Sermon Central
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Israel: God's Chosen People...still? (Pt. 2 Of 2)
Contributed by Matt Tison on Dec 5, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian terror group, Hamas, opened a gruesome and brutal attack upon Israel. Innocent people, from both nations, are still dying. This has led to many asking the question, will God still preserve His people, Israel? This is the final part of this two-part series.
In our last lesson, we began discussing questions surrounding the current political conflict in Israel.
On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian terror group, Hamas, opened a gruesome and brutal attack upon Israel.
We are over a month into this attack and innocent people, from both nations, are still dying.
That has led to many asking the question, will God still preserve His people, Israel?
Last week, we discussed two questions:
When was the nation of Israel established?
Was Israel still God’s chosen people through disobedience?
Today, after a brief recap, we want to continue with the following questions:
Is modern-day Israel and modern-day Jews still God’s chosen people?
What are some lies people believe about Israel today?
What is the Christian’s responsibility towards the conflict in Israel?
When was the nation of Israel established?
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was prophesied to come through Israelite lineage.
The Messiah was necessary because of man’s sin in the garden of Eden.
We saw the first prophecy of God’s plan for redemption in Genesis 3:15.
This proclamation was that, yes, Satan would deal a devastating blow to mankind.
But ultimately, through the fulfillment of the Messiah, God would be victorious.
Meaning, mankind will be victorious if they choose to obey God.
Obedience to God for us today began with Abraham, the first of the Hebrew patriarchs.
Abram was called upon by God to leave his homeland of Ur, which was in Mesopotamia, for the purpose of being the father of many nations (according to Genesis 12:1-4).
Abraham would ultimately have eight sons.
But only one of those sons was with Sarah, whom God promised -- Isaac.
Isaac had Jacob.
This is where we see the beginning of Israel in the Bible.
Through Abraham, Israel was established by Abraham’s son Jacob.
Jacob would later have a son named Joseph.
Joseph, through the sin of his brothers, was relocated to Egypt.
Joseph was blessed by God and became a mighty nation within Egypt.
The nation of Israel.
Blessed by God.
God’s chosen people.
Was Israel still God’s chosen people through disobedience?
Beginning the specific question in our lesson, we explored the question, “Was Israel still God’s chosen people through disobedience?”
Many times, God compared Himself to Israel like a husband to a wife.
According to Isaiah 54:5 and Jeremiah 3:14.
Israel often proved to be an unfaithful spouse, committing spiritual adultery by worshiping false gods and forsaking the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:8-10)
Having just cause, God, the faithful Husband, “divorced” Israel, His unfaithful wife.
God used the shocking illustration of a “divorce” of Israel to stress their guilt before Him.
But God never cut Israel off unilaterally for all time.
He only asked that they return to Him and experience His goodness.
Paul talks about this in Romans 11:1-6.
Romans 9-11 talk about Israel’s rejection of God and God’s relationship with Israel.
Paul is showing us that, today, in this covenant, Israel stands rejected.
Mainly because Israel misunderstands the doctrine of the election of Israel.
In the closing verses of chapter nine and all of chapter ten, Paul shows us that most Israelites stand rejected because they have refused to submit to God’s plan for redeeming man.
They make the choice to rest in their position of privilege and merit.
They fail to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
They have ultimately elected to attempt to establish their own righteousness on the basis of the Law of Moses.
As a result, the picture painted from Paul through Romans is pretty bleak for Israel.
Most of the Jews stand before God accursed (9:3).
They have, in fact, prepared themselves for destruction (9:22).
Though they have "followed after the law of righteousness," they have not attained it (9:31).
Consequently, they remain willfully ignorant of God’s righteousness (10:3).
They are, by and large, a disobedient and stubborn people (10:29).
Naturally the question arises in the mind of Jewish objectors: Has God cast away His people?
Is Israel irredeemably lost?
Has God given up entirely on the Jews and turned to the Gentiles?
The answer is: No, God wants as many Jews to be saved as possible—even all of them (11:26).
To that end, therefore, Paul addresses here God’s desire to save Israel and how He plans to do so.
Paul demonstrates that salvation is not a matter of choosing between Jews and Gentiles, salvation is designed for the blessing and salvation of both.
So yes, I believe Israel was still God’s chosen people through their disobedience.
However – (and a big however…)
God’s blessings upon His people would cease when they fell away from Him.
Those blessings would resume upon their repentance and restoration.
“Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
