Section 1: A Spiritual Nation

The word ‘Israel appears over 2500 times from the books of Genesis to Revelation and is found in 47 books of the two testaments. As indicated by its repetition, the word Israel is evidently an important word. It is striking then to consider that so few have a clear understanding of the word. For it has universally found itself synonymous with the Jewish nation. ‘Israel’ is a word that has gained heightened attention and focus in the last century. Two main factors have led to a renewed interest in Israel; first, the rise of dispensationalism at the turn of the century, and second, the reorganization of a state called ‘Israel’ some fifty years ago. For a vast majority of the current era from Christ unto the 19th century, the issue of ‘Israel’ was not of great debate or division. You will struggle to find much correspondence and exposition upon the topic. It was an issue that appeared settled in the 1st century, with the onset of Pentecost and the destruction of the Jewish State, and did not remain a matter of great theological disagreement. Yet with the two momentous developments of this century, the question long ago settled, ‘who and what is Israel’, has again reared its unsightly head within the church of our Lord. Both Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology have failed to rightly understand Israel, leading to some unsightly conclusions. The answer to the question ‘what is Israel’ in and of itself is not unsightly, rather, the conclusions of our day that have led a great many to erroneously answer this question to the detriment of sound theology is objectionable. For if we fail to answer the question properly, we then reconstruct and rebuild that which God has rent asunder; a covenant, a people, and a nation, that were in type but a form of the true and living Israel of God. We find that the crucial appeal from the apostle Paul to the early church, ‘they are not all Israel, which are of Israel’, is a message that needs again to be preached, since error has clouded our understanding of Israel.

If we were to pose the question to Christians today, ‘what is the Israel of God’, surely most would direct our attention to a people tracing their descent from the people of Mt Sinai now restored to a land that they had vacated for nearly two millennia. For many in our day the Israel of God is nothing more than the Jew, who now has returned to the land of Palestine. Is this the Israel of God? As we seek to answer this question let me begin by stating that it is not within the scope or frame of this article to address the causes and purposes for the sovereign Lord raising again from among the nations this nation state bearing the name Israel. Neither is it the intent of this article to investigate the varying eschatological views prevalent among Christianity in our day. The design and scope of this conference is to provide a scriptural definition and identification of the singular found New Testament phrase, ‘the Israel of God’. Thus our prime objective will not be to identify a particular people; rather, we shall answer the question ‘what is the Israel of God.’ The answer to this question will be revolutionary in our understanding of ‘Israel’. Cultural hysteria regarding the developments of this century have left many overcome by error and confusion. By God’s grace we shall leave the felicitous conclusions of our day and return to the clarity established by the apostolic era in regard to the ‘Israel of God’. But understand this, when we answer the question ‘what is the Israel of God’, we shall in turn find the answer to the question, ‘who are the Israel of God.’ Such answers will assault our cultural and religious presuppositions and have drastic implications for our theology and Christianity. It is an important question and an answer that has bearing upon the purity and veracity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Noting then the necessity of this investigation, let us then seek to establish a biblical answer to the question: ‘what is the Israel of God’. Two prominent Pauline texts involve clarifying this phase; we shall in turn examine both. The ninth chapter of Romans clearly distinguishes the identifying marks of the true Israel of God. It was a necessary appendix to the grand presentation of the apostle in regard to the issue of justification by faith alone for both Jew and Gentile. We find that the apostle writes with the designed purpose of declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ as the means of salvation to all believing, both Jew and Gentile. He spends eight chapters demonstrating the unity that both peoples have in regard to both need and salvific assistance. Jew or Gentile, it is by faith alone that the Lord declares men just. Naturally in that day, hearing of the rejection of a vast majority of the national people of Israel, who had considered themselves sole possessors of the righteousness spoken of by Paul, a begging question was in need of response; had God unrighteously abandoned His people? For the people of the nation Israel considered themselves soul heirs and possessors of the righteousness Paul afforded to those of faith, on the basic of their physical identity alone. We find that the wisdom of men and their claims upon the gifts of the Lord have no merit in the heavenly tribunal. For in their zeal for their perceived rights, they had failed to properly understand the mind of God. They could not rightly answer the question, ‘what is the Israel of God’ and in so doing, many stumbled at that stumbling stone and rock of offense, Jesus Christ the Lord.

