Chapter 4: Broken for Blessing (Who are the Israel of God?")

By Hazel Holland

The same covenant promise that had been given to Abraham and Isaac was then passed down from Isaac to his son Jacob. Although Jacob and Esau were full-bloodied, twin brothers of Isaac, God sovereignly chose the lineage of Jacob, the younger brother, to continue the line of salvation history before the twins were even born. Thus, God’s choice of Jacob had nothing to do with Jacob’s good works, but rather God’s sovereign purpose in preserving salvation history.

We already saw in the previous chapter that Abraham had to wait for twenty-five years before God fulfilled His promise to him in the birth of Isaac. Now we find out that Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, had a similar problem as Sarah. She was barren also.

“Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife… Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived… So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb… Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them” (Genesis 25:20-26).

I had never noticed until now that hidden away in the statement, “Isaac pleaded with the Lord ...and Rebekah conceived,” is the fact that Isaac prayed for twenty years before God answered his prayer for a son. Since Abraham was still alive at this time, I feel sure that he must have prayed too, because he knew what it was like to wait for the promised seed. I’m confident that Abraham encouraged Isaac to persist in prayer and not falter in his faith as he had done. Abraham would most certainly have discouraged Isaac for even thinking for a moment about “helping” God bring about the fulfillment of the promise through Rebekah’s maidservant.

The Nature of Faith

Both Abraham and Isaac prayed believing that God would fulfill His promise even though they both had to wait many years before they saw the fulfillment of the promise in their immediate offspring. In fact, the book of Hebrews reminds us that many of the Hebrew patriarchs never in their lifetime saw the fulfillment of what God had promised them. Nevertheless, they continued to believe right up to their dying day that God would fulfill His promise by someday sending a Deliverer. The promised Seed, Jesus Christ would come in the fullness of time—God’s time, NOT theirs.

Essentially, this is what faith is. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Walking by faith is taking hold of the promise of God and refusing to let go. Faith is persistently holding on to the promise while waiting for God to fulfill it in His timing. Although Abraham prayed for twenty-five years and Isaac for twenty for God to give them the promised son, they never saw the ultimate fulfillment of their offspring—the promised Seed that would eventfully come.

These men of faith, along with other men of faith in the Old Testament waited for the fulfillment of the promised Seed for hundreds of years. They never stopped believing that God would do what He had said He would do—send a Deliverer. And we already know the end of their story because we can look back and see that the Deliverer came in the fullness of time. But I’m getting ahead of the story…

Jacob’s Lack of Faith

Let’s pause for a moment and remember how Jacob’s life began in Rebekah’s womb. This child of destiny, who began his life by grabbing his twin brother by the heel, later gained the blessing of God by grabbing on to God and refusing to let go. This child, who had been chosen by God before he was born to carry the blessing of the promised Seed, later manipulated his older twin brother, Esau, and deceived his aging father, in order to gain both the birthright and the blessing that had already been promised him. Instead of trusting God to fulfill His promise, Jacob deviously worked behind the scenes to grasp what was already his by God’s sovereign choice.

Jacob’s name (means “supplanter, schemer, cheater, one who grabs from behind) accurately described his inclination to take things into his own hands and wrestle to get his own way in life. Ever since he deceived his father into thinking that he was Esau so that he could obtain the spiritual blessing reserved for the eldest son, Jacob had been on the run.

We all know the rest of the story. After Esau learned about what Jacob had done he was so angry he threatened to kill him. So Jacob was forced to leave his father’s house and flee for his life to his uncle Laban’s place. On the way to this unknown country Jacob had a dream in which God confirmed to him the covenant that He had made to both Abraham and his father Isaac (Genesis 28:10-15).

Furthermore, Jacob’s family struggle didn’t end once he got to Laban’s. For years Jacob continued to wrestle and struggle with his uncle over flocks and herds and Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel, who eventually became his wives. In spite of the fact that Laban treated Jacob very poorly during this time, Jacob became extremely wealthy as a result of his effective management of the flocks.

Although Laban had been in agreement with Jacob’s ideas, it had cost Laban dearly, even to the point of bankrupting him. So again, twenty years later, Jacob was forced to flee, this time from his uncle, because Laban’s sons had become jealous of his wealth. So he headed back to his father’s house in Canaan, with his wives, children, and many flocks (Genesis 30:42-43; 31:14-16).

Wrestling with Fear

On his return journey he became fearful one night when he leaned that his brother Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men the next day. Not knowing what Esau’s attitude toward him might be, he placed his wives, children, servants, and all his possessions on the other side of the river Jabbok* for safety. Then he withdrew into the darkness to spend the night by himself as he sat beside the Jabbok River, a frightened man, searching for answers.

