Exactly who is Israel and why are they in the Bible?
Below is a very short presentation on Israel.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth.
When God created the Heaven and the earth, He put a system of government in both.
Colossians 1:16
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
God created all these positions of authority to serve Him for all eternity!
God created the earth to be the place in the Universe where He will dwell forever in the future.
He actually intended to dwell on earth back in Genesis, but when Adam sinned, God needed to clean up man and the earth first, then He could live here with man (in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ)!
God created Adam to be His king in the earth, to reclaim it back to Him!
Genesis 1:26-28
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Why did God create man to reclaim the earth? Because there was a rebellion in the Heaven led by a Cherub named Lucifer (Satan) and then Satan also led man to rebel (sin) against God in the earth as well. So both the government of Heaven and on earth has some positions of authority that are filled with rebellious beings!
But God already had a plan to reclaim both programs: the earth thru a Nation that we now know as Israel; and the heavens by an agency that we know as the Church, the Body of Christ.
So how did God create this nation of Israel that he would use to reclaim the earth? Where did they come from and begin from?
By separating one man from all the other men on the earth, God now had one man who would be the father of this new nation. Who was that man? Abraham!
Genesis 12:1-3
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So God, thru this man Abraham, begins to produce a people, who would ultimately become the nation of Israel—the agency/people group that He would use to reclaim the earth.
Abraham has a son named Isaac, and then Isaac has a son named Jacob. This man Jacob became known as Israel. God Himself changed his name to Israel. Israel means "God's princes"...and it would be this man's [Jacob, now called Israel] people who God would use as His princes to reclaim the kingdom of God on the earth.
Genesis 32:28
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
So God begins to bless and grow these men's children into a great people in the earth.
The way that He did it was by sending them all down into Egypt for a few hundred years to be fruitful and multiply is safe conditions and then, once it got too difficult for them to remain there because of the Egyptian bondage, He brought them out by Moses (read the book of Exodus).
Exodus 1:1-13
Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
It was in Exodus, after bringing them out, that God reminds the Israelites why He created them and their purpose in the earth for Him!
Exodus 19:5-6
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 14:2
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
So now that they know who they are and God's purpose for them, they are to obey His Word to them thru Moses—but they did not! So God could not use them because they were sinners and had wicked hearts!
But because God is gracious and faithful, and because He made a covenant with them and promised their father Abraham that He would bless and use them, God did something for Israel that Israel could not do for themselves! He Himself, would make them holy!
God promised that nation that He would give them a NEW covenant!
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
It is this new covenant, that had to be ratified with blood, that the Lord Jesus Christ showed up to fulfill for Israel.
Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law
Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins
That is why the Lord kept telling people that He was sent only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He came to die for their sins!
Matthew 1:21
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
But when Israel rejected their Messiah (and His salvation for them), and did not want Him, nor His earthly kingdom, God did a new thing, He instead began a new dispensation called Grace, and He raised up the Apostle Paul to go to the gentiles and preach salvation to them through Jesus Christ, apart from Israel.
That is what God is still doing today, and will do until He takes the church, the Body of Christ home to Heaven (to fill the government up there) in the future Rapture!
Then God will fulfill His promise to Abraham and the believers in Israel, and give them the earthly kingdom!
Romans 11:25-27
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
1 Peter 2:9
But ye [Israel] are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Revelation 5:10
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Again, this is a very short presentation on Israel. Honestly it usually takes about 3 years in the grace message, rightly divided Word to fully grasp these things. But I'm praying for you and be patient with God...He'll give you more understanding as you grow in our Apostle Paul's grace message ok?
2 Timothy 2:7
Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
Hopefully this
helps!
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