Israel was the main theme in the Gospels. Jesus came for His people Israel. The people have a future full of promises in which it is pictured how Israel will become a channel of blessing for all nations. God’s goal is the whole world. He already told this to Abraham. Israel as a people was to become a priestly nation and be a mediator between God and the rest of the nations. And then everything turned out differently.
The Chosen People
When Paul talks about Israel in Romans 9, what do we think of? Do we know the difference between Israel and the nations? That’s what we’re trying to clarify in this post.
The relationship between Israel and the other nations is not the story of a favorite people and “the rest”. Rather, it is the story of God’s love. God chooses a people:
“For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people of possession to him out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more than all the nations that Yahweh inclined toward you and chose you, for you are the least of all the nations; but because of Yahweh’s love for you, and because he kept the oath he swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Deut 7:6-8
Israel was chosen as the “proprietary people out of all peoples,” but not because they were bigger or better. Marketing-wise, a large, already successful people would be preferred today. God, however, reports something different here. Rather, Israel was “the least of all peoples.”
The choice was not logical. Why did God choose this people? Love was given as the reason. It also reaffirmed the oath that God had already given to the fathers, beginning with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 17:1-14). Election is never about favoritism. Election always has a goal in mind. Election in the Bible is never an end in itself, but always with the purpose of working through the elect to bless. Election is always linked to a task.
The story with Israel is developing. When Jesus was born, many saw it as the fulfillment of promises of a Messiah:
“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the princes of Judah; for out of you will come forth a leader who will feed my people Israel.”
Mt 2:6, cf. Micah 5
In Jesus, this leader of Israel was recognized. He would be the expected Messiah. Through this Messiah, the fulfillment of the Messianic promises was now to take place. John the Baptist and, a little later, Jesus himself spoke of this: “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 3:2; Matt. 4:17).
The Kingdom of Heaven is the epitome of the Messianic promises. It is the theme of the Gospels. The Messiah is here, the King is here, the promised Kingdom is about to be established! It was a time charged with messianic expectation.
The expression “kingdom of heaven” comes from the prophets. The prophet Daniel had spoken of a kingdom “of the heavens,” that is, a kingdom with a heavenly origin that would be established “under all the heavens,” that is, throughout the earth (Dan 2:44; Dan 7:27). In Daniel’s day, this kingdom was a promise and still “far away,” but with Jesus it had “come near.” That was the proclamation.
Because Christians often assume that “wherever Jesus is on it, today’s church is in it,” the distinction needs some emphasis. Jesus spoke of being sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24), and Paul later confirms that Jesus came to confirm the promises to the fathers (Rom. 15:8). So this is not speaking of today’s church from all nations! The present church is unknown in the Gospels. Today’s Gospel proclamation is not merely about a different orientation of the proclamation, but about a fundamentally different proclamation. Today, it is not about the messianic kingdom or the fulfillment of the promises to Israel. In the Gospels, however, these things were the main theme.
What Jesus had come for concerns the promises to Israel and the messianic kingdom. This was His message in the Gospels. Nothing else was known until now. However, it was a hot topic: the future of Israel was imminent! This development is the background for Paul’s consternation in the first verses of the ninth chapter of Romans. Something about this messianic promise to Israel has not been fulfilled. This was a disaster, caused pain and dismay.
Postponed but not canceled
This is how the believers experienced it at that time: the Messiah was crucified. The kingdom was not established. It must have felt like all expectations in Jesus were swept off the table in one fell swoop. Then came the resurrection. A tremendous event. But what about the messianic expectation? After the resurrection, the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” (Acts 1:6). This was what the disciples expected directly from Jesus after many years of teaching. The kingdom for Israel was the expectation, not a church of all nations. Those who still think that the Gospels are for today’s church cannot do anything with such statements.
Jesus answered:
Then He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or deadlines that the Father has set by His own authority.”
Acts 1:7
I imagine that the disciples were a bit confused about this answer. First the Messiah dies, then He is raised from the dead with power. That was already a roller coaster ride of emotions. Now Jesus was raised and new hope for the messianic kingdom arises. What’s next? That is why the disciples asked this question about the Kingdom for Israel. Jesus then soberly answers and moves the date to “someday”. What are the disciples supposed to have felt?
The kingdom was postponed, but not annulled. The establishment of the Kingdom, the right time for it, is determined by God the Father. Significantly, this question and the answer are at the beginning of Acts. The book of Acts describes the chaotic time after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The church in Jerusalem has to find itself anew, the apostles have to find pragmatic solutions for everyday tasks and then suddenly there is also this Paul who is called as the 13th apostle, especially for the nations.