As with any theological investigation it is essential that we understand why it is important that we identify Israel. Perhaps the first and preeminent answer to this question is found in Paul’s acclamation of praise found in Romans 11: 36, where he declares; For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. This is the conclusion to the whole matter and the end of the investigation of this question given by the apostle. The chief answer to the question, ‘what is Israel’, is this answer, Soli Deo Gloria. The consummate answer to the question, ‘what is the Israel of God’, is, it is to the glory of God. We reason then; if the Israel of God can be understood by its design as unto the glory of God, how then is this accomplished? It is accomplished by the providential and preeminent design, craft, and care of the Sovereign Lord. As we shall see, God is glorified in His own labor and God is the God of Israel. His great labor is Israel. In the word of God Israel is often identified by the Lord as His Peculiar Treasure. The Lord once described the physical seed of Israel as,

An holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

In I Peter 2: 9 – 10 she is again referred to in this fashion,

but 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.

1500 years later, the promise having come, and the house of God now divinely showing the treasures of all nations, Israel intransitively remains His peculiar treasure, but now she is set for all the world to see. But let us not loose sight of the goal of our investigation; we seek an answer to the question of identification. We do not simply seek an indisputable polemic, nor is it our design to be argumentative, rather, it is that we in Christ might hold the truth in verity, might excite one another in the grace of our Lord, and might declare the gospel unto lost souls. The result of our investigation in this chapter should be profitable first to the glory of God and second unto our benefit. Thus it is proposed, since the Israel of God is His peculiar treasure crafted unto His glory, let Israel glorify the Lord

When Israel ventured through the Jordan, all the land stirred in wonder, as the peculiar people of God were led through parted waters. Our Joshua, having led us through the waters of Pentecost bids us approaching our Jordan to marvel and sing glory unto the saving sovereign God. For He has called forth Israel from bondage. Our golden gospel has been tarnished by the intrusion of preeminent gain from fleshly sources. It is time we labored in cutting away at the error of the flesh by again establishing this doctrine: what is the Israel of God but that in which the Lord is greatly glorified. Let us now subordinate this chief cause to the establishment of means, answering the manner in which His chief glory is attained. His glory is chiefly obtained in Israel. What is the Israel of God? First the Israel of God is,

1. Sovereignly Chosen

Romans 9 is rich in the declared sovereign election of God. A text we Calvinists are fond of comes in the midst of a discussion as to the identification of the true ‘Israel of God.’ Paul has taken up the logical conclusion to the epistolary argument; if salvation is by faith alone in regard to both Jew and Gentile and the preponderance of Jews have met with judgement, how then is God vindicated as the savior of Israel? Paul begins his polemic by declaring the eternal identification of the Israel of God. Not all those fleshly descendants of Abraham bear title ‘the Israel of God.’ Drawing then from the logic of Paul we can deduce that the identity of the Israel of God is found in the sovereign electing work of God. Election is crucial in the doctrine of God’s glory and Israel ever has been a body built by the sovereign work of election. No man can lay claim to what God has made. In order to further expound upon this principle, we shall define the Israel of God with terms of the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have nots’. First let us talk about the ‘have nots’. By exclusion we shall draw a clear identification of the true Israel of God, by first examining who is not the true Israel of God.

1. The Have Nots

In the passage in question, Romans 9: 6 – 33, Paul gives a clear indication of what the Israel of God is not. First, the Israel of God is not

1. All of Israel

In verse 6 Paul begins with the strong assertion of God’s unchanging faithfulness and integrity. The famous sentence, for not all those from Israel are Israel, is explanatory of and the grounds for Paul’s strong assertion. How can he assert God’s faithfulness to be the Savior of Israel, when Israelites are declared to be accursed of God? Simply in the fact that it was never God’s intention, plan, or promise to impute a righteous standing unto national Israel. Therefore, those who by nationality 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, have no claim upon the eternal salvific grace of God. Notice then that this is contrary to the claims of dispensational champions today who seek to establish are particular privileged position for a nation in the plan of God, simply because of their national identity. This never was nor shall be the design of God. In addition, the Israel of God is not identified as,

