The nation of Israel was a prophetic archetype for God’s arrangements for his family of spirit begotten sons. This nation had:
A king, who was the lawmaker, the administrative head
A priest, who was clean to bring about maintain and end membership of the nation (doorkeeper, gatekeeper)
A land, to provide a place to stay and physical sustenance
We can see these three benefits or blessings of membership of God’s family throughout the bible:
ADAM:
| King | Tree of knowledge of Good and Bad |
| Priest |
Tree of Life |
| Land | Garden of Eden, the ground and all of the other trees. |
ISRAEL UNDER LAW:
| King | Moses, then Joshua, then God, then Saul, then sons of David of Judah |
| Priest | Aaron, then Eleazar, then Sons of Eleazar |
| Land | The Promised land, flowing with milk and honey. |
MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL:
| King | Zion |
| Priest | Moriah |
| Land | Promised land, the ground and all of the other mountains |
FAMILY UNDER LAW:
| King | Father |
| Priest | Father |
| Land | Family Estate |
CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION:
| King | Satan or the Dragon (Caesar) |
| Priest | Jesus Christ, plus his entire male water baptised congregation |
| Land |
The TCC. The ground, the land is the congregation. The mountain which overlooks the land, is the administration. |
Esau sold his firstborn right to Jacob:
33 And he proceeded to swear to him and to sell his right as firstborn to Jacob (Genesis 25).
Isaac then blessed Jacob just before he died, when Jacob was dressed up as Esau at the instigation of his mother, saying:
29 Become master over your brothers, and let the sons of your mother bow low to you (Genesis 27).
And Paul said of Esau's dilemma:
16 Like Esau, who in exchange for one meal gave away his rights as firstborn.
17 You know that afterward also when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for although he earnestly sought a change of mind with tears, he found no place for it (Hebrews 12).
10 And Hosah of the sons of Merari had sons. Shimri was the head, for he did not happen to be the firstborn, but his father appointed him as head (1 Chronicles 26).
The firstborn took on whatever family headship or tribal headship or national headship the father had had at death normally. So that firstborn sons of kings became kings, firstborn sons of high priests became high priests, the firstborn sons of chieftains became chieftains and firstborn sons became the master of the entire family, the new patriarch at the death of the father, the old patriarch.
As regards the land inheritance the law reads:
15 In case a man comes to have two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they, the loved one and the hated one, have borne sons to him,
and the firstborn son has come to be of the hated one,
16 it must also occur that in the day that he gives as an inheritance to his sons what he happens to have,
he will not be allowed to constitute the son of the loved one his firstborn at the expense of the hated one's son, the firstborn.
17 For he should recognize as the firstborn the hated one's son by giving him two parts in everything he is found to have, because that one is the beginning of his generative power. The right of the firstborn's position belongs to him (Deuteronomy 21).
The extra portion of his father’s belongings was given to the firstborn as payment for the extra responsibility of family headship. These belongings would include animals, gold, slaves etc. It was like a tax or a tithe on the rest of the family.
When Jacob was dying he took the firstborn right away from Reuben, the one whom he had generated first, and gave it to Joseph. Joseph then became the patriarchal head over all of the sons of Israel. In fact he was head of all of Egypt except Pharaoh at the time! At the same time Jacob engineered a situation that would lead to Joseph's descendants getting a double portion of his real estate inheritance, namely the promised land, by adopting Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh as his own two sons, thereby granting them two twelfths of the land of Israel, along with the other ten sons and excluding Simeon and Levi, the murderers who got no land inheritance. Jacob said:
5 And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came here to you into Egypt, they are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will become mine like Reuben and Simeon (Genesis 48).
Reuben and Simeon were the first and second born. Jacob also established that Judah would eventually become the administrative head of Israel, in the sense that a son of Judah, which to a Jew means any son of any son.......of Judah would eventually become the king.
8 As for you Judah, your brothers will laud you. Your hand will be on the back of the neck of your enemies. The sons of your father will prostrate themselves to you....
10 the sceptre will not turn aside from Judah,
neither the commander's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him the obedience of all the peoples belong (Genesis 49).
But this did not mean that Judah himself got anywhere in this regard:
1 And the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel - for he was the firstborn. But for his profaning the lounge of his father, his right as firstborn was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he was not to be enrolled genealogically for the right of the firstborn.
2 For Judah himself proved to be superior among his brothers, and the one for leader was from him,
but the right as firstborn was Joseph's (1 Chronicles 5).
Joseph the man was the administrative head of Judah the man. No split into separate spiritual and physical heads occurred until the advent of the Levitical priesthood. Levi was not the spiritual head of Joseph or Judah, but in the days of Moses, Levi was adopted by Jehovah as a firstborn by virtue of the ransom following the Passover:
41 And you must take the Levites for me - I am Jehovah - in place of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the domestic animals of the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the domestic animals of the sons of Israel (Numbers 3).
And Judah’s first King was David.