With the appearance of Paul, something new happens again. Paul is speaking directly to the nations, which was unheard of. Let us consider that Peter still has to be led by visions to meet a proselyte named Cornelius (Acts 10). The “conversion of the world,” as Christians like to interpret it as the goal of the apostles, was not very present in Peter. Logically, because Peter was still waiting for the kingdom for Israel. Paul, however, did not wait for that and went directly to the nations. (Yikes!)
While the kingdom is postponed for Israel, Paul enters the scene as an “apostle to the nations” (Rom 11:13). This was mind-blowingly new and caused much discussion in the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles is the report of an upheaval. During this time, many things change. On the one hand, there is still the church in Jerusalem, with the twelve apostles, waiting for the establishment of the messianic kingdom, and on the other hand, there is this apostle Paul, who “works more than all” (1Cor 15,10) and directly calls out a “church from all nations”. The good news with which he comes to the nations he calls several times “my gospel”, which he also presents to the twelve apostles.
To understand the New Testament, it is essential to recognize Israel and the church from all nations as two different things. In the transitional period, there were still many people who might have known Jesus directly. This was also true for some people in the churches that Paul founded. To these people the apostle explicitly says:
“Even if we have also known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we do not know Him so.”
2Cor 5,16
Simplified, we could say that we should not get stuck in the Gospels. “Jesus before the resurrection” does not concern the same situation as “Jesus after the resurrection”. It would be better to say: the time of the Gospels corresponded to the expectation for Israel. But now some things have become new (2Cor 5,17). Paul wrote this to the church at Corinth, a church with people “from all nations.” That was mind-blowingly new.
We should not pretend to be Israel, but we should realize that the expectation for Israel, though not cancelled, was postponed. Something just happened that was unknown before: people from all nations were called to faith. This change raised many questions.
Israel and the nations
From this prehistory it becomes clear why Paul takes up the subject of Israel in his letter to the Romans. There was so much upheaval that there must have been confusion in the communities. In the church in Rome there were believers from the Jews as well as believers from the nations. What was that about Israel now?
Paul begins his exposition with the following words:
“Truth I speak in Christ
(I am not lying, my conscience testifies to me in holy spirit):
Great sorrow is in me and unceasing pain in my heart
– for my brethren, my kinsmen in the flesh,
are the Israelites,
to whom belong the state of sonship and glory,
the alliances and legislation,
the service and the promises,
to which the fathers belong
and from which Christ came in the flesh,
who is above all, God, blessed for the eons!
Amen!”
Rom 9:1-5
Paul writes as a sufferer. He himself was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin, an Israelite:
“Circumcised on the eighth day, of the seed of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrews of Hebrews.”
Phil 3:5
Paul was dismayed by what he saw in Israel. The development went in a completely different direction than expected. These were his brothers. From this people he came. And not only he himself, but also Jesus was a Jew. All the foundations for the gospel of grace that Paul preached were based in this nation of Israel. Only a few of the people, however, saw Jesus as the expected Messiah. That is why Paul was in need.
First, the apostle describes all the privileges for the people of Israel. It honors God’s calling for the people. He calls the people “Israelites.” This is significant in that Israel was the common name for the Jews at that time. While God dealt with Israel, He let the nations go their own way (Acts 14:16). So these nations have always been there. We’ll get to that soon.
Excursus "Anglo-Israel
Lost ten tribes?
For decades I have encountered people who are taken in by the Anglo-Israel idea. This doctrine sees a strict separation from the former Israel (northern kingdom “Israel” and southern kingdom “Judah”) as a permanent differentiation in God’s actions. The ten tribes would be “lost” and reappear as various Western nations, to the point of the idea that England is the only true worldwide Kingdom of God. It is as if two different peoples emerge, the “Jews” on the one hand and “Israel” on the other, with the Jews then representing only two tribes, and Israel being the “lost ten tribes”. Each of these “peoples” would have its own future ahead of it. Of course, the followers of this doctrine recognize themselves in this “recovered Israel”.
Personally, I don’t think much of these ideas because they can already be refuted from Scripture. Bible texts are taken out of context, historical developments are ignored, and wildly unrelated sources are misused for their own purposes. One constructs one’s own worldview, which in many areas is not only theologically abstruse, but often disturbingly racist. Chapters 9-11 of the Epistle to the Romans in particular refute this teaching. The basic understanding of Israel in the Bible is different from what the teachings of this doctrine suggest.
