Exodus 4:22

When you hear "firstborn," do not think of this in human fashion; for among humans the firstborn have other brothers; and it is somewhere written, "Israel is my son, my firstborn." But like Reuben, Israel was a rejected firstborn; for Reuben went up to his father's bed, and Israel cast the Son of the Father out of the vineyard and crucified him. To others also Scripture says, "You are children of the Lord your God" and elsewhere, "I said, you are gods; all of you sons of the Most High." Note "I said," not "I begot." They, from the fact that God said it, received adoption which they did not have, but he was not begotten to be other than he was before. Rather he was begotten Son from the beginning, Son of the Father, like in all things to his Genitor, begotten Life of Life, Light of Light, Truth of Truth, Wisdom of Wisdom, King of King, God of God, Power of Power.

And is there anything more profound to say of Israel, not of nature but of grace, of whom it was written, "Israel is my firstborn son," when Israel was in dispersion? You yourself will also understand that these are the scattered children of God for whom Jesus was to die in order to gather them together into one.

Why too does he blame Pharaoh, saying, "You will not let my people go; behold, I will smite all the firstborn in Egypt, even your firstborn," and all the rest that is recorded as being said by God through Moses to Pharaoh? It is incumbent on him who believes that the Scriptures are true and that God is just, if he is a thoughtful man, to take pains to show how God, in using such expressions as these, can be clearly conceived to be just.

And thou shall say unto Pharaoh,.... When arrived in Egypt, and in his presence: thus saith the Lord; he was to declare to him that he came in his name, and by his orders, and, as an ambassador of his, required the dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt: Israel is my son, even my firstborn; as dear to him as a man's firstborn is, or as his only son: adoption is one of the privileges peculiar to Israel after the flesh, even national adoption, with all the external privileges appertaining to it, Rom 9:4.

GOD had a people in Egypt. They were His own, the people of His choice. Although they had been grievously oppressed and had sunk into ignominious slavery, His interest in their welfare had in no degree lessened. The Lord's purpose in sending Moses down into Egypt was that He might fetch out that people from among the nations to make them a separate people to Himself that He might give them an inheritance, even the land which flowed with milk and honey and that they might dwell there as witnesses of His Covenant and keep His Testimonies. Now precisely what God was doing towards His people, Israel, in the land of Ham, He is doing towards His own chosen ones throughout the whole world. From one point of view the object of the Gospel is to gather out from among the nations a people whom He did foreknow, whom He did predestinate, whom He has redeemed unto Himself to be His peculiar heritage. These are to be fetched out from among others. They are to be made a separate people to be brought into a distinct position and to have a distinct experience. "The people shall dwell alone; they shall not be reckoned among the nations" and they are ultimately to be brought to a prepared place for which they are to be especially prepared that they may abide there and that the Lord may verify the thing that He has predicted of them, "They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels." The work of rescuing perishing sinners out of the present evil world is as worthy of God as the work of delivering Israel out of Egypt.