Understanding Israel is ultimately revealed in the writings of the early followers of Jesus.

Many, many years ago, there lived a man we have come to know as Abraham. The author of the first book of the Bible recorded an event in the life of this man that would forever shade history. According to one of his descendants, the glory of God came down to Abraham and promised to bless him (Acts 7:4). In this promise, Abraham (then known as Abram) was told that “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). It was a pledge from God that not only mystified Abram (Rom. 4:18), but it has generally confused most of those who have subsequently read of the promise given to him. The mystery of understanding Israel begins with the wonder of the promise of God to Abram.

Because of this promise, Abram would have his name changed to Abraham. The record has God telling Abram, which means high or lofty father, that he would become known as Abraham, the father of a multitude (Gen. 17:5). God had told Abram in his original call “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2). Then, God added “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:2). Understanding Israel must come to terms with all the families of the earth being blessed.

Understanding Israel must travel down through the understanding of the descendants of Abraham.

The covenant between God and Abraham was passed on to his descendants. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and son of Isaac, also had a significant encounter with God concerning the promise. Things were not going well between Jacob and Esau, his twin brother. In fact, Esau was pursuing Jacob to attack and to harm him. In fear, Jacob prayed and prearranged his family and his belongings for the encounter with Esau. Eventually, Jacob found himself alone and spent the night experiencing what he would later call a face to face meeting with God (Gen. 32:28).

After grappling with this messenger from God throughout the night, Jacob proclaimed that he would not give up his struggle until he was blessed. Finally, after Jacob was asked his name, it was said to him, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with [literal meaning, in conjunction with] God and with [again, in conjunction with] men, and hast prevailed” (Gen. 32:28). From this night forward, the descendants of Abraham would be known as the Children of Israel. With the name Israel being transliterated from yis-raw-ale’, from a compound word meaning “to prevail” and “God,” Israel would become the people in whom God would prevail.

The early followers of Jesus seemed to know exactly who would be the great nation that God had promised to Abram.

The general confusion that surrounds this promise is the interpretation of Abraham being the father of a “great nation.” Equally mystifying is the blessing and the curse that goes with the promise: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee . . .” (Gen. 12:3). As will be seen, the early followers of Jesus were clear, based upon their writings, who exactly would be the people of the “great nation.” Likewise, they would also indicate how the blessing or the curse would be encountered by the relationship people would have with this “great nation.”

According to the gospel of Mark which many believe to be the first gospel written, the first recorded words of Jesus were “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand . . .” (Mark 1:14). Luke, the historian of the early church, recorded that Jesus told a group of people who wanted him to stay with them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent” (Luke 4:43). Luke further added, “And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God . . .” (Luke 8:1). In Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus gave the fundamental principles of the kingdom of God, he recorded the essence of Jesus’ message with

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles [the other nations] seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:31-33).

Truly understanding Israel must begin with the gospels.

The earliest recorded history of the church began with Jesus showing “himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). The history of the church continued with the followers of Jesus traveling throughout the land “preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 8:12). Finally, the record of the early history closed with “And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God . . .” (Acts 28:30-31).

The promise of Jesus before his death, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of [you] that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1), had come true. Jesus also stated that there would never be anything that could prevail against this kingdom, the assembly of gathered believers (Matt. 16:18). Based upon the writings of the New Testament, the early followers of Jesus believed they were living and experiencing the kingdom of God in all of its glory.

The mystery is revealed in understanding Israel.

When Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15), is he stating that the promise of the great nation given to Abraham has been fulfilled? It seems that Paul, who proclaimed himself to be a “Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Phil 3:5), thought so, for he wrote,

. . . God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God (Gal. 6:14-16).

Is he not calling those who were new creatures in Christ the Israel of God?

Paul would further expound on the people in whom God would prevail being the Israel of God, in his letter to the Romans. He wrote,

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. 9:1-3).

Who did Paul consider to be his “kinsmen according to the flesh?” Paul described his brethren in the flesh and the opportunity they had being descendants of Abraham.

Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen (Rom. 9:4-5).

As a Jew, Christ, concerning the flesh, came to the Children of Israel. They were Israelites, experienced the adoption, the glory, the giving of the law, the service (the forms of worship) of God, and the promises, yet very few of the Children of Israel who were living in the time of Jesus knew him, accepted him, as their Messiah.

