IS GOD FINISHED WITH ISRAEL YET? PART 1
Is God finished with Israel yet? What does the Bible say? This morning we are going to begin a two-part lesson on this very relevant subject. Antisemitism is on the rise. Our country is politically split over whether to support the nation of Israel or not. There are Christian denominations that teach what is known as “replacement theology” – that God replaced Israel with the church. Questions about all of this have come up even in our class. So, I thought it would be appropriate to spend some time looking at what the Bible has to say about all of this. Today we are going to be primarily in Romans Chapters 2, 9, and part of 10. But we will be in other places as well.
For the purpose of our discussion on this topic, when we say “Israel” we are primarily referring to a specific people group known as Jews. We are not necessarily talking about the modern nation of Israel, though we will address where they fit into this whole discussion.
What is a Jew? It is complicated. Being a Jew can be defined by any combination of several factors: (1) A Jew is any person who practices Judaism as a religion. (2) A Jew is any person who claims to be a direct descendant of the ancient Israelite ethnic group descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament who call themselves “God’s chosen people.” Now, one thing to keep in mind: this group includes those who may not be observantly religious or may be irreligious altogether. (3) A Jew is any person, regardless of current religious identity, who is directly descended from a Jewish ancestor whether through the father or the mother. (4) A political Jew is a person who identifies as a Jew primarily through political or nationalistic lenses rather than solely through religion or culture. (5) A cultural Jew is a person who identifies with Jewish culture and heritage (things like the Hebrew language, literature, art, social customs, and so forth). They emphasize cultural practices, traditions, and values over religious beliefs. I will throw our Messianic Jewish friends into that category.
So, in short, a person can be a Jew by religion, genealogy, ethnicity, politically or culturally. In the world today, there are an estimated 16.5 million Jews. Fourteen million of them live either in Israel or the United States. It is split about evenly. Israel has slightly more than the United States, but it is pretty even. The other 2.5 million Jews are scattered in 98 different countries.
Let’s talk about the modern nation of Israel, which is officially known as the State of Israel, founded in 1948. Israel is a modern democracy of nearly 10 million people that includes multiple ethnic and religious groups. Jews (however you want to define them) make up 74 percent of Israel’s population. Did you know it was that high? It is pretty high.
Arabs make up 18 percent of the population and primarily practice the Muslim religion. Most Arabs that reside within Israel’s borders call themselves “Palestinians,” politically designated as “Arab Israelis.” You will notice on this map several gray areas including Gaza (which is about to change). These are areas that the Palestinians actually self-govern (the Israeli government stays out). If you are a tourist, they recommend that you stay out of these areas.
Christians make up 2 percent of the population and most of them are Greek Orthodox Catholics. Evangelical Christians (which would include us) make up a very small percentage of Israel’s population.
All others, about 6 percent of Israel’s population for the most part have no religious affiliation at all. They could be agnostics, atheists, or whatever.
[I showed the class a slide with three maps of Israel]
The modern State of Israel (map on left) is located in the same place in the world on the map that God promised to give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the book of Genesis. The map in the middle shows the allotment of land that Joshua assigned to the twelve tribes of Israel following the conquest. We studied this. As you know, the twelve tribes did not conquer all the land that they were allotted. The map on the right shows Israel’s borders, how they expanded under Kings David and Solomon. What I want you to see from this slide is that modern day Israel is [basically located in the same place geographically] as Old Testament Israel.
Israel and the United States are close allies with each other. This is based on their shared Judeo-Christian values. Also, and this is really important -- they share a common commitment to the preservation of the Jewish people in their God-given homeland.
A quick sidenote here. The Arab world claims that they have a right to the [same land Israel is located] because they are descendants of Abraham through Ismael. Christians and Jews differ with them about this. We maintain that the Jews are the rightful heirs to this land based on God’s covenant promise made to Abraham and later reiterated to Isaac and to Jacob. This comes from Genesis Chapter 17. Christians and Jews believe that the covenant promise of this land was made to Abraham and it went through Isaac and not through Ismael. So, here is where it comes from… God is speaking to Abraham. Abraham is concerned after God told him that Ismael was not the one [the child of promise]. It is going to be Isaac. So, he is concerned about Ismael [being left out]. What is going to happen to Ismael? And so, God addresses that. God says to Abraham: “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly [which He has]. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. BUT I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” (Genesis 17:20-21). So, God says this before Isaac is even born. And, of course, a big part of this covenant with Abraham involved this land. And so, the land gets passed down through Isaac. That is where the difference between us and Arab world comes in as far as Israel is concerned.
So, we get back to our original question: Is God finished with Israel yet? Is He through dealing with the Jewish people? Did the church really replace Israel as some claim? Have God’s Old Testament promises to His covenant people become null and void? If so, then what is the future for the Jews? What does the Bible have to say about all this? That is what we are going to find out.
