There have been plenty of books written about this topic within the past 25 years and I think that as time moves forward, a lot of academia is coming around to a view that in order to make sense of the Biblical storyline as a whole (inclusive of both the Old and New Testaments) Israel and the Jewish people have to still matter to God. When I was first introduced to some of these ideas a few years ago, I would have considered myself indifferent to Israel. I did not harbor any particular animosity towards the Jews, nor did I think about them much at all...as it related to my own faith, Israel and the Jewish people didn't come to mind. Now my thinking is completely different. This post is a reflection of my own desire to be able to explain, in a simple way, to a fellow Christian why I think Israel remains important and why I think we as Gentile Christians need to be a little more careful when we read our Bibles. I also want to explain why I don't think it should be threatening to recognize that we (Gentiles) are not God's chosen people.
Where It Started
A few years ago I decided to go very deliberately through the covenants, specifically the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant and the 'New' covenant. In fact, I created a post for this blog based on that exercise. One of the things that became glaringly obvious was that ALL of those covenants were made specifically with the nation of Israel. Even with the Abrahamic covenant, which is obviously made before Israel became a nation, the very first thing God says is "I will make you into a great nation" -- it is clear that through Abraham, God has the nation of Israel ultimately in mind. Every other covenant is made explicitly and specifically to Israel, including the 'new' covenant (Jeremiah 31) which starts, "Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of mankind and the seed of animals."
