Is Israel still Gods Chosen People?
The covenant made with Abraham is the point that we usually think of as the beginning of the idea of God’s chosen people. It is found in Genesis 15:18 and Genesis 17:2-11. The land promise given to Abraham’s descendants was the focus of the covenant and has followed Israel’s history from Abrahams time to this. It is a factor in the thinking of modern Israelis toward their neighbors and of the thinking of present day Americans and Europeans toward the entire Middle East. Understanding the history of this promise is essential to understand the Bible and the history of the Jewish people.
Two other great covenant leaders were to follow. Moses, leader of the Jews at the time of the Exodus, was the next great covenant leader and David was covenant leader when Jerusalem was taken and established as the center of the Jewish nation. The promise to Abraham was not, however, the first instance of such a promise made in the bible.
The first beneficiary of a land grant from the Lord was Adam. If the idea that Abraham was the first to be in covenant relationship with the Lord contributes to the idea that Israel is God’s chosen people, then the realization that it was actually Adam who was first to be in covenant with the Lord might tend to negate that thought. But there was yet another who preceded Abraham in covenant with the Lord.
That was Noah. Author Palmer Robertson identifies them in the following way (This article is largely the result of Robertsons work). In Adam we had the covenant of commencement; In Noah the covenant of preservation, in Abraham the covenant of promise in Moses the covenant of law, in David the covenant of the Kingdom, all of which led to Christ and the covenant of consummation.
One can observe a progression here. Robertson includes a diagram intended to represent several significant aspects of the divine covenants in their diversity.
1. The ultimate purpose of the covenant of creation finds realization in the covenant of redemption. The intended goals of the two covenants correspond. By redemption, the original purposes of creation are achieved—or even excelled.
2. The various administrations of the covenant of redemption relate organically to one another. They do not replace one another chronologically, instead, each successive covenant expands on previous administrations.
3. Each of the shadows, prophetic administrations of the covenant of redemption finds its fulfillment in Christ, the personal embodiment of the new covenant. In him is found the fulfillment of all God’s covenant purposes.
One might take note of the fact that all five leaders were proven to be flawed individuals. For those who have doubts about their ability to measure up to any given task, remember that it is always average people that are chosen by the Lord to fulfill his desires for his people. Adam ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree (the only restriction given him). Noah was exposed in his drunkenness. Abraham laughed when he was told he would be the father of a mighty nation. Moses struck the rock rather than spoken to it and David had a loyal follower murdered in order to take his wife.
In the ancient world a covenant was an agreement between two kings, a great king and a servant or vassal king. Bible promises of blessings and curses, known as stipulations of the covenants are seen beginning with Adam and extending to Abraham, Moses, David and others from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation. The nation of Israel is unique in that they had a covenant with their God rather than an earthly king. Our Old Testament is widely known as the Old Covenant. Likewise the New Testament is known as the New Covenant.
n the ancient world when either party to a covenant (the great king or the servant king) broke the covenant, the other party was no longer bound by it. It was always the servant king who broke it and who usually felt it was no longer necessary. He did not need the protection of the great king and could hold his territory by himself. This was the reason for the stipulations found in the covenant agreement. One stipulation was normally the loss of the territory granted by the covenant. A covenant might have included several stipulations, all of which were included as further incentive to remain loyal to the great king.
In the case of Israel, the great king (The Lord) was not there physically to speak for Himself so he chose to speak through prophets. In Judges 6:8 we first have a case where the Lord institutes a covenant lawsuit. The unidentified prophet recounts (for the Lord) all that has been done by way of creating Israel, granting territory, offering protection, bringing them out of bondage, feeding them in the wilderness and so on. Then he tells how Israel has broken the covenant and then invokes the curses described in the covenant.
In this case the Lord turned them over to the Midianites for seven years. During this time they hid in mountains and lived in fear. Whenever they planted their crops the Midianites would come and take and destroy them. We find Gideon hiding to thresh the grain so that the Midianites would not find it. The Midianites were not a particularly mighty nation, but were able to terrorize Israel for seven years even though Israel would have seemed to have a mightier army. Israel knew that they had abandoned the Lord and that he would no longer be their protection and helper in battle.
