Chapter 1: The Sons of God

According to Ferrar Fenton, the fourth speech of Moses begins in Deut. 14:1 and ends in 16:17. He entitles it, “Laws against Sins and Self-degradation.” As the first verse indicates, these are the laws revealing the actions of the Sons of God.

Moses’ Thesis is Sonship

With this speech, Moses begins to comment on the particular statutes that define the Ten Commandments given in Deuteronomy 5. These are not merely commands that tell the people how to live, but actually defines the laws by which the sons of God will live, as God writes those laws upon their hearts.

He begins his speech in Deut. 14:1 and 2 with a thesis statement about Sonship:

¹ You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead [ban ayin, “between eyes”] for the sake of the dead. ² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Moses usually refers to the Israelites as “the children of Israel,” but this time he opens his speech with the unusual statement that they are “the sons of the Lord your God.” In fact, this is the first and only time that this exact phrase is used in the entire Bible.

Israel, God’s First-born

One of the original revelations that God gave to Moses is found in Exodus 4:22,

²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Israel is My son, My first-born’.”

Moses spoke of this relationship sparingly, for its meaning and significance remained yet unclear until more time had passed. Given Israel’s history, it is clear that God’s children were yet unruly, undisciplined, and spiritually immature. Only time would reveal how God would deal with such rebellious children.

Another phrase comparable to this is “the sons of God,” which is used of the counterfeits in Genesis 6:2 and later to the “sons of God” who presented themselves to God along with Satan in Job 1:6 and 2:1. It is also a poetic reference to the star constellations in Job 38:7.

Fleshly Israelites are Children of Harlotry

Hosea 1:10 speaks of the day when “the sons of Israel” will be called “the sons of the living God.” Later, in Hosea 11:1 we find that the prophet was very familiar with the Mosaic revelation of Sonship, for he prophesies,

¹ When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

Hosea’s prophecy of Sonship is based upon Moses’ statement in Exodus 4:22 and again in Deut. 14:1, stating that the Israelites were to become “sons of the Lord your God.” However, the prophet was foreseeing Israel under the New Covenant. The current situation in his day was quite different. The prophet tells us that God would divorce His wife (Israel) in 2:2 and disinherit His children (the Israelites) in 2:4 “because they are the children of harlotry.”

In other words, Israel in his day was a harlot committing adultery with other gods. Such is the nature of the flesh, which traces its genealogy, or “sonship,” from the Adam, the old man. Apart from genuine faith, such people were false sons of God, illegitimate children in the eyes of God.

And so, Hosea prophesies that these carnal Israelites would become Lo-ammi, “not My people,” but at the same time he prophesies in the end they would again become Ammi, “My people.” The prophet foresees the day that they would again be called “sons of the living God,” this time being genuine sons, tracing their spiritual genealogy to God through the Holy Spirit, who alone can beget Christ in anyone.

John Shows the Path to Sonship

Hosea says that at that time, they would “appoint for themselves one leader” (1:11), whom John later interprets to be Jesus Christ. In order to become the sons of God, one would have to receive Him and believe in Him. John 1:12 says,

¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born not of blood(line), nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John makes it clear that these sons of God will not qualify apart from faith in Jesus Christ. They are deluded if they think that this promise of Sonship is based upon bloodline or the will of the flesh or the will of man. We also know from Isaiah 56 that many foreigners, or non-Israelites, were to be regathered with Israel in that day, for His house was to be called “a house of prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). Eunuchs, too, were to be given “a name better than that of sons and daughters” (Isaiah 56:5).

We see, then, that Moses’ simple revelation of Sonship was to be expanded by the prophets and fully explained in the gospels. The sons of God were not limited to a particular bloodline or genealogy, for Sonship was to be obtained by faith, according to the will of God. If a full-blooded Israelite thought he was a son of God by natural birth, he deceived himself, for he was only a child of the flesh apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

First the Natural, then the Spiritual

When God redeemed Israel from the house of bondage, they became sons of God only because they kept the Passover, which typified faith in the blood of the Passover Lamb (that is, Christ). The problem is that in generations to come, the unbelievers came to outnumber the true believers by far. Those unbelievers, regardless of their genealogy, were children of harlotry, not sons of God.

God knew this, and yet He gave the flesh the first opportunity to become the sons of God. This was the purpose of the Old Covenant, where men vowed obedience to God. Their resolve was tested in real life to see if the flesh could fulfill its vow of good intentions despite its mortal weakness inherited from Adam.

God knew they would fail, of course, and so He revealed to them a second covenant in the book of Deuteronomy, which later came to be called a “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31). It is clear today that only through this new covenant can anyone attain genuine Sonship. Thus, the divine plan is summarized by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:46,

⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

In Deut. 14:2 Moses calls Israel “a holy people.” The term does not refer to personal perfection, but to the fact that they were separated and called to divine service. They were “His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth,” because He had redeemed them from the house of slavery in Egypt. God had purchased a slave from Pharaoh, and therefore Israel was “His own possession.”