Suddenly, he found himself wrestling with a “Man”. The Bible doesn’t tell us what went on during that wrestling match or how many hours it lasted. All we know is that everything that had happened in Jacob’s life so far had brought him to this crucial moment in time when the pre-incarnate Christ would change the direction of his life.

I believe that God in his grace and mercy allowed Jacob to grapple with his fleshly desires as he struggled to overpower this unseen Man. I feel sure that Jacob’s life must have passed before him many times during that crucial night. How he must have longed to be delivered from fear. Little did he know that the One with whom he wrestled was the promised Deliverer who would soon deliver him from fear.

Wrestling with God

As Jacob wrestled with God, he may have remembered his mother’s words as she described the wrestling match that had gone on within her womb before her boys had been born. It was true that this wrestling for dominance had plagued him throughout his life. He knew that he had depended on his own strength and resources to help God answer His promises that He had made to him.

Jacob remembered that God had repeated the same words to him at Bethel in a dream that he had made to Abraham and Isaac years earlier. Surely, in order for those promises to come to pass God needed Jacob to help Him by exercising his cunning mind so that all families on earth would be blessed through his offspring.

Jacob, like so many of us, continually struggled throughout his life to help God answer His promises by attempting to make them happen in the natural (flesh) instead of waiting for God to have them manifest in the spiritual realm. This promised blessing that Jacob had plotted to obtain for his offspring was the same blessing in “seed form” that had been given to Adam and Eve? Jacob could no more alter God’s sovereign plan than he could bring it about by his own conniving schemes.

While Jacob wrestled with his own tormenting thoughts, He must have struggled to understand how he was supposed to be heir to the promises of God if Esau was going to kill him. He must have fought to come to grips with the timing of God’s plan as he remembered the dream God had given him twenty years earlier at Bethel. Perhaps God had changed His mind about Jacob being an heir to the promises of God after all.

Now, failing to trust God once more with his destiny, Jacob had sent drove after drove of animals ahead of him as a gift for Esau in an effort to appease him and gain his acceptance. Jacob was obviously rich in the things of this world. But hadn’t so much of his material wealth been achieved by his own shrewd thinking and conniving ways? For that reason, how could he honestly trust God to deliver him from Esau when he had so wrongfully manipulated his brother in the past?

Perhaps he deserved to die and forfeit the coveted blessing after all. On the other hand, maybe if he addressed his brother as “my lord” and “your servant, Jacob”, and Esau saw all the gifts he had sent, Jacob might find favor in his brother’s sight (Genesis 28:3-20). I feel quite sure that as Jacob fought to win this wrestling match within his own mind he must have agonized over his checkered past. Possibly, a sense of hopelessness and despair filled his heart at times during the night’s struggle as he assessed the bumpy road he had chosen in life.

The Turning Point

Finally, a turning point came in Jacob’s struggle after the pre-incarnate Christ touched his hip, weakening and immobilizing him on the spot. Now Jacob had been broken for blessing. Although he had repeatedly tried to gain that blessing by his own devious ways, God allowed him to come to the end of himself so that he might see that it was God who was in control and not Jacob. Jacob suddenly stopped wrestling out of fear and started clinging to God in faith as he cried out in pain, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26).

During that awful night, Jacob finally learned that the blessing of material wealth that he had gained by his shrewd business dealings was not the blessing that he really desired. He must know for sure that he hadn’t forfeited the privilege of being chosen by God to have the Promised Seed come through his offspring. He desired that blessing now more than anything else.

After that night of struggle Jacob knew that neither his good works nor his bad works caused God to withdraw his covenant promise from him. Seeing God’s goodness towards him changed him. Thus, in keeping with Jacob’s change of heart, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. In spite of all his conniving schemes Jacob finally knew that God truly loved him. He was no longer a deceiver, but one who prevailed with God.

Jacob said of God after his night of wrestling, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Not only did God preserve Jacob’s life and change his name to Israel (prince of God), but He preserved his seed, because it was through Jacob’s offspring that the Seed would come. Salvation history was being preserved that night so that in the fullness of time, the TRUE SEED, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, would come.

Jacob-like People

That is why the Scriptures remind us that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and, yes, He’s the God of Jacob, too. God knows that deceitfulness is one of the characteristics that we all share in common as a result of our fallen nature. Although not one of us likes to admit it, we are all Jacob-like at times, yet God loves us anyway. God knows our hearts. He knows that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” Jeremiah 17:9 (Amplified Bible).

