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Israel & Christians Today
Biblical understanding about Israel
Israel and the Nations (Part 1)
By Harald Eckert
Israel and the nations is a theme that, as with many of the other issues regarding Israel, has not often been talked about or taught in church history. You won’t find many books on Israel and the nations. Let’s get going on quite a challenging journey.
The starting point is God’s famous calling extended to Abraham and His promises in Genesis 12:1-3. “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get yourself out of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
I want to start by focusing on verse 3: “I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth (michpocha) will be blessed.”
Firstly I want to point out that, in terms of blessings and curses, the language used is collective and not individualistic. It talks about the fact that Israel shall be a nation and that through the nation of Israel the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Those who bless you are blessed and those who curse the Jewish nation are cursed. It’s all in a language and framework that does not primarily talk about individuals but about michpocha -that’s the key word in Hebrew- and the word michpocha has a very broad feel and spectrum of meaning as most of you would know. It has connotations with family, tribe, clan, a group of people or an ethnic group. The modern word for it is nation. Another dimension of interpretation or understanding would be ‘generations’ and there is a time factor involved throughout the generations. The Bible alternatively refers to families, sometimes to nations and at times to generations. All are correct and all have been correctly translated. The common ground here is collectivism. Family, tribe, clan, ethnic group, nation, generation... It’s all more than one. Israel, on the other hand, is spoken of as a both a nation and a people.
This issue and theme is complicated because most of us come from a church background where the importance of understanding the collective dimension was not accentuated. I come from a Lutheran background but was born-again in a Jesus People or Charismatic movement and was largely influenced by the primary importance of a personal relationship with Jesus: Jesus and I, I and Jesus. My salvation and my calling to bring that salvation to as many individuals as is possible.
This is something that many of us, in one way or the other, have been brought up with. And it has something to do with church history. About the Millennium; about Augustine’s misunderstanding of the third phase of the Millennium which started in the time when Christianity became a major factor and the state religion within the Roman Empire of that time. The Roman Empire, which was in the process of falling apart, was being replaced by the Church. And so he indeed understood that as -in a way- the Millennium. And so, with Replacement Theology, Jerusalem was replaced by Rome, Jesus was replaced by the Pope and Israel was replaced by the Church. And then Christian Europe, especially, was supposed to be the manifestation of ‘kingdom now’ as understood by Augustine and those within a similar framework of thinking as well as those who had the power to implement it.
So, the medieval church and European Christendom was formed by a kind of triumphalism with high and lofty goals of what the Church in the world should be like and also by the struggle for control in Europe between the Pope and the Emperor (or Keiser) that’s been ongoing for hundreds of years. This brought us the Reformation. The Reformation was partly a reformation back to the Bible and partly a reformation back to the days of the church fathers. And, especially as far as Luther was concerned, back to Augustine. But it was not a reformation back to the Word of God.
We had a mixture in the Reformation times. There was the Catholic version of understanding and -speaking from a Lutheran background as a German person- there were Luther and Calvin with their different versions of understanding. We had German and Lutheran dukes, earls and princes whom were followed not long after by Lutheran bishops. Amongst the secular leaders there existed a famous practice that, depending in which area of government you worked, you had to follow the faith of the leading duke or earl. In Catholic surroundings you were to live as a Catholic and in Lutheran surroundings as a Lutheran. That was true even of nations. France was Catholic. Sweden was Lutheran. The nations were struggling about whether to follow the Lutheran or Catholic paths and that gave rise to wars. The worst war during that period of time was the Thirty Year War from 1618 to 1648. It was a religious war. It was about either remaining Catholic or becoming Catholic again due to the Counter Reformation that was taking place or about remaining or becoming Protestant. It was a vicious war. One third of the German population was completely obliterated in those thirty years and it was similarly devastating for the many other nations that were touched by this war.
This, in a sense, is the background of the Pietistic Revival that many of us are familiar with. I am not sure that, in Africa, you understand the word ‘pietism’ as part of Church History in which the Bohemian brothers, Graf Zinzendorf and John Wesley were involved. These revivals were brought about by the Holy Spirit and, for very good reasons; the emphasis was placed completely on an individual relationship with Jesus and on individual salvation. When referring to governments, cities and nations, the collective side of the Biblical testimony became undesirable because it had been abused, misinterpreted and misused. It had lead to the chaos that I have just attempted to describe in a few words. Then, of course, with secularism and enlightenment the individual component was also highlighted from a secular point of view. In the last few hundred years we have thus ended up with both the secular- and church-views being focused primarily on the individual side of things. These few reasons show why it’s not easy to talk about Israel and the nations. It is evident that there have not been many theological reference points and examples over the past few hundred years.
