The Greatest Secret: How Being God's Adopted Children Changes EverythingSample

Adoption – Father to the fatherless   

Like a melody resonating throughout a symphony, once we begin to understand adoption as the goal towards which God is orchestrating the universe, we should not be surprised to find the theme recurring throughout the Bible in all sorts of different ways. 

There are over forty times where the Bible refers specifically to God’s concern for orphans or the fatherless. That’s more than the number of times Scripture talks about tithing or taking communion. God makes it clear throughout the Bible that he is particularly interested in the care of vulnerable children. Over and over in the Law revealed through Moses God reiterates his concern for the vulnerable and marginalised, and here in the Psalms God is described as a father to the fatherless who sets the lonely in families. 

David had experienced something of this for himself when he went to live in Saul’s household, and struck up a brotherly relationship with Saul’s son Jonathan. David also mirrored this when he effectively adopted Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth after his father was killed in battle. 

I could give you many, many other examples of how throughout the Bible God calls us his children, shows himself to be a Father to the fatherless, sets the lonely in families and includes people who were not his people into his family. But I think it is better I leave them hidden in the Bible for you to discover for yourself. As you discover the secret that the Bible can be seen as a collection of adoption stories that point to The Great Adoption Story, I hope that you will hear the melody in the symphony of your own Bible study. Perhaps you will even hear it resounding in your own home grown orchestra as vulnerable children are set or adopted into your earthly family.