From Dispensational to Covenantal Part IV

Overview:
Much ink has been spilt in an effort to draw parallels between the son of a Jewish carpenter born in the first century named Yeshua, and the corporate history of the people called Jews. Because these parallels, and bold re-interpretations of Old Testament passages by the New Testament writers, can be seen everywhere, and because so many have committed these things to writing, I'll only highlight a few of the more prominent passages which re-interpret, and draw parallels between, the Jewish Messiah and the history of the Jewish people themselves, and what it all means.

In my previous blog I argued how from the very first usage of the term Israel down through the first century there was a duality of sorts--a physical or fleshly Israel, and a spiritual Israel--so that we should now be able to nod with approval when Jesus utters the exclusive phrase "behold, a true Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit" and with the Apostle Paul when he states (inclusively) that after the time of the Gentiles is complete, "then all Israel will be saved".

But some would say that we have leaped too far in a desperate attempt to make Old Testament Israel synonymous with the New Testament Church. They say that, like the evolutionist who is desperate to prove his theory by ignoring it's missing links, we too have ignored our "missing link". I would argue that our so-called "missing" link is not missing at all, but rather it (or he) is with all obviousness the most central link in all of scripture! So central is our link that the Western world have divided history itself at the coming of our link (Before Christ, Anno Domini or 1 BC, AD 1), the link that separates our scriptures between Old and New, and yet paradoxically binds them together so intimately, so interweavingly that they cannot be separated, in an attempt to draw out of God two separate plans in history, without doing irreconcilable damage to the unity of it's message--that salvation and the people of God always has been, is, and always will be by faith. And that by faith these covenant people of God live righteously as Yahweh said to Habakkuk, the "righteous shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4, cf. Hebrews 11).

The Missing Link: Jesus is Israel!
Many authors have noted how that the Jews understood the coming Messiah, the heir to the throne of David, to be, like David before him, Israel's representative to Yahweh. So the Messiah, the King of Israel, would embody all that Israel was and is - both it's accomplishments and it's sins - that if Israel was the son of God corporately then the Messiah would be the Son of God, if Israel was God's vine, the Messiah would be the true Vine, if Israel would be God's elect then the Messiah would stand in as God's Elect One. And so where Israel had failed (from the moment the Lord brought them out of Egypt to their final Exile where they remain still), the Messiah succeeded, and yet paradoxically he also took the consequences of their failure on himself, and with it the sins of the world! (How this last point is accomplished will be discussed when I answer my own question posed in a blog last month (June) :Why the Law as a Covenant Charter?)

When we approach the New Testament we encounter immediately a writer with an agenda (are there any who write without an agenda?)! When we crack open the New Testament the first letter we come across, the Gospel of Matthew, was decisively written as the Good News for the Jew (it was the only N.T. book not originally written in Greek, Matthew was written first in Hebrew [rather Aramaic, the language of first century Jews] and then translated into Greek, presumably by Matthew himself). His intention was to show that the Messiah has finally arrived, and with him the long awaited Kingdom of God (the idea that the Kingdom of God came and left with Jesus has no biblical support)! The Immanuel is manifest, "God with us", the purpose of the Covenants have finally found their fulfillment in the Elect One, the One who is Truth, the true Israelite "indeed in whom there is no deceit".

Christopher Wright, for example, easily indulges himself for an entire chapter on Jesus' genealogy in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, showing through it that Jesus was Israel's Messiah (Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament). And many other writers have done the same, some using wider brushes (eg. Wohlberg, End Times Delusions; Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code), while others giving new definition to the phrase "in depth bible study" through their academically weighty books (eg. N.T. Wright, Climax of the Covenant).

Matthew, or rather Levi probably himself from the tribe of Levi, the tax collector is very methodical in his calculated approach to Jesus in his Gospel. He seems to go out of his way, and if we are to take both Paul and Peter seriously he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to go out of his way, to draw a parallel between Jesus and the history of Israel:

OT: a Joseph had dreams and brought Israel into Egypt (Gen 37, 39)
NT: another Joseph had dreams and led Jesus into Egypt (Matt. 2)

OT: Israel called out of Egypt - God called Israel his son (Ex 4:22)
NT: Jesus called out of Egypt - Called his Son (Matt 2)

OT: After Egypt the Israelites were baptised in the Sea of Reed (or Red Sea)
NT: After Egypt Jesus is baptised in the River Jordan (Matt 3, cf. 1 Cor. 10:2)

OT: After the Israelites were baptised they spent 40 years in the wilderness
NT: After Jesus was baptised in spent 40 days in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-2)

OT: The Israelites seemed to fail miserably in the wilderness (via complaining and lack of faith)
NT: Jesus, when tempted by the Devil quoted from Deuteronomy, the very book that many scholars believe was given to the Israelites in the wilderness (cf. Matt 4)

If this motif in Matthew's Gospel is not explicit enough for some then consider this direct reinterpretation of an Old Testament verse in light of Jesus by Levi and inspired by the Holy Spirit: Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus into Egypt until Herod died so that what the Lord said through the prophet would be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I called my Son". Matthew was quoting Hosea 11:1, except that the original prophecy did not seem to apply to the Messiah, but to the nation of Israel: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son". So here God prophesied, to paraphrase, 'Out of Egypt I called my Son, Israel', then God fulfilled that prophecy explicitly, 'Out of Egypt I called my Son, Jesus'". Jesus represents Israel, and in some sense Jesus is Israel!

So far I have shown using only the first four chapters of the first book in the New Testament to show how Jesus the Messiah is Israel's representative, Jesus is Israel succeeding where Israel failed, and himself becoming the second Adam (not yet proven, but easily shown in Paul's writings). but I could continue through the rest of the New Testament and talk about how Israel was to be God's answer to the fall and curse by being a new creation, how Jesus is the New Creation, the first fruits of a New thing as evidenced by His resurrection, I could go on and quote countless passages, not as 'proof texts' as so many are accustomed to doing to defend a view, but as a single coherent motif embedded, but not hidden, within the text of the New Testament and seen everywhere, from Christ being the 'first fruits', and a 'new creation' and the 'second Adam' to those who are 'in Christ' paralleling those who were 'in Jacob' (i.e. Israel).

Conclusion: We began by taking inventory of the fact that there are and always have been two Israel's, one of the flesh (in which they should not to take confidence) and those who are of the spirit (i.e. by faith), and that it is the latter, not the former, that are true Israel. Now that we've furthered our study we've seen that Israel, God's solution to the problem of the fall, have themselves become part of the problem (see Romans 2) - and so a Messiah, a true Israelite, a new Creation, a perfect human, a second Adam was needed. And so in the Messiah we find God's answer to the Fall - recreated, a new Human, a true prince with God (i.e. Israel).

But how, if at all, does this reinterpretation of Israel found in the Messiah effect the Christian from the resurrection to the present. That's the subject of the next blog.

Until then continue to pray "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" - amen.

Derek