This, by the way, is one of the main reasons why it is so difficult for some evangelical believers, Bible teachers and pastors to find access to the revelation concerning Israel. It is quite simple for individuals to talk or preach or even to believe within the context of Jews becoming Christians or of Jews being saved because it is part of our frame of reference. But thinking about Israel as a collective entity and all Israel being saved (as written in Romans 11:25) is incomprehensible for many Bible believing evangelical Christians. Martin Luther, who was a young professor in Wittenberg during the time of the Reformation (1516, 1517), did a wonderful exposition of the letter of Romans. His students, who took notes, passed it on and we can still read it today. These reliable sources said that when Luther came to Romans 11:25, which speaks about the collective salvation of Israel, he more or less said the following: ‘These verses remain dark to me. Who can believe them.’ (Verse translated from German) This took place in 1516 and if you know something about the Reformation history you will remember that one year later, in 1517, he nailed his ‘95 Theses of Contention’ on the door of the Wittenberg Church. It may be known to many of you that Luther became expressively anti-Semitic in the latter part of his life and the theological reason for his aggression against the Jews can be found in this: He just did not have any understanding of the collective calling of the Jewish people and of the covenant that God made through Abraham, and the other covenants that followed, with the Jewish people as a collective entity. Nor could he comprehend the salvation of the people of Israel in a collective manner in a time to come in the future that Paul speaks about in Romans 11:25 and the following verses.
And so it remained dark for Luther. He couldn’t believe it even if he was a man of the Word. It was completely outside of his framework of being able to receive. And what was true for Luther was true for many Evangelical, many Pietistic and many Revival oriented believers, -teachers and -leaders. So this is part of the heritage we have to keep in the back of our minds when we start our journey in discovering the Biblical testimony and witness about Israel and the nations.
The introduction was important in order for us to obtain the necessary sensitivity and understanding of what, exactly, we are talking about. You do not need to understand everything all at once but my hope is that, from the point of view of being intercessors and Christians with a priestly calling in our respective nations, I can communicate to you something that will create in you a loving concern for your nation and the relationship of your nation with Israel. Also the relevance of all of this in our times. My reason for becoming involved in these thoughts and research, is because of my deep, loving concern for my German people and, I think you might understand, given the history that Germany has with the Jewish people.
So what does that mean for our nations? Let me pose two questions to stimulate your thinking. The first question is: When were nations mentioned the first time in the Bible? It obviously was not with Adam and Eve but somewhere along the line, nations were created, established or founded in the Bible. The answer is: Nations were first mentioned in Genesis 10. After the flood and after God’s covenant with Noah that you can read about in Genesis 8 and Genesis 9. Some say there was a covenant made with Adam and Eve, but from the Bible it is definite and clear that this was the only covenant not made with the Jewish people alone. The Jewish people were not yet there at that time. It was made with all mankind and even with all creation. We know that summer and winter will not pass, that sowing and harvesting shall not end and that the flood shall never again occur. The rainbow is a sign of the covenant with mankind and with creation. The rainbow, the covenant with Noah and his family, was a covenant of grace. And this is something I want to emphasize strongly. A covenant of grace. The flood shall never happen again. Summer and Winter as well as sowing and harvesting shall never end. It is a covenant of blessing for mankind, for humanity and even for creation. A covenant that was an expression of the love of God towards mankind.
And then we read in Genesis chapter 10 that out of the three sons of Noah seventy nations were created and named. Seventy is an interesting number that has some meaning within the Hebrew context. Seven times ten (7 X 10). Two numbers. Different forms of completion. Seven (7) points to a spiritual completion while ten (10) points more to a visible completion. Seven times ten (7 X 10) indicates that all nations came out from the three sons of Noah. The descendants of Noah are all named in Genesis chapter 10. All the development of the nations -the birth of the nations and the establishment of the family of nations- was under this covenant of grace and blessing that was given to Noah.
Second question: When are the nations mentioned in the Bible the last time? I think most of us would say in Revelations because we are pretty familiar with people from all tribes and tongues coming to worship before the Throne of the Lamb while saying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb! But the interesting thing, at least to me, is that the nations are still mentioned in the very last chapter of Revelation 22... when there shall be a New Jerusalem, a New Heaven and New Earth that is introduced to us in more detail in chapter 21. Let’s read Revelations 22:1-3: ‘And he shows me a pure river of water of love, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’
When I first discovered and pondered this consciously, it was mind-boggling! The nations did not become irrelevant when the Great Commission was completed. The nations did not become irrelevant after the Millennium. The nations are still important and relevant to God in the New Jerusalem and in this era of the New Jerusalem. It is amongst the last things God reveals to us through His Word: That the nations are still part of the picture, part of that eon. And again they are mentioned in a very loving way. The Lord made provision for the healing of the nations. And this, to me, is a very important framework. It is obviously to me that the Lord Himself has a loving concern for nations. And of course for individuals. I do not reduce or remove that which the Lord has revealed regarding His care for you, for me and for all men on earth. It is not either/or! It’s complementary. It’s both. He cares for individuals and for nations. But we seem to have ‘lost’ the other half of that picture. That part of the picture that the Lord God Himself has a loving concern and made provision for the nations from the very beginning to the very end.
Let’s digest this and attempt to understand what we have read:
1.The calling out of Abraham, the calling on the Jewish people, and
2.The standard that God is setting between the Jewish people and the nations within that framework.
