JACOB’S TROUBLE
In Part I of this series, I alluded to a future hostility coming for the people of God. There is a future time of trouble coming for Jacob that God Himself is responsible for. And it has a particular goal in mind; the salvation of all Israel.
“For behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”
These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah: “Thus says the Lord: We have heard a cry of panic, of terror, and no peace. Ask now, and see, can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale? Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it… For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord; I will make a full end of all the nation among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.[1]
Throughout Jewish history, the Lord has used the wickedness of other nations as a tool of chastisement for His beloved people, Israel. And on every occasion, He has done so to bring them back to Himself. God’s discipline of Israel has always been, and will always be, with the purpose vindicating His name and winning back His wayward son. The coming trouble is no exception.
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.[2]
This passage begins with the correction and discipline of Israel, but ends with their salvation and the promise of the New Covenant.
FOUNDATIONS
I mentioned that Christians in particular should be prepared for the consequences of standing with or against Israel. Why do I say that?
Because the identity of the Church is bound to the history of the Jewish people. And so is our future. The foundations of the household of God are thoroughly Jewish. The covenantal promises made to the Jewish patriarchs and prophets, mediated by the Jewish Messiah, and proclaimed by the Jewish apostles is the foundation that the New Testament Church is built on.
For salvation is from the Jews.[3]
The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. [4]
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God.[5]
Therefore remember that you [Gentiles] were at that time separated from Christ [Jewish Messiah], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in world.[6]
A common mistaken belief regarding Israel is that the Old Covenant is in the Old Testament and is for the Jews and that the New Covenant is in the New Testament and is for the Gentiles. But that’s not what the Bible teaches.
The New Covenant was promised in the Old Testament to the Jewish people.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. [7]
So, when Jesus enjoyed the final Passover meal with His disciples on the night He was betrayed, He picked up a cup and declared that the New Covenant would be inaugurated by the shedding of His blood. “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” [8]
Everyone present at that Passover understood that Jesus was talking about the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah. The New Covenant with the Jewish people. Of course, it’s not just for the Jewish people, as God promised Abraham that through his offspring all nations would be blessed. [9]
Paul gives us an explanation of this mystery that Gentiles are being included into the Jewish covenants.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.[10]
So now, “Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”[11]
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. [12]
This dwelling place for God is a mosaic of “living stones” being built together from every ethnically distinguishable people group made in God’s image. Including Gentile nations with centuries of hostility toward the Jewish people.
Daniel Scott is a writer for FAI who loves resourcing those who have the Gospel to reach those who don’t.
