Israel and the Jews: God's Chosen People of Destiny
March 29, 2012
By: John Barnett
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As we open to Romans 11, we all need to understand more and more about how God has worked in the past, and what He has planned for the future. One of the richest ways to do that is through a closer look at Israel and the Jewish people. God has declared that they are His chosen people of destiny. First we need to remind ourselves of the reality God presents to New Testament believers of:
OUR AMAZINGLY JEWISH HERITAGE
As believers, we are headed:
• To a city made by God called the New JERUSALEM (Rev. 21:2),
• This city is already constructed by God with Twelve Gates named after the 12 Tribes of ISRAEL (Rev. 21:12);
• There are also Twelve Foundations of this Heavenly home prepared for us that are named after the 12 JEWISH Apostles (Rev. 21:14);
• God describes Himself as enthroned above a hill called ZION (Psalm 48:1-2);
• And as Jesus preached the Gospel He invited all who would respond to come to a Feast He described, that is going to be in Heaven, where we get to sit and eat with ABRAHAM, ISAAC and JACOB who are already SEATED there at the banquet (Matthew 8:11)!
For us who often are “Old Testament-Lite” we often overlook or even forget the challenge that all 1189 chapters of the Scriptures present to us that:
• We serve the King of the Jews.
• We are members of a church founded by Jewish leaders;
• We have as our highest authority a Jewish Bible (all the 40 writing authors were Jewish);
• Our God is Jewish, for "salvation is of the Jews", which is what no less than God in human flesh, our Lord Jesus said in John 4:22.
• All of our spiritual benefits are derivative from the Abrahamic covenant.
• And as New Testament members of Christ's Body and Church, we are grafted into the true olive tree, from the root of Abraham as Romans 11 exhaustively explains. Please
Lets read Romans 11:1-2, 5, 17-18, 25-26.
THE MIRACLE OF ISRAEL
One of the strong evidences of divine inspiration of the Bible (not found in other religious books of either past or present) consists of its hundreds of fulfilled prophecies.
For just a moment try to feel the impact of these observations. The prophecies about the Jews, their history of suffering, their rebirth as a nation, and the future destiny God has mapped out for His Chosen People of Destiny:
“have been a matter of public record on the pages of Scripture and available for careful examination for centuries. That they have been fulfilled in specific detail cannot be the result of mere chance but is in fact more than sufficient proof for the existence of the God who inspired the Bible and of that Book's authenticity and inerrancy. In view of such clear and overwhelming evidence, one can only charitably assume that no agnostic or atheist has bothered to read the biblical prophecies and check them personally against history and current events. there can be no ordinary explanation for the existence in the world today of God’s Chosen People of Destiny, the Jews, and the nation of Israel” .
• Modern Israel only occupies about one-sixth of 1 percent of the land area which the Arabs possess.
• The Arab Nations have the oil, the wealth, and the worldwide influence which such seemingly inexhaustible resources command.
• Israel's postage-stamp piece of land is scarcely discernible on a world map, absent from nearly all “politically Correct” maps, and it lacks all the essentials to make it the center of worldwide concern.
• Yet, in defiance of all reason, it is the focus of world attention, precisely as prophesied.
Next, within Israel, consider that city the entire world has heard of called, Jerusalem.
• Jerusalem is a small city with neither commercial nor strategic location. When the Old Testament prophets wrote of the future they did so with precision. Their astonishing accuracy singled out Jerusalem as the world focus. They didn’t say Damascus, Cairo, London, or Paris would become the center of action in the last days, but Jerusalem.
• Yet the eyes of the world are upon it as upon no other city. Jerusalem is indeed a "burdensome stone" (Zech. 12:1-3) around the necks of all nations of the world, the most vexing and volatile problem the United Nations faces today. There is no ordinary explanation for this! What the Hebrew prophets declared thousands of years ago and what seemed utterly fantastic in their time is being fulfilled in our day.
This is only part of the evidence, as we shall see, that the prophesied "last days" are upon us and that our generation will likely see the remainder of Bible prophecy fulfilled.
There are so many more specific prophetic passages to be fulfilled in the last days; based on the prophecies, which have already come true, we must conclude that these too will literally unfold in the not-too-distant future. Thus God has declared that the most appalling time of utter destruction both for Jews and for the entire population of the world lies yet ahead. To speak in Biblical terms God says watch out, "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 30:7) spells danger and misery for the entire planet.
WHAT DOES GOD SAY SPECIFICALLY?
Look with me at this incredible summary of all specifics God has revealed about His Chosen People of Destiny, the Jews.
Now, feel the impact of God's Words to a man standing out in the sands of the Middle East, in a Land called Canaan. God spoke in Genesis 15 and said, I am giving this Land to your children forever as a testimony to all the World, that I AM GOD!
This may be one of the most important studies we have ever undertaken, so feel free to trace these points and verses in your Bibles as we go along!
1. God identified His chosen people of destiny as the Jews, the descendents of Abraham, and He named them Israel.
God picked one man in Ur of the Chaldees and asked him to walk hundreds of miles through the desert to a land filled with powerful kingdom states (Genesis 11-12); and there in a series of revelations, the Almighty God of the Universe solemnly swore to this man a nation would descend from him that would be the Chosen People of Destiny (Genesis 13, 15). Those people are the Jewish People, the Israelites, or as I like to call them God’s Chosen People of Destiny (Deuteronomy 7:6-7).