I’m weeping right now in the Spirit as I realize that God’s sovereign love that was poured out upon Jacob has also been poured out upon you and me. God chose us in Christ before we were ever born, just like He chose Jacob. In fact, God reminds us in Hebrews 11 that He is not ashamed to be identified with Jacob. This means that God is not ashamed to be identified with all Jacob-like people.

For that reason, when our hearts deceive us, God does not reject us when we become Jacob-like in our attitudes and desires. No. God not only knows our hearts, but He already knows those who are His. Just like Jacob, God chose us in Christ before we were even born. As we are confronted with this Good News, God’s amazing goodness leads us to repentance as it did Jacob.

Instead of resisting God, we are irresistibly drawn to the One who loved us first. We find out that God does not credit the deceitfulness of our hearts to our account, but instead credits our account with Christ’s truth-filled righteousness. All our deceitful ways and manipulative schemes have been credited to Jesus Christ account, not ours. He became sin for us so that we can be known by God as the righteousness of God in Christ.

I want to intimately know and love a God like that. I want to believe in the One who has a future and plan for my life just as He had for Jacob’s life. God wants to continually bless us with His presence while He assures us that He will never let us go, just like He blessed and assured Jacob. He has a new name for us, too—a new name that I feel sure will reflect not only our struggle here on earth, but how God sees us forever in Christ. He has a new name for all His beloved children that we will receive on that Day when we see God face to face (Revelation 2:17).

*Jabbok means "wrestling".

(Next: Chapter 5: Go here.

Chapter 3: World's Only Innocent Man (Who are the "Israel of God?")

By Hazel Holland

The fact that Isaac continued to believe and trust God as his father did is revealed in Isaac’s demonstration of faith when he found out that God had asked Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice. Isaac knew that God had told Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Ishmael, Abraham’s first born son, had been sent away because he was not the child through whom the promised Seed would come. So all God’s promises to Abraham depended on Isaac, didn’t they?

Even though Isaac didn’t understand God’s request, he didn’t try to resist his father Abraham by trying to figure out some alternate plan to save himself. Instead, he trusted himself to God. He placed his faith in his father’s God, and obeyed. Isaac must have “reasoned” like his father did that since Abraham and Sarah were “dead” with respect to child-bearing, then God gave life from death in his conception and birth. If God could bring him into existence from the “dead”, then surely God could raise him back to life again after he was offered up to God as a sacrifice. The following verses reveal Abraham’s reasoning faith.

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” Hebrews 1:17-19 (NASB).

We all know the rest of the story. God stopped Abraham from offering his son because God didn’t want Abraham’s son, He wanted Abraham’s heart. God wanted to give Abraham His heart for the nations. He wanted Abraham to enter into the most precious things that were on God’s heart. In the same way that God wanted Abraham’s heart, He wants your heart and my heart.

Let’s remember that Abraham didn’t have the benefit of God's revelation to Moses and the Old Testament prophets when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. All he knew was that child sacrifice was practiced by some of the Canaanites, and so he had no option but to believe that God required that he sacrifice his son. So why did God put Abraham through this severest of tests when God condemned child sacrifice in the first place? (Deuteronomy 12:31)

I believe God gave Abraham this test because this “acted out prophecy” would announce to the world in type and shadow the unimaginable thing that God had planned to do from the creation of the world! God would offer up His Son (the promised Seed), whom He loves on the cross, “as a Lamb that only He can provide, to accomplish what only He can accomplish”—to take away the sin of the world (http://www.jesuswalk.com/abraham/10_sacrifice.htm).

Innocent Blood

The New Testament further clarifies for us the lessons that the Old Testament sacrificial system was supposed to teach us in types and shadows. The main lesson was that the shedding of innocent blood was required for the remission of sin. However, although the animals sacrificed as sin offerings were innocent, their blood wasn’t sufficient for the remission of our sins. The blood of those innocent animals only allowed man’s sin to be set aside until the world’s Only Innocent Man would die for the sins of the world.

An animal couldn’t die in the place of a human being—it had to be like for like, a Man for mankind. That’s why an angel couldn’t die for the human race because angels are a different order of being. Man was created in God’s likeness, angels were not. So God chose to come in the likeness of human flesh and be born of a woman. What humility! What unimaginable love! Remember the Scripture we read earlier in chapter one of this study? “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NASB).

The reason that Christ’s suffering and death was sufficient for the remission of our sins is because He didn’t have any sins of His own to pay for. He was innocent. For that very reason, no amount of good works on our part can ever redeem us because we are not innocent. We lost our innocence when Adam and Eve sinned. As a result of the Fall their sinful human nature got passed down to us. That’s why Jesus had to die in our place, because Jesus is God’s only remedy for sin.

