CHAPTER 6

GOD’S PURPOSE FOR ISRAEL – PART 1

THE ABRAHAMIC AND MOSAIC COVENANTS

Israel plays a key role in God’s Plan to reconcile all things in heaven and all things on earth to Himself, having made peace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus Christ Himself was born a Jew and an Israelite.

The Israelites are the direct physical descendants of Abraham through the line of Isaac and Jacob. The Bible uses the word Israel to mean both the nation and the land. Scripture says again and again, hundreds of times, that God is the God of Israel, and the Holy One of Israel. In fact, the word Israel is mentioned over 2,500 times in the Bible. We all need to grasp the tremendous importance of Israel, of why and how God is using Israel to demonstrate His love, His justice and His Plan of Salvation for all people.

God made a covenant with Abraham, known as the Abrahamic Covenant. This is a covenant of faith through which God is unconditionally bound to make Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, a great and blessed nation, and also to bless all the families (nations) of the earth through the Seed of Abraham, who is Jesus Christ Himself.

God also made a covenant with Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, 430 years after the Abrahamic Covenant. This is known as the Mosaic Covenant, which is a conditional covenant promising blessings for obedience to God’s laws, but incurring God’s curses and judgements for disobedience.

It is very important to understand both of these covenants, the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant, because they are at the heart of God’s purpose and plan to judge and then to reconcile to God all Israel and all nations of the earth. God has a wonderful plan for all people, which He is working out in biblical ages. The Plan of God consists of both separation and reconciliation for all people: separation because of sin and reconciliation because of the free gift of God’s Righteousness through Jesus Christ.

The history of Israel started when God called one man, Abraham.

Genesis 12:1

Now the LORD had said to Abram (Abraham): ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house To a land that I will show you’.

God called Abraham out of his native land Haran to go to the land of Canaan. This has been estimated to be in the year 1921 B.C.

The Abrahamic Covenant - The Unconditional Covenant of Faith

Genesis 12:2-3

2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

3 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.

These verses state the Abrahamic Covenant. God has put a tremendous importance on this covenant. He affirmed, re-affirmed and then renewed the covenant with Isaac and Jacob. (Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15:1-21, Genesis 17:1-11, Genesis 22:15-19, Genesis 26:2-5, Genesis 28:13-17)

The Abrahamic Covenant contains three important parts:

firstly an unconditional part, ‘I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing’;

followed by a conditional part, ‘I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you’;

followed by an unconditional part, ‘And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’.

We see that the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant has a conditional part within it. However, this in no way takes away from God’s unconditional parts of the Abrahamic Covenant. We will comment on each part of the covenant later in this chapter. 

When God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation, Abraham was 75 years old and childless. For Abraham to become a great nation, he would have to have multitudes of descendants and land. God promised him both of these.

Genesis 15:5

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them”. And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be”.

Genesis 15:18

On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates”.

As the Abrahamic Covenant was made circa 1921 B.C., this means that almost 4,000 years have passed since God promised Abraham that his descendants would be a great and blessed nation, living in the land with boundaries from the river of Egypt to the River Euphrates. The important question facing us is, ‘Has God fulfilled His promise to Abraham yet?’ The answer is an absolute ‘no’. God has not yet fulfilled this promise.

To date, Israel has never been a great and blessed nation, occupying the full extent of the land promised to Abraham. Also, all the families of the earth have not yet come into the blessing of the Seed of Abraham, who is Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:14, 16

14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds” as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed’, who is Christ.

The first unconditional part of the Abrahamic covenant, ‘I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing’, will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ when He returns at His Second Coming to establish His Millennial Kingdom on this earth. The Bible is clear that during Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, Israel will indeed be a great nation of blessing as we explain in Chapter 11.

The second unconditional part of the Abrahamic Covenant, ‘And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ is universal in scope and refers to both phases of the Kingdom of God, the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Ultimately, Adam and Eve and all of their descendants without exception, whose numbers are like the stars of heaven, will be blessed and reconciled to God through the Seed of Abraham who is Christ. Full details are given in Chapters 11 and 14.

