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Laws of Sonship, part 4

The primary law of the Manchild is found in Deuteronomy 25. It is the little-known law regarding a childless widow and how her dead husband's brother was supposed to raise up the heir so that the deceased man would not lose his land inheritance. Deuteronomy 25:5-10 reads,

⁵ When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. ⁶ And it shall be that the first-born whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. ⁷ But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, “My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.” ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, “I do not desire to take her,” ⁹ then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, “Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.” ¹⁰ And in Israel his name shall be called, “The house of him whose sandal is removed.”

If a man died childless, having no heir to his inheritance, it was the duty of the man's brother to beget an heir through her in his brother's name. The son who was borne in this way was the legal son of the dead brother, even though he was the biological son of the living brother. There was also a specific order in this, as we see in the story of Ruth.

The Story of Ruth

In the story of Ruth, Elimelech and Naomi had moved from Judah to Moab, being forced to sell their property because a famine had put them in debt. Unless they were somehow able to redeem their land, they would have to remain off the land until the year of Jubilee.

Elimelech had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, both of whom married women from the land of Moab. Mahlon married Ruth, while Chilion married Orpah. Then both sons died, leaving no heir to the family inheritance back in the land of Judah. Naomi then returned to Judah, taking her two daughters in law. However, Orpah turned back, not wanting to leave her family. Only Ruth decided to go to Judah with Naomi.

One of Mahlon's kinsmen, Boaz, loved Ruth and would have married her right away, except that the first right of the kinsman belonged to a closer relative. So he explains to her in Ruth 3:12, 13,

¹² And now it is true I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I. ¹³ Remain this night, and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good; let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the LORD lives.

In the story, Boaz called the kinsman having the first right of redemption, and asked him if he wanted to redeem the property left by Elimelech. He did want to redeem it, but when he discovered that he would also have to marry Ruth, he decided against it. Josephus tells us in Antiquities of the Jews, V, ix, 4,

“Now about noon Boaz went down into the city, and gathered the senate together, and when he had sent for Ruth, he called for her kinsman also; and when he was come, he said, 'Dost thou not retain the inheritance of Elimelech and his sons?' He confessed that he did retain it, and that he did as he was permitted to do by the laws, because he was their nearest kinsman. Then said Boaz, 'Thou must not remember the laws by halves, but do everything according to them; for the wife of Mahlon is come hither, whom thou must marry, according to the law, in case thou wilt retain their fields.' So the man yielded up both the field and the wife to Boaz, who was himself of kin to those that were dead, as alleging that he had a wife already, and children also; so Boaz called the senate to witness, and bid the woman to loose his shoe and spit in his face, according to the law; and when this was done, Boaz married Ruth, and they had a son within a year's time.”

So we see that Boaz begat a son through Ruth. We read in Ruth 4:13 and 17,

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son…. ¹⁷ The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Obed was said to be Naomi’s son—not the son of Boaz. As I said, this was a matter of law, not biology. The law of God always trumps biology.

This story illustrates the Sonship law found in Deuteronomy 25, with which we are dealing. It is a prophetic law by which the Manchild is to be brought to birth.

Jesus is Our (Childless) Elder Brother

In Hebrews 2:11-15, we read that Jesus Christ is our elder brother:

¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹² saying, “I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Thy praise.” ¹³ And again, “I will put My trust in Him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.” ¹⁴ Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵ and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. ¹⁶ For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things ….

These verses show us that Jesus Christ came as a descendant of Abraham in order to have the lawful right of redemption to redeem His brethren of the House of Israel. More than this, however, Jesus Christ also came in flesh and blood—not clothing Himself with the nature of angels—to qualify as a near kinsman to all mankind, so that He might have the right to redeem all of mankind as well.

Raising Up Seed in Christ's Image

Jesus died childless. Jesus was not married, nor did He have any physical children. More importantly, He had no spiritual children in the fullest sense of the word. No one up to that time had come to full spiritual birth. There is a long list of Old Testament saints in Hebrews 11, but they all died without receiving the promise—which is the fulfillment of Tabernacles and the birth of the sons of God.

So we—Jesus' brethren—are called to raise up seed unto our elder brother, so that His name is not blotted out of Israel, so that He does not lose His inheritance in the earth. In the personal application of this law, our soul is the “woman” that must be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit in order to bring forth “Christ in you.” That holy Seed within you, having God as its Father, is perfect and cannot sin (1 John 3:9).

This Seed is, in fact, the real you. That Seed is what you are becoming. It is not of your Adamic flesh, because it is not a child of the flesh. This is best illustrated by observing the butterfly. It begins as a worm, or caterpillar, which wraps its entire body within a cocoon, except for its head, which soon dies and falls away. Yet by the process called “metamorphosis,” it is transformed into a living butterfly. In the same way, we have a living Seed within us that makes it possible for us to be transformed into a new creature.

Even as there is the seed of a butterfly within the body of a caterpillar, so also do we, as Christian believers, have within us the Seed of Christ. When this metamorphosis is complete, and the old Adamic head falls away, we will be birthed as a new creation in the image of Christ. In Romans 7 Paul makes the distinction between our flesh (the “worm”) and the spiritual Seed within us (the “butterfly”).

Paul makes a distinction between the man of sin within us, and the Righteous One in us. That Righteous One is begotten of God, so it cannot sin and does not want to sin. But there is presently an inner war between these two “men,” represented by the first Adam (the old man) and the last Adam (the new man).

There are only two men in the world—Adam and Christ. These are the heads of a distinct body of people. The children of the flesh, begotten by the seed of men and born naturally, are the body of Adam. The children of God, begotten by the Holy Spirit, are being formed as the body of Christ in His image. The first is slated for death; the last Adam is alive for ever.

Both of these men presently inhabit our bodies. They are two kings representing two kingdoms. They are portrayed figuratively in the two Jerusalems, old and new. The second is replacing the first, because the first was disqualified through sin and lost the inheritance. They each function according to different covenants—old and new. The Old Covenant attempts to reform Adam by teaching him how to behave righteously.

The New Covenant was given because of the failure of the Old Covenant to restore Adam to the place of righteousness. In the New Covenant, God makes demands upon Himself to do what Adam could not do. Through this New Covenant, He brings forth Christ in us, and we become the manifestation of that life-giving Spirit. These are the sons of God. Their biology or ethnicity is not a factor in determining who are and who are not sons of God. Remember that Boaz was not the legal father of Obed. The law overrules biology in this matter.