The True Meaning of Israel as a "Peculiar People"

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has taught home-style Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les' teaching is so interesting, people say the time seems to fly by. And now, here's Les Feldick. On time. Good to have you all with us, and let's pick right up where we left off last week in Genesis chapter 46. While you're looking that up, we want to let our television folk know that we have all these programs on videotape, they're nominal in cost, and if you'd like to have a library of it, you can pick them all the way up from Genesis on up as far as we've come. Now for those of you in our studio class, if you're with me in Genesis chapter 46, remember we're talking about the Abrahamic covenant, how that God is pulling out of the mainstream of humanity now, who are steeped in idolatry, a separate little nation of people who will become, of course, the nation of Israel or the Jew, and they're going to be a little pure water creek that God in some future time can use to bring back as a purifying or as an evangelistic thrust into the mass of the non-Jewish people. Now within that Abrahamic covenant, remember, we have these three basic premises, that He's going to make of them a nation of people, He's going to put them in a geographical area, He's going to give them their own land, and over that people dwelling in their own land, He's going to provide them with a government, not just an ordinary government, not even kings such as David and Solomon, but that one day God Himself would become their King in the person of the Messiah, the Christ, and that's consequently then why when we come to the book of Matthew, He is referred to as the King of Israel. Now that wasn't just a frivolous term. This was all part and parcel of this Abrahamic covenant. All right, in Genesis chapter 46, this is where we closed last week, where God said to Jacob as he was hankering to get down in Egypt where Joseph was, He said, "...I am God, the God of thy father, fear not to go down into Egypt." Now the reason it's spoken in the way it is, God up until this time has instructed them not to go to Egypt, because you remember Egypt in Scripture is a picture of the what? Of the world, sinfulness, absolutely. And so now God has come to the place where He can permit Jacob to go on down to Egypt with his sons and their wives and their family, and Joseph and his family are already there, so for a total of 72 or 73 souls will move down into Egypt, and then look what it says, "...for I will there," in Egypt, "...make of thee a great nation." Now then, if you'll come to the book of Exodus, and we'll be studying this, of course, in detail when we get there chronologically, but you'll see in Exodus chapter 1, drop down to verse 5, where it says, "...and all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy, for Joseph was in Egypt already." And then verse 7, "...and the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, multiplied, waxed exceeding mighty, and the land," that is the land of Egypt, Goshen in particular, "...was filled with them." And so they began to just multiply until finally, verse 9, "...the king of Egypt had to do something drastic, because," he said, "...behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we." Now if you'll turn on over to Exodus chapter 19, one of the other benchmark verses of Scripture a verse, I dare say, that most nominal Christians don't even realize it's in their Bible. But it is such an important verse in light of this covenant that we're studying. In Exodus chapter 19, drop down to verse 5, and again get the setting. Israel is now out of the land of Egypt. They have come through the Red Sea experience. They are gathered around Mount Sinai, and in chapter 20, of course, they're going to receive the Ten Commandments. But just before God gives the commandments to Moses, look what He tells this nation of people. "...Now therefore, if," now what kind of word do we call that in English? Conditional, isn't it? "...if," it's going to be up to them, "...but if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant," see how many times that word comes up? "...and if you'll keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar." Now the word peculiar in its original is not as we think of as someone odd or a little bit different, but the word in its original language was of intrinsic value. "...you shall be a special people unto me above all people." Why? Because God is sovereign. He can do any way He wants to do. "...For," He says, "...all the earth is mine." Now look at verse 6. Underline it, circle it, do something with it. Because this is a crucial verse if you're going to understand even the New Testament. And He says, "...you," the nation of Israel, "...you shall be unto me a," what's the next word? Kingdom. "...you shall be a kingdom of priests." Now let's stop. As we understand the word priest, what is the role of a priest? So far as God and man is concerned, what's the role of a priest? He's a go-between, isn't he? Now we're not acquainted with that so much, especially Protestants. Now our Catholic friends understand it a little better than we do, because after all, isn't that what they think of in terms of their priest? He's the go-between between them and God. Now that's the term priest. Now Israel was being promised that if they would be obedient to the commands and the covenants of God, they would be a kingdom, a nation of priests, go-betweens, and a holy—now that word holy means separated, doesn't mean perfect, but it means separated, a holy or a separated—what's the next word? Nation. Now there's plain English. Israel now is a large enough group of people now brought out of Egypt. God is going to give them the commandments. He's going to give them the system of worship, which we now recognize as the system of law, the temple and all the rest of it. But the whole idea of this thing is that they were to become a nation of go-betweens. Now the best verse, I guess I can show that would be in fulfillment of that if you'll go all the way back to Zechariah. Now Zechariah is the next to the last book in your Old Testament. So if you get to Matthew, just back up through Malachi, and you'll come to Zechariah, and come down to chapter 8, Zechariah chapter 8, and try to keep all this sorted out now in your memory, that Israel has become a nation of people while they're down there in Egypt. God has miraculously brought them out. They're around Mount Sinai, ready to be given the very system that's going to prepare them for this role. They are now a nation of people, and He is promising that they can be priests of God. They could be the go-between, not just between each other, but between themselves and, again, this river of humanity. Now remember, this is the whole idea of separating this little nation of people, is to prepare them for the day when they could be all that God wanted them to be with regard to the non-Jewish people, which we normally refer to now as Gentiles. All right, you've got Zechariah chapter 8, verse 20, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass. Now, it hasn't yet. It's still future. But, of course, in Zechariah's time, we're back there about 450 B.C., but we could still say it's appropriate because it never did happen up till now. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, or Jehovah, and to seek the Lord of hosts. And these people will say, And I'll go with you, I'll go also. Verse 22, Yea, many people, and strong—what's the next word? Nations. Nations. See, I'm a stickler for every word. People and nations, plural, shall come to seek the Lord of hosts, where? Jerusalem. Not heaven. Jerusalem. Oh, it's going to be the center of all this activity, and to pray before the Lord or before Jehovah. Now, verse 23. I think most of you have been in my class as long as you've already got this well underlined. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days—what days?—when God is finally using Israel to evangelize the nations, in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages, around the world, every tongue and tribe and nation of people will take hold, even the skirt of him who is a Jew. And what will they say to that Jew? Oh, we want to go with you, for we have heard what? God is with you. That's where everything is happening, and this was what Israel had in her future. Oh, she could come to the place where ten men to one would say, can we go with you and go back to Jerusalem and meet this God of yours, that we can have fellowship with him as you do? Wasn't that a tremendous prospect? And Israel what? They blew it. They blew it. But oh, I want you to see that this was the potential all the way up through the Old Testament. Another verse just came to mind a moment ago. Maybe let's go to the New Testament. I don't think it's the verse I had in mind, but let's go to Galatians. Come to Galatians, and I'm just trying to sort out and see what we can use the quickest and which would be the clearest. I think chapter 3. In Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3, and just drop down again for sake of time to verse 23 and 24. Now of course Paul is writing to predominantly again Gentile people, but he is stressing why everything happened the way it did. Why has the law now been set aside, and why has God turned to the Gentiles by grace through faith alone? Well, he's recapping. Now in Galatians 3, verse 23, he says, Before faith came, or the faith way came, we, he's speaking as a Jew, were kept under the law, shut up, confined to the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Now verse 24 says it all, Wherefore, the law was our, what's the word, schoolmaster. Now what in the world is the role of a schoolmaster? Come on, you parents, oh, to teach your kids. And why do we educate our children? To be prepared for a role in adult life, isn't it? That's the whole reason parents scrape and save and put their kids through school. And my, when I see the cost of some of these universities lately, I was reading some Eastern schools where it costs $24,000 or $30,000 a year to put a kid through school. Wow. But whatever, why do parents do it? To prepare that child for an active life when he becomes an adult. That's the role of a schoolmaster. All right, now that's what the law was to Israel. For the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto, or to bring us to, the time of the Messiah, the Christ, that we might be justified by faith without the law, see? But now then, if you'll come down to chapter 4, it's a further clarification of this thought. I say then that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord, now that's small l, it's just a term, though he be Lord of all. But this child, verse 2, is under what? Tutors, teachers, private instructors, until what? The time appointed of his father. Now you know what Paul is referring to back, especially in the Roman Empire, well-to -do families would do just that. This little boy, as he came into the family, meant nothing. He had no more rights than a hired servant, except that old daddy is going to foot the bill to get him educated. And he's going to educate him for a particular future role, probably within the family business or within the estate or whatever the case may be. But he's going to be educated by tutors for that time when the father says, now I'm ready son, to bring you in as a full heir, I've got a job for you to do. All right, now this was exactly what God was doing with the nation of Israel. He puts them under the law, He teaches them, He deals with them miraculously and patiently, and He's moving them along, He's moving them along for the day when they could become the great evangelistic force amongst the Gentiles. Now, I know the other verse I was thinking of, let's back up again in the Old Testament all the way to Isaiah, because I want you to be able to see that God was not negligent in letting this mainstream of humanity go its way. Oh, He had them on His mind all the while, but He had to let them go until He had tutored, until He had prepared this covenant people of Israel to fulfill the role that He has given to them. Now you've got Isaiah 42, and again, I'd like to just remind our listening audience that we will be coming to all these things more in detail as we come up through the Old Testament, so this is just kind of an overview, really. But in Isaiah 42, starting with verse 1, where Isaiah—and of course I always like to remind people who hear me teach, to whom is Isaiah writing? To Israel! He doesn't write to the Romans or the Greeks, he's writing to the Jew. They were the only ones that had anything to do with the Old Testament writings, and so always keep that in mind. Who is the prophet writing to? And so to Israel he says, And the word judgment here does not mean punishment, as we think of the term, but he would bring forth rule. To whom? Gentiles! But of whom is the prophet speaking? Christ, see? The Messiah, this coming King. And who was He intrinsically interested in? The non-Jew, the Gentiles, see? All right. He shall bring forth rule to the Gentiles. Now if you'll flip on over to chapter 59 in this same book of Isaiah, Isaiah 59, now drop down to verse 20, Isaiah 59, verse 20. And the Redeemer, capitalized, who's the Redeemer? Christ, the Messiah. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, where's Zion? Jerusalem. Now, you know, I've made this statement in my classes, hymn writers, bless their heart. Some of them, though, have got awful theology. And they give the idea as we sing the song, Marching to Zion, I haven't heard it now for a long time, but you all have sung it at one time or another. When we listen to the song and we sing it, what do we think of as Zion? Well, heaven. But Zion isn't in heaven, Zion's the north side of Jerusalem. And so this is the Zion that Isaiah is referring to. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, to Jerusalem. And unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, that is, of the children of Israel. As for me, God says, this is my, what's that word again? Covenant. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth thy seed, or your children, nor out of the mouth thy seed's seed. And saith the Lord from henceforth forever. But now don't stop there, come right into the next chapter. Chapter 60, verse 1, where it says, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Now who's the thee? Israel. What time is it referring to? When their Messiah was there. See? Do you remember in the Gospels when Jesus told Israel, you are the light of the world? A couple of verses down it says, you are the salt of the earth. Oh, what was He talking about? They were to be the vehicle. All right, now let's come back here to Isaiah 60. For the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, for behold, the darkness, spiritual darkness, shall cover the earth, and gross darkness even the people. Now who are the people? Israel, the Jew. And hasn't that been true? Spiritually blinded. And so God foresaw all this. But go on, but, there's that three-letter word that makes the difference, but, the Lord shall arise upon thee. For what purpose? And His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the, what? Gentiles. See? And the Gentiles shall come to, what? Thy light. Israel's light. See it? Oh, the Gentiles were to see all the spiritual light through Israel. And His glory shall be seen upon thee, the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. This was all in that prophetic program. But as I said before, and I'll say it again, Israel blew it. They just totally rejected it, and they couldn't understand it. And as Paul writes in Corinthians, they didn't know who He was. Now, although you've been with me again over the years, you've heard me say it over and over, Israel should have known who Jesus was. Israel could have known if they'd have just gone back to the book. But Israel did not know. And so Paul can write in Corinthians that the wisdom of this world was just not comparable to the wisdom of God. And then he says so clearly that had the rulers of this world, had the rulers of Israel, had they known who Jesus was, what does the rest of the verse say? They would not have crucified the Lord of glory. You know it. So why did they crucify Him? They didn't know who He was. And I maintain then for those of you that want to read on ahead of me or study on ahead, now when you get to those early chapters of Acts, what is the great burden of the apostle Peter? Oh, to stress to the Jew who that was that they had murdered. And that's the word he uses in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 3. And he says He was the promised one, but God raised Him from the dead, and Israel still couldn't believe it. It's just beyond our comprehension. But they could not believe who He really was. All right, now then if you'll come back to Genesis 12, and let's just take another little run then at some of these other verses with regard to this Abrahamic covenant. And like I said two weeks ago or whenever we started Genesis 12, for those of you listening on television, you're going to have to bear with us. This is unrehearsed, and we don't time it, so we're just going to have to end wherever we have to end, and we'll pick it up right away in the same place next week, even though we might be more or less in the middle of a thought or an outline. Now in this Abrahamic covenant where God has established the fact that the nation of Israel is now on the scene, they have come out of Egypt several million strong, now the next thing I want you to have to understand is that God is going to provide them with a piece of land, a part of this old earth's topography. Turn to Genesis 15, and we're not going to get far on this segment, but we'll get started. Hopefully we've established that they are to be a nation of people, but God's going to put them in a geographical area, and this is the sore spot of the whole Middle East tonight. That's why it's so appropriate that we're studying this covenant in light of the prophetic aspect as well as the here and the now. Genesis chapter 15, the very same verses are appropriate that we read earlier, where Abram is wondering, how is God going to bring this about, seeing that He's childless? Now if you'll come down to verse 8. Last time we looked at these verses, He was talking about numbers, people. He said, "...as the stars are numberless, so are the people that will come of thee." Now verse 7, God says, "...I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this..." What's the next word? "...land." Here it comes. Now we're talking about real estate, regular old terra firma, the land to inherit it. And oh, Abram is so human, he comes right back and what does he say? Yeah, but Lord, how do I know that? How do I know I'm going to inherit the land? You haven't given me any guarantees other than His Word, and we've got to give Abram credit. He was a man of faith. But even a man of faith still says what? Show me some proof, see? All right, "...whereby shall I know that I'll inherit it." Well, we haven't got time to go into all of this. Got one minute left, and we come down through these verses that I call the signing of Israel's deed. That's verses 10 down through verse 18. But now look at those closing three verses, and with this we'll have to stop. "...In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed I have given..." Past tense. "...this..." What's the word? "...land." Now look how big it is, and we'll show you on the board perhaps next week. "...I have given you this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, the Canaanites..." And he lists all the Canaanite tribes, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergeshites, and the Jebusites. Whose land is it now? Israel's. And the Canaanites are going to have to be driven out so that Israel can inherit the land that God deeded to Abraham. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible is viewer-supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.