There are many people out there who reason in their own minds that God might cancel all His promises with Israel, with the Jews, for good reason. After all, they DID reject the Lord Jesus Christ, right? They rejected their own Messiah! [Note: Not all of them rejected Christ, but as a whole they did. Yes, there was a remnant of Jews, a small group, that believed and formed the early church]. It was the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that influenced the Romans to have Jesus crucified. “His blood is on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). And then those same leaders tried to cover up Jesus’s resurrection. Just read the Gospels. It is all there. While all that is certainly true, it does NOT necessarily mean that Israel, the Jews, have been disqualified from carrying out God's plans for them. Let me remind you of what God told Abraham when He first called him. This is back in Genesis Chapter 12. He said, “I will make of you [Abraham] a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3). And this was an unconditional promise. Israel, as God’s chosen people was to be a conduit of God’s blessing to the world. That was God’s plan. And that takes us to the book of Romans.
[One class member commented, regarding the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus, that Adolph Hitler, an atheist and terrible person, used this as his excuse for the hatred of and mass genocide of the Jews. Of course, Hitler was not reading ALL scripture. This is why it is important to read and study the entire Bible before formulating our world view.]
In Romans Chapter 2 Paul discusses Israel's place with God. To give you some context (whenever you read the Bible you need to know the context), in Romans Chapter 1 Paul has just finished indicting the Gentiles. He makes the case that Gentiles are separated from God because of immorality and idolatry. You can just hear the Jews in the background saying, “Preach it, brother Paul, yeah!” Because we know how the Jews felt about Gentiles, right? But then we come to Chapter 2. And Paul proceeds to do the same thing with the Jews. He indicts them, not for immorality and not even for their rejection of Jesus. Paul accuses the Jews of NOT keeping their own law.
So, by the time you get to Romans Chapter 3 (we all know Romans 3:23, right?), Paul concludes that ALL people, Jews and Gentiles alike, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. ALL have failed to meet God’s perfect and holy standard. That gives you some context for Chapter 2.
I want you to listen to Paul’s indictment of the Jews in his day. Romans Chapter 2, v 17…
“But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know His will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness [this is how they viewed themselves], an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?” (Romans 2:17-21a).
You see, the Jews in Paul’s day felt very secure because they had the law. And they were circumcised, which marks them as being Jewish. They were feeling pretty good about themselves and their standing before God. BUT Paul in Chapter 2 here shatters all that. He basically tells them, “It is not enough to have the law. You have to live by it.”
Paul continues, the rest of v 21… “While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law” (Romans 2:21b-23). The result of all of this is [stated in] v 24… that “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you [Jews].” So, this is quite an indictment!
Instead of the Jews being a testimony for God, they became a hindrance. “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” They completely misunderstood their relationship with God and ignored their divine purpose, to be a conduit of blessing. They thought that just by being Jews, having the law, and practicing all those religious things, like circumcision, that they were good enough. They were IN!
And then, in v 25, Paul talks about circumcision. He says, “For circumcision indeed IS of value IF you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [meaningless]. So, if a man who is uncircumcised [for example, a Gentile] keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law” (Romans 2:25-27).
[Note: “The law” that Paul is speaking of here in Romans refers to the Mosaic Law – the Ten Commandments and all the various laws mentioned in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy].
He goes on to say, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:28-29). So, that is Chapter 2. Paul is basically telling the Jews that being a Jew is a matter of the heart. It is an inward attitude toward God. It is about obedience, following God’s law and pleasing Him.
Well, at this point, following this scathing indictment, the Jews are looking around at each other and beginning to question the validity of their Jewish religion. Based on everything that Paul has just said, they conclude that maybe all of their religious practices are doing them no good. What they have is a spiritual problem (that is everybody’s problem, right? Jew and Gentile alike). Their hearts are not right with God. Even though they have the law, their hearts are not right with God. So, Romans Chapter 3 begins with the question that the Jews at this point would naturally be asking based on Paul’s indictment of them in Chapter 2 – “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?” (Romans 3:1). That is the obvious question, Paul, based on everything you have just said.
Now, what do you think Paul’s answer is? It is surprising actually [v 2]. “Much in every way.” He does NOT say that there is NO value at all in being a Jew or in circumcision. On the contrary, he says there is great value in it, “Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2). There is great value in being a Jew. Paul, being a Jew himself since birth, tells his fellow Jews [you have to remember that Paul is a Jew when he is saying all this and he had been zealous for the law, hadn’t he?]… “We Jews have an advantage over everyone else. We have been given all of these incredible insights from God for centuries.” Paul says, “We have been entrusted with it. That is a great way of putting it. “We have been entrusted with the truth that God has given us.” And if we Jews would have just lived according to what we knew to be right, we would have received all the blessings that God promised us (back in Deuteronomy).” BUT, his implication in all of this here is that we did NOT do that. We did not obey God. We did not keep the law.
