"Salvation is of the Jews, because the flesh of Israel is the abode of the divine presence in the world. It is the carnal anchor that God has sunk into the soil of Creation." - Michael Wyschograd, "The Body of Faith"
"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."" (Genesis 12:1-3)
God's promises here, are really a detailing of what I highlighted as one of the main elements of the Gospel in the last post - namely, that God's desire is to restore Creation to the way that He made it in The Beginning. Genesis 12 is where the details start to emerge about how God will do it. It starts with one man, Abraham, who is promised descendants as numerous as the 'sand on the seashore'/'stars in the sky' (Gen 15:5, Gen 22:17, Gen 26:4, Gen 32:12, etc). The one man grows into the Nation of Israel, who God identifies himself with and through, continually calling himself the God of Israel and being called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understanding the election and chosenness of Israel is really the hermeneutical key to understanding all of Scripture.
There are several interesting things in these opening three verses of Genesis 12. A) Look at what God promises Abram - we just read in the Tower of Babel scene that there was one large people group, or nation if you will, and that nation decided together that it wanted to make a name for itself. Here, God says "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and [I will] make your name great." In other words, this is God calling the shots instead of the other way around. B) He chooses one man, and one nation to deal with - out of all of the disparate people groups scattered over the Earth after Babel, God chooses one man - this scenario is God's choice. C) There is land involved. I don't point this out to be political, by no means, but rather to suggest that there is a kingdom element to these promises. A nation must have a home, and the home for the Nation that God ends up creating has a specific location and, as we read later in Scripture, a specific Capitol city (Jerusalem) D) These promises involve everyone because God says, "and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Through the nation that God creates from Abram, God will bless all of the nations of the earth. Does that mean all of the nations are this nation that God will create? No, of course not. What it means is that God has all nations (all mankind) in view, but that He is choosing to administer His blessing through this one nation He has chosen. Think of the role of "executor of estate" and you will have a modern metaphor for this ancient idea. I've heard it said that what God is doing in the New Testament is opening up salvation to all people, and moving from dealing with just Israel, to dealing with all Believers. In light of this very specific promise to Abraham, this cannot be true. God has always had all of mankind in view, and it seems clear that He has chosen the people and Nation of Israel to have a special place in the overall story of redemptive history.
Hashtag Blessed
Just a quick aside on the word 'blessed' (I promise I'm going somewhere with this). In our culture, the word has lost almost all meaning, to the point where people now say things like, "hashtag blessed", almost sarcastically. The way I most often hear people use the word 'blessed' is in relation to material or temporal things - "God has really blessed me with good health" or "God blessed us with a new _____." or simply, "We have been so blessed." That is certainly one way that the word blessing can be used, but understanding the Hebrew words that are translated as "blessed' or 'blessing' help in understanding the nuance of the word. 'Barak' (verb) refers either to God's unmerited favor on someone OR the posture of someone in submission to God, acknowledging that God is the source of all good things. In a sense, Barak is a fully God-oriented word. 'Ashar' (verb) is another common word that is translated as blessed/blessing. Ashar involves humans - as in, obedience brings God's blessing. 'Happy' is another way that 'Ashar' is translated. Psalm 1:1 is a great example of the word Ashar being translated as "blessed" ("blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers"). It is a picture of God's favor upon someone because of their obedience and dedication to Him. In the covenant made with Abram, the word 'bless' is Barak. It is an unmerited, unidirectional blessing from God, to Abram, and through Abram to the rest of the nations.
From One Man to One Nation
Ok - so getting back on track - God promises to make Abram into a great nation, which He does. Fast-forward to the book of Exodus and we see that what started out as one couple, has become a large people group. After the story of the Passover, we read:
"The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people [some translation say, "a mixed multitude"] went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds." (Exodus 12:33-38)
600,000 men on foot! Including women and children it's probably close to a million people. Thinking about this relatively new nation, which is now out on its own after being liberated from Egypt, what comes to your mind as something they would need to help govern themselves? Yes! A set of rules or laws or some kind of organizational system. At this point, they are very new - they even need a national identity. God gives them all of that in Exodus and Deuteronomy. This is what is commonly referred to as the Mosaic/Sinai Covenant. To me, this is the real covenant in terms of how we think of covenant. A better, more modern word might be 'treaty' - I say this because the Mosaic/Sinai Covenant is unique in that it involves two parties. There are stipulations regarding blessing for obedience (as a Nation) and punishments for disobedience (again, as a Nation). God's 'covenant' with Abraham (and later with David) is really more of a Commitment than a covenant. God is saying "I will do this" of "This is how it is going to be" - committing Himself to His own word. God has chosen this people, out of His own sovereign will and purpose, as a people 'set apart' (Deuteronomy 7:6) for the Lord. Through the Nation of Israel, God has chosen to reveal himself and His plan - and through this Nation, He will administer those promises.
