Who is israel in the bible

Israel is a name used 2, times in the Bible. It is included in 34 out of the 39 books in the Old Testament. And in 13 of the 27 New Testament books as well. Clearly it is an important name. But who, or what, is Israel? How come it is the most significant name in the Bible apart from God? The primary thread throughout the Bible is the redemption of humanity. The first three chapters recount the creation and fall of humanity. The remainder of the Scripture primarily deals with the story of our restoration.

And Israel is at the center of that story. But Israel is not just an extended family that became a nation. That would not make them special in any way. Many other nations have specific ethnic identity. And many of them could recount similar stories of prosperity and oppression.

What made Israel unique is that God was using them to further his plan of redemption for the human race. This plan started with an individual, with Abraham. God did not call Abraham because he was stronger, or smarter, or richer than other people in his world.

What set Abraham apart from other people was that he responded to God; he believed him and was faithful to obey.

When God called Israel, it was not because they were a strong people, or a wealthy people, or even a people that worshipped him. Israel was not even a nation. They were slaves in Egypt.

But God had a plan for Israel. He delivered them from Egyptian slavery. He made a covenant with them at Mt Sinai. A covenant in which he promised to be their God if they would only obey him. God brought them into a land that was already populated and enabled them to claim it as their own.

God instructed them in how to worship, how to live in community, how to be a holy people. The Hebrew Bible also says that at one point, "The angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning — there were all the dead bodies! The cuneiform texts the Assyrians wrote also say that Sennacherib failed to take Jerusalem.

They don't specify why, only saying that Sennacherib trapped Hezekiah, the king of Judah, in Jerusalem "like a caged bird" and that the Assyrian king captured other cities that Hezekiah had controlled. The Assyrian texts claim that Hezekiah paid an enormous amount of tribute to Sennacherib before the Assyrian king went home. Ultimately, it wasn't the Assyrian Empire that destroyed Judah. Nearly a century after Sennacherib's unsuccessful siege of Jerusalem, a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar II conquered much of Assyria's former empire and laid siege to Jerusalem, taking the city in B.

Both the Hebrew Bible and cuneiform tablets written in Nebuchadnezzar II's time tell of the events that took place. The fate of the Ark of the Covenant, which contained tablets recording the 10 Commandments, is unknown.

Some ancient writers say the ark was brought back to Babylon, while other suggest that it was hidden away. In the millennia after the destruction of the First Temple a number of stories were spun telling tales of the location of the lost Ark.

The "tablets show that the exiles and their descendants had, at least to some extent, adopted the local language, script and legal traditions of Babylonia a relatively short time after their arrival there," wrote Abraham.

The Persian Empire was virtually destroyed after a series of stunning defeats inflicted on them by Alexander the Great , who conquered an empire that stretched from Macedonia to Afghanistan. After Alexander's death in B. One of his generals, Seleucus Nicator, formed an empire that eventually controlled what was ancient Israel. Called the "Seleucid Empire" by modern-day historians, the empire was passed down through the Seleucid family line.

During the 2 nd century B. This line of rulers is called the Hasmonean Dynasty by modern-day scholars. By B. However, the Hasmonean success proved short-lived. As Roman power grew in the Mediterranean, the Hasmoneans soon found themselves overmatched.

The Roman general Pompey took advantage of a Hasmonean civil war to launch a military expedition into lands controlled by the Hasmoneans. Jerusalem fell to Pompey in 63 B.

While the Romans held sway over the former Hasmonean-controlled territories, they preferred not to impose their rule directly. A number of rulers were allowed to control the territories as client kings of Rome.

The most famous of the client kings was Herod the Great lived ca. Herod built what is today called the "second temple" in Jerusalem, a replacement of sorts for the first temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians in B.