Judah and Israel
Gone are the days when there were individual tribes in their own territories. Israel was scattered. Judah was scattered. James addresses his letter to “the twelve tribes in the dispersion” (Jas 1:1). From this it is clear that not only ten tribes were scattered, but all the tribes from the former Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom ended up in the Diaspora. The Jewish diaspora is that of all twelve tribes of Israel. James did not address only two of these tribes, but all twelve, as far as they were scattered and therefore belonged to the diaspora.
The terms “Jew” and “Israel” have become synonyms. All tribes were once led away into captivity and from all tribes people had come back to the promised land*. Moreover, it should be remembered that in the removals by the Assyrians and Babylonians, all the people were never taken away. Always some stayed on the land, tilling it. So on the return, people came back to the land of Israel and to Jerusalem, and found there people from their own nation. Since these events and the return of many people from the Diaspora, “Judah” and “Israel” have been used to refer to the entire nation. Paul himself, as a Benjamite, would also be part of the former kingdom of “Judah,” yet he saw himself as part of Israel (“of Israel’s lineage, of the tribe of Benjamin” Phil 3:5).
Jesus was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24), and to them He spoke. By the time of the New Testament, some could trace their allegiance to one of the tribes, but a distinction between two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, between two and ten other tribes, no longer existed. Rather, at Pentecost, for example, Jews and proselytes from all over the world were in Jerusalem when Peter preached his sermon (Acts 2:5-11). In it he said, “Most assuredly, therefore, the whole house of Israel …” (Acts 2:36). Accordingly, he saw the house of Israel as his audience.
Nations
When the New Testament speaks of Israel, it is in contrast to all other nations. There is no difference between “Judah” and “Israel”. It is “Israel” on the one hand and it is the “goyim”, the “Gentiles”, on the other. Paul became an apostle “of the nations,” not “of Israel.” That is exactly the point that is important here. For the twelve tribes of Israel, there were already the twelve apostles. They will one day sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes (Matt. 19:28). Paul, however, was the apostle to the nations (Rom 11:13). That was something new. The difference plays an important role throughout the New Testament, but especially here in Romans 9-11.
Deepening
* The History of the Ten Lost Tribes, Anglo-Israelism Examined, by David Baron (Forgotten Books).
Amazon | Forgottenbooks.com
Israel and the nations
There is much that could be said about Israel and the nations. Let brevity be the spice here. They want to be food for thought. There are several references, texts like the one quoted here above, that can be considered as key verses. Their main purpose is to encourage us to critically examine the New Testament so that we can better understand it. At the end of this post, a couple of related posts are linked.
This should be noted: History is written in the New Testament. There is a development. Not everything happens one after the other. Many things happen almost simultaneously. You can see the overlap of the church from Israel (12 apostles) and the church from all nations (Paul). Key verses help to get a better understanding of the big picture. Those who lived in the time of the apostles experienced these differences firsthand.
Developments were sometimes confusing. There were arguments. It was necessary to reach an agreement. For example, it was not at all clear what would happen next with Israel. And why is it so different with the church from all nations than with Israel? Paul now comes to Israel because there are questions on the table. Questions about what will happen to Israel, what will happen to God’s Word, which spoke of Israel and for Israel. Paul enlightens the church in Rome because this was necessary. We too should know how and where Israel is spoken of. Because that has to do with us.
There are various aberrations in Christian history in the way Israel is viewed. Once there was the church that thought it had “replaced” Israel. Then there are churches and congregations that live in their own Christian bubble and strictly ignore Israel. Still other Christians adopt Jewish rites and symbols, hoping thereby to be “closer to God,” to experience something visible in this world. Others see themselves as the “better Israel,” such as the Anglo-Israel movement.
None of this really helps. What is decisive is that God works. At the same time, He sometimes speaks to us and sometimes not to us. Not everything, however, speaks of us. Besides, the present time is very special. Paul comes to speak of this in these chapters. It clarifies how Israel is going on and why something different is taking place right now. Israel has its very own place in God’s saving action. Today’s community has a different and also very unique place in it.
Where are we meant? That is the question that matters today. Where and how does God speak to us? And: Which expectation is still fulfilled for Israel and for the rest of the world? This then concerns the outlook. With Israel we share much more than separates us.
We can perhaps do as Paul did. Let’s start by appreciating God’s work for other people and groups. Perhaps, like Paul, we are dismayed that other people see it differently than we do. But we can leave everything – like Paul – in God’s hands, because He is above everything, including our understanding.
When we trust in God’s work in this way, looking at how He works, we are ready for the explanations that come in the next chapters.
