Israel: God's Chosen People

Travis Whitcher

Bedrock: Foundations of Faith • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Psalm 89:36–37

Israel

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Psalm 89:36–37 KJV 1900

His seed shall endure for ever, And his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, And as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

Introduction

Say the word “Israel” and have the students record the first three words that come to their minds. Encourage their responses to be quick.

ASK: How confident are you in discussing Israel and their place in history?

ASK: What do you tend to focus on the most: their ancient history, their modern history, or their future?

ASK: What would you like to know about Israel?

Transition to Bible lesson.

This lesson will help your understanding of Israel’s ancient past, more recent past, and future. You will find that they are an important part of God’s plan to redeem the world and restore human rule over the earth.

The story of Israel unfolds as part of God’s redemption plan. So this lesson on Israel revisits God’s plan for Adam to rule on earth, God’s response to Adam’s failure, and God’s promises to Israel. Those promises, called covenants, explain the connection between God’s plan to send Christ to redeem the world and His plan to restore human rule over the earth.

God Planned for Human Rule

Human Responsibilities

God created Adam and Eve to rule the earth in His place and for His glory.

Genesis 1:27–28 KJV 1900

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Lesson 6 addressed God’s commands to Adam and Eve to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Remember that to “subdue” means to bring under control.

God gave Adam and Eve the ability to bring out the earth’s potential.

To exercise “dominion” means to rule.

God set up Adam and Eve as His rulers over the earth.

Creating them in His image gave them the capacity to rule well and in a way that brought glory to God. We are still in God’s image, but something happened to ruin both us and creation so that we can’t carry out our responsibilities.

Human Ruin

Along with the responsibilities to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it, God gave Adam the responsibility to obey Him. He planted a tree in the Garden of Eden and forbade Adam and Eve from eating its fruit.

Genesis 2:16–17 KJV 1900

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

ASK: Why did God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden? To give Adam and Even the opportunity to demonstrate their love for, trust in, and loyalty to Him.

Though God exalted Adam and Eve and gave them rule over the earth, they were still under His rule; they needed to obey Him if they wanted to maintain their sinlessness and the earth’s perfect state. It wasn’t long before Satan entered the Garden to tempt Adam and Eve to disobey God.

Genesis 3:1–8 KJV 1900

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

Sin destroyed the fellowship between Adam and Eve and between them and God.

Sin also disqualified Adam and Eve from subduing the earth and exercising dominion over it.

Furthermore, God made subduing the earth difficult in some instances and impossible in others.

Genesis 3:17–18 KJV 1900

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

ASK: What environmental problems prove humans can’t subdue the earth? The weather, including hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, and flooding rains; earthquakes; invasive insects and weeds; vicious wild animals.

ASK: What headlines from around the world show that humans are neither ruling the earth well nor bringing glory to God with their attempts? Reports of wars, violent crimes, political corruption, threats of nuclear war.

ASK: To whom has most of the world turned for solutions to the world’s leadership and environmental problems? They have turned to humanity for the solutions.

We aren’t the solution to the world’s problems with leadership and the environment. In fact, we have an even greater problem we could never solve on our own.

Genesis 3:19 KJV 1900

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Sin brought death to all men (Rom. 5:12). Science and medicine have helped to prolong life, but death is the inevitable end for all people. And people who die in their sin will experience eternal torment in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:15).

The solution to sin and death must come from outside the world.

God Provided for Human Redemption

Jesus the Seed

God didn’t leave Adam and Eve hopeless. He presented to them the gospel in a nutshell.

Genesis 3:14–15 KJV 1900

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Verse 14 deals with the serpent’s part in tempting Adam and Eve. Verse 15 deals with Satan. God stated there would be an ongoing conflict between Satan’s seed, meaning unbelievers, and the Seed of the woman. Jesus is the Seed of the woman in that He came to earth as the God-man and was born of the virgin Mary. Jesus didn’t inherit a sin nature even though He had a fully human body.

God’s solution to sin is Jesus the Seed. Jesus crushed Satan’s grip on the world by dying on the cross.

His death, symbolized by His bruised heel, spelled Satan’s doom.

Jesus the Savior

Four thousand or more years after God announced Jesus the Seed would come to earth, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph to announce Jesus’ arrival and purpose.

Matthew 1:18–23 KJV 1900

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

ASK: Why did Jesus come to earth? To save His people from their sin.

Jesus came that the world might be saved through Him.