Herod also constructed a series of fantastic palaces at Masada. Biblical literature often vilifies Herod, claiming that he tried to seek out and kill baby Jesus, perceiving the infant as a threat to his rule. One biblical story claims that he killed all the infants living in Bethlehem in hopes of killing Jesus. Israel was elected, empowered, qualified, and given the opportunity in centrally located Canaan to mediate between God and the nations. This mediatorial work was to be carried out through living according to the word God had given so that nations would take note of and desire to join in the blessing, wonder, and glory of life with and under his beneficient reign Isa ; Micah Israel's initial purpose was not to witness verbally, but to exhibit the rich blessedness of covenantal life.

The non-Israelite, drawn to Israel in this way, was expected to learn and submit to God's revealed demands. They were neither Hebrew nor Jew but became true citizens of Israel, God's covenant people.

Fourth, God called, elected, and declared that Israel as a people were to be a kingdom Exod Moses emphatically declared they were chosen because of no merit of their own. Israel, however, had its responsibilities placed before it. The people had to acknowledge and exhibit in the totality of their lives that God was their one and only King. No other gods were to be recognized as their sovereign ruler or as their source of life and its inclusive blessings.

Israel was to know itself as a theocracy under the reign of God. As such they were called to be royal, loving, obedient, serving people. Israel had the duty, according to God's purposes, to demonstrate to itself, its children, its non-Israelite neighbors living within Canaan's borders, and surrounding nations, how, as a redeemed, covenantal serving people, they should live as a theocratic kingdom. This could only be done by faithfully carrying out the three creation covenant mandates: the spiritual, the social, and the cultural.

The spiritual mandate called for loving fellowship with God and an adoring worship that would glorify the sovereign covenant Lord. Fellowship and worship were to be carried out in families e.

The people, old and young, were to be called together, and as an assembly were to pay homage to their Lord. Means for the assembly's worship were prescribed. The tabernacle and later the temple, giving symbolic and typological expression to the the covenant promise, "I am your God, I am with you, " was to be the central place of worship Deut Moses later told the people they could assemble for worship around local altars at which priests officiated Deut Yahweh provided the priesthood and the prescribed sacrifices to enable the assembly to worship as a devout kingdom people.

Some sacrifices were to be offered daily Lev , other sat appropriate times feasts or for specific situations ; the Sabbath was to be the day of no work but to be the time of worship for the entire assembly. God repeatedly reminded his people that they were not to assemble around and worship other gods because he was a jealous Lord Deut ; Nor were the people to worship as they saw fit Deut ; they were to keep the basic principles for obeying and carrying out the spiritual mandate as these were stated in the first four command ments.

God called Israel as a covenant community to live and exhibit kingdom life to the world. Israel was to obey and carry out the creation covenant social mandate. Command ments provided basic guidelines. Within the community, family life was to be fundamental; parents were to teach, train, and discipline their children Deut ; Psalm Children were to respond to parents with honor and dignity.

Marriage with noncovenant people was strictly forbidden Deut However, those who were not biological descendants of Abraham could be taken as mates if they became members of the Israelite community.

Procreation was to be considered a divine ordinance for thus seed would come forth to continue covenantal service within the theocracy. Abuse of sexual potential was strictly forbidden as was adultery.

Israel as a holy nation was to exhibit the kingdom of God to the world by heeding and carrying out the creation covenant cultural mandate. Prerequisites were their activities as a worshiping assembly and their communal life expressed by their mutual love and joy in marriage, family, clan, and entire covenant community. God's purpose for Israel as a holy nation was that they be totally separated from heathen practices spiritually, socially, and culturally and be consecrated to their sovereign Lord who had commanded "Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy" Lev Israel, the holy nation, was to be organized politically.

Yahweh was their sovereign King. Elder sand judges had to carry out administrative and judicial duties; priests had to assist particularly in regard to health laws. Israel, to meet the challenge of being a holy, politically organized, governed, and law-abiding nation, was called to live separately among the nations.

God gave them Canaan as their land, not first of all for their own advancement and enjoyment but to enable Israel to serve as the mediatorial nation in the midst of the nations. Each tribe and clan was given an inheritance from which they were to remove all Canaanite inhabitants so that they could live without unholy pressures and truly be free to live up to God's purposes for them. Israel was promised prosperity but these material blessings were to be received as means to serve. Thus, as good stewards, they could develop and beautify their natural surroundings and with skill produce materials that would enhance the beauty of their environment.

