We are in chapter fifteen of Exodus with our word for today which is a phrase. אֱלֹהֵ֥י אָבִ֖י God of my father. It is used 6 times in the Old Testament. Let’s look at these uses. Genesis 31:4-7 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, וֵֽאלֹהֵ֣י אָבִ֔י but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. Notice the contrast between Rachel’s father and the God of my father. Rachel’s father cheated Jacob whereas God or the God of Jacob’s father which would be Isaac prospered him. This is a good reminder that human father’s will fail us but God our father will not. Later Jacob confronts his father in law of his evil against him and makes reference to our phrase. Genesis 31:42 If the אֱלֹהֵ֣י אָבִי֩ God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. Jacob will also use our phrase at the end of his life in prayer. Genesis 32:9-10 Then Jacob prayed, אֱלֹהֵי֙ אָבִ֣י “O God of my father Abraham, וֵאלֹהֵ֖י אָבִ֣י God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. In the song of worship after God saves the Israelites by destroying the Egyptian army in the Red Sea we find our phrase used. Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, אֱלֹהֵ֥י אָבִ֖י my father's God, and I will exalt him. This amazing power of God displayed in our chapter was so impressive that Moses named one of his sons after what God had done. Exodus 18:3-4 One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”; and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, אֱלֹהֵ֤י אָבִי֙ “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.” Our phrase shows us how important it is to pass one’s faith on to the next generation. But what I also find interesting is that God uses the concept of father to identify himself. We see Jesus referring to God as father. John 5:17-18 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The good news is that through the salvation that Jesus accomplished for us we also can be reconnected to God our father. We see the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul to the Christians in Ephesus referring not only to God as the father of Jesus but also as our father as well. Ephesians 1:2-3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Jesus even called us brothers making this connection stronger that we have a heavenly father who has saved us and loves us and brings us to his side. Hebrews 2:11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. I’ll close with the model prayer that Jesus taught his followers to pray usually called the Lord’s prayer. Notice how it starts. Matthew 5:9-13 This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