As we learned in session 7, God saves those who put their faith in Christ for salvation.

Jesus also came to present Himself to Israel as their Messiah. They rejected Him and crucified Him instead. But that was all part of God’s plan. God set aside Israel but not forever. As we will learn in the next section of this lesson, Jesus will one day come back to deal with Israel again.

God Promised Human Restoration

A lot happened between the announcement of Jesus the Seed and Jesus the Savior. It is between those two announcements that Israel’s history falls. So to study the history and place of Israel is to study God’s unfolding plan of salvation and plan to restore human rule over the earth.

Abrahamic Covenant

After the promise of a Seed in Genesis 3:15, God didn’t get more specific about His plan of redemption until He came to Abraham with an important message.

Genesis 12:1–2 KJV 1900

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

God promised to make Abraham a great nation. That means Abraham would have lots of descendants who would form a nation that endured. Abraham’s descendants became the nation of Israel. Much of the Old Testament is about Israel’s history. The nation possessed some of the Promised Land at times, but they have not yet possessed all of it (Gen. 15:12–21).

Genesis 12:3 KJV 1900

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

ASK: How are all the families of the earth blessed through Abraham? Jesus was as a descendant of Abraham. Jesus blessed all the families of the earth by becoming the Savior of the world.

The apostle Paul wrote about God’s promise from Genesis 12:3.

Paul understood that Jesus is the blessing that God promised through Abraham.

Galatians 3:8 KJV 1900

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

By calling Abraham to a Promised Land and promising him a great nation and a worldwide blessing, God narrowed His redemption plan.

God planned for the Seed and Savior to come through a descendant of Abraham.

Later, God specifically chose Judah, a great grandson of Abraham, to be the tribe through which the Savior would come. Judah possesses the scepter of rule over Israel until Christ arrives to take it and rule both Israel and the world (Gen. 49:9, 10).

Davidic Covenant

God continued to narrow and define His redemption plan when He made a promise to King David about a future heir.

2 Samuel 7:12–14 KJV 1900

And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

The Davidic Covenant reveals the Seed and Savior would be in the line of David.

Ethan the Ezrahite wrote about the Covenant in Psalm 89. Ethan served in King Solomon’s court.

Psalm 89:3–4 KJV 1900

I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, And build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

Psalm 89:29 KJV 1900

His seed also will I make to endure for ever, And his throne as the days of heaven.

Psalm 89:34–37 KJV 1900

My covenant will I not break, Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness That I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, And his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, And as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

ASK: What key word describes the lasting nature of David’s throne? Forever.

God chose the line of David to be Israel’s royal line. All the kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah descended from David. Christ is a descendant of David legally through Joseph and directly through Mary. Though Israel rejected Him as their king, He will return someday to set up His rule. His reign will restore Adam’s rule. And when He comes again, we know Israel will embrace Him and enjoy His eternal rule. God made that clear by making the New Covenant with Israel.

New Covenant

When Christ returns to earth after the Rapture and Tribulation, He will draw all of Israel to Himself. They will respond and put their faith in Him according to the New Covenant.

When Christ returns, Isreal will put their faith in Him.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 KJV 1900

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand To bring them out of the land of Egypt; Which my covenant they brake, Although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For they shall all know me, From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember their sin no more.

The Covenant that Israel broke is the Mosaic Covenant (Jer. 31:32). The Mosaic Covenant includes the Ten Commandments and all the laws and regulations Israel received while camped at Mount Sinai. The Mosaic Covenant demonstrated that everyone is a sinner and in need of a Savior.

God promised Israel He will write His law on their hearts, meaning He will redeem them and forgive their sins once for all. Again, this will happen after the Rapture and the Tribulation. Jews who enter the Tribulation as unbelievers, reject the Antichrist, and survive will trust in Jesus at His return to earth.

After the salvation of the Jews, Christ will establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem. He will rule the world for a thousand years from the throne of David. Israel will inherit the land God promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant.

Christ, still fully human and fully God, will finally restore human rule over the earth and undo the ruin brought on by Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago.

ASK: How do we know God will keep His promises to Israel? (Review Psalm 89:33–37). God has sworn by His holiness that He will keep His promises.

We will learn in the next lesson that we will rule with Christ in His Kingdom, not as part of Israel but as part of the church. Our positions will be a portion of our reward for serving Him now. Until then, we should rejoice in God’s faithfulness to all His promises.

Psalm 89:2 KJV 1900

For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.