The unfolding story of God's promises and of his enduring faithfulness to his chosen people continues in 2 Samuel 7, the covenant made with David:
Now then, tell my servant David, 'This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. [...] The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son." (2 Samuel 7:8-10, 11b-14)
There are some many similarities between God's covenant with Abram and his covenant with David. What stands out to me is the continued phrase "I will". The Mosaic Covenant can still be viewed as a way through which God is revealing his character and intentions, but the tone of it is much more cooperative. As I mentioned just a little bit ago, there are many sections in Exodus and Deuteronomy that talk about blessings for obeying God and curses for disobeying, but we don't see that language in the covenants with Abram and David. Instead it is a very straight-forward and simple statement of what God's will is. In this covenant with David, we get the clearest picture yet of what God's redemptive plan is...but lest we forget (especially as Gentiles), it is still intimately and inextricably wrapped up in his dealings with, and fidelity to, Israel.
Pulling back out, for a minute, back to a higher level view - let's trace the promises made from Genesis 3 to 2 Samuel 7: First there is the promise of a 'seed' made to Eve (Genesis 3). Then out the line of Seth, we see that genealogy traced all the way to Abram, through which God starts his special family (Genesis 12). Abraham's offspring (Isaac, through to Jacob, to whom God also reiterated the promises He had made to Abraham) become the nation of Israel. God then codifies that nation by giving them their identity through Laws and the observance of festivals (Exodus/Deuteronomy). Then He details for them, through His promise to David, an everlasting royal line which points directly to King Jesus (2 Samuel 7). I point all this out to reinforce my argument that all of these separate covenants are really either one Covenant, or at least one single plan, the details of which are progressively revealed as Scripture moves forward.
The question I want to have hang after having done this overview is this: "If God is not faithful to his promises/commitments to Abraham, to Moses, to David, and to His chosen people, then what hope does anyone outside of Israel have that He will be faithful to redeem Creation and save the world from itself?" You see, our faith as Gentiles is intimately and inextricably tied to God being faithful to what he has promised to His beloved Israel. If He has somehow given up on Israel, and abandoned His promises to them, then He is untrustworthy - if He has given up on them, what reason do we have to believe He wouldn't give up on those of us who are not part of the nation of Israel? These are hard questions to ask, but we MUST wrestle with their implications because any serious test of our faith will demand that we have good reason to trust the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God has committed himself to restoring Creation - even from the utterance of the Curse itself in Genesis 3, we can read and know that God does not intend to keep Heaven and Earth separated forever. Having said that, God will also choose how He will restore that relationship and what seems clear in the Covenants/Commitments that God makes with and to Abraham, Moses and David is that He has chosen a specific people, and has chosen a specific family from within that People, as a means of executing His overall plan of redemption. In the next post, I will talk about King Jesus and his place in that overall plan of redemption. In Him is the hope of all mankind for the arrival of 'The New Covenant', detailed in Jeremiah 31. What I will argue, is that Jesus did not come to change the plan, but rather to confirm that God not only intends to restore Creation (willingness), but that He is ABLE to do it as well. His roles as Prophet, Priest and King make him the very embodiment of God's commitment to restore All Things.
Areas for Further Study:
- I barely touched on the Mosaic/Sinai covenant and all of the various laws, the temple/tabernacle, the sacrificial system, etc. There is SO MUCH there. I have been going through a teaching recently with my guy's small group on the Sacrificial System that was given by the "First Fruits of Zion" (FFOZ) ministry that really helped me understand the details of the system and what its intended purpose was. I recommend this to anyone who wants to understand not only what the Sacrificial System is supposed to function as, but also how Jesus' life, death and resurrection fit with that system.
- Awhile back, I went through and read all of the covenants that God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and tried to marinate in them - soaking in the details, similarities and differences between each of them. To me, simply doing that was eye-opening. The Covenants made to Abraham, Moses, David, and even the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 are all made explicitly to the nation of Israel. This forced me to wrestle with the importance of the Nation of Israel to God and to grapple with my/our place in that story as Gentiles. I recommend this exercise to anyone who hasn't done it before. (Genesis 12, Genesis 18, Exodus 19-24, 2 Samuel 7, Jeremiah 31)
- One thing that I had misunderstood before was the role of Covenant discipline as it relates to the nation of Israel. God clearly lays out in Deuteronomy what consequences there will be for the Nation breaking his Covenant with them. We see this covenant discipline play out over and over throughout the Old Testament. For some reason though, what happens to the Nation of Israel after Jesus' death is not viewed as covenant discipline, but rather as God deciding to discard Israel and turn his attention to the Gentiles. Why do we do this? The destruction of the temple and the subsequent scattering of the Jewish people in AD 70 is very fitting and in keeping with the stipulations of covenant discipline that had, up to that point, been the hallmark of God's relationship with Israel. Why did it last 1900 years (70 AD - 1948)? I have no idea, but that doesn't matter. Exile from the land and enslavement to other nations was/is the consequence of breaking God's covenant. When viewed this way - we are able to see God maintaining his fidelity to His people. If not viewed this way, we quickly lurch into Supersessionism (replacement theology), thinking that God is somehow done with the Jews. This cannot be. As I pointed out above, if God is not faithful to his promises to the Jewish people, then we Gentiles have no hope in God's fidelity to His promises in the Hebrew Scriptures.
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