Let us now clearly understand the conditional part of blessing and cursing in the Abrahamic Covenant, as it is greatly misunderstood by most Christians. Many Christian Zionists misapply the Abrahamic Covenant and unwisely get involved in supporting the politics of the State of Israel against the Palestinians because they fail to understand that God’s promises to Israel will not be fulfilled in this age, but only after Jesus Christ returns.

Blessings and Curses in the Abrahamic Covenant

The conditional part of the Abrahamic Covenant says, ‘I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you’. God blesses those who bless Abraham and He curses those who curse Abraham. It is important to understand that the Abrahamic Covenant is a covenant of faith.

Romans 4:13, 16

13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

All those who have the faith of Abraham to believe in all parts of the Abrahamic Covenant come under the Abrahamic Blessing. They believe that God will make Abraham, meaning Israel, a great nation of blessing and that God will bless (save) all the families of the earth, meaning all people, through the Seed of Abraham, who is Jesus Christ. However, all those who do not have the faith to believe in all parts of the Abrahamic Covenant come under the Abrahamic Curse.

Only true believers, God’s Elect, have the God given faith to fully believe in all parts of the Abrahamic Covenant. Only true believers will rise at the First Resurrection to join the returning Jesus Christ as His Bride, to rule and reign with Him for a thousand years during Christ’s Millennial Kingdom on this earth.

All unbelievers, both from the nation of Israel and the Gentile nations, past, present and future, remain under the Abrahamic Curse of unbelief, and they will miss out on the Abrahamic Blessing of entering the Millennial Kingdom of God as the Bride of Christ. All unbelievers will experience the Abrahamic Curse when they are resurrected following the Millennial Kingdom at the Second Resurrection. They will face God’s judgement in the Lake of Fire, before they can be reconciled to God.

Most ‘Christians’ also remain under the Abrahamic Curse. Most ‘Christians’ do not believe in the coming Millennial Kingdom of God on this earth, and they do not believe that God will bless (save) all the families of the earth through the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. Most ‘Christians’ believe in the unbiblical doctrine of hell. These ‘Christians’ will be shocked to hear, on the Day of Judgement, that Jesus Christ never knew them because they did not believe in the Abrahamic Covenant, which is the will of the Father. (Matthew 7:21-23) The will of the Father is nothing less than the universal salvation of all people through Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham. (1 Timothy 2:3-6)

The Mosaic Covenant - The Covenant of the Law

The Mosaic Covenant is a covenant based on God’s laws, unlike the Abrahamic Covenant, which is a covenant based on faith that God has promised to fulfil Himself. The Mosaic Covenant was made following the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt around 1491 B.C. This was 430 years after God made the Abrahamic Covenant. The most important commandments in the Mosaic Covenant are the Ten Commandments, given to Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. However, there are hundreds of additional laws, rules and commandments in the Mosaic Covenant.

Exodus 24:3

So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do”.

The children of Israel agreed to keep all of God’s commandments. However, they did not understand that in their self-righteous state it was impossible for them to obey these commandments as God required. God pronounced both blessings and curses: blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant.

Leviticus 26:3-13

3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit’...and so on.

Leviticus 26:14-43

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it’...and so on.

This list of curses continues with frightening details in Deuteronomy 28. The story of Israel from the Exodus to the present day is a story of Israel’s failure to keep the Mosaic Covenant, thereby incurring God’s judgement, wrath and punishment. God understood right from the start that the children of Israel would not and could not keep the Mosaic Covenant, as God had not given them a heart to believe except for a remnant, who are God’s Elect.

Deuteronomy 29:4

Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.

It is within God’s plan and purpose to punish His chosen people for their sins and rebellion, but never to reject them totally. He continues to work with them. The time will come in the future when God will save all Israel by giving them new hearts to believe under the New Covenant, which is the outworking of the Abrahamic Covenant. 

God’s Judgements on Israel for Disobedience

Let us now go on to see how God has been working with His chosen people, Israel, since the Exodus to this present day, and understand God’s plan for them. This is powerfully and wonderfully described and summarised in the book of Ezekiel Chapter 36. We shall start from verse 16.

Ezekiel 36:16-18

16 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. 18 Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it”.

