Israel, God's People, God's Land

God's People, God's Land
THE old man stood high on the hillside, the Israelites below him hushed and expectant as they waited for him to continue. These were his people, the flock he had shepherded for over 40 years. Moses' voice rang clear through the desert air: "The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6).

"It was not because you were more in number than any other people," he reminded them. Numbers have never mattered to God. Quality is more important than quantity, to Him. "It is because the LORD loves you," he went on, "and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand" (verses 7-8). How He had loved them, in spite of their rebellious spirit, their hankering after the Egypt from which He had called them out! Those decades of eating manna, enduring discipline and wandering in the wilderness had finally forged the Children of Israel into a unique nation, a people with a history and a destiny.

The Chosen Nation
Was Moses being too starry-eyed, too close to the Israelites to see things in perspective, when he spoke of them as the "chosen people"? The answer is a resounding "No". Over 1,000 years later, even after that same rebellious spirit had driven them into captivity in Babylon, Zechariah the prophet could still write to the people of Judah: "Thus said the LORD of hosts . . . he who touches you touches the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8).

There is nothing we treasure more than our eyesight; to touch the eyeball causes instant pain and a violent reaction. This is how God felt when nations had oppressed the people He loved. 500 years later still, after the Jews had killed God's Son and rejected the Gospel, the Apostle Paul asks, "Has God rejected His people?" He replies, emphatically, "By no means". "They are beloved," he declares, "for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:1,28,29). Like the father of the prodigal son in Jesus' parable, God's love for His people has never changed, even though they have often made Him sad.

The idea that God has a special relationship with the nation of Israel does not go down well today. Our society is pre-occupied with equality and equal opportunity. Why should God choose one nation out of the many that fill the globe? What is so special about that tiny strip of land between the continents, the country we now call Israel, for which He seems to have such a deep regard?

A short answer to this question would be that as God is the Creator, He does not have to answer to us for what He does. We view His work from a very short time-span, compared with the eternity through which He operates. We must be prepared to wait a very long time if we want to know why He does things a certain way.

God's Design
It is like walking past a building site when a new Town Hall or office block is being built. We peer through the gap in the fencing, and all we see is mud and holes, cranes and scaffolding, noisy activity with no obvious end-product. We know, of course, the activity is not really aimless. Tucked away in the Contractor's cabin are drawers of plans, and flow charts listing the dates by which the foundations, walls, roof and services will be complete. If we were good at technical drawing, we could leaf through the plans and visualise the final appearance of the building, admiring the grace and practicality of the design. But, at first sight, just walking by, we may go home and grumble that the Council is wasting its money.

Looking at God's work is very like that. We shall never see things in perspective, unless we step inside the cabin and look at the plans. And that is where we hope to help in this booklet: to open up God's great design, revealed in the Bible. God has a set of plans, and a schedule with the order of operations carefully laid out. The building He is constructing is called the Kingdom of God, and one day, when all the stages of preparation are complete, He will reveal an earth filled with grace and beauty, inhabited by people from all the past centuries who have loved and waited for Him. With Jesus as their King, they will govern the peoples of the earth in an age of peace when at last God's will is done. And the nation of Israel will be seen, in that day, to have been the framework of the structure, the joists and beams on which the many rooms and corridors depend.

Let us look through the Bible, then, to see from God's point of view what has been happening this last 4,000 years.

In the passage we quoted from Romans chapter 11, Paul said that the Jews were beloved "for the sake of their forefathers". The man all Jews look back to as the father of their race is Abraham, the son of Terah. Abraham was brought up in a city called Ur, close to the River Euphrates in what is now Iraq. At an age when most people are thinking of retiring, Abraham had a visitation from the Lord who asked him to leave Ur of the Chaldees: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house," he said, "to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).

Abraham - Father of the Nation
It was a lot to ask of anyone, but with what turned out to be a characteristic faith in God, Abraham sold up and moved out, not knowing, to begin with, exactly where he was going. After a long trek up the Euphrates, he was guided to the west and south until he came to a 200 mile long strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, mountainous in the centre, with coastal plains to the west and the Sinai desert to the south. No-one appreciated, at that stage, the strategic position of the land of Israel, sited at the junction of three great land masses. Nor could they foresee the beauty it will have, one day, when the desert is made to blossom as the rose. That was all tucked away in the drawer of plans. God promised Abraham simply, "To your descendants I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7).

There was an irony about this statement. Although Abraham and his wife had been happily married for many years, to their intense regret they had had no children. Yet God was promising the land to their descendants! The promise was repeated and expanded as the years passed, but Abraham and his wife moved round the land in their tents, still childless, and no nearer to possessing the land than when they first arrived.

One night Abraham had opportunity to question the messenger from the Lord more closely. "I am the LORD," he had just been told, "who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess". Instantly Abraham unburdened his anxiety. "0 Lord GOD," he asked, "how am I to know that I shall possess it?" (Genesis 1 5:7,8). To confirm and guarantee His promise, the Lord proceeded to make a solemn covenant with Abraham, after the custom of the times, sealed with the blood of sacrifice. At the same time, He outlined His plans: "Your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for 400 years; but I will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. . . And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (verses 13,16).

