What was (and still is) the Role of Israel?

3rd Semester / Week 3

When they were given the Mosaic Law, God made a remarkable promise to Israel:

“…if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My COVENANT, then you shall be a special treasure… you shall be to Me a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS and a holy NATION,” (Exodus 19:5-6).

We learned last semester that in the Old Testament, being a Jew wasn’t about DNA and that, surprisingly, anyone could become a Jew (Esther 8:17). The “Israel” of the Old Covenant was never genetically pure, but instead contained a “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12:38). As a matter of fact, even modern Jewish Rabbis admit there is no single, official, all-inclusive “Jewish” DNA anyway. Being a Jew was all about having a Covenant relationship with God, and the way to become a Jew was previously by keeping the Mosaic Old Covenant, and the sign of that Covenant was circumcision and Sabbath keeping, whereas those who broke the Covenant were “cut off.” We then learn in Romans 2:25-29 that physical circumcision is actually of no avail, because the true circumcision that makes someone a Jew is when someone’s heart is changed by the Holy Spirit. Arguably, it’s believed by some that Christians essentially become a Jew when they’re born anew and given the true circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit (see Romans 2:28-29), just like how Esther 8:17 had taught that anyone could become a Jew.

The Book of Hebrews reveals there had previously been an inferior Levitical priesthood in Israel made of “the sons of Levi,” but that priesthood has permanently been replaced by the greater priesthood of Melchizedek and Jesus is now the greater:

“…priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” (Hebrews 7:17).

That priesthood is greater because it combines the roles of priest and king, and Abraham himself had given a tithe to Melchizedek in order to receive a blessing, and Scripture makes clear that,

“…the lesser is blessed by the better,” (Hebrews 7:7).

Ultimately, the priesthood of Melchizedek is an office that only applied to Christ. We then see that,

“For when the priesthood is changed, THE LAW must be changed as well,” (Hebrews 7:12).

Not only had the priesthood been changed but the “law” had also been changed. Therefore, it’s now no longer the Mosaic Old Covenant Law that must be kept, because it was temporary by Divine design (Zechariah 11:10, Jeremiah 31:31, 1 Corinthians 9:20, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 6:14, 7:6, Galatians 3:23, 5:18, Hebrews 8).

We then see the New Covenant described this way: 

“…the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the Covenant of which he is mediator is SUPERIOR to the old one, since the New Covenant is established on BETTER PROMISES. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first Covenant, no place would have been sought for another… By calling this Covenant “new,” He has made the first one OBSOLETE. And what is obsolete and OUTDATED will soon DISAPPEAR,” (Hebrews 8:6-7,13).

The Old Covenant had been washed away by God’s hand in 70 AD, as if by a flood, just as prophesied in Daniel 9:26. So now that the Mosaic Old Covenant is gone and has been replaced by the New Covenant, what do we learn about the role of God’s Covenant people known as “Israel?”

Here again is what had been foretold for the original Israel:

“…if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My COVENANT, then you shall be… a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS,” (Exodus 19:5-6).

According to that passage, the plan for the original Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests.” So, what do priests do? Lock themselves up and think they’re holy and privileged and should be isolated? No. Priests were someone who had a job to do: to mediate between God and others, to be an outward focused people. They were to assist with the atonement for sin in order to help “other people” with their sin so that those “other people” could also be restored to God.

As it turns out, those “other people” who were to be helped were actually “all the people of the earth,” because the seed of Abraham was to bless “all the people of the earth” in this way, per the promise of Genesis 12:3. The goal was to redeem the nations to the Father. But of course, immediately after being given the Old Covenant Mosaic Law, the physical, fleshly nation of Israel then immediately broke the Covenant by worshipping the golden calf and therefore never became that nation of priests. The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional Covenant by the use of the word “IF.” Notice again in Exodus 19:5:

“…IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, THEN you shall be…”

By immediately breaking the Covenant when they worshipped the golden calf, the conditions were not met by the original, physical, fleshly nation of Israel. Still, God’s plan to bless the nations continued, and the prophets foresaw it. We therefore see the “Good News” proclaimed to us in Isaiah:

“It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant, To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the GENTILES, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth,’” (Isaiah 49:6).

That “Good News” also continues in Hosea where it was prophesied that those who were not God’s people would one day become His people (Hosea 2:23). Paul quotes this in Romans 9:

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’” (Romans 9:25).

This becomes the foundation for understanding how Gentiles are brought into God’s Covenant family through Christ. We were not God’s people, but now in Christ we’ve become God’s people. Moving into the New Testament, 1 Peter 2 reveals that every Christian is now an empowered priest (it teaches the priesthood of all believers), and we should realize that our job is to help others with their sin, and the only atonement to offer is what Jesus has already accomplished on the cross. As a matter of fact, 1 Peter 2 uses some of the very same words from Exodus 19 that had originally been offered to the physical, fleshly nation of Israel, as well as also using some of the same words that we just saw in Hosea 2:23 and Romans 9:25.