After the Exodus from Egypt in 1491 B.C., the children of Israel finally occupied a part of the Promised Land known as Canaan, under the leadership of Joshua. Only those who were under the age of twenty, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, entered the land after forty years of wandering and judgement in the wilderness of Sinai. The rest of the Israelites could not enter because of their unbelief.

After entering the Promised Land, the children of Israel failed to keep the Mosaic Covenant, so God judged them severely. He allowed foreign armies to invade and remove them from their land, and scattered them among the Gentile nations.

Ezekiel 36:19

19 So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.

God says that He scattered the Israelites from their own land. The word Diaspora means a scattering of the Israelites to other countries. Let us see the relevant dates of when this scattering historically took place.

Israel was divided into two kingdoms, a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. In 721 B.C., the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom, which comprised the ten tribes of Israel, and took them captive. All of the Israelites who were taken captive never returned to the land of Israel. However, a remnant of the ten tribes managed to escape captivity and joined the Southern Kingdom, which comprised two tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin, known as the Jews. (2 Chronicles 30:6-11)

In 586 B.C., 135 years after the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians, the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom comprising the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, plus the remnant of the other ten tribes of Israel who had escaped captivity by the Assyrians. The Babylonians took the Jews captive and removed them to Babylon. However, once again a remnant escaped and remained in the Southern Kingdom. (Nehemiah 1:2)

In 538 B.C., Babylon fell to Persia. By this time the Jews had been 48 years in captivity in Babylon. Cyrus, king of Persia, freed these Jews and gave them permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, many Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, which was completed in 516 B.C.

In 301 B.C., Ptolemy, the Greek general, who succeeded Alexander the Great, took Jerusalem from the Persians and ruled over Judea.

In 63 B.C., Pompey, the Roman commander, took Jerusalem from the Greeks and Judea then became a Roman protectorate.

The period 4 B.C. - 27 A.D. saw the birth, the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. This is the most central event in God’s Plan for All, which will lead to the fulfilment of all parts of the Abrahamic Covenant.

In 66-70 A.D., the Jews revolted against the Roman Empire under Emperor Titus. This revolt was crushed in 70 A.D., when up to one million Jews died and the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.

In 132-134 A.D., the Jews again revolted against the Roman Empire under Emperor Hadrian. The Romans also crushed this revolt, and approximately 580,000 Jews were killed. This revolt is known as Bar-Kokhba’s revolt after the name of the Jew who led it.

Most of the Jewish population, who survived these two revolts, were either sold into slavery or exiled to other countries.

Ezekiel 36:20-21

20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name - when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’ 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

It is amazing what God is saying in these verses. God is saying that the land of Israel is His land, and that any Israelite living outside of His land is profaning His holy name.

Ezekiel 36:22-23

22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

We know that the land of Israel was given, through the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant, to Abraham and his descendants through the line of Isaac and Jacob. As long as Jews live outside the promised land of this Covenant, from the river of Egypt to the River Euphrates, the reputation of the God of Israel is being disgraced and profaned in the eyes of the nations.  God says that He will sanctify His great name by making sure that the Jews, spread throughout the world, will return to their own Promised Land.

 
Ezekiel 36:24

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

Jews endured much persecution for centuries whilst living in other countries, but they have always remained a separate and distinct people who could not be assimilated into other nations because of their traditions under the Mosaic Covenant. This is how God intended it to be.

Traditional Christianity, both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, has misunderstood Scripture when it believed for centuries that God had rejected His people, Israel. It believed that the Jews had been replaced by the Church comprised mainly of Gentile Christians, which it believed to be the New Israel of God. This belief is known as ‘Replacement Theology’ and it is still prevalent today. 

It is this unbiblical belief, which fuelled anti-Semitism in Europe for centuries. Jews suffered much persecution during the Crusades (1099-1244) and the Inquisitions, including the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834). They suffered expulsion from many countries including England, France, Spain, Lithuania, Portugal and Germany. Jews were blamed for The Black Death plague (1347-1351), which decimated the population of Europe. They were charged with having provoked the plague through their unbelief in Christianity. The persecution of Jews during the Black Death resulted in an eastward migration of many Jews to Poland and Russia, where they remained until the twentieth century.

