God's Covenants Of Love
This is the first post from Chapter 8 of Friends With God: God’s Friendship With Israel And The Church.
God’s commandments given to ancient Israel are based on love to God and to our neighbour, as discussed in this previous post, Love In Action. When Jesus was asked, Which is the great commandment in the Law? He replied:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (Matt 22:35-39)
He then elaborated on these two great laws by saying:
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:40)
Again, in Mark 12:28-34, when talking about these two commandments, Jesus concluded with a similar statement: There is no other commandment greater than these.
If we don’t love God by demonstrating compassion and mercy toward other people, then everything else is meaningless:
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not burdensome. (1John 5:2-3)
All the commandments and laws that God provides in his written Covenant for ancient Israel, show us how to love God and others, with depth and understanding.
This is why his commandments are not burdensome, because they are for our good, not for our harm. They do not weigh us down, but lighten our path on the way of life. (Psalm 119:105, Prov 6:23) God does not expect us to figure out what is right and what is wrong, his law plainly shown us what is good for us to do.
Who Are The Jews In Scripture, And Who Are The Jews Today?
While civil laws are evident in every society, a covenant based on love between the ruler and the people is unique to the ancient nation of Israel, and their ruler, who was God.
The New Covenant with Christians is similar to the Covenant with ancient Israel, as they are both based on love, and on the Law of God, but there also are many significant differences between these covenants.
Christ, the Apostles, and most Christians in the early years of the church, were Jews by birth, born into the Israelite covenant. In order to understand the difference between these various covenants, it’s important to understand how the Jews came to be a nation in a covenant relationship with God.
Who or what is the nation of Israel? Where did the Jews come from? Is Israel the same group of people as the Jews? Following is a brief historical summary of Israel, as provided in scripture. (All dates are taken from Appendix 50 of The Companion Bible by E.W.Bullinger.)
Photo by Author, Rainbow Lorikeet in Grevillea Blossoms.
Israel Leaves Egypt
Most people know that Israel was a nation of twelve tribes that God brought out of Egypt, under the physical leadership of Moses. These people were the physical descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name was changed from Jacob, meaning ‘supplanter’, to Israel, which means ‘he will rule as God’. (Gen 32:28)
All descendants of Jacob are called Israelites. One of the twelve sons was called Judah, from which the term Jew comes. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, the friend of God. (Isa 41:8-9) What this means is discussed in detail in this post, The Faith Of Abraham, God’s Friend.
Some people get confused and think Abraham was a Jew, but he was not. Abraham was a Hebrew. (Gen 14:13) He was the great grandfather of Judah, who is the progenitor of all Jews. Israelites are also often called Hebrews, which indicates that they are descendants of Abraham.
The book of Hebrews in the New Covenant, is specifically written to the Jews, rather than to the gentiles, as it deals with how the Jews relate to God in the terms of the New Covenant. This Chapter of Friends With God will examine the book of Hebrews in some detail.
Ancient Nation Of Israel Splits
There is therefore a clear difference between the meaning of “Israel” and “Jew”. This difference was most obvious when the twelve tribes split into two kingdoms, about six hundred years after God brought them all out of Egypt. They formed the northern ten tribes, called the Kingdom of Israel, and the southern two tribes, called the Kingdom of Judah- or Jews for short. Each kingdom had its own king, laws and customs.
The northern tribes rebelled against many of God’s laws, including making idols to worship, and changed the dates for keeping the festivals, as discussed in previous posts. They also kept these festivals in their own land, rather than in the land of Judah, at Jerusalem, as God had stipulated.
God had also identified the tribe of Levi as being the only people to serve him as priests and teachers, but the king of Israel made priests from anyone who was willing to teach the people his perverted form of worshiping God. Consequently, many from the tribe of Levi, and a great number of other righteous people from all the ten tribes, left the northern kingdom of Israel and moved to the land of Judah in order to worship God as he directed them to.
The southern Kingdom consequently came to include people from all the tribes, yet the Kingdom and people were still collectively called “Judah” or “Jews”. Despite this mixed heritage, individual Jews were careful not to lose sight of their lineage. Paul, for example, tells us that he was from the tribe of Benjamin. (Phil 3:5, Rom 11:1)
Much of the history of Israel in scripture is about God sending prophets to correct the rebellious northern ten tribes, including stirring up invading armies to persuade them to turn back to him. Yet they would not listen. Eventually, in about 610BC, God caused invaders to completely remove the people of the northern ten tribes into captivity, away from the land of Israel. They never returned to Israel, and today are often referred to by historians as the lost ten tribes of Israel, yet scripture never refers to them by this term.