2. All the seed of Abraham

The second assumption of the Jews in Paul’s day was their claim upon the promises of God, simply because of their physical descent from Abraham. To dispel this error and silence this claim, Paul draws from Old Covenant examples to demonstrate once again, that God has not chosen every physical descendant of Abraham as a child of the promise. If the flesh had claim upon the promises of God by generation, then God would be unjust in His treatment of Ishmael and Esau. But we see that this is not the case, as with God there is no unrighteousness. Therefore, a man cannot attest to his position before God simply because he can trace physical descent from Abraham. Our Lord made this assertion in John 8, when confronted by the Jewish claim that Abraham was their father, Jesus could respond, if ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. Here we understand our Lord to declare physical descendants of Abraham to not be the true seed of Abraham. For as we have asserted the true Israel of God is not necessarily the physical seed of Abraham. Thus Paul ads verse 8 as a further explanation of his claim, declaring that the children of God are not selected of the promise on account of the flesh, in fact, the flesh has nothing to do with identifying the true child of God. Yea the more, the Israel of God,

3. Are not identified by doing good or evil

Paul issues forth two examples to authenticate his claim that there are physical descendants of Abraham who shall perish apart from God. The first example of Ishmael and Isaac could provide grounds for dispute. The second example then further clarifies and excludes every possible claim on the title of the true Israel of God based upon human cause. Some might argue that Ishmael was not a true child of Abraham, having been born of a bondwoman, thus Esau had no true legal claim. Others might argue that God rightfully rejected Esau, a man who bartered away his rightful claims. Thus it is asserted that the rejection of Esau was declared and assured even before he was born. He was of identical seed, in the same womb, to be first born of Rebecca, and having done neither good or evil the claim of Esau’s choices were inconsequential to the claim of the title ‘the Israel of God.’ The have-nots then do not necessary need to have done. Thus the proven declaration remains that works have no claim upon the love, choice, or grace of God. Equally and in the same vein, the Israel of God,

4. Are not made thus by an act of the will

The next reasonable assault upon Paul’s arguments would come from the Jew seeking to claim his works of sacrifice and righteousness under the law, in order to claim legal right to the title ‘the Israel of God.’ Thus Paul addresses the issue of willingness and of effort. In verse 16 after offering an exclusive statement regarding God’s free choice, he excludes any and all claims of will or effort. Obedience under the law of old has no claim upon the true promises of the Israel of God. You see then how these verses raise a strong and indisputable case for exclusion of any man who seeks to lay claim to the promises of God. One cannot claim his nationality, his birth, his actions, his efforts, or his will. For the gifts of God are dispersed without claim. God alone sovereignly builds His Israel. The have-nots are then those, who would seek to stake their claim to the title ‘the Israel of God’ from these propositions. The Israel of God then is not constructed upon any earthen formation, rather, we find that it has a different formulation. God builds Israel. Thus we know the have-nots. Now let us now turn our attention to those we shall call,

1. The Have’s

The have’s are those who are the true Israel of God, those who have a title the ‘sons of God’. Now that we know what the Israel of God is not, let us ask again, what is the Israel of God? To this we answer first, the Israel of God is,

1. The Called

Paul presents a two-tiered argument in response to the proposed unrighteous act of God in casting away physical descendants of Abraham. We have addressed the negative causes for declaration, now we undertake a positive explanation and answer to the question ‘what is the Israel of God.’ As we have earlier stated, the Israel of God is chiefly to His glory. In the negation of claims upon His glory, we now move to understand the actions of God that chiefly glorify Him. In fact, the very identity of the true Israel of God serves well the glory of the Sovereign Lord. We find then the first action of ‘calling’, by God, is a sovereign act of Glory. The Israel of God is first defined then as that which is called. Quoting from Genesis 21, Paul reminds the reader that God did first assert the nature in which Israel would be formed. Israel would be called and named accordingly by a sovereign and free choice of God. In the Greek we have the divine passive, in the Hebrew the Niphal or passive of the Qal. Omitted, as an agent is man in the formation or identification of the true Israel of God. It is a divine summons, an act of a sovereign in proclamation; it is an act of grace. It is the call of the promise of God, the beckon of the hope of Christ that effectual call of grace that brings forth the unidentified to be identified as the Israel of God. This, then brings us to the second identifying mark of the Israel of God, they are,