The truth of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ now becomes crystal clear. Not one of us will go to hell because of our sins, but because we rejected Jesus Christ, God’s sole remedy for sin. What becomes even more apparent to me now is that the “conditional” view of hell that I grew up with in Adventism is actually the mirror image of works-based salvation! Why? For the reason that this false teaching supposes that the fewer the bad works we have on our record here, the lighter will be our punishment there!

I must hasten to add that this false doctrine presumes to further teach us that after we have suffered for an unspecified period of time in hell (depending on the amount and degree of our sins), we will then be annihilated. That might sound comforting to those who prefer to believe that when their lives end here they are going to be just as if they had never been. But that isn’t what the Scriptures teach. Every man is given a choice. The final destiny of each one of us is either heaven or hell.

By rejecting God’s only remedy for sin we have only our own works to offer as a remedy for sin. However, even our most honorable and good works are considered by God as filthy rags! Why? Because they are tainted by sin! Nothing in us or anything that comes from us is free from the curse of sin. Furthermore, not even eternal punishment can redeem us from sin that is why the punishment for not believing in the One He has sent, is eternal.

But the Scriptures teach us plainly that the only work God requires of us to be saved is to believe in the one He sent (John 6:28-29). If that’s all God requires of us, then that’s all He can judge us on! Since there are no degrees of belief (either we do believe God or we don’t), our choice of eternal life or eternal punishment is based on who we will believe.1 Will you believe God’s remedy for your sin right now and choose to believe in the one He sent?

We know that the Scriptures tell us that Abraham believed God. Abraham believed in the promised Seed to come. He knew that no amount of good works on his part could ever redeem him from his sins because he was not innocent. Through this awful experience of being asked by God to give up his son, God put into Abraham the heart of a Father who had lost His Son! For the Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ was the “Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

In view of the fact that Abraham was called to be the father of many nations, God wanted to give him the “Father’s heart”. Unless God had put him through this severest of tests I believe that Abraham could never have understood God’s heart of love for the nations—Abraham’s spiritual sons and daughters. Perhaps Abraham's anguish and resolve to be obedient to God’s request in spite of the cost can help us understand in some small way God’s love for us all and his determination to save us, no matter the cost.

1 http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher/more-on-conditional-hell/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gracethrufaith+%28GraceThruFaith%29

(Next: Chapter 4: Go here.

Chapter 2: The Faithfulness of The One (Who are the "Israel of God?")

By Hazel Holland

In the last chapter we briefly saw God’s plan in action of choosing one person after another from one generation to the next to make known His saving purposes to the rest of the world. We saw that the decision God made to call Abram revealed the path He had chosen to bring about the salvation of the many through the “faith of the one”.

In spite of the fact that the “faith of the one” faltered, the “faithfulness of the One” who had chosen Abram did not! Although God had said to Abraham, “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!” (Genesis 15:5), Abraham’s faith grew weary. Fulfillment of God’s promise lingered.

So after waiting for around eleven years for a son, Abram and Sarai came up with a scheme to accelerate the timing of God’s promise. Abraham would have Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant, give him a son. Since Abram knew that the meaning of the word “nation” (“goy” in Hebrew) meant “Gentile, foreign nation, or heathen”, he and his wife might have reasoned that having a son by the slave woman would be acceptable to God, because after all Gentiles were going to be a part of this great “nation” that God had in mind.

In view of the fact that God had told Abraham that all nations on earth were going to be blessed through him (the promise of the coming Seed) what harm could possibly come from helping God get the ball rolling by having Hagar give Abram a son? History reveals that our godless schemes and hidden agendas cannot frustrate the will of God.

God Confirms His Covenant

Ishmael must have been around twelve years old, and Abram ninety-nine years old when God confirmed His original covenant promise to Abram. Besides adding further details and instructions to the original promise, God also changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and Sarai’s name to Sarah, because they were going to be the father and mother of many nations.

God said that Sarah was going to give Abraham a son, and God would establish his covenant promise through his son Isaac whom Sarah would bear to him “by this time next year.” Abraham immediately fell down on his face. “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" (Genesis 17:1-23).

A year after God confirmed His covenant promise, Isaac was born. However, it was a quarter of a century after God had first given Abraham the promise of making him into a great nation (Genesis 12). Can you imagine waiting for twenty-five years to see the fulfillment of a promise that God has given you? We have enough trouble waiting for a week, or a month, let alone a year for God to fulfill His word to us sometimes. As we have already seen, Abraham had trouble waiting, too!

