CAN GOD BE ALONE, OR AN HEIR, BUT AS A GROUP?

By Derrick Gillespie Gods nature is imaged in Man, even in how he is depicted as united and named by way of the head figure. True too is the fact that even when God is said to be or do something alone, this aloneness can be an exclusive group involved; not just one person. For instance, in Neh. 9:6, Is. 37:16, Is. 44:24, Ps. 83:18, Ps. 86:10, and Ps. 148:13, etc., Jehovah is said to be God alone, or he alone created all things, or he alone is called Lord or Jehovah, or he alone has an excellent name that is above all other names, and yet this description of aloneness is an exclusive group description for divinity. How so? While this description sets God apart from all idols and false gods of human devising, yet it does not cut off or distance Jesus, the Fathers TRUE Son, from either being called God in truest nature as well, neither does it deny that Jesus created all things too, nor does it deny he naturally inherited his Fathers own excellent name name of Lord or Jehovah which is above all other names (as all natural/true sons would rightfully do of their fathers). Thus aloneness can either be singularity of an individual or exclusiveness of a group headed by an individual. This principle is seen operating among men too in the same Bible. Isaiah 51:2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. Clearly Abraham was not literally alone, nor was all promises to him only literally applicable to him alone, but this aloneness was symbolic of family unity as an exclusive group!! Ez. 33:24 makes it plain, and is further amplified in Gal. 3:16, 29. This principle of group unity, yet depicted in a state of aloneness, i.e. as centered in one head person being representative of a GROUP, is all over the Scriptures. For instance in Deut. 33:28, Numbers 23:9, 10, 1 Chron. 29:1 (with 1 Chron. 28:2-6), Hosea 4:17, 18, a group of individuals are called him and are described by the word alone, and yet it does not involve only one person! Too many people get stumped by these realities in the Bible, and end up misunderstanding group unity in Scripture!! Even in extra-biblical Jewish literature this mode of thought among Israel is plain. Let me demonstrate conclusively that the Jews did see a family as if only one person or being (the head of the family, the male) was involved. In popular but extra-biblical Jewish literature called the Wisdom of Solomon, despite it is not inspired like the Bible, yet the following quote from it is quite eye opening about how Jews thought about Man, Emphases and inserts in brackets are mine: Wisdom of Solomon 10:1-7 She [wisdom] preserved the first formed father of the world [i.e.
Adam], that was created alone [despite united as one with his wife], and [wisdom] brought him

out of his fall [i.e. assured him/them of future redemption after his/their sin in Eden], And [wisdom] gave him [i.e. Adam, Eve and all men] power to rule all things. . [Later when] the earth being drowned with the flood, wisdom again preserved it, and directed the course of the righteous [i.e. Noah and family] in a piece of wood of small value. When the ungodly perished [in Sodom], she [wisdom] delivered the righteous man [i.e. Lot and his family], who fled from the fire which fell down upon the five cities [Sodom and neighboring ones]. Of whose wickedness even to this day the waste land that smoketh is a testimony, and plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness: and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of an unbelieving soul.

This collective or group language, as centered in/on the male or head figure (with the he or him denoting all persons involved, and both genders), is seen in the inspired Bible too, and so confirms the Jewish way of speaking. Here are just a few examples: Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man [i.e. Adam and Eve] is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he [Adam and Eve] put forth his hand [whether Adam or Eve], and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Gen 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him [Adam and Eve] forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he [both Adam and Eve] was taken. Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man [both Adam and Eve]; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man [i.e. all humanity], for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man [all humanity] upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling? Job 7:17 What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? Job 7:18 And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