By now having Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we in the body of Christ are now “THE called out ones” (Ekklesia=Church) who become:

“a CHOSEN generation, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a holy nation, His own special people, that YOU may PROCLAIM THE PRAISES OF HIM who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now THE PEOPLE OF GOD,” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Revelation also let’s us know that we as Christians have become:

“…a Kingdom and priests,” (Revelation 1:6).

Thus, the Old Testament’s hope – that all God’s people would be priests – ultimately has been fulfilled in the Church. The New Testament clearly reveals those prophecies are fulfilled in the Church, with 1 Peter 2:4-10 being the most explicit text, as well as five other passages in Revelation that state that Christians are priests. Each believer now has direct access to God through Christ (Hebrews 7:25-28). As priests, each Christian can go to God directly for forgiveness of sins and no human mediator is needed for this forgiveness (Hebrews 4:15-16, 1 Timothy 2:5).

The Gospel Coalition declares, “The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers states that all believers in Christ share in His priestly status; therefore, there is no special class of people who mediate the knowledge, presence, and forgiveness of Christ to the rest of believers, and all believers have the right and authority to read, interpret, and apply the teachings of Scripture.” (More information here and here).

Dispensationalism, however, had taught us to have a nearly idolized admiration for people who have Jewish DNA, because they’re viewed as being more special than simple Christians, they’re supposedly still God’s “chosen people,” and that God’s ultimate plan had been, as well as will someday again be centered around people who have Jewish DNA. That’s essentially saying that God created a superior race, which is the very definition of racism. But the “Good News” is that God isn’t a racist, and He doesn’t see any DNA as being superior. Conversely, throughout history, some people have viewed the Jewish people as being inferior and have persecuted them, and that’s not only wrong, but is completely unacceptable and is also another evil form of racism. We must instead have a Biblically “balanced” view, we should recognize what they had previously been chosen for, and we must now view all people groups the same: we all need Jesus and the “Good News” of what He has done in order for us to be spiritually born into His present day Kingdom.

Imagine “truth” being like the center of a pendulum. When someone pulls something away from the center and then it’s released, it doesn’t just go straight back to the center, it instead swings too far in the other direction, and takes a long time before it finally goes back to where it can rest again in the center. In the same way, the treatment of the Jewish people was wrongly pulled away from the Biblical truth, and for centuries they suffered great persecution. But once that ended, the pendulum has gone too far in the other direction, and with the help of dispensationalism, those people have nearly been made into an idol to be worshipped. The Star of David can be seen displayed in some dispensational assemblies in America, and worship leaders can be seen wearing shirts that display and promote Jewish identification. Some dispensational leaders have even gone as far as saying that the Jews don’t need Jesus because their way of salvation can supposedly be found in keeping the Mosaic Law / Judaism (the Mosaic Law versus the New Covenant will be the main topic for next semester).

For example, here’s another quote from dispensationalist John Hagee who taught that we shouldn’t convert Jews to Christianity because they’re supposedly “chosen” by the Abrahamic Covenant and can be saved by keeping the impossible Mosaic Covenant: “I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption… Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity.” (Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988, sec. 6, pg. 1).

Rather than falling into that extreme and unbiblical view, we should realize that according to the New Testament, the only way to know if you’ve been “chosen” is if you have a saving relationship through the work of Jesus, and if you’re bearing fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life. If you have a true relationship with your Savior and Creator, and can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in your life, then REJOICE, because YOU are a part of God’s “chosen people.”

We’ve seen that each and every Christian is now an empowered priest who has a job to do, which is exactly like the mission that was intended for the original physical nation of Israel: they were supposed to have been an outward focused kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6). But that identity is not passive because priests are to intercede, mediate, and point people to atonement. With Christ as our Mediator and final High Priest, we’re to bless the nations by proclaiming the perfect sacrifice that redeems us to the Father, and His name is Jesus, and He is the True Israel of God! Jesus is King of His people, the worldwide spiritual nation, those who have THE Holy Spirit, the spiritual Israel of God (Galatians 6:16). We are the priests in His Kingdom, and as we’ll continue to evaluate in our next study, we should pray, “Thy Kingdom Come” (Matthew 6:10) as we actively spread His Kingdom to all the nations. This is the way that we as priests of Israel (Jesus=Israel) bless all the nations, in fulfillment of Genesis 22:

“…through your offspring [Jesus] all nations of the earth will be blessed,” (Genesis 22:18).

Those who’ve been redeemed by Jesus are now God’s “chosen people,” yet we’re not merely just “the people of God,” we’re actually His empowered priests, we’re “the priesthood of all believers.” We have an official job to do and it’s all about Jesus. As His priests, we should be joyfully carrying His name to the nations because it’s time to be spreading His Kingdom!