Anti-Semitism climaxed in the Holocaust of Hitler’s torture chambers, where more than six million Jews died during 1940-1945. The Holocaust led to the return of many Jews to Israel, and the country of Israel was re-established in 1948. The re-establishment of Israel has ‘woken-up’ many Christians to acknowledge the fact that God has not rejected Jews as believed by traditional Christianity for centuries. Some Christians have now become very strong supporters of Israel.

In 1600, it was estimated that only 1% of Jews lived in the land of Israel, whilst the remaining 99% lived in other countries throughout the world. However, by 1991, the ‘Historical Atlas of the Jewish People’ estimated that 32% of Jews had returned to Israel. This still left 68% living outside Israel. The current estimate is that 50% of Jews now live in Israel, which means that God’s work of gathering Jews out of all countries back to Israel is not yet complete and will continue until the return of their Messiah, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Israel is now once again a nation in its own land. It is a tiny nation with only a few million people, yet it is the most powerful nation militarily in the Middle East. Israel is leading the world in many technological developments, such as in biotechnology and the internet. It is also a world leader in environmental research. Over a hundred Israeli companies are listed on NASDAQ. Israel’s importance and contribution to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance and medicine, is greatly out of proportion to its small size and numbers. However, God’s plan to make Israel a great nation of blessing not only to themselves but also to all nations of the earth, as promised under the Abrahamic Covenant, has not even begun yet. It can only begin when their Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns to this earth as the King of the Jews.

Israel remains an unbelieving nation except for a few Elect believers. In God’s eyes they still have unbelieving hearts of stone and their list of sins is still as long as that recorded by their prophets in the Old Testament. God has not yet finished judging and punishing His people.

The Bible prophesies that God will punish and judge the whole world including Israel, before Jesus Christ returns to this earth. This will be the time known as the Great Tribulation, lasting for three and a half years, when there will worldwide cataclysmic events and destruction of peoples. The Great Tribulation will be the most horrific unprecedented time that this present world will have ever experienced, or will ever experience again. (Matthew 24:2) Daniel also refers to this time of trouble when the power of the holy people, meaning Israel, will be completely shattered. (Daniel 12:1, 7) Also, Jeremiah refers to this time as ‘The Time of Jacob’s Trouble’. (Jeremiah 30:7) 

The final battle to be fought on this earth before Jesus Christ’s return is called the battle of Armageddon. God Himself will gather many Gentile nation armies (Magog) under the leadership of Gog to battle against Jerusalem and use them to judge and punish His people for their sins. (Ezekiel 39:16-17) Jerusalem shall be taken and half of the city shall go into captivity. However, this will be the last time God will use foreign armies to punish His people.  God will then fight against these armies of the nations and destroy them. (Zechariah 14:1-3)

We are living in momentous times leading towards the fulfilment of God’s covenant with Abraham, when God will make Israel a great nation of blessing both to itself and to all the nations of the earth.

The Fulfilment of the Promised Blessing to Israel

Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, will return to this earth immediately after the battle of Armageddon, and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. (Zechariah 14:4) This marks the beginning of the really Good News. Jesus Christ will return to bring complete fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant in all its parts.

The first unconditional part of the Abrahamic Covenant, which is to bless the nation of Israel and make it a great nation, will be fulfilled during the wonderful prophesied Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Jeremiah 31:31

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

How beautiful and how wonderful are God’s reassuring words to Israel. God’s promise of the New Covenant should bring tremendous rejoicing in the heart of every Jew. The New Covenant is the outworking of the Abrahamic Covenant of faith. God will give a new heart and a new spirit to His people to believe in the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.  

Ezekiel 36:28-30, 35

28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. 29 I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

 
35 So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden…

During the Millennial Kingdom, all of the Jews who will have survived the Great Tribulation and their descendants will live in the land of Israel, as promised to Abraham. Israel will be both spiritually and physically blessed, and will in turn bless all the nations of the world. 

Chapter 11, The Millennial Kingdom of God gives details about this glorious Age. 

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