Two Words, One House
Father and son are two of the shortest words in Hebrew, and they share a letter. Father is av (אב, H1), aleph and beit. Son is ben (בן, H1121), beit and nun. The beit sits in both, and the beit was drawn as a house. Father and son are both words about a house, and where each one stands in it tells the story.
Av (אב): Strength Before the House
The aleph was drawn as the head of an ox, the picture of strength, and it is the first letter of all. In av it stands before the house. The father is the strength that comes first and holds the house up. Malachi asks, "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" (Malachi 2:10). Paul answers the same way: "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things" (1 Corinthians 8:6).
Ben (בן): The Seed From the House
The nun was drawn as a sprouting seed, life carried forward. In ben the house comes first and the seed comes out of it. The son is the seed of the father's house. There is no aleph in ben. The strength that comes first belongs to the father, and the Son said so: "my Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).
The Son Who Builds the House
Ben grows from banah (H1129), to build, spelled with the same beit and nun. In Hebrew the son is the builder of the house. Yahuah acted that out in His promise to David: "He shall build an house for my name... I will be his father, and he shall be my son" (2 Samuel 7:13-14). Hebrews applies that very promise to Yahushua (Hebrews 1:5) and calls Him faithful "as a son over his own house; whose house are we" (Hebrews 3:6). The Father is the strength; the Son is the seed who builds; the believers are the house.
Sons in the House
The promise made to David is made again at the end, to everyone who overcomes: "I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (Revelation 21:7). The house the Son built is full of sons.