“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
(Deut 7:6, NKJV)
The laborious history covered in the last few teachings were necessary in order to historically quantify the statement made in 1 Chr 17:21 – “And who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people—to make for Yourself a name by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before Your people whom You redeemed from Egypt?”
After Adam brought about a separation between humanity and God (Rom 5:12) God sovereignly created a nation through which he could bridge this gap – the Jews. As Deut 7:7 explains, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples …” As a first people (in the spiritual sense) God makes a covenant with them, thus rendering them different from the other tribes on earth – “’Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” This He had not done in the history of any other nation (Ps 147:20). Israel’s right of existence was thus primarily to ensure the coming of the kingdom of God. In other words – Israel, as chosen nation, was the instrument God planned to use to bring all the heathen nations into a relationship with God. It was an important part of the promise that God had made to Abraham – that all the nations of the world would be blessed by Him (Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). In the Talmud it is stated as follows – “The Jewish people went into exile only in order to make converts, meaning to teach the nations faith in the One God.” (Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 87b).
In the King James Version the term Gentile is at times translated as nation, also as heathen. Strong’s defines it as a “nation, people usually of non-Hebrew people”.
Readers should realize – only Jews who stood in covenant with God were able to have a relationship with Him. No other nations were included in this relation, except if they converted to the Jewish faith, were taught by the rabbis, baptized, and if they were male, circumcised, thus walking The path of the righteous gentile (see the doctrinal manual of Clorfene & Rogalsky, formally refered to as The Seven Laws of the Children of Noah). According to the Jews this doctrine is “eternally binding on all mankind and the Jewish people became charged with the duty of teaching it to the rest of the nations of the world”. Ruth is an example of a Gentile who converted to the Jewish faith (and was even included in the bloodline of Jesus).
Interestingly enough in 1991, under President George Bush, the USA (a Christian nation), signed a proclamation (U.S. Congress, H.J. Resolution 104, Public Law 102-14, 1991) that “the universal laws commanded to Noah (the Noahide laws) are the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization”. Alas this is not true – not only from a political perspective, but especially from the perspective of Christians, especially the Bride, and their relationship with Israel and the Jews. More about this in the next teaching.
- Sela: Read Dan 6:26-27 and compare it to the USA’s proclamation.
- Read: Num 15; Dan 6; Ezek 16
- Memorize: Eseg 16:6