With that principle now well established, lets now reason. Recently I read someone saying that God could not be an heir; only his Son can! The thing is though, this was just an opinion they expressed, which remains simply that (an opinion) in light of the clear words of the Bible below. But given the choice I will accept the Bible over anyones opinion any day. The Bible makes plain that Jehovah (the LORD) depicts himself with an inheritance, and hence he is an heir, when he makes plain: Deuteronomy 32:8-18 When the most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam [all of humanity], he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. This Old Testament passage is pregnant with several truths that have all been illuminated in light of the New Testament. Let me quickly itemize these. 1. First, it is clear that Jehovah does depict himself as an heir to his inheritance that is

Jacob, and hence the unfounded opinion of some that God cannot be depicted as an heir is proven to be lacking Biblical foundation.
2. It is clear that by Jacob, Jehovahs inheritance, the Bible is talking about the

PEOPLE of Israel; initially fleshly Israel, but ultimately all spiritual sons of God, i.e. both Jews and Gentiles born through Christ. See for proof Deut. 32:9; Gal. 3:16, 29; Rom. 9:6-8;Rom. 2:28,29
3. It is clear that in Deut. 32:8-18 God continues to use a certain language principle from

Adams creation at the beginning, i.e. in often referring to an entire GROUP of people as him, and he, and naming them by way of the head of the group. This principle was first seen in Gen. 1:26-28, in Gen. 3:22-24 and in Gen. 5:2, but is found all over the Scriptures thereafter, such as in Psalm 8:3-8 and in Deut. 32:8-18. It demonstrates a principle of communication many people have missed or ignored. Thus we see why God kept referring to the entire house of Jacob, or the entire nation of Israel, as him and he, even while he also refers to them as his people and as they.
4. It is clear God sees all the nations of the world as the sons of Adam (Deut.32:8),

since it is through one human father that all humanity has descended
5. It is clear that Jesus, the Son of God also has Jacob or the house of Israel as his

inheritance. See Heb. 1:2; John 16:15. In fact, Heb. 3:4, 6 makes plain that Jesus is not just owner of his own house, but he built it, in fulfillment of Zech. 6:12,13! More importantly, the language of Heb. 3: 4,6 is of such that it identifies Jesus as God in nature, because he not only built the house of Jacob that he himself owns, but in fact he himself built all things, as seen in Heb. 1:2.
6. It is clear in Heb. 3 that in uniting Jesus with the Father, who is identified as not just the

heir of the house of Jacob (Deut. 32:9), but also the originator and owner of

Jacob/Israel, the writer of Hebrews is continuing his theme started in Heb. 1, of plainly showing that Jesus is God in nature just like the Father. In Deut. 32, Moses makes plain that it is God who formed the house of Jacob, and it is that God who was their Rock. Lo and behold, in the New Testament, not only is Jesus identified as the Rock that followed and protected Israel (1 Cor. 10:1-5), but is identified as the Rock that actually formed all things (including Jacob/Israel), and hence owns them totally. This principle of the united heir-ship over and ownership of Israel by both the Father and Son is paralleled in God referring to all Israel as him.
7. Finally, it is clear that to God any god that did not create all things, or did not form

Israel, or is not his/their Rock is deemed a strange god or false god. This precisely explains why Jesus is deemed truly God in nature because he did create all things, he did form all Israel, and in fact Israel is his inheritance, just as the Father is depicted! Thus whenever God contrasted himself with false gods he never had Jesus in view, since Jesus is by nature truly God; despite not the Father in person. This perfectly explains why Thomas, a Jew, recognized Jesus as my Lord and my God (John 20:28, 29) along with the Father above. That also explains why Stephen, another Jew, prayed directly to Jesus in Acts 7:59, 60, even as he stands on the right hand of God in heaven (Acts 7:55-56), since Stephen (filled with Holy Ghost) fully understood the divine unity!! Those who declare otherwise about Jesus must ask themselves what spirit they are filled with, if they deny this Biblical truth. The unity of Jesus and the Father as God in nature is forever settled in heaven, just as the other salvation- based truth is; that the Father is the one true God, the Head of the family of divine beings in whose name we are baptized (Matt. 28:19). Amen!