Isaac, Jacob and the Twelve Tribes
This remarkable prophecy illustrates how detailed are God's plans, and how precise is His foreknowledge. See now how accurately it was fulfilled. Abraham becomes the father of a son, called Isaac. His grandson, Jacob, has 12 sons, whose offspring form the 12 tribes of Israel. As predicted, the Israelites move south into Egypt, a foreign land, in a time of famine. Their numbers grow, and they are enslaved by the Pharaohs. Moses, with whom we began our story, is given the task of leading them out. After 10 dramatic plagues or disasters had brought Egypt to its knees, the night eventually came when the Israelites were to leave. So scared were the Egyptians of the God of Israel, that they pressed their valuables on their former slaves. "Jewelry of silver and of gold and clothing they let them have what they asked. Thus they despoiled the Egyptians" (Exodus 12:35,36). The record notes, almost casually, "The time that the people of Israel dwelt in Egypt was 430 years" (v.40). Just a note, in passing. Yet every detail of the prophecy had now come true: the sojourn in a foreign land; the slavery; the taking of a spoil; the 400 years. All precisely as predicted.

But there were moral implications to the prophecy as well. God had judged the Egyptians, through the catastrophic plagues, for their ill-treatment of Abraham's people. Moreover, the Israelites were now on their way to the same land where Abraham had pitched his tents. Four generations had gone by, and the inhabitants had filled it with violence and open immorality. In God's eyes, the iniquity of the Amorites (inhabitants of the land of Canaan, or Palestine) was now full. Thus Moses explained to the eager Israelites: "Not because of your righteousness are you going in to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you" (Deuteronomy 9:5).

This brief introduction shows us how immensely complex is God's control of human affairs. As the Creator and sustainer of the earth, He oversees the rise and fall of nations, according to their moral standards. He detained the Israelites in Egypt, so that having experienced slavery and suffering they could value freedom. At the same time He allowed four generations of Amorites the opportunity to repent from the evil ways of their fathers, and then displaced them by the Israelites. As the Apostle Paul once wrote of God: "How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!"

We must press on to see the next stage of His great plan for Israel and their land.

Blessings and Cursings
At the start of their wilderness journey, Moses brought to the Israelites the Law of God. This great national code not only restrained crime, but lifted people up to show love and respect for the poor, the alien and even their enemies. On the slopes of Mount Sinai, he joined the people to God in a great covenant, sealed, like Abraham's, with the blood of sacrifices, under which they agreed to keep those commandments. In return, God promised them a long and happy life in the land He was giving to them. However, there were conditions. Their continued possession of the land was dependent on their obedience. If, like the Amorites, they defiled it with blood and barbarity, their tenancy would be terminated.

This brings us to the next remarkable prophecy about Israel, in which Moses was able to foretell their history for hundreds, even thousands, of years. To memorialise their agreement with God, He pronounced on the people a series of blessings and cursings, which they were to recite aloud and write down for a witness on entering the land. They are to be found in Deuteronomy chapter 28. The first 14 verses are concerned with the blessings they would enjoy if they were obedient. The rest of the long chapter outlines the troubles God would bring upon them with increasing intensity, if they failed to honour their promise. At first their economy would go wrong. The rains would fail, and crops would shrivel. Their enemies would get the better of them, and foreign kings would rule over them. As the pressure increased, they would be invaded and besieged, and taken away into captivity. Eventually, Moses warned, "The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other . . . And among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot . . . night and day you shall be in dread, and have no assurance of your life" (vv. 64-66). Verse by verse, it was a terrifying catalogue of growing calamity.

Israel in the time of David

The amazing thing is, it all came true. After the 40 years wandering, the Israelites took over the land of the Amorites. Ruled by leaders called Judges for 500 years, they reached the pinnacle of their power and prosperity in the time of their early kings, David and Solomon. Their devotion to the Lord and their obedience to His law had brought about the blessings promised by Moses. But then, slowly, they drifted away from God. They imported the worship of foreign gods from the nations around them. They preserved an outward form of piety in observing the festivals and sacrifices of the Law, but neglected to care for the poor and oppressed. Inevitably, the curses began to bite. Neighbouring countries like the Syrians and Edomites encroached upon their territory. The mighty Assyrians crossed the Euphrates, put them to tribute, then deported 10 of the 12 tribes into captivity.

God was extremely patient with His people. Through the prophets, great men like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, He sent them constant reminders that they were breaking their promises to keep His laws. "Wash yourselves," Isaiah pleaded, "make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes" (Isaiah 1:16). But the response was not there.

Eventually, around 587 BC, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and took Judah and Benjamin away. For 70 years the land was empty of all but the poorest Jews. After that time, a proportion were allowed to return from Babylon. They picked up the thread of national life, without a king, and were subject in turn to the Persians, Greeks and Romans. It was into their oppressed world that Jesus of Nazareth was born.
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