Although seven years might not seem like a long time, it is the number of covenant and other periods of servanthood might have been even longer. For example the Jews were in Egypt for 400 years. However, the entire time there was not as slaves. Joseph had been a young man (seventeen) when he was sold into slavery. He served Potifer long enough to rise to run his entire household for some period of time after which he was cast into prison. He remained there long enough to rise to run it even while still being a prisoner himself, and was confined for at least two years after interpreting the dreams of the cupbearer and baker. Then, upon his release he nearly ran the entire country of Egypt. Perhaps he was 30 or 40 when he rose to power. When his family joined him in Egypt, the Bible states that there were 70 in all who entered Egypt. Even though the 70 were named individually, 70 is a symbolic number and may have been an incomplete number, including only the actually family members.
Remember when Abraham set out to rescue Lot (Genesis 14:14) he took 318 men who had been born in his household. Using that number Abrahams entire community might have been as large as 2,000 people. So perhaps there were more than 70 who initially entered Egypt, but, I doubt it. Since they are named specifically, 70 should probably taken as a precise number. Joseph lived to be 110 so he may have spent ninety-three years in Egypt by the time he died.
The Hebrews evidently had been there several generations before really entering the period of slavery. The Egyptians said “Let us deal shrewdly with them as they are too many for us”. The population of the Jews had been growing rapidly and the Egyptians were worried about that even though they already were a fully blown nation of great power when the Jews arrived. However, the Lord needed a protectorate nation for his fledgling people.
Serving a great king and having been granted territory comes pretty close to being a covenant itself and the Lord did not want any other covenants to cloud the relationship with Himself that he had in mind for the Jews. Had the relationship with Egypt been successful, in the long term, there would never arisen a cry for deliverance. It had to fail. The Jews were to be a unique nation in all earth in that their covenant was with their God rather than a great king.
The Pharaoh who “knew not” Joseph need not have been the very next pharaoh to follow Joseph’s death and several generations may have followed before the period of slavery began. The Bible does not say exactly how long their slavery lasted. I am guessing that it may have been 200 years or less, plenty long by any reckoning and far worse than 7 years under the Midianites.
Nevertheless, when persecution came, the Lord responded to their cry just as he did at the time of Gideon. Gideon is the first of many Judges who appeared following a time of backsliding by the Jews. The period of the judges lasted for the first two or three centuries after the Jews entered the promised land, not too long of a time into the existence of Israel itself. In each case the judge was preceded by a prophet who pointed out their sin that resulted in a cry to the Lord.
This is a similar function to that of the Holy Spirit, convicting one of sin. Understand that the punishment that was handed out at the time was a result of them breaking the covenant and suffering the sanctions promised in the covenant. The Lord was under no obligation to take them back on any of these occasions. Once the covenant is broken the sanctions are forthcoming and the covenant is over.
However, the Lord did take them back over and over again when he was not obligated to do so. His desire to continue to have a relationship with his chosen people was so great that he twice did something way beyond the call of duty. When Abraham cut the sacrifice and spread it on the ground Abraham was prevented from passing between the body parts as was the custom. Only the Lord passed through (Genesis 15:17).
This signified the Lord’s intention to keep both parts of the covenant. Notice that this is sort of early in the making of covenants. The Lord was already cognizant of the fact that they were unable to keep these covenants. Since He already knew it, I have to conclude that all this repeated breaking, cursing and atonement was not for God’s awareness but for mans.
At Mt Sinai, two copies of the law were made by Moses and both were placed in the Ark. Normally one copy went to the great King and one to the servant King. In this case the Lord had both copies put into the ark, the place where God was, indicating his intention to be responsible for both sides of the covenant.
The Lord knew very well that they could not keep their end of the covenant and he was going to make sure that they remained loyal to him in spite of their backsliding. This shows how great His love was for his chosen people and easily gives rise to the idea that they will always be his people. It strikes me that this double responsibility on the part of the Lord is very similar to our concept of grace.
In covenant language, creation is accomplished by division. In Genesis, the Lord separated the light from darkness, the water from the dry land, Eve from Adam. To create Israel it was necessary to separate the Hebrews from Egypt. The Egyptians did not worship the Lord and for much of their history they worshipped many gods. A portion of the reason to separate them was to prevent the Hebrews from accepting the gods of Egypt or from intermarrying with Egyptians (which would most likely have entailed accepting their gods).
The Jews would have recognized the parting of the Red Sea as God’s creative act. However, they did not come into the promised land until the crossing of the Jordan. The 40 years in the wilderness was a 40 year transitional period. We will soon see that the 40 years between the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem was a 40 year transitional period in which the new covenant was created first in the spirit then in fact.