—and if you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn son” (Exod 4:22-23).
The threat had an obvious symmetry about it, firstborn son for firstborn son. But in what sense could Israel ever be thought to be God’s firstborn? To begin with, in what sense could God be said to have any sons? True, in Deuteronomy 14:1, Israel is so described: “You are sons of the Lord your God.” In context, however, this seems to mean, “You are particularly close to Me—so you don’t need to do the things that other peoples do to get their gods’ attention, gashing their flesh with knives or other forms of self-mutilation. You’re like a member of the family.”
Saying Israel is God’s firstborn has a somewhat different resonance. A father’s firstborn son was, in the biblical world, closest to him precisely because he was born first: he was second only to his father in rank and power (Gen 49:3) and he received a double portion in the sons’ inheritance (Deut 21:17). So in what sense could Israel be described as having been born first?
Certainly the very first human being was Adam; if any individual deserved to be called God’s firstborn, he was the one. From Adam and Eve the great tree of humanity sprang up and grew, though with not without some disturbances (most notably in the destruction of most of humanity in the great flood described in Genesis 7; the survivors, Noah and his family, constituted a new beginning—but Israel’s birth was still far off).
In fact, twenty-two generations separated Israel’s immediate ancestor Jacob from the time of Adam. Thus, contemplating the great tree of humanity, Israel could best be described as a little twig off a branch of a branch, one that included such predecessors as Abraham and Sarah, their sons Isaac and Ishmael—along with the other descendants of Abraham who were born after Sarah’s death—plus Isaac’s other son Esau, and only thereafter Jacob and his four wives/concubines. So by what right could this little twig be called God’s firstborn?
Numerous ancient interpreters wrestled with this problem. One unique solution (found in the book of Jubilees) held that Jacob was thought of first. When God created the world in six days and rested on the first Sabbath, He resolved as well to create a special people some time in the future—the only people on earth who would keep the Sabbath along with Him. Although its actual creation was still a long way off, the fact that God conceived of Israel in that first week of creation was, according to this interpretation, the reason why Israel could be considered God’s firstborn—and why Moses could be told to say to Pharaoh what God said in Exod 4:22.
There was, however, another explanation, and this one ultimately won the day. Israel was not born the firstborn; it only acquired this special status later on. Israel was upgraded to firstborn because it was uniquely under God’s immediate supervision. (This fact too mirrored family relations in ancient Israel: the father was often uniquely concerned with his firstborn’s doings, and sometimes delegated his firstborn to take care of the other sons.)
The great song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 asserts that when God was dividing up the earth among various nations, He took personal charge of Israel: “The Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment.” In practical terms, the governance of other nations might be given over to various heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars, but “The Lord took you and brought you out of Egypt—that iron smelting pot!—to be His own people, as is now the case” (Deut 4:19-20).
This last verse connect the time of Israel’s acquiring its special status with the exodus from Egypt. But there was another event in Israel’s history that was likewise connected by interpreters with Israel’s upgrade to firstborn status, namely, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. According to a well-known tradition, the Torah had been offered to other nations before Israel, but they all refused it. When Israel agreed to be governed by the Torah’s numerous laws, it became God’s firstborn “by dint of discipline.”
This theme was widespread among Jews in Second Temple times. For example, the book of Ben Sira asserts:
When He apportioned out all the nations of the earth, for each nation He established a [heavenly] ruler, but Israel is the Lord’s own portion, whom, being His firstborn son, He brought up with discipline. (Some mss. of Sir 17:17-18)
Like a firstborn son, Israel’s development was personally supervised by God. The word for discipline in Hebrew is musar, a word that carries its root meaning of “chasten” or “punish.” Indeed, elsewhere the Torah says that “Just as a father disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you”(Deut 8:5).
Here, then, is the full meaning of Israel’s firstborn status. Israel wasn’t born first, but it came to be called God’s firstborn because God had taken unique charge of this people, thereby upgrading it; indeed, God is sometimes said to punish Israel precisely because of this special status, “firstborn by dint of discipline.” Of course, when Moses went in to speak with Pharaoh for the first time, He probably did not have all these things in mind: the exodus had not yet taken place, and certainly the Sinai revelation was for off. Maybe that is why he doesn’t actually go before Pharaoh and say, “Thus says the Lord: Israel is My firstborn son” (see Exod 5:1). But later events were to make clear that this assertion was nonetheless true.
Shabbat shalom!
