A Theology of Adoption, Part Five

God’s Adoption of Israel

The Old Testament contains examples of, instructions for, and rebukes about the care of orphans. But the biggest indicator of God’s heart for adoption is in the language He uses to describe His adoption of the nation of Israel. In Deuteronomy 7:6, He declares that He has chosen Israel out of all the other nations on earth. In Psalm 89:26-27, He foretells, “‘He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ ‘I also shall make him My firstborn.’” In Jeremiah 3:19 He again repeats, “Then I said, ‘How I would set you among My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, 'You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’”

In Hosea 11:1 the metaphor goes even further: “When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” He goes on to speak of guiding the nation through its first steps, a loving description that reveals the deep paternal care God has for His people. “Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk…"(Hosea 11:3)

“By conceiving this relationship as adoption, God’s election of Israel, his beloved son, was emphasized. This, in turn, distinguished Israel as the people chosen by God over all other nations, and as the recipient of a desirable land for all generations of God’s bet-’ab [family] to enjoy. By identifying Israel as God’s child, the biblical writers wrote Israel into a sense of legitimacy, recognition, and inalienable inheritance.”1

Adoption is the hallmark of Israel’s identity; they are the ‘chosen people.’ Yet more importantly, it is a defining aspect of God. He seeks out the lost, the weak, and the defenseless. “I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.” (Hosea 11:3-4)

God is the loving Father who adopts His people, giving them an inheritance and a sustaining relationship. The Old Testament testifies to this again and again. And it is this loving Father who will send them His own Son, not to disinherit His adopted people, but to ensure their inheritance eternally.

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1. Janet L. R. Melnyk, “When Israel Was a Child: Ancient Near Eastern Adoption Formulas and the Relationship between God and Israel,” in History and Interpretation: Essays in Honor of John H. Hayes, ed. M. Patrick Graham, William P. Brown, and Jeffrey K. Kuan, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 173 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 259.