Firstborn sons have been significant people in most cultures throughout the ages. During our winter break last month my wife Melissa and I were overjoyed to have our firstborn son, Isaiah, born to us January 5th. Our first child before him, our daughter Melika, had just turned 18 months.
If one were to ask if there was a major theme or thread throughout Scripture, bringing it all together, many theologians would say it is the theme of covenant. The Old Testament is essentially a chronicling of the covenants that God made with all humanity (through Adam and Noah), then with Israel (through Abraham, Moses, and David), and perfected in the New Covenant (through Christ).
In the Old Testament God describes a firstborn son, even those “unloved,” as having true pride of place for a father as “the beginning of his strength” (Deut 21:17).
All sons were expected to “teach their children” (Deut 4:10) the stories of the religious experiences and covenants of their forefathers to the succeeding generations. However, as every man could have a firstborn son of his own, whether or not he was a firstborn, it was to the firstborns who were expected to be strong leaders for the family – their father’s “strength.”
Although my grandfather was not a firstborn son, my father was his firstborn son (of two), and I am my father’s firstborn son (of two), as is Isaiah my firstborn son.
According to the created order, Adam was the firstborn of “the sons of God” (Gen 6:2,4) who received and perpetuated the creation covenant. Yet, as Genesis 6 illustrates, even the sons of God could be tempted by “the daughters of men” – those who were not covenant keepers. To this point even the sons of God became corrupt, thus instigating the Flood story and initiating Noah’s Gentile covenant.
Due to the human tendency toward sin, as Scripture came to reveal, eventually Abraham and later Moses were called to establish the beginnings of a nationalistic covenant, whereby Israel would become God’s “firstborn” (Ex 4:22), redeemed according to the national order.
In this,
Why were daughters not their father’s “strength”? Here is where the “theology of the body” comes in, as Pope John Paul II called it, recognizing the biological differences between men and women and how that plays into marriage and procreation.
Speaking of the revealed truths within the creation story, Saint Paul gives us a basis for Christians understanding today. “I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. …[man] is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.”
“For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head [while in prayer]” (1 Cor 11:3,7-10).
This is not sexism! This is part of the theology of creation (not to be confused with Creationism). For Paul goes on to point out that, “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.” (vv.11-12).
Woman “becomes one with” her man and shares glory with him as she is only “fruitful” with him. Now think about what we know now about genetics today. It is dependant upon the man’s chromosomes to make a male child. Certainly the ancients did not know that, but they did recognize that man’s “seed” gave him a creative share in “the image and glory of God” from whom “all things originate.”
Sons thus perpetuate humanity by holding the glory of God within their DNA! Female fertility does not hold the essence of both sexes. Man is necessary to give male life as God gave man his life. And so Genesis says, “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.” (Gen 5:3).
Much later the prophet Zechariah prophesied of Christ, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zec 12:10). In the Old Testament firstborn sons, whether Adam or others after him, were imperfect prophetic types of Christ, the perfect Son of God who would offer His own life as a ransom for all.
Now, with Christ restoring humanity to its great dignity, Paul said, “For those whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). Thus, for men to follow Christ is to bring salvation to the world, as they not only bring their wives and daughters with them, but also their sons, and their grandchildren vicariously through them.
This says nothing to consecrated virgins, such as priests or the sisters and brothers within religious orders, whose gift of their fertility is offered to God (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:6-9). That is a different matter of “spiritual fatherhood” and “spiritual motherhood.”
In all humility, women share glory in participation with a male counterpart’s glory, whether a loving daughter to her loving father, a loving wife with her loving husband, or a loving Mother Superior with her loving bishop. Yet, as Paul pointed out, women are very integral to the whole design of humanity “for the man’s sake,” since without them, men cannot do their part to transmit life, whether natural or spiritual.
Thus, the Christian revelation of the “image and likeness of God,” as being a Trinity, has greater meaning on the human family since the New Covenant and the revelation of the Son of God. The Son reflects or speaks (logos) the loving glory of the Father, and the Holy Spirit communicates that bond of love, three in one. A wife reflects the loving glory of her husband, and a child(ren) is the fruit of their bond of love. Yet, this is an imperfect reflection or analogy, as humans are not gods, but reflections of His glory.
It is my prayer for Isaiah, my firstborn son, is that I am a good father for him, so that he can know how to seek God’s will in order to fulfill his personal calling, whether it is to be a natural father, passing on the glory of God within himself, or as spiritual father, teaching others to recognize the glory of God within humanity.
I also pray the same for my daughter Melika, my firstborn child, that I am a good father for her, that she can likewise know how to seek God’s will in order to fulfill her calling. All in God’s glory, Amen.