Understanding Israel is found in whom exactly the true descendants of Abraham were.

Paul was quick to point out that their failure was not in the “word of God” which does not fail but always prevails. For example, Paul was of the Children of Israel and he and other descended of Abraham accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ. Paul would explain, “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6). Understanding Israel depends upon whom is the true Israel of God. Then, Paul gave a vital clue to understanding just who is, will be, the great nation of God promised to Abraham: “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Rom. 9:7).

The next statements of Paul make it clear that just because you can trace your ancestry to Abraham it will not make you a part of the nation of God promised to Abraham. First, he stated “they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Rom. 9:8). Then, Paul added, “For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son” (Rom. 9:9).

The producing of the son Isaac solely by God as a descendant of Abraham and Sara as opposed to the producing of the son Ishmael by the ingenuity of Abraham, Sara, and Hagar (Gen. 16:1-4) is the fundamental basis of who will make-up the inhabitants of the promised great nation of God. The children of the flesh, not only the fleshly descendants of Abraham but also all who depend upon the flesh, can never, and will never be a part of the promised great nation. Understanding Israel is to know that it is only those who “walk in the steps of [the] faith of our father Abraham” (Rom. 4:16) that will be the people of the promised nation of God: “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed . . . which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all” (Rom. 4:16). Understanding Israel is “of faith, hat it might be by grace.”

It seems to be clear, based upon his writings, that Paul knew that the promise given to Abram, “I will make of thee a great nation . . . and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3), was not depended upon being a physical descendants of Abram. He wrote, “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). He would add, concerning Abraham, “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations) . . . Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be” (Rom 4:17-18). Again, Paul believed that those who were new creatures in Christ would be the people of the great nation that God promised to Abram (Gal. 6:16).

Understand Israel is revealed through the writings of the New Testament.

Paul was not the only one of the early followers of Jesus that believed that the kingdom of God, as introduced by Jesus (Mark 1:15), was the consummation of the nation promised to Abraham. It is to the people of the kingdom of God that James addressed his letter: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.” He also saw the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ as the continence or more accurately the fulfillment of the kingdom of God concealed in the Old Testament. The physical nation of Israel of the old economy was a type and a shadow of the spiritual kingdom of God in the New Testament. Although the followers of Jesus where physical people living in a physical world, this natural world was not their home for they were not of this world. They were earthly people living in, by, and through the heavenly realm–the kingdom of God, the great nation of God.

When James called the followers of Jesus the twelve tribes, he joined with Paul and other New Testament writers in identifying the church that Jesus builds (Matt. 16:18) as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Kingdom of God. Peter even stated that, in general, all the prophets in the Old Testament “prophesied of the grace that should come unto you [the followers of Jesus Christ]” (1 Peter 1:10). Peter added, concerning the Old Testament prophets, “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). In addition, he stated, “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12).

According to Peter, the Old Testament prophets earnestly desired to look into and to understand the things that would be happening to the followers of Jesus (1 Peter 1:12). Finally, he would say to the those early believers in Jesus to whom he was writing, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). To clinch his understanding of just whom was the people of the great nation promised to Abraham by God, he proclaimed to those believers,

ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Understanding Israel is vital for you to experience the blessings that were intended for the people of God.

It all began many, many years ago with a promise from God to Abram, “I will make of thee a great nation . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The fruition of that great promise, according to the early followers of Jesus, came about when Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand” and “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of [you] that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.” What seems to be so clouded in complex misunderstanding in much of modern Christianity was fundamentally simple to the early believers of Jesus: They were experiencing the fullness of the glory of the kingdom of God in their generation. Understanding Israel, the true nation of God, was evident in their lives.

Since the coming of Jesus, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and his return in the power of the Holy Spirit to be the witness of the risen Savior (1 Cor. 15:1-8), every generation can experience the wonder, the glory, and the power of the great nation God promised to Abram so many, many years ago.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).

The risen Christ of the heavenly realm stands ready to be sent by the Heavenly Father into your current struggles of life to bring you deliverance, even the salvation of your soul. You can be kept by “the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The trial will end, the struggle will cease “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). Jesus is coming to your rescue even now for you are a kingdom saint, a participant in the great nation of the kingdom of God. Understanding Israel was not only recognized by the early followers of Jesus, it has also made you a part of the families of the earth that has been blessed by God.