Israel's role

ISRAEL'S PRIVILEGED ROLE IN GOD'S PROGRAM

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2012

More than any other people on earth, the nation of Israel occupies a preferential status in God's program. This exalted position is because of His promise to Abraham.

Gen 12:2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

It is a promise God reiterated several times thereafter and that manifests in four ways:

• Israel is the recipient of God's support.

Exod 19:6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
Lev 20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
Deut 7:6 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.
Deut 10:15 Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today.
Deut 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.... 21 Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God.
Deut 26:19 He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.
Deut 28:1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
Deut 30:3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you
Rom 9:4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

• Israel is the recipient of God's stipulations.

Deut 4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? ...20 But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance....
Deut 26:18 And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised. Deut 28:9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.
Ps 135:4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.
Ps 147:19 He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. 20a He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. 20 He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.
Rom 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

• Israel is the recipient of God's Sabbath.

Exod 16:29 Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out.
Neh 9:14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
Ezek 20:12 ...I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.
b Shabb 10b (= b Betsa 16a) The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, I have a precious gift in my treasure house, called the Sabbath, and desire to give it to Israel; go and inform them.

• Israel is the recipient of God's sanctity.

Lev 11:44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. 45 I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
Lev 19:2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
Lev 20:7 Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.... 26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
Lev 21:6 They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy.

In these four ways, Israel demonstrates its privileged role in God's program, a position that sets it apart from all other peoples in The Drama of Redemption. Moreover, it is a position that will not expire.

• Israel is the recipient of God's surety.

Ps 89:29 I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.... 33 ...I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. 35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—and I will not lie to David—36 that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; 37 it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky."
Jer 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
Jer 33:17 For this is what the LORD says: 'David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 nor will the priests, who are Levites, ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices." ...20 "This is what the LORD says: 'If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. 22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore."
Ezek 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever.
Rom 11:28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

Israel's unique position in God's program is settled and will remain so until He establishes the new creation at the end of the Messianic Age, at which time such distinctions are no more.

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