When the nation was first founded, God promised through Abraham, "I will make of thee a great nation . . . 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" (Genesis 12:2,3).
Deuteronomy 7:6-7 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
There is more , “…this climactic word is the earliest missionary mandate. The promise of God to Abraham was specifically given in order that he and his seed might be, through the gracious provisions of God, the avenue of carrying the same good news to every one of the 70 families on the earth listed in chapter 10.
Not only did Israel become a great nation under David and Solomon, but it is destined for even greater days in the future. The nations that have befriended the Jews (notably the United States and, to a lesser degree, England, France and others) have indeed been blessed. Those that have persecuted the Jews (Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, Spain, Nazi Germany and others -- Russia's time is coming!) have eventually gone down to defeat and humiliation”.
2. God promised to give a land to His chosen people of destiny the Jews with clearly defined boundaries (Genesis 12:1; 13:15; 15:7, 18-21) to Abraham. He renewed that promise to Abraham's son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), to his grandson Jacob (Genesis 28:13), and to their descendants after them forever (Leviticus 25:46; Joshua 14:9; etc.).
Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
Genesis 13:15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.
Genesis 15:7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
Genesis 15:18-21 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
Genesis 26:3-5 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.
Genesis 28:13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
Joshua 14:9 So on that day Moses swore to me, "The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly."
Because of all these promises, note how God calls this place on Earth we call Israel - MY LAND!
Leviticus 25:23 ‘The land must not be sold permanently, BECAUSE THE LAND IS MINE and you are but aliens and my tenants.
2 Chronicles 7:20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.
Isaiah 14:25 I will crush the Assyrian in MY LAND; on MY MOUNTAINS I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from MY PEOPLE, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”
Jeremiah 2:7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled MY LAND and made MY INHERITANCE detestable.
Jeremiah 16:18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled MY LAND with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled MY INHERITANCE with their detestable idols.”
Ezekiel 38:16 You will advance against MY PEOPLE Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against MY LAND, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.
Joel 3:2 I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.
3. God promised to bring His chosen people of destiny to the Promised Land. It is a historical fact that God brought these "chosen people" into the "Promised Land," an amazing story of miracles in itself.
Exodus 6:7-8 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 7:6-9 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 14:2 for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.
4. God promised to judge His chosen people of destiny if they forgot Him in the Promised Land. When the Jewish people entered the Promised Land, God warned them that if they practiced the idolatry and immorality of the land's previous inhabitants, whom He had destroyed for their evil (Deuteronomy 9:4), He would cast them out as well (Deuteronomy 28:63; 1 Kings 9:7; 2 Chronicles 7:20; etc.). That this happened is, again, an indisputable fact of history.
Lev. 26:14-44 Remember all the promised curses on Israel for disobedience we covered before? The same warnings are repeated in Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life
1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.
2 Chronicles 7:20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.
5. God promised to scatter His unfaithful but chosen people of destiny from the Promised Land. God declared that His people would be scattered "among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other" (Deuteronomy 28:64;Nehemiah 1:8; Amos 9:9, Zechariah 7:14). And so it happened. "The wandering Jew" is found everywhere. The precision with which prophecies fit the Jews alone becomes increasingly remarkable as fulfillment follows fulfillment, until the case for God's existence through His dealings with his chosen people is irrefutable.
Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
Nehemiah 1:8 Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,"
Amos 9:9 For I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.
Zechariah 7:14 I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.
So in summary, there are 12 keys God has given us in His Word to identify His Chosen People of Promise:
1. God identified His chosen people of destiny as the Jews, descendents of Abraham, called Israel. God picked one man in Ur of the Chaldees and asked him to walk hundreds of miles through the desert to a land filled with powerful kingdom states. And there in a series of revelations, the Almighty God of the Universe solemnly swore to this man a nation would descend from him that would be the Chosen People of Destiny. Those People are the Jewish People, the Israelites, and God’s People.
2. God promised to give a land to His chosen people of destiny the Jews with clearly defined boundaries to Abraham. He renewed that promise to Abraham's son Isaac, to his grandson Jacob, and to their descendants after them forever.
3. God promised to bring His chosen people of destiny to the Promised Land. It is a historical fact that God brought these "chosen people" into the "Promised Land," an amazing story of miracles in itself.
4. God promised to judge His chosen people of destiny if they forgot Him in the Promised Land. When the Jewish people entered the Promised Land, God warned them that if they practiced the idolatry and immorality of the land's previous inhabitants, whom He had destroyed for their evil, He would cast them out as well. That this happened is, again, an indisputable fact of history.
5. God promised to scatter His unfaithful but chosen people of destiny from the Promised Land. God declared that His people would be scattered "among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other". And so it happened. "The wandering Jew" is found everywhere.
So God has kept His Word, the response He wants from us? Let’s finish back where we started, Romans 11:29-36.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “ For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “ Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Jesus is the only way to find meaning in life. Make Him the center, the focus, the goal of life.
Sing: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” # 335 (hymnbook has just refrain) so read stanzas:
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Refrain
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!
Refrain
His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!
Refrain
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