And they knew their own history. They remembered that foreign enemies like the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Greeks and now the Romans had invaded and conquered them and displaced them from their land, in many cases. And even when they were living in the land, they were under [the control of] a foreign government like they were currently under Rome. They knew their history. This was God’s judgment on them for disobedience. You read the warnings that were given by the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and others. “If you guys do not repent, then God is going to judge you, displace you from the land and have foreign enemies rule over you.” And that is what happened. They would not listen to Jeremiah and Isaiah and the others. They wouldn’t. They would not repent. They had Jeremiah thrown into a well in order to shut him up.
So then, having violated God’s law, what should the Jews do now? At this point, Paul has them right where he wants them. “This is what you do…”
Is there any question at all about the Gospel message that Paul preached? We have studied it in Acts. We have studied Ephesians. The Gospel message Paul preached is what? The same message to both Jews and Gentiles. And that is that we are all saved the same way, by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ, right? No question about Paul’s message. And they all knew what Paul was preaching. Everybody – Jew and Gentile alike – are justified by faith in Jesus. And since we are all saved the same way, by faith, there appears to be no apparent advantage in being a Jew. The uniqueness of Judaism seems to have faded away (at least based on what Paul is saying). Jews are NOT automatically IN just because they are Jews. This must have come as a great disappointment to many of the Jews listening to Paul. Think about how they had been raised, what they were raised to believe. And now Paul is coming at them with a different [message]. By the way, this is probably the reason why so many Jews hated Paul and his Gospel message. It flew in the face of everything they had been raised to believe. Of course, Paul knowing the Old Testament scriptures [as well as he did] could refute any of [the possible arguments against him].
All this time, going back to the book of Genesis, the Jews have viewed themselves as being unique and special. “We are God’s chosen people!” Was that true? Absolutely! But while God DID choose Israel – I want you to listen to me – He never selected them to be the only ones that He loved and cared about. I had a professor at DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary) who said one time and it stuck with me (because I am a sports fan), “God owns all the teams.” Yes, God chose Israel. But He chose them for a specific purpose, a noble purpose, to be a channel of blessing to the world. That is a great calling, isn’t it? Israel was chosen, not as an end in and of themselves.
Now, I am going to use a metaphor. Israel was not designed to be a box canyon where God ran all His blessings in and stored them. Israel was designed to be a channel. God never said, “Here you are, Israel. Do what you want with all the blessings I am pouring out on you. They are yours and nobody else's.” NO! Israel was supposed to be a channel of God’s blessing to the rest of the world. They were supposed to pass along what God gave them.
But Israel, the Jewish people as a whole, they completely misconstrued God’s plans for them. They basically blocked the channel. By their actions they were saying, in essence, “We have the law and we have circumcision. It’s us four, no more, shut the door.” That was a problem. They had turned their backs on God’s intended purpose for them as His covenant people.
Israel had been given a great responsibility and had they fulfilled that responsibility, they would have been greatly blessed for it. Read the book of Deuteronomy. They had all that they needed. They had all the oracles of God. V 2 says that, right? They had all of those things that God had promised in terms of blessing, provided that they were faithful. BUT they wound up forfeiting much of it.
Even so, the Jews were right to assume that God was NOT finished with them. Not yet. Let’s just look at where the Jews are coming from. They had good reason to believe that. I am going to just quote a couple of places out of Daniel. This is what Daniel says in Chapter 2: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these [other] kingdoms [that Daniel has been talking about] and bring them to an end, and it [this future kingdom] shall stand forever.” Then in Daniel Chapter 7 we read this: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” The Jews knew that these scriptures spoke about a kingdom that would one day be ruled by THEIR Messiah. And this Messiah would come from their land because of the Davidic promise [God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel Chapter 7]. They knew all this from their scriptures. They put it all together. “There is still a future for us.” So, God promised a future glorious kingdom to His covenant people Israel. That is what they are hanging their hat on.
Now Paul never once in his indictment of the Jews says, “I'm so sorry, fellow Jews, but it's not going to happen anymore. It’s over. We blew it.” He never says that. Instead, [he says] in Romans Chapter 3, v 3 – “What if some were unfaithful? [And they were.] Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar…” (Romans 3:3-4). If every man in the world is a liar, God will still be true. That is the kind of God He is. He is a God that keeps His promises. And that included His promises to Israel. He is a covenant-keeping God even when His people are unfaithful. Praise the Lord!
