No primer about God’s strategy and tactics in Earth would be valid without summarizing His selection of, and preference for the nation, Israel. I suspect this may be one of the most misunderstood and controversial aspects of what He has been, and is currently up to.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed, they lost their glorious, eternal nature, and ushered sin into Earth. By birthright, their sin would forever stain their offspring – including you and me, leaving us in an eternal state of separation from God Who loves us. To remedy this, He promised restitution via a kinsman Redeemer. Imagine that! Mankind could one day regain our lost, glorious, eternal nature and intimate relationship with God. Adam and Eve knew nothing of the details of God’s plan, other than the promise that this Redeemer would somehow ‘crush the head’ of the being who tricked and deceived Eve to sin. Adam was not deceived, so he had sinned willfully. They shared about their fall from grace with their early offspring, some of whom learned to fear and respect God. However, as the human population grew, sinful disobedience across Earth also grew and became increasingly gross, spurred on by the same being(s) who deceived Eve, devils. God offered grace for an extended period of time. (See Part 1) Eventually, His grace to them expired, and He moved to his second strategic objective – judgment. He sent a flood to destroy all life on Earth, including humans whose DNA was reportedly infected by the same devils who fostered deceptions. (See: Genesis 6) Only a small remnant group of people and animals were saved in Noah’s ark.
After the flood, the remnant group eventually settled east of Eden, the ‘glorious land’ (to God). There they repeated the sinful folly of their ancestors and spurned God’s grace to them. From these peoples, God selected a barren couple, Abram and Sara, and inspired them to migrate to the glorious land. This couple would be the one to initiate a lengthy family lineage for the promised Redeemer. From the many family lines that would eventually come from this couple, God selected one line (Jacob’s) through whom to send our kinsman Redeemer, Jesus. Once devils got a glimpse of God’s plan, they did their best, working through people, to thwart it over many centuries. Eventually, Jesus was born of Mary, fathered by God’s Holy Spirit, un-stained by mankind’s sinful bloodline.
Jesus was perfectly positioned to offer Himself as an unblemished substitute for all people, to bear God’s due, eternal judgment for our sinfulness. He accomplished this through His pre-crucifixion sufferings, His death on a Roman cross, and His resurrection from the grave. To all of us who embrace His substitutionary works by faith, God accounts as ‘eternally righteous’, just as Adam and Eve had been created. Everyone who rejects this gift remains in their eternal sinful and lost state, with no hope of ever being reconciled to God.
From the start, God’s plans were for Israel to (a) serve as the human family lineage for Jesus, (b) be a unique, set-aside, example of righteous people among all peoples, and (c) serve Him by performing a range of priestly functions in this age and all ages to come. (Exodus 19:6)
Israel seriously got off track, and paid many heavy prices for disobedience. Through it all, God consistently selected and saved a remnant group who would survive His judgments, and live righteously, if but for a while.
God may have had a wide choice of couples through whom to start Jesus’ lineage. Top on His list of criteria was faith to perceive, believe and obey God. Thus, He changed the couple’s names to Abraham and Sarah, and called Abraham, ‘My friend’.
Given our sinful human nature, odds are that if God had selected another family line for Jesus, problems Israel has experienced from ancient-to-modern times would ...BE THE SAME!! So why all the angst?
Given our sinful human nature, odds are that if God had selected another family line for Jesus, problems Israel has experienced from ancient-to-modern times would ...BE THE SAME!! So why all the angst?