Scripture goes on to tell us that on the day Abraham held a feast to commemorate the weaning of Isaac, Sarah saw that Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son, was mocking. Sarah knew that Ishmael despised Isaac, and that Abraham still had his heart set on Ishmael as the heir. So she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac” Genesis 21:8-13 (NIV).

This malice that Ishmael had in his heart toward his younger brother, Isaac is confirmed by the Spirit in the following statement by Paul. “He that was born after the flesh (Ishmael) persecuted him that was born after the Spirit (Isaac)” (Galatians 4:29). We know the rest of the story. The next day Hagar and Ishmael left the household of Abraham and went into the desert, and God blessed Ishmael and his descendants and made them into a great nation.

Two Covenants

Now let’s go to the New Testament and read Paul’s allegory about these two women, Hagar and Sarah, who were in Abraham’s household. The Spirit reveals that these women represent two covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

"These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother…

"Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.’ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman’” Galatians 4:22-31 (NIV).

This allegory calls our attention to the distinct difference between the old covenant of works (represented by Hagar and Jerusalem) and the new covenant of grace (represented by Sarah and the New Jerusalem); between the physical seed of Abraham and the spiritual seed of Abraham. We shall begin to see how Ishmael and Isaac’s diverse seed separate the people of this world into two distinct groups. This spirit of enmity toward God that was first witnessed in Cain’s attitude towards Abel rises up again in Ishmael’s attitude towards Isaac.

The Ishmael’s

The Ishmael’s represent those who give their allegiance to the old covenant law of works. This Law from Sinai demands spotless righteousness and perfect obedience from all men. God’s words are brief and clear. Compliance ensures life, but any deviation or infringement of the law is inevitable death. The law says, “Do this, or die!” The law is like a slave master, giving lashes to its slaves, demanding that they work faster and harder while frowning on their failure to meet its demands.

Those who live under this covenant of works live as men according to the flesh. They live and they die trying to do everything that the law demands, but their efforts will always prove futile. Eventually, they will meet their judgment at the judgment seat of Christ, and the verdict will always be the same—“Guilty!” For the slave children who walk according to the flesh there is no rule of mercy in favor of eternal life, but only eternal death.

The Isaac’s

By contrast, the Isaac’s represent those who gratefully embrace the new covenant of grace. All that the old covenant of works demands, Jesus Christ has already performed and fulfilled. All the dreaded penalties for failure to measure up to the righteous demands of the law, Jesus Christ has already suffered for when He endured the shame of the cross. We are not left in hopeless bondage under Sinai's law, because One Man has utterly fulfilled every jot and title of that holy law. That One Man, Jesus Christ, gives us credit for His perfect obedience to that old covenant law of works!

Therefore, all men who embrace the new covenant gospel of grace, place their faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross. They become the spiritual sons of God who have been born by the power of the Spirit. Consequently, they are free from the terrors of not measuring up to God’s holy law. Instead, they have peace with God, are heirs of salvation, and know that they have eternal life.

The Conflict

In these verses we begin to understand why the earthly Jerusalem is still in bondage with her children (and it’s still true today!) because she still gives her allegiance to the old covenant law of works, demanding that her slave children, “Do this, or die!” On the other hand, the heavenly Jerusalem that is above; the city of the living God (also called the holy city or New Jerusalem) is free to all who believe that Jesus Christ fulfilled all the demands of the old covenant law for them See Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2).

Throughout this masterful allegory Paul builds upon what he has already shared with us in the previous chapter regarding Abraham being acceptable to God based on his faith in the coming Seed. Now, through this passage Paul gives us further evidence that it is through Isaac, the child of promise, that the spiritual Seed—Jesus Christ, would come.

These verses reveal that Christ is the Seed of that Promise, the same covenant promise in “seed” form that was given to Adam and Eve. Furthermore, Paul tells us that unless we are born by the power of the Spirit, we will not only remain slave children, and forfeit the promised inheritance (eternal life), but we will be cast out!

Consider with me for a moment the warning Christ repeatedly gave to those in His audience who were hypocrites; those who deemed themselves a part of the kingdom, but refused to believe on Him. Jesus told them that they would eventually be cast out into “outer darkness”, a place where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 24:51, 25: 30 and Luke 13:28).

The Enmity

Remember what God declared to Adam and Eve when he promised them a Deliverer? He told them that there would be enmity, scorn, and yes even hatred between those born of the flesh and those born of the Spirit. This has been the pattern throughout all time ever since man sinned. As already mentioned earlier, Cain and Abel are our first example of two sons, one born of the flesh; the other born of the Spirit.