In summary, I want to ‘build a bridge’ between Genesis 9 (which covers the Noachitic covenant) and Genesis 12 (which describes God’s calling out of Abraham, His calling on Israel and the standard He set). What do we have in between? In Genesis 9 we have the covenant which is a covenant of grace and blessings. In Genesis 10, if I may simplify it and capture the essence, you find the nations evolving out of the three sons of Noah: Ham, Shem and Japhet. Thereafter you have the 70 nations mentioned.
And the next thing that happens is the building of the Tower of Babel. The nations would collectively build the tower against God. They put their forces, their ingenuity, their ambition, their power and their unity together and they joined their efforts. They finally wanted to prove that man, and not God, was the deciding factor. ‘Autonomous man’ we would call it in modern language. The autonomous mind. Humanism. The beginning of Humanism and the mindset of Humanism. This terrible attitude of Humanism strongly displayed their motivation for building the tower of Babel.
It is no coincidence – and this might be a bomb that I should not ignite, but am going to anyway – and it is not by chance that one of the famous pictures of the building of the Tower of Babel according to records from the 16th or 17th century, was the main inspiration for the architect that planned the house for the Plenary Meeting of the European Union in Strasbourg. The architecture of this pretty impressive Plenary Meeting building was taken from a picture that was painted in the 17th century depicting the building of the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis chapter 11. Even today the spirit of Humanism, that was present in Genesis 11, still has a stronghold in the building up of Europe.
This is not the only factor. There’s still reference or relevance concerning the Christian framework but that is part of our struggles as we work within the European Coalition for Israel that we push against the tide that’s coming… that Humanism is the decisive factor of the European Union. That, by the way remains to be seen.
The Spirit of Humanism was the driving force behind the building of the Tower of Babel as it is written in Genesis 11. And God judged it. He had to and He did. He not only judged it, He did three things: Firstly He confused the languages. and we continue to suffer from it today. Secondly He dispersed the people over all the earth and thirdly, it is important to note, He called out a man to form a different nation amongst the nations. That man was Abraham. This can be viewed as ‘God’s response’ to the building of the Tower of Babel, the attitude of pride and rebellion, of autonomy and the attempt to be rid of God. God’s answer was this three-fold response: Languages were confused; people were dispersed, Abraham was called and, through him, the people of Israel were called out of the nations to be a holy and separated nation amongst the nations. They were to be a letter from God to the nations. A nation in which He could reveal His will, His commandments, His power, His love and promises and in which He could reveal His judgments. He could reveal Himself as a message to the peoples who came in rebellion against Him although he loves them and blessed them in the covenant with Noah. If you understand this picture and this scenario, then the relationship between Israel and the nations makes sense.
That is how it started. And in that context it is said in Genesis 12:3 that those nations, O Israel, that bless you and regard you seriously, I will bless. And those nations that have a regard for Me and My Ten Commandments as well as the revelation of My will, I can and will bless. But those rejecting it, I will curse and judge. And God did.
This is the plumb line in the relationship between Israel and the nations of Genesis 12 verse 3 and this plumb line is still relevant today. I want to show it to you from the Bible. We will look at two Old Testament prophets and then to a New Testament reference. Thereafter we will come to the conclusions.
Firstly, we find a number of important indications when Joel talks about the nations and Israel in the end-times and I would like to make particular mention of the time factor here. We shall start by reading Joel 2:28-29: “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
To most of us, who have been touched by the ongoing revival or renewal movement over the last hundred years or so, I think these are familiar verses. These familiar words speak about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We’ve heard that it started at Pentecost where Peter quoted these verses extensively during his sermon at Pentecost. It started and would finish primarily, but not exclusively, with the Jewish people.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on Cornelius and his household in the same manner as on the 120 Jewish people, or 3120 of them, on Pentecost. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit over all flesh, all nations and all peoples go hand in hand with the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28 or Matthew 24:14) as quoted by Jesus in His End Time sermon. And this gospel from the Kingdom shall be preached in all the earth as a testimony for all the nations and then the end shall come. The end will not come before the Gospel of the Kingdom will be spread over all the nations. This is the same as saying first of all that the fullness of the Gentiles has to be completed before all Israel will be saved. These go together. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit started at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. ‘That which the prophet Joel has spoken about is happening right before your eyes. For these are not drunk as you might think. Prophecy is becoming fulfilled before your eyes.’ That was the starting point of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will not end before the gospel of the Kingdom has been preached to all ethnic groups and before all Israel will be saved. That is where it ends.
This is one reference point as far as timing is concerned. We can say that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over all flesh was prophesied and was going to be a New Testament phenomenon. It speaks about things happening in New Testament times and Peter quotes it in the New Testament in Acts chapter 2. So Joel prophecies about something that was to take place in New Testament times.
Then, in chapter 3 verse 1 we read something very interesting: “For behold in those days and at that time…” Let’s stop here for a moment. In which days and at what time? In the days in which the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh. Whatever is described next, will happen in that time frame. Those days and those times. We can actually read it as follows: ‘in New Testament days and New Testament times’. “For behold, in New Testament times when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem.” Another question: When were those times that the captives of Judah and Jerusalem have been brought back? It is now! And it’s happening before our eyes!