What is Israel?A Search for Meaning in Biblical Times and Today

Three Phases or Periods of Time

Israel (“God Rules”) in the Old Testament Establishment Slavery/Exodus/Wilderness Conquest of Canaan Kings Exile/Return/Prophets

The Church and Israel The New Testament Teaching Israel After Jewish-Roman War

The Modern State of Israel

Israel in the OT - Establishment

Unique Story of a Nation Unlike any other narrative of a people group Begins not with Israel per se, but all humanity (will

cover in more detail in the next class) Formation From Sinners by God’s Unilateral

Promise Genesis 12:1-3: “Get out of your country…to a land

that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Stresses God choosing them, not vice versa Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans

Israel in the OT - Establishment

Israel’s “Founding Fathers” Jacob as Usurper/Supplanter, Liar, Thief Dinah/Shechem Incident (Simeon and Levi) Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)

Joseph Story Israel Commits Grave Sin Joseph Puts Trust in God Joseph “stands outside” Israel

Israel in the OT – Slavery/Exodus

Slavery Israel “pays the price” for selling Joseph Moses rises up as leader of the people Plagues visited upon Pharaoh

Exodus God delivers Israel through the Red Sea Central story throughout the entire Bible

Israel in the OT – Wilderness

Wilderness Events/Motif Key to understanding biblical thought

Important Highlights Israel brought out of Egypt by miracle Wandering in the wilderness, grumbling Giving of the Mosaic Law (twice) Worshipping idols

Israel in the OT – Wilderness

Important Highlights (continued) Numbers 14:13-20 (paraphrased): “And Moses said to the

LORD…’If You kill these people (Israel) as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, “Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.”’ Then the LORD said: ‘I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD— because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (continued on next slide)

Israel in the OT – Wilderness

Important Highlights (continued) God spares the people for His own sake, not

theirs Although God pardoned He still punished The one allowed by Him to enter was Caleb

(‘dog’) “Moral of the (Wilderness/Exodus) Story”

There is only one who is good: God God’s people, even after witnessing His miracles

and mercy, continuously reject Him The point of our lives is not to be in the

Promised Land, but to obey God’s commandments

Israel in the OT – Conquest of Canaan

Differing Accounts In the book of Joshua (part 1) In the book of Joshua (part 2) In the book of Judges Archaeological evidence What do we make of this? What is the point?

Israel in the OT – In the Promised Land

Spurning God Appointment of judges to hear cases Israel’s desire for a king

1 Samuel 8:4-22 (summarized): Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.’ (continued on next slide)

Israel in the OT – In the Promised Land

1 Samuel 8:4-22 (continued): ”So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. And he said, ‘This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots.  He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.  He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.  And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.’ Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, ‘No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.’ And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. So the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Heed their voice, and make them a king.’

Israel in the OT – In the Promised Land

Spurning God Israel wants to be like other nations Israel rejects God’s rule over them

What Happens with the King(s)? Exactly what God said would happen!!! Solomon builds God a house/Temple Notably, Solomon’s house is bigger/better Rapid descension/moral decline Complete neglect/forgetfulness of God

Israel in the OT – In the Promised Land

Forgetting God 2 Kings 22:3-13: “Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King

Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe…to the house of the LORD, saying: ‘Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people…to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.’ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.’ And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.  So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying…’Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, ‘Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’”

Israel in the OT – In the Promised Land

Forgetting God The book of the Mosaic Law had been lost!!! Israel had been continuously disobedient to

God Disobedience Leads to Expulsion

Just as God expelled inhabitants before Israel (First) Temple is destroyed People taken into captivity/exile

Israel in the OT – Prophets

Prophecies Highlighted God’s continued goodness to

Israel Stressed Israel’s persistent rejection of God Focused on God’s desire to redeem Israel

(because of his unilateral promise to Abraham), but also emphasized the Gentiles would be included in God’s plan of salvation (which, remember, was part of the original promise)

Predicted God would raise up a Messiah to lead the people and restore them to God

Israel in the OT – Prophets

Ezekiel 47:21-23 (God’s instruction upon returning to the land): “’Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,’ says the Lord GOD.”

Notice how the inhabitants of the land are included or subsumed within God’s people, according to the prophetic teaching

Israel in the NT – Jesus

Jesus as Messiah Christ/Messiah/Anointed One (Matthew 1) Includes the Gentiles Teaches subjecting the Romans not by military

might but by the peaceful “sword” of the Gospel

Important Teachings of Jesus on Gentiles Parable of the Vineyard (Mark 12) Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

(Matthew 20) Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15)

Israel in the NT – Jesus

Important Teachings of the Gospel on Peace Matthew 26:52: “Jesus said to [Peter], ‘Put

your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.’”

Story of Barabbas (Mark 15) Road to Emmaus (Luke 24)

Israel in the NT – St Paul

Emphasis on Putting Trust in God Summarized well in Galatians 3:26-29: “ For

you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Israel in the NT – St Paul

Gentiles Included in the One Community of God, Israel Romans 9:6-7: “But it is not that the word of

God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’”

Galatians 6:16: “And as many as walk according to this rule” (of faith), “peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

Israel and the Jewish-Roman War

Defining/Breaking Point Between Christians and Jews Prior to war, Christians and Jews not distinct War to fight Roman occupation of Jerusalem Christians refused to participate (because of

Jesus’ teaching) Christians and Jews considered distinct groups Second Temple destroyed

Israel and the Church

The Church Views Itself as the Rightful Inheritor of God’s Promises Remember teachings of prophets Remember teaching of Paul There is no “Israel” apart from the Church The “curse” and the “blessing” of those

promises in light of the biblical story

Israel and Palestine Today

From the perspective of the Church (Biblical) Israel is not a “Jewish state,” but the

“one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church,” which is found throughout all the nations

Repudiation of the idea of “two covenants”/dispensations

The Messiah has already come! Violence is only permitted—and even then

hesitatingly so—for the purpose of self-defense

Human rights/dignity of ALL people must be protected

Summary

Israel established by God’s unilateral promise Despite God’s favor, Israel (both Israel in the

Old Testament and the individual members of the Church) is consistently disobedient to God

God, because of His own goodness and for His own name’s sake, unilaterally decided to redeem Israel

God, because of His own goodness, also decided to include the Gentiles in His plan of salvation

God’s plan requires us to view all people as our equals—i.e. there is no “them” vs “us”