Sadly, Cain lived under the bondage of the covenant of works, evidenced by the fact that he thought he could satisfy God’s requirements by offering vegetables as a sacrifice instead of the required lamb. He didn’t believe in the future promised Seed that pointed to the Lamb who would take away his sins.

On the other hand, Abel lived under the covenant of grace, evidenced by the fact that he obeyed God’s requirement by offering a lamb as a sacrifice. He chose to believe in the future promised Seed that pointed to the Lamb of God who would come and deliver him from his sins; not only him, but all those who believed.

The following Scriptures further remind us that those who are born of the Spirit will suffer persecution at the hands of those who are born of the flesh:

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

“Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

“All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).

“Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

The book of Hebrews briefly recounts for us the lives of many more men and women who maintained their allegiance to Jesus Christ while suffering persecution and even death. Church history also gives us similar accounts of the Isaac’s who became martyrs, victims of savage cruelties. Even as they were on the rack or in the flames they glorified Jesus Christ, while the Ishmael’s looked on, relentlessly taunting them in their pain.

Go to Chapter 3: Go here.

Chapter 1: Chosen to Bless the World (Who are the "Israel of God?")

By Hazel Holland

In order to determine who “Israel” originally was and why she was chosen, we need to go back before “Israel” existed in order to see a pattern of how God chose or elected certain people throughout history. As we saw in our last study, He did this to preserve the lineage through which Jesus Christ would eventually come. God’s choice of people had to do with preserving salvation history, rather than securing their eternal destiny (See last post at: http://sound-the-trumpet.blogspot.com/2010/02/election-determines-history-not-eternal.html).

In order to discover “Israel’s” roots, we will begin our study with the book of Genesis since it is here that God first chose to make a covenant promise in “seed” form to Adam and Eve. He promised them He would eventually send a Deliverer (Jesus Christ) to redeem mankind from the curse of sin that came upon the whole human race as a result of their sin (Genesis 3:15). In fact, Genesis is sometimes called the "seed-plot" of the entire Bible, because it is here where most of the major doctrines in the Word of God are introduced in "seed" form.

Subsequent to God's covenant promise to Adam and Eve, God chose Abel to preserve the lineage through which the Deliverer would come because Abel "believed", but Cain did not. This is evidenced by the fact that Cain refused to offer a lamb (a shadow of the Lamb to come) as a sacrifice for his sins, preferring instead to offer the fruit of his own labor as an offering to God. When Cain saw that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God, but his was not, He killed his brother it a fit of jealous rage.

After Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth, whose name meant "the appointed one". Later, the Bible tells us that God chose “righteous” Noah, a descendant of Seth, to save mankind when God judged the wicked men on the earth in the time of the Flood. Then through Noah’s son, Shem, in the ninth generation, God chose another man named Abram (meaning “exalted one”) to be the next person in line through whom His saving purposes would be made known to the world.

This pattern of representation, where God repeatedly chooses one person after another through whom His saving purposes would be made known to the rest of the world, is clearly seen from the very beginning of the Bible. The covenant promise originally given to Adam and Eve prepared the way for the blessing of all nations through the covenant promise God chose to make with Abram.

“The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV).

I believe that it’s vital that we grasp the meaning of the call of Abram (later changed to Abraham) and to his seed after him to be a special nation in the context of God’s concern for all nations. The fact that God chose Abram to be a blessing to all nations shows that God chose him for the sake of the world, not for his own sake (Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV). In fact the covenant promise that God originally made to Adam in “seed form” and that was passed on to his “righteous” descendants was a promise of the coming Blessing that was to be shared with the world. It had been God’s plan right from the very beginning.

Thus, God’s election of Abram was not a sign of God changing His mind about the other nations, wanting to save some and reject others. No, not at all! The decision God made to call Abram reveals the path God had chosen to bring about the salvation of the many through the faith of the one. This is most clearly emphasized in Scripture by Jesus being presented to us as the new Adam, the one who represents the race as its Redeemer. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NASB).

Saved by Faith

Ever since God gave His covenant promise to Adam, there must have arisen a great yearning within the hearts of the “righteous” (those who “believed” in the promise of a coming Redeemer) in every generation that perhaps their generation would be the one who would see God’s promise fulfilled. How they must have longed for the coming Redeemer, the New Adam, who would buy back the world from the curse of sin.