And that takes us to Romans Chapter 9. He is going to discuss God’s relationship with Israel despite their failure.
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:1-3). Paul would give up his own salvation [in order that] his fellow Jews could be saved. That is how much he wanted them to be saved. He is heartbroken about Israel’s rejection of their own Messiah, of Jesus.
Remember our metaphor from earlier. Paul is saddened that the channel of God’s blessing was blocked. This meant that God had to do something about that. He had to go in a different direction. Being a Jew [himself], this hurt Paul. And so, Paul basically acknowledges that the Jews had been so greatly blessed by God. He says [in v 4], “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.”
So, I am going to use an analogy here, being the engineer that I am. Let’s suppose that we have a river and it carries the main water supply for a certain city. Suddenly, there is some kind of a great upheaval, like an earthquake or a landslide or something and it stops up the river. What do you do? The only wise thing to do would be to build another channel, another way for the water to get from where it is blocked to the city that needs it, right? So, you do what you can. The engineers move in and they look at the situation and they design and build a new channel around or tunnel under or through the obstruction to get that water to the city, right? They have to do something. That is essentially what God is doing in dealing with Israel. He is not abandoning the river. He is just cutting a new channel to be able to continue the flow of His blessings where He wants it to go. And that new channel is the New Testament church.
Now, the metaphor that is used in Romans Chapter 11 (which we are going to look at next time) is a little bit different. It is that the Gentiles are like a wild olive branch that is grafted into the olive tree, Israel. So, it is not that He cuts down the tree. He just grafts us into the olive tree, right? So, a different analogy, but same idea. He is not through with Israel. But, He has to come up with a way to get the Gospel to the rest of the world.
In Romans Chapter 9 Paul talks a lot about the sovereignty of God. Most of the chapter deals with that subject. He chooses whoever He wants. He can do what He wants because He is God. He gets to make the rules. You see, all along God’s desire has been to reach the Gentiles. Since way back in [the book of] Genesis. Seeing that Israel was blocking the channel of His blessing, God designed a new channel to reach the world.
I want to skip ahead in Chapter 9 to v 21 which talks about the potter. “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Romans 9:21). The potter has the right to do what he wants, right? In other words, God makes certain vessels for His desired purposes. But then v 22 asks, “What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24). It is a question. The idea that God wants to save Gentiles is nothing new. Read your Old Testament. Isaiah talks about it quite a bit. It was actually prophesied a lot in the Old Testament. And Paul goes on to quote from Hosea and Isaiah as examples of this, where [God addresses] saving the Gentiles.
Picking it up in v 30, “What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they [the Jews] did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone [speaking of Jesus], as it is written, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in Him [Jesus] will not be put to shame’” (Romans 9:30-33).
What happened was, instead of believing God, they thought that they could be righteous by works. They actually believed that by keeping the law they would be made righteous. And then they stumbled over the stumbling stone, which of course is Jesus, prophesied in Isaiah.
And so, Israel, who blocked the channel of God’s blessing, gets by-passed temporarily (as we will see next time). This slide I am going to show you summarizes Israel’s rejection of the Gospel, which is now being preached to the Gentiles. We see this all played out in the book of Acts. So, why is that? First, God’s sovereign plan all along was to save the entire world, which included the Gentiles. And when Israel failed, God found another way to reach the world. [Second,] Israel’s rejection of their own Messiah, Jesus, who they stumbled over. And third, Israel did not follow God’s standard of righteousness, which is by faith. It talks about that in Genesis. Abraham was justified by faith [“Abraham believed the Lord and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6)]. They tried to be justified by their own works, by keeping the law.
So, all this that Paul has been saying to them in Romans Chapter 9 is very sad. And it is very grieving to Paul because, like him [before His conversion], they are zealous in their pursuit of righteousness. They really are. They mean well. They really want to pursue God. They are working hard at it! In Chapter 10 and v 1, Paul says, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer for you [the Jews] is that they may be saved.” [That is Paul’s heart desire. He wants the Jews to be saved, the ones that rejected their Messiah.] “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:1-3). They have a misguided zeal. And it is very sad.
When we were in Israel, we observed these Hasidic Jews dressed in their traditional black pants and coats. They have these broad-brimmed hats on. They continually study their texts and they pray regularly. They keep all their Jewish traditions. They are extremely committed to their religion. And though we might criticize them for their pursuit of self-righteousness, we certainly have to admire their zeal, their dedication to what they believe. Like I said, they have zeal, but it is misguided.
I told you there was a lot to this subject, so we are going to pick up Part 2 next time at this point. We are going to see God’s plan for Israel moving forward. Believe it or not, despite their failures, not keeping the law and their stumbling over Jesus and their pursuit of self-righteousness, God IS NOT finished with Israel, with the Jews yet.