At first, God created Adam and Eve to be a community of worship: he would be his God and they would be his people. However, the fall broke their communion between them, as well as with God; A division that went even further in the next generation when Erin murdered her brother. The journey away from God initiated by the lineage of Er 8 Erai ended with a community of worship forged in Babel (Genesis 11). At the same time, did a line of the true worshippers sink from Sao to Abram?Abraham ?, from whom God promised to make a great nation and for whom He promised to bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3).
God promised Abraham’s grandson Jacob that he would make his twelve children a harmonious community of peoples, worshippers (Genesis 28. 3) who would be known by their new name, “Israel. “Significantly, the Hebrew word used here for “community” is quhel, as the Greek translation of the Old Testament is generally translated as ekklesia, “church”. This goal of a worship community was achieved after the exodus from Egypt, when people arrived on Mount Sinai. There, God declared that the Israelites were his specialty, property, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). The Lord has promised to remain among them as his God (Exodus 29:45). But as soon as the people participated in this covenant with the Lord While Moses was at the top of the mountain, receiving instructions from the Lord, the people were at the foot of the mountain making false gods. Was it clear from the beginning that he? A holy nation had no power to live worthy of its vocation.
- Prophets reveal to us the rest of Israel’s history: despite God’s faithfulness.
- They were evil and corrupt children (Isaiah 1.
- 2) and an adulterous woman (Osseas 1-3).
- This legacy of infidelity also belonged to the northern kingdoms.
- And to the south: Israel and Judah were two wicked sisters of the same family (Ezekiel 16:23) who would each suffer the punishment of destruction and exile (Ezekiel 4.
- 4-6).
- The Lord could not live among such a profane people.
- His chosen home in Jerusalem.
- Leaving his people at the mercy of his Babylonian enemies (Ezekiel 8-11).
However, the destruction of Israel in exile could not be the end of the story. Because the Lord had linked his name with Israel, the nation had to be restored so that his holy name would not be profaned among the nations (Ezekiel 20:14). The promises made on Mount Sinai were to be fulfilled (Jeremiah 33. 20-21), so that the two nations of Israel and Judah would be restored by the Lord into one united body, composed of all the families of Israel (Jeremiah 31. 1) under one king (Ezekiel 37: 16-22). The most important promise was the spiritual transformation of Israel into a new people, whose hardened hearts would be transformed into new hearts, under a new covenant (Jeremiah 31. 31-33), by an outpouring of the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36. 22). -28). The new Israel would become the servant of the Lord, a light to the Gentiles, bringing healing to all nations (Isaiah 42: 6, 10). However, the new Israel described in Isaiah 40-48 remained a weak and struggling people who needed constant exhortation to seek obedience and encouragement to trust God’s constant love for them. To accomplish God’s purposes, another superior Israel was needed, a servant who would take the place of Israel, doing what Israel could not do, fulfilling his call to bring light to the nations (Isaiah 49: 6).
This servant, Israel? the flesh was made in the person of Jesus Christ. From the moment of his birth, he reconstructed the history of Israel, descending to Egypt so that he could be the true son God called Egypt (Matthew 2. 15, quoting Osseas 11. 1). Just as Israel crossed the Red Sea, Jesus went through the waters of baptism (Matthew 3) before being taken into the wilderness, where he faced and overcome the same temptations that Israel did not endure (Matthew 4). . At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-2 aloud, declaring that Scripture had been fulfilled in the presence of his listeners (Luke 4:18-19): he was the servant himself on whom the Spirit of God rested. Like the new Israel, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the law. The new covenant Jeremiah anticipated was established in his blood (Luke 22:20). Jesus fulfilled God’s original plan for human holiness, thus personally embodying the new Israel that the prophets imagined.
Because Jesus Christ Himself is the new Israel, all who are united to him by faith are also incorporated into the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). He is the true vine, the classic image of the Old Testament for Israel, and we are his pammpanos (John 15). Because Christ is the living cornerstone of god’s house, those who are united with Him become living stones in that house (1 Peter 2:4-5) and can be described with the same terminology that he described Israel in the Old Testament: in Christ, we are?chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation? (1 Peter 2,9-10).
Being part of this new covenant of Israel, therefore, is not a matter of physically descending from Abraham, but rather of sharing Abraham’s repentance and faith (Luke 3. 8). God’s new people include both Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 3:28). ), since both are grafted into the new olive tree, Christ / Israel (Romans 11:17-24). This does not mean that God has forgotten his promises to those who physically descend from Abraham (Romans 11. 1). But not all who physically descend from Israel are part of the new Israel (Romans 9:6). The restoration of Israel promised in the prophets is carried out while the gospel is preached in Jerusalem and Judea (the southern kingdom) in Samaria. (the northern kingdom) and to the ends of the earth, thus finally bringing the light of God. Gentiles (Acts 1. 8).
In the book of Revelation, John hears that God’s people are described as a group of 144,000 formed by the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 7. 4-8). However, as he looks again, he discovers that the same group was countless people. every tribe and nation (Revelation 7:9-12). The lord’s wife, the image used in the Old Testament for Israel, is the Church, which will no longer be tarnished by her sin one day, but will be beautifully adorned for her. husband (Revelation 21:2). On that day, God’s original design and plan for Israel?Should a holy and united people belong to themselves?will finally be fulfilled in Christ’s marriage to his Church.
By: Iain Duguid. © 2012 Ligonier. Original Ministério: The Church and Israel in the Old Testament.
This article is part of the October 2012 edition of Tabletalk magazine.
Translation: Vinícius Silva Pimentel. Review: Vinícius Musselman Pimentel. © 2014 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br. Original: The Church and Israel in the Old Testament.