This statement primarily reflected Israel’s responsibility, rather than privilege. While their relationship with God gave them an increased level of authority in the earth, they were not given the privilege to sin with immunity. They were responsible to be obedient to God as good slaves, because as long as they were spiritually immature, they did not differ from slaves, even though they were sons. Paul makes this clear in Galatians 4:1.

Hence, under Moses, the Israelites were called “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), because they all expressed their faith in the blood of the Lamb as they came out of Egypt. In the wilderness they were sons-in-training, being educated in the laws and ways of God so that they could take on their responsibilities as full and mature sons of God. The unbelievers among them in that generation and in generations yet to come will come eventually to a place of faith when every knee bows at the Great White Throne Judgment (Phil. 2:10).

Further, all must mature through Pentecost and come to full maturity through the feast of Tabernacles. At the Great White Throne, many believers will see their works burned by the fiery law (1 Cor. 3:15). In some manner not fully known, even they will have to be brought to spiritual maturity in order to receive their full inheritance.

The Priestly Nation

So Moses tells Israel that they have been called out of Egypt as sons of God. They were separated from their familiar surroundings and sent to God’s boarding school in order to learn how to minister to other nations as a priestly nation. In learning the laws and ways of God, they could then teach all nations and bring them all into the same relationship as sons of God. As a nation, they were to embody the small beginning of the divine plan that was to end only when the whole earth was filled with His glory (Num. 14:21).

Israel’s call, then, was never meant to imply exclusivity. As believers, they were certainly the exclusive recipients of the divine inheritance at the time, but even a large “mixed multitude” left Egypt with them and became citizens of the nation of Israel. All of them, regardless of genealogy, were part of that priestly nation. All of them were called to intercede for the other nations and manifest Christ to them, in order that all nations might enter into Israel’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

God did not begin by calling everyone. He started with one man, Abraham, and later with one nation, Israel. To them were added people of other nations, a few in Old Testament times, and in greater numbers after the day of Pentecost. Yet God had no double standards, one for Israel and one for other nations. So when they fell into idolatry, they were judged and treated as the idolaters of other nations, for they did not have the privilege of sinning with immunity.

Nonetheless, God had a will and plan that could not be thwarted, so He made a way for all men to attain or regain citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. The path is the same for all men—faith in Jesus Christ.

How to Treat the Body of Christ

Deut. 14:1 says,

¹ … You shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead [Ferrar Fenton says “eyebrows”] for the sake of the dead.

In those days the people did such things to mourn the deaths of their fathers. Slaves were expected to cut themselves or shave to mourn the death of their masters. But because the Israelites were the sons of God as well as His slaves, they were to change this cultural practice.

In effect, they were testifying to all nations that their Father and Master was an immortal God. They were testifying that their earthly fathers were not their real fathers, nor were their earthly masters their real masters. Hence, they could never mourn the loss of their Heavenly Father and Master.

This law stood as a testimony to all nations of their relationship with the Creator of the Universe. They did not own themselves, for they had been purchased by God from their Egyptian masters. Therefore, as God’s slaves, they did not have the right to be free from God or to act in ways that God forbade. Hence, Deut. 14:2 says,

² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

In other words, Israel was owned by God, for He set them aside for His own purpose. The Hebrew word for “face” is paniym, which also means “presence.” The sons of God were to be known for their resemblance to their heavenly Father. The word picture is of a son having the “face” of his father. Moses distinguishes the sons of God from all others, whose faces reflect the earthly image of Adam, rather than the heavenly image of Christ.

So he speaks of “all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” These are the ones who reflect the face (presence) of the first Adam, whose name means “earthy,” as Paul acknowledges in 1 Cor. 15:47,

⁴⁷ The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

The principle behind the law in Deut. 14:1, 2 tells us that we should not abuse the body of Christ, nor should we treat it as an unholy thing. Because our individual bodies are temples of God, housing His presence, we ought not to desecrate it. We do not own ourselves, so we have no right to identify ourselves (our faces) in ways that bring dishonor to our heavenly Father.

The face of the body of Christ should have the mark of God upon it. That mark is seen in the face of Moses when he was transfigured on the mount in Exodus 34:29. The same mark was seen in the face of Jesus when He was transfigured on the mount in Matt. 17:2. Commenting on these facial changes, Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 3:18,

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

The transformed face is the mark of the sons of God, manifested openly to all when they fully experience the feast of Tabernacles. At the present time, that glory is veiled, but we are not to associate the face of God’s glory with any celebration of death. The face of God is full of life and glory, where death has no place.

So let us always reflect the face of God in our face, knowing that we bear the image of Christ in our face.