What role was Israel to play in God's plan of redemption?
Israel was chosen to be the vehicle through which God would communicate and bring the whole plan of redemption to the entire human race. Out of Abraham, God promised to form a distinct nation, set in a geographic land, through whom He would accomplish His redemptive purpose.
Les explains that in Genesis 12 God did something totally different after the first 2,000 years of human history. Out of the one race of Adam, He picked Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans—originally a Syrian, though he became the father of the Jewish people. God promised Abraham that out of him He would bring about a nation totally different from every other race. That nation, Israel, would be the vehicle through which God would communicate and bring the whole plan of redemption to the whole human race. The Abrahamic covenant also promised a great nation, a geographical area of land, and that God would one day come and be their king and government.