In the Bible kings were called sons of God. This is especially true of Solomon and the other Davidic Kings of Israel. God promised David about Solomon, remember that he would be a father to Solomon and Solomon would be a son to Him (2 Sam 7.14). But even other kings are referred to as sons of God, or as gods. When David says he will sing the praises of the Lord before the gods (Psalm 138.1), he is referring to worship in the sight of t he kings of the earth (v. 4; c.f. Psalm 82.1-2).

With that in mind we see a pretty consistent theme in this passage. Luke starts by listing the powers that be in Rome and Jerusalem and elsewhere—the recognizable sons of God. But then he moves on to the work of the creator God in intervening into this situation. The gods, the mountains, are going to be laid low and others are going to be raised up.

But who is going to be raised up? John has to warn people that they cannot presume on being sons of Abraham, members of God’s family. If they want that inheritance they need to act like sons of Abraham.

Finally, we see that the mountains don’t want to hear about being lowered. A local power—a local “god” if you will—imprisons John the Baptist. But before that happens we learned that Jesus is identified as the unique Son of God.