Role of Israel

Date: January 2006

Series: - “I Want to be Left Behind” (XV)

Title: XV - Israel’s Role in the End Times (cont’d)

I concluded last month’s article with a question - “After the promised Messiah arrived, does national/fleshly Israel still hold some important, special "future" place in God’s plan?”

A foundational assumption underlying the entire dispensational system of thought is that national Israel is always the centerpiece of God’s prophetic program. Accordingly, they have concluded the following: (1) that Jesus came (the first time) intending to establish an earthly, Messianic kingdom, with Himself ruling on a restored “throne of David” in Jerusalem, with the Temple described in Ezekiel 40-48 functioning under a reconstituted Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices. (2) When Jesus was rejected by Israel as their king, the intended glorious earthly Jewish kingdom was postponed until His 2^nd Coming, whereupon He instituted the largely Gentile “Church” (totally unknown and unpredicted in the Old Testament) as a stop-gap measure until His return to establish His earthly kingdom with angelic reinforcements! (3) Eventually, Jesus will return secretly to rapture the “church” out of the world so as to spare them from the “7-year Tribulation period” (the alleged remaining final 7 years of the Mosaic era prophesied in Daniel 9:24-27), after which He will return in visible glory at the height of a Middle-Eastern bloodbath called the “Battle of Armageddon” to take charge of planet earth and begin the expected 1,000-year earthly kingdom associated with Revelation 20:1-6. In the past, I have laid this scenario out to people and had them look at me, with a smirk on their faces, like they thought I was trying to be funny. However, this is serious business and thousands upon thousands of people believe this scenario to be what the Bible teaches.

“Israel” Reconsidered – In response to this popular notion, I believe that the dispensational scenario’s view of national Israel misses the mark, Biblically, by a good country mile. So much Biblical material is missed and ignored that it is no wonder that people cling to their extra-Biblical books and media sources to learn and maintain these ideas. So, following up on the foundations offered in the previous article, let’s consider some of what may be “new material” for many people concerning Israel’s place in God’s program.

The Church is “New Covenant Israel” – I believe there were many points of discontinuity as the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant ended and was replaced by the Messianic “New Covenant.” However, there are also some important points of continuity and one of these is that the Church is the New Covenant “Israel.” If we are going to claim membership and the benefits involved in the “New Covenant” predicted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34) – and I believe this is appropriate (Hebrews 8) – then we must also admit that God promised this to be a new covenant made with “the house of Israel and Judah” (v. 31:31). Thus, somehow all of us Gentile believers are going to need to become a part of “Israel” in order to participate. However, unlike the situation during the time the Mosaic covenant was in effect, Gentile believers are not “physically circumcised” and proselytized in the same way (see: Acts 15). Instead, we are grafted into the “olive tree” (Romans 11:11-24) by our faith in Christ and acceptance of the Gospel (Acts 15:7-8). As a result, we have our participation in the “Israel of God” through the person of the Messiah Himself, as we are “baptized into Him” (Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:11,12) and come to be “in Christ,” clothed with His righteousness” by obedient faith (Galatians 3:26,27), and become a part of His “body,” for every part of someone’s body participates in everything the person does. This is the same reasoning as we find in Hebrews, where we read about the future Levites still being “in Abraham’s physical body” and thus, in a sense, paid tithes to Melchizedek through their father Abraham (Hebrews 7:9,10). The Messiah was certainly an Israelite and by being “in Him” we share in His status as an Israelite and His circumcision (Colossians 2:8-12).

Israel always was a “mixed multitude” – Another line of argument has to do with identifying “Israel.” “Israel” as a group was never a people sharing an exclusive pure bloodline of physical descent from Abraham. From their earliest days as a covenant people, those involved in the promise and covenant made with Abraham were a mixed group. When told to mark all of the males in his household with the “sign of the covenant” – fleshly circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14) – do you remember who that included? Genesis 17:12 tells us that this included servants bought from foreigners who were NOT of his descendants, thus Gentiles have been always been a part of God’s covenant people! Another problem with defining “Israel” as a physically or genetically pure group descended from Abraham is that from the beginning of the era of the Judges, we know that intermarriage with outsiders was a major and continuing problem (Judges 3:5,6). From the beginning, God’s true “Israel” has been a mixture of Jewish and Gentile covenant members!

Beginning with Tamar (Genesis 38), we find a total of four non-Israelite women who not only became a part of Israel, but also participated in the Messianic lineage – Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. From the beginning, “Israel” has been a mixture of Jews & Gentile covenant members!

When Israel left Egypt under the deliverance God provided as He worked through Moses, we are told that a “mixed multitude” departed Egypt (Exodus 12:38) and provisions were made in the ordinance of the Passover celebration so that any foreigner who wished could participate as a first-class Israelite citizen (Exodus 12:42-49). Paul taught the Ephesians this same thing - God's eternal purpose (not a temporary, unpredicted, stop-gap) and the ancient mystery now revealed is that Jesus combines believing Jews and Gentiles into one "household," the Church (Ephesians 2:11- 3:11). From the beginning, “Israel” has been a mixture of Jewish & Gentile covenant members! (to be continued)