Jesus is our father

I've just seen another one!!!

I've been making a list of the places in the Bible which describe the Son of God, the Messiah, as the father of a new people. It is a profound theological point. He is our brother and in another way he is our father or ancestor. He is the new Adam after all for all who put their faith in him. Here is where I'm up to

1. Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

2. Isaiah 6:13
And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.
(This is part of remnant theology. If Christ is the true remnant of Israel, all new Israel is his progeny).

3. Isaiah 8:18
Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
(Hebrews 2:13 puts these words in Jesus' mouth)

4. Isaiah 50:1-2
Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.
(I think this verse is setting up God to bring the many from the one again!)

5. Isaiah 53:10
Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring (lit. seed) and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

6. Hebrews 2:13-15
And again, “I will put my trust in him.”
And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
(Jesus is both brother and father in this passage)

7. New Adam Typology / Remnant theology in the New Testament

8. (the one I just found) Jeremiah 33:22 (ASV - much more literal; NIV obscures this one)
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
(I think that the remarkable thing is that the seed of David and the new Levites are one in the same in Christ)

If Jesus is our ancestor ... this puts a profoundly new emphasis to the sometimes maligned word 'Christian' - one who belongs to and follows Christ. We are Christians not just because we follow him in faith and obedience but also because we come from him. We are his spiritual progeny after all.

The two halves of Isaiah

Standard Critical Approach (change in authorship)

Isaiah 1-39 written in the context of the Assyrian threat; Isaiah 40-66 written in the context of the Babylonian threat.

Standard Evangelical Approach (change in audience)

Isaiah 1-39 applied to those under the Assyrian threat; Isaiah 40-66 applied to those under the Babylonian threat.

My Problems with the Standard Evangelical Approach (no change in audience)

1. Surely the intended audience of chapter 1 is the same as that of the intended audience of chapter 66. They are engaged in the same types of sin; they are called to hear God's word and they both await the renewal of Jerusalem.

2. The hinge chapter, Isaiah 40, makes no reference to an exile whatsoever and no mention of Babylon. God returns to Jerusalem after their suffering. While other prophets focus on the movement of exiled people, Isaiah seems to focus on the renewal of Jerusalem.

3. While Babylon and the return from exile do feature in chapters 40-66 (albeit in a smaller way - see above), surely the message could still be for Isaiah's contemporaries to live in the light of God's future punishment and salvation.

4. Exile appears in Isaiah 1-39. (Is. 5:13) 'Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.' Return from exile also appears in Isaiah 1-39. Isaiah 35 paints the picture of the redeemed returning to Jerusalem.

4. There is no indicators in the text whatsoever that the intended audience has changed when you read Isaiah 40-66. It is just as future as passages like Isaiah 9, 11 and 35.

5. Surely the commendation of those who 'tremble at God's word', unlike everyone else who offer meaningless sacrifices (Isaiah 66), is a word to Isaiah's current generation? Or is it a word that only those who in the distant future have been exiled and now return to the land need to hear? I hope you can see that I don't think very highly of this convoluted standard evangelical position.