Later, the southern Kingdom of Judah also rebelled against God, and suffered a fate similar to the northern Kingdom, being taken into captivity in about 477BC. However, God allowed a small number of Jews to return to the land in about 405BC. They eventually resettled much of the area of the Kingdom of Judah, and also rebuilt the Temple, which had been destroyed.
These are the people collectively referred to in the New Covenant as either “Israel” or the “Jews”. However, in the Old Covenant, the people referred to as “Jews” may be a very distinct group from those called “Israel”. It all depends on the context.
When “Israel” is mentioned in the Old Covenant, it could mean the entire nation before it was divided, or just those of the Northern Kingdom after it was divided. Whereas the term “Jews” in the Old Covenant meant the people living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, even though many in this kingdom were descended from the other tribes of Israel, but had left the Northern Kingdom at some time.
God Has Not Annulled His Covenant With The Nation of Israel
Yet, despite all their history of rebellion, Paul tells us that God has not annulled his Covenant with Israel.
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew…. (Rom 11:1-2)
Similarly in the Old Testament we are told that God will never forsake Israel:
Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: “If this fixed order (of the sun and moon, night and day) departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.” (Jer 31:35-37)
This sentiment is repeated by Jeremiah in chapter 33:20-26. There are also many prophecies about Israel returning to the promised land, and playing a major part in the Kingdom of God after Christ returns. (Ezek 26:34-28, 37:21-28, 38:8-23, 39:27-29, Isa 11:11-16)
The Kingdom Of God Taken From Israel
Christ also recognized that the collective remnant of Israel alive in the first century were those whom God had chosen to be a light to the world of his Kingdom. However, he also foretold that the nation of the Jews, or Israel, would soon lose its role of being the witness to the world of the Kingdom of God:
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. … And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them. (Matt 21:33-46)
When Christ made the New Covenant and established the Christian Church, the Kingdom of God was taken from the Jews, and it was given to the Church to became the representative of the Kingdom of God on Earth. (1Peter 2:9-10)
Instead of a physical nation specifically chosen from the physical descendants of Abraham, Jesus has chosen his physical friends, from all nations of the world, who love him with their whole heart, to be put in charge of representing the Kingdom of God on Earth today. (Acts 3:25-26)
Therefore Christians are considered to be spiritual descendants of Abraham, as they have the faith of Abraham. (Gal 3:7-9)
They are also friends with God, as was Abraham. (John 15:14-15, James 2:23)
What I am talking about is not what is commonly called “Replacement Theology”, despite the fact that Israel have been removed from a vital role. Replacement Theology is the idea that Israel has lost all relationship with God, yet that is clearly not what scripture tells us.
God has not totally forsaken the physical nation of Israel, or his Covenant with them.
I also must clarify that wherever I use the term Israel, I am referring to ancient Israel as discussed in scriptures, not the modern nation of Israel.
I will make absolutely no comment on the claim that modern Israel is a fulfilment of the promises of God in scripture to bring Israel back to the promised land.
That is not what this Chapter of Friends With God is about. It is about the relationship, as revealed in scripture, that God has with the individual people of Israel and the individual people in the Church, for both today and the future.
Scripture is very clear that after Christ returns to the Earth, the physical Nation of Israel will be re-established with a new role to usher in the Kingdom of God throughout the entire planet. (Jer 31:35-37, Jer 33:20-26, Isa 54:1-17)
Paul is also adamant that God has not cast-off Israel from being his people. (Rom 11:1-36) Even so, God tells us that, for a period of time, he has hidden his face from them:
For a little moment I have left you; but with great mercies I will gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. (Isa 54:7-8)
The Covenants With God
The next post in this series will examine the role of the New and Old Covenants. Given that love is the foundation of these agreements, how does one covenant relate to the other?
The term “New Covenant” or “New Testament” is mentioned only 10 times in scripture, whereas the term “Old Covenant” is found only once. (2Cor 3:14)
However, to identify the specific covenant with Israel as “the Old Covenant” is not strictly correct, as there are many covenants older than the one with the nation of Israel.
There is a covenant between God and Noah (Gen 6:18) and another between God and all living things at the time of Noah (Gen 9:15-17), and God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen 15:18-21), and with Isaac (Gen 17:21), and with Jacob (Lev 26:42) and with David (Jer 33:21) and even with day and night (Jer 33: 25).
What the relationship is between all these covenant agreements, will be the topic of the next post in this series.