God's Plan For Man Final

Chapter 2

The Heritage of Mankind

Supremacy of the Father Throughout the scriptures and biblical history, people of the past, like most people today, have always been in awe of God, wondering if they were subject to God’s wrath. They expected God’s wrath to always come upon them/us, perhaps like an angry father who abuses, yet they respected God all the same. When making references to God, they said, “Blessed be His name,” wondering, but not knowing the name of God. They had ideas about God, but seldom referred to God as a father. However, intuitively or perhaps from an awareness that since Adam was created first, man was the head of the family; thus, special respect was always given to the father. The seed of humanity coming forth from the father had a very special significance. This is not to discount the woman or mother, from whom humanity is born. In the beginning, unlike today, there was no contention for dominance. Special emphasis was placed on the father and the son(s) for a Divine reason. All humans wondered about a supreme being, but the Hebrews were clearly concerned about God and the lineage of their ancestry, which depicted one God above all other false gods. They must have been stunned when Jesus proclaimed God as His Father in the second time, but the emphasis was always on the father and the significance of that lineage. The Hebrew word אָב [( ʾāḇ ): masculine] “ Fa t he r” is a very specific word that means male progenitor of the offspring, as if to create, as a progenitor, or male adoptive parent. The supremacy of the father was always apparent. Subsequently, the firstborn male child found a special place as the heir to carry on the heritage or ancestral line. The supremacy of the father was likened to the supremacy of God. The Hebrew nation anticipated great things; after all, they knew the scriptural texts intimately. Those historical documents were a record of what happened and what they thought God promised. God was on the tips of their tongues, and they realized God was active in every aspect of their lives, but conflict seemed to follow them at every step along the way. They believed that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as Moses knew God intimately, and they were credited with Godly insights. The insights were

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