The tabernacle and temple were examples of highly developed cultural craftsmanship. Fifth, to work out his purposes for the world under sin, God chose Israel to be his covenantal servants who were to live by faith and demonstrate it to the nations.

Noah and Abraham exercised faith as did many others Heb This faith included knowing the Lord, trusting in him, and living a life of courage and hope. This faith was inseparable from obedience to all of God's revealed will.

Through obedience Israel would exhibit to its offspring and neighbors what service to God entailed. Indeed, the life of faith, obedience, and service would fulfill the purposes God had in mind and revealed to them. In this way, Israel would serve mediatorially as a messianic people and in time bring forth the Messiah himself, receive and give to the world God's inscripturated word, and show that the kingdom of God included all of life's activities and relationships. Israel's Privileges.

In the economy of God's kingdom, privileges involve responsibilities. Israel, called and enabled to carry out God's purposes, was given privileges commensurate and in correlation with the responsibilities given them. These privileges were many. First, it was Israel's privilege to represent and mirror the Sovereign of the cosmos to the nations.

Israel's privilege was to serve! Self-serving and self-aggrandizement were entirely contrary to the responsibilities and privileges given to the descendants of Jacob. The people, as an assembly, as a community, and as a nation, were never to consider themselves only as objects of God's election, love, and providential goodness; they were to consider themselves basically as subjects called for the purpose of serving. In service according to God's purposes, Israel would be honored by the privileges made available to them.

Second, it was Israel's privilege to be in a unique covenantal relationship with God. God, referring to himself as the Husband Jer and Israel as his precious possession whom he had brought to himself, implied Israel was his bride Exod He would not divorce her though he would send her away for a time Isa Israel had assured security in the love, goodness, and faithfulness of God.

Third, Israel had unique access to God. God dwelt in the midst of his people. First by Moses and then via the priests, the people could come into the presence of God. He communed with them, receiving their sacrifices, praises, and prayers.

He spoke to them directly, through his written Word read to the people, and by the prophets. In this intimate relationship, Israel could know the character of their God. He was sovereign and all-powerful; he declared and showed himself to be compassionate, gracious, patient, full of love, faithful, forgiving, righteous, and just Exod ; Num ; Psalm ; Jonah Fourth, it was Israel's privilege to have a land and cultural blessings that God had prepared for them by Canaanite endeavors.

It was a land with flourishing cities, houses filled with good things, wells providing water, productive vineyards, and fruitful orchards Deut This promised land was their inheritance to be possessed for service and not to be occupied for self-satisfaction and feelings of superiority. The land was never to be seen as a prize or as a possession without regard for the reasons that it was given: to be central among the nations so that the messianic light of God's kingdom would shine out to all nations.

In this land, then, Israel had the privilege of carrying out its spiritual, social, and cultural mandates. It was to be a place of rest, prosperity, security, and peace; Israel thus had the privilege of portraying to all nations what the redeemed and restored cosmos would be like.

By its serene, serving life Israel could portray hope for a blessed future for peoples of all nations who joined them in faith, obedience, and service to God, thus bringing glory to the cosmic King.

Fifth, within their promised land and to the nations beyond, Israel had the privilege of proclaiming, as no other could, that God reigned. This message was one of assurance for present and future times. The Sovereign God was in control and directed all the affairs of the cosmos, of the nations, and of individuals.

Moses sang, "The Lord will reign forever and ever" Exod The psalmists sang it Psalm ; ; The prophets proclaimed it to Israel Isa and to the nations Obadiah Obadiah Sixth, Israel was given promises concerning its continuation as a people.

This privilege had the potential of breeding a false security that irrespective of circumstances, Israel as a nation could expect to endure throughout all ages. Inseparably involved, however, with this tremendous privilege was the demand that the people live by faith, obediently and in the service of God and his purposes concerning his enduring kingdom.