After seeing generation upon generation dying as a result of Adam’s sin, the Hope that they held on to by faith must have brought them great joy! Simeon in the New Testament is an example of those who held on to their hope in the promised Seed. Remember his testimony on the day that he was moved by the Holy Spirit to go into the temple courts? The Scriptures tell us that when he saw Mary and Joseph he took the child Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” Luke 2: 27-32 (NIV).

So what we have seen so far from our study is that the “righteous” in the Old Testament were those who “believed” the promise that God originally made to Adam. Contrary to what some teach, it was not by works that they were saved, but by faith—faith in the coming Seed, Jesus Christ.

Now let’s look at a passage of Scripture from the New Testament that confirms this. Abraham is an excellent example of how people were saved in Old Testament times because he lived in a day when neither the Law of Moses nor the rite of circumcision existed as a part of Israel’s religion. In these verses the apostle Paul is censuring the Galatians for their lack of faith, and reminding them of their father Abraham who chose to put his faith in God’s covenant promise of a coming Deliverer.

“You foolish Galatians… Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

"Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer…

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us… in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith… Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to One, ‘And to your Seed,’ that is, Christ.

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants (seed), heirs according to promise’” Galatians 3: 1-3, 5-9, 13-15, 26-29 (NASB).

After reading these verses we can see beyond a shadow of a doubt that Abraham was chosen by God and acceptable to God by faith, apart from any works of law. And to think that this all happened many years before he was circumcised! So by Jewish definitions, Abraham was really a Gentile when he was saved, making him indeed “the father of all believers”.

This had been the pattern ever since the fall of Adam and Eve. Men like Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, just to name a few, who “believed” in the promised Seed were considered “righteous” by God. They were acceptable to God based upon God’s faithfulness to His promise, not on their human performance.

In other words, God considered Abraham righteous because of his faith in God’s promise, and in God’s ability to provide what He promised. Although the Jews in Jesus’ time considered Abraham the star of the show, Paul insisted that it was the greatness of God that must be the center of our attention, NOT Abraham.

We don’t have to read very far in Abraham’s life to discover how often his faith failed. Although He believed God’s covenant promise, he had a son by Hagar. Although he believed God’s covenant promise, he lied about the identity of his wife Sarah to Abimelech, King of Gerar (Genesis 16, 20). The greatness of Abraham’s faith cannot be extolled here in any way, but only the greatness and mercy of the God in whom he trusted.

The point Paul is making in these verses we just read is that only those who receive the promise of the Spirit through faith in the coming Seed are the true children of Abraham. If we belong to Christ then we are Abraham’s children and joint heirs according to promise. Just as Abraham was chosen to be a blessing to the nations of the world because of his faith in the coming Seed, Jesus Christ, so are we.

The Reckoning Process

The way that God was able to provide salvation for those who “believed” in the promised Seed during Old Testament times was through the “reckoning process”. In fact, this has always been God’s way of providing salvation for those who “believe”—then and now. What this means is that our sins have been “reckoned” or “imputed” to Christ so that He was punished in our place. Additionally, Christ’s righteousness has been “reckoned” or imputed to us so that we are regarded and treated by God as righteous, because we are in Him by faith.

An example of God not imputing our sins against us is found in the story of King David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband, Uriah (Psalm 32). David knew all too well that the law could only pronounce him guilty and worthy of death. Even though he knew that the law made no provision for his salvation, he knew the grace of God. So he plead for mercy and forgiveness on the basis of his faith in the coming Salvation, and He received it. Although David deserved to die, God did not impute his sin to him on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (still future). Instead, God imputed Christ’s righteousness to David in response to his faith.

Both Abraham’s “righteousness” and King David’s “righteousness” was not due to their law-keeping or their good works, but only to God’s grace. On the basis of faith alone, apart from works, God reckoned both Abraham and David to be “righteous”, and they are listed along with many other Hebrew Worthies in the Bible’s Hall of Faith (See Hebrews 11). Neither of these men, nor any of their offspring, had anything to boast about in and of themselves except God’s grace revealed in the promised Seed. Neither do we.

Thus, God’s plan right from the very beginning has been to announce to the world that a Deliverer was coming. People who chose to “believe” in the promise were reckoned as “righteous”. With each successive generation we will notice that God reveals a little more of His plan to bring His salvation to all peoples of the earth. The next chapter will be another link in the chain of salvation history that will help us to better understand who “Israel” was.

(Next: Chapter 2: Go here.

