13: Israel - Genesis to the Gospels [Excerpt]

“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 28:1)

You may have heard it said that to understand Israel, you need to first understand the person of Jacob. In his early life, Jacob did not meekly lean upon the Lord, and certainly not when he wrestled with God through the night for His blessing. When determined Jacob would not relent, God eventually put his thigh socket out of joint and so, ever afterwards, he walked with a limp. Jacob was duly blessed with a new name, Israel, based on his struggle with God.

This prefigures what is ahead for Israel as a nation. She will yet turn to the Lord, but not before the forthcoming Time of Jacob’s Trouble, which Daniel describes as “shattering the power of the holy people.”[1] Jacob’s people will then accept a fresh relationship with the LORD, leaning upon God rather than trusting in their Jewish descent, zeal for their religion, and their sense of self-sufficiency. They will cease from doing charitable deeds to prove their own goodness before God; they will instead embrace, through faith, the One who paid the price for their sin on the Cross.[2]

The blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience in Deuteronomy further prepare us for what Israel is facing. [3]The first 14 verses in this passage illustrate how the Lord longs to lavish His blessings on Israel. He yearns to crown His chosen people with honour, dignity and fruitfulness. The remaining 54 verses are a gruesome and horrifying account of the consequences of disobedience. We may wonder why the Lord expounds on the curses so much more extensively than upon the blessings...

[1] Daniel 12:7

[2] Romans 6:23, 10:3

[3] Deuteronomy 28

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