Monday, March 28, 2011

Romans 9-11: What About Israel?

Before reading this next post, I would encourage you to click here for an up-to-date example of how Israel is doing these days.

Now that you've (hopefully) read up on your current events in the middle east, you might be asking yourself, OK, well then, what about God's promises to Israel?

If we journey back to Genesis 15 we see God establish a covenant with father Abraham, where God promised to establish a great nation out of Israel, starting with his son, Isaac. The nation of Israel has been God's chosen people from the very beginning. Throughout Exodus, Joshua, Judges, and all of the rest of the Old Testament, all we see is God being faithful to Israel - even in the face of their seriously legit rebellion[1]. But then if we jump forward to the time of the Roman Empire, Israel is a captive people. Rome is the ruling power, and no one from the nation of Israel is sitting on the throne. Jesus Himself acknowledges to the people that Caesar was a ruling authority, so much so that they were to pay taxes to him. (cf. Luke 23- 25).That doesn't sound like the establishment of a "fruitful and plentiful nation" to me.

So what then? Did God abandon Israel? Did He go back on His promises to His chosen people?  

If these questions are answered "yes"...what does that mean about everything God promised to us back in Romans 6-8? Remember all that jazz about the Zombie Sin Nature? And how nothing can separate us from the love of God?...If God can go back on His promises to Israel, how can we be sure that He won't go back on his promises to us - the Gentiles who aren't included in that covenant?


Romans 9-11 gives us a clearer understanding of God's relationship to Israel, why they are suffering as a nation right now, and what will happen for them in the future.

Chapter 9 could be summed up in a simple sentence: God chose Israel. Period. End of story. He didn't need a reason, and Israel certainly didn't do anything to earn His favor (in fact, they repeatedly fell into their own sin.) God made that choice because...well, He just did.

God's sovereign choice as illustrated in 9:1-29 [2]  reminds me a lot of the old-school cartoon Pokemon. Remember the main character, Ash Ketchum - who was his main guy, the Pokemon you NEVER saw him without?

Now, tell me truly - WHAT is so special about this weird little...pack-rat-meets-tiger-meets-hamster-meets-monsoon-thunder-storm? I mean, ok fine, he can shoot lightning at people. But did you ever watch the show? Pikachu was moody, obnoxious, often disobedient, and...honestly, just less cool than some of the other Pokemon. And Ash ALWAYS picked him. "I choose...YOU, Pikachu!" Without fail, Ash always picked Pikachu. Sometimes when it was clearly to his detriment to rely on the pack-rat-hamster-lightning-death thing. He never traded him for better Pokemon, never swapped him out for one that could help him win. 

I think God behaved the same way with Israel. The covenant He made with them was binding to His character, and He continued to choose them, even when they were moody. Unfaithful. Obnoxious. Disobedient. And they couldn't even do so much as throw lightning at people. They had nothing to offer God. And yet God chose them anyway, and was completely justified in His choice. 

Now, does that mean that God doesn't sometimes hide His face or discipline His people?

...raise your hand if you feel you've ever experienced discipline from God.
Ok, the rest of you are lying or fooling yourselves. 




God has every right to discipline His people. Especially when they stop calling out to God and trusting Him, which is exactly what happens in Romans 10. Paul explains Israel's position in verse 14:

"How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet who bring the sound of good news!' But not all the Israelites accepted the good news."

The big problem here was that the Jews of that day didn't all accept Jesus as God. Part of their agreement with the Lord was that they would call out to Him in times of trouble and then be saved.* The problem is, they didn't recognize Jesus' full divinity - they didn't call upon the name of Jesus.[3]




 There's a take-home lesson here - did you catch it? When we don't call upon Jesus in the midst of our trouble, God will not deliver us from it. Not until we call out His name and put our trust in Him. The longer we refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the deliverer, the harder our lives can become. Just sayin'. 

 But one of the things I've learned to love about Paul's letter to Rome is that there's always a turning point. Always. And in this case, it comes in chapter 11.

"I ask then. Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew." Romans 11:1

There it is. Plain and simple - as clear as Scripture could possibly be. God did not reject His people. Now you might be sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm not Jewish, so what does this whole post have to do with me?" 
 Newsflash: if you're not Jewish, you're a Gentile. So it has everything to do with us. 

"Again I ask. Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous." Romans 11:11

Basically it says this: without Israel rejecting the Lord, the gospel might never have been made available to the Gentiles. And without the gospel being presented to the Gentiles, Israel might never be won back to God. We all have to work together on this one, because we are all being drawn back into God. 

What might that look like in your life? Maybe praying for the nation of Israel for them to name the name of Jesus? Maybe it looks like being open to ministering to your Jewish friends? Maybe it looks as simple as being aware of the fact that God is faithful to keep His word even when we aren't - and He reserves the right to discipline us accordingly when we stray off and forget to name His name. 

Maybe it's as simple as remembering our place in relation to who God is. 


[1] This information taken from Dr. Paul Benware’s Genesis-Song of Solomon notes from Fall 2010, as well as his Prophets class notes from Spring 2011 
[2] Information taken from Professor John Correia’s slide show for Acts - Rev
*See Exodus and the story of the serpents in the desert. It's gnarly. 
[3] Information taken from class discussion during John Correia’s class as well as Dr. Benware’s Gen-Song class

2 comments:

  1. Does that mean that in the Millennium that Israel will morph into Raichu?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wouldn't discount it as a possibility

    ReplyDelete