Who are the "Israel of God?" (Introduction)

By Hazel Holland

With so much at stake these days with the “nation” of Israel being considered by many in the church to play a vital role in God’s prophetic timetable for the end times, let’s examine the Scriptures in order to find out if the hands on God's time-clock point to the modern state of Israel, or to God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Is it biblically correct to believe that God's covenant which He made with ancient Israel still applies to the “nation” of Israel today? Does God still consider the literal Jews His “chosen people” and regard them as His “treasured possession”—the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 7:6; 26:18; Psalm 17:8).

In order to find answers to our questions we will study God’s Word in order to learn who “Israel” originally was, for what purpose God chose “Israel”, and if God’s covenant to “Israel” still applies today. To further help us in our study we will also look at two expressions that Paul frequently uses, “Israel of Promise” and “Israel after the flesh”. We will find out who the “Israel” is whom Paul is addressing and referring to in both of these phrases, and how he applied these terms to the people who made up the nation of Israel in his day.

Hopefully, as a result of our study we will be able to appropriate the spiritual truths we have gleaned from God’s Word so that we will see how to relate them, not only to the present “nation” of Israel today, but also to ourselves. Thus, we will come to understand who the people were that made up the “Israel of God” in Paul’s day, and who they are today.

Moses “Unveiled”

I believe that the main reason there is so much confusion in the church today about this subject is because we fail to let the New Testament interpret the Old. Since God has brought greater clarity to us through His Word as to how we are to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures, let’s remember to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us interpret and even reinterpret His Word in the light of God’s final revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ. When we allow the inspired authors of the New Testament to be our starting point for interpreting Old Testament passages, then we will truly be allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. The New Testament must always interpret the Old, never the other way around.

After Jesus Christ died on the cross for all peoples on planet earth, God poured out His Spirit at Pentecost, and the old covenant veil of Moses was removed from the apostle’s eyes. The apostles who were witnesses of Christ’s life, death and resurrection only began to understand the meaning of His mission after the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

Prior to Pentecost they could not understand what was behind that veil unless they received a special revelation from God, or a specific teaching from Jesus. For instance, Peter needed a revelation from the Father to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They had to repeatedly ask Jesus, “Explain to us…” because their understanding of the Scriptures was based upon the teachings and traditions they had received from the Scribes and Pharisees.

However, after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all believers, the apostles understood the mysteries of God in the Scriptures, and were explaining them with such confidence that even the Scribes and Pharisees marveled at their wisdom, knowing that they were uneducated and untrained men. Before the cross they had been hoping (like most Jews) that Jesus, their Messiah, would deliver them from the Romans and set up a literal earthly kingdom. But after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit transformed their thinking in how they should interpret and understand the Old Testament types and shadows.

That is why everywhere in the New Testament the gospel writers announce that all the promises made by the prophets, and all the shadows of the Old Testament law have been fulfilled in Christ. They saw that Jesus was in reality the new Adam, the new Moses, the new Israel, the new Temple, the new King, and that His kingdom was not of this world. By not only fulfilling the law, but also the prophets, Jesus came to transform Israel’s hope and understanding of what the prophets had only seen in part.

However, when we go back and read the Old Testament prophecies we often fail to realize that the prophets were using language and imagery of the Palestinian culture to try and describe the salvation event. So they used phrases such as “the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose”, and “water shall break forth in wilderness” and “sorrow and sighing will flee away” to describe the mighty act of God in Christ, because it was utterly beyond the limits of their prophetic expression. So if we try to interpret the Old Testament prophecies literally according to the letter of their Palestinian language and tradition, we do great injustice to God’s Word. We end up trying to squeeze the awesome act of God in Christ into a narrow Judaistic framework.

Mystery Revealed

Unfortunately, instead of interpreting the Old Testament through the lens of the New, we often tend to do just the opposite. However, the Old Testament cannot be fully understood without the help of the New, because the Old Testament contains mysteries and truths that were not fully revealed, but shrouded in darkness, waiting for the flood of light that would be shed upon them by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What was a mystery before, veiled in types and shadows, now became clear to the New testament apostles and prophets as the Holy Spirit revealed to them how God’s final word, Jesus Christ, fulfilled the law and the prophets. This is confirmed by the following passages of Scripture.

“Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it’” (Luke 10:23-24).

“…according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest…” (Romans 16:25-26).

“Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is… the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery… is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace… this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known…” (Ephesians 3:1-11).

As we begin our study of who “Israel” originally was, and for what purpose God chose her, let’s keep this biblical principle in mind and always let the New Testament interpret the Old. I pray that the “veiled” Scriptures that have brought so much confusion to so many in the church will become “unveiled” in Jesus Christ so that we will understand, not only who the people were that made up the “Israel of God” in Paul’s day, but who they are today.

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