Israel is not a place, it’s a people
Israel is not a place; it’s a people.
If you took a survey and asked people what the word “Israel” means in today’s world, many would probably lean toward a geographic explanation—that is a place in the world, a sovereign country where the three great world religions collide in their claim of its holy city, Jerusalem. They might say that Israel is a place over which wars have been fought and persist even unto this day between Islamic factions and the Israelis. And this is an age-old story that goes back to the descendants of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac. But we will save that discussion for next time. For the purposes of today’s entry, let’s take a deeper dive into the Christian view, as informed by the Hebrew tradition.
Indeed, Judaism, Islam and Christianity agree that Jerusalem is of great significance, as the very place where God’s presence once dwelt in the Temple for the Israelites, the place of Jesus’ death and resurrection for Christians, and the place where Mohammad ascended into Heaven for Muslims (among several other reasons).
And yet, in the Torah, the Mishna (rabbinical writings) and in the New Testament, the significance of Israel (and Jerusalem) is less geographic and more anthropological in its eschatological significance. What does that mean?
In short, Israel is “the chosen people of God”—the ones who will inherit the coming kingdom of God on Heaven and Earth. In fact, in Mishna Sanhedrin, x,1 which is read before each chapter of Aboth in the rabbinic tradition, makes the unambiguous announcement that, “All Israelites have a portion in the world to come.” The teaching of Hillel, one of the rabbinic branches of ancient Judaism, argued that the “all sufficing mercy of God swept aside the hapless conception that eternal suffering awaits the average man, since salvation is offered to all people who observe the ethical commandments of the decalogue—that is the ten commandments” (Kohler).
Suffice it to say that, in the ancient Jewish tradition, salvation comes through “observance” or obedience to Torah, or the Law encapsulated by the ten commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai. For Christians, however, the Law has been fulfilled in and through the person of Jesus Christ, who was the only person to ever live in full obedience to the Torah, synthesizing the Law into two precise observances in response to the Sadducees (one of the 1st century Jewish sects):
“And one of them, a Lawyer, asked him a question to test him, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment of the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:35-40).
The last statement by Jesus that “all the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments” means that not only are these the most important commandments, but obedience or observance to all the rest of the Law depends on living out these two commandments first and foremost, which is fundamentally impossible for any sinful human being to do perfectly. The whole Law crumbles without fulfilling those two commandments, and all Israel failed to do so in a way that pleases God. And yet, where the Mishna is spot on is in the fact that, indeed, ALL ISRAEL, will be saved. Romans 11 tells us who all Israel is—it defines who it is and will be at the end of the age:
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery brothers and sisters, so that you may be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:25-27).
This is a remarkable explanation of who Israel is—the chosen people of God includes both the Israelites and their descendants and the Gentiles (or all the nations of the world) who place their trust in the deliverer who comes from Zion, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And what’s more, the covenant—that is, the unbreakable promise of God—is that their sins will be removed forever in the sight of God, totally fulfilling all that the Law requires eternally! So, salvation comes in and through the deliverer, a person who will rescue all Israel, all of the people of God, who were at one time perishing; who were at one time far away from the Lord; who had at one time hardened hearts; who were at one time struggling to observe the Law because of their sin; but, who are now, once and for all and forever, totally redeemed, completely renewed and restored for an eternity of everlasting life!
So, Israel is not just a place on a map. It’s not just the Jewish people throughout the world or in the land called Israel today. All Israel is you and me and anyone who places their trust in Christ Jesus, for He is the way, and the truth and the life (John 14:6).
So, when people say to you that the people of Israel are the chosen people of God—you can nod your head in complete agreement, and say, “and that’s you and me and all those who in trust in the Christ, Jesus the savior of the world!”
Pastor Kyle S. Reynolds