2. The Promised Seed

Verse 8 reckons the children of the promise and not the flesh to be the chosen and called seed of God. But what is the promise here spoken of? The content is messianic salvation as inheritance, life, Spirit, righteousness, and sonship (Rom. 4:13ff.; Gal. 3:14ff.; Rom. 9:8; Eph. 1:13). All the promises are fulfilled in Christ as the Yes of God (2 Cor. 1:20) who took the curse of the law (Gal. 3:14) and gave the Spirit as a pledge, deposit, or seal (Eph. 1:13-14). Thus the promise is Messianic, a rightful claim upon the title ‘sons of God’, established in Christ, the seed (singular) of Abraham. This is asserted in John 1 with John’s declaration, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. They are the children of the promise, those to whom the Christ is sent and given, the one’s whom Christ died for, the ones to whom Christ has claim, those who benefit from the coming of the promised seed. They are regenerate children, possessing of the meritorious salvation of the Son of God, who have Him as a mediator and covenant head. Thus the Israel of God are the brethren of Christ, of whom He declares, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. They are the ones whose names are written in the book of life, who have a High Priest with their names inscribed upon His breast, near unto His heart, and upon His shoulders, where His government does rest. They are a covenant people, a royal nation, they are the children who trust in the promised mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus it is right to declare as Paul, that the Israel of God is,

3. Elect

What drives the crafting of Israel? The divine choice, selection, election, and formation of a body built upon the chief doctrine of election. The Israel of God is an elect people, according to the promise, called by divine efficacy, to the glory of God. They are crafted apart from the intervention or craft of men and are the sole, sovereign, work of the divine craftsman. They are God’s workmanship. We see then that God sovereignly chooses, creates, and saves men according to His purpose alone. No man has right or claim to God and His love is not obtained by any earthly cause. He loves whom He love, He builds whom He builds, and He is rightly glorified. Consider the statement of Paul in verse 13, it is within God’s sovereign choice to love and hate those that He so chooses. Elect means picked out, chosen (ek, from, legoµ, to gather, pick out). It is a divine act of God in time past, from before the foundations of the world, in choosing to select vessels to bear His honor. Declaring then what the Israel of God has and does not have, let us broaden the scope of means now to the issue of design. Why is Israel created? For this declared purpose, that she might be,

4. A Vessel of Honor

We can ask questions in many ways to arrive at an answer to our main question, ‘what is the Israel of God?’ From whence is the Israel of God? She is by the work of divine sovereignty. For what cause was she sovereignly created? Paul, reasoning, declares,

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Here we have the chief end of Israel declared; His glory and her pleasure. For we find that God has so fitted her as a vessel that she in her earthly plainness is the gem of His ultimate praise. Christ is the first fruits and the Israel of God with Him. Notice how it is not just glory of which Paul refers, but it is the riches of His glory. Matthew Henry writes,

To make known the riches of his glory, that is, of his goodness; for God’s goodness is his greatest glory, especially when it is communicated with the greatest sovereignty. I beseech thee show me thy glory, says Moses, Ex. 33:18. I will make all my goodness to pass before thee, says God (v. 19), and that given out freely: I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. God makes known his glory, this goodness of his, in the preservation and supply of all the creatures: the earth is full of his goodness, and the year crowned with it; but when he would demonstrate the riches of his goodness, unsearchable riches, he does it in the salvation of the saints, that will be to eternity glorious monuments of divine grace.

Israel is an adorned city. She wears jewels and gems in abundance. She is lavished with ointments and sweet perfume in her storehouses. The Sovereign Lord has so clothed her in His mercy that she is but a reflection of His greatest praise and joy. The true Israel of God, unlike national Israel, is a city set upon a hill under the regency of the Lord Jesus Christ. She is kept and ruled by His holy word. She is a vessel of honor unto the Lord. Israel is prepared by the Lord’s hand unto His glory; Israel is a sovereignly chosen city. She shines above all cities in heaven and earth. But the seemingly sterile work of divine sovereignty is met with the sweet tenderness of Christ in our understanding of Israel. For what is having without Christ. What is a title like Israel if He does not tell us His name. What is our jewelry without our groom’s love? What is our city but a desolate place without our Christ? When we come looking for Israel we know her by her adornment yes, but moreso, we know her by her pleas, as she is ever heard crying, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. For the have’s possess more than divine sovereignty, they possess divine love. For what is Israel? She is,

1. Loved of God

We begin again with the investigation into those we have termed the ‘have-nots’. We say of them,

1. The Have-nots do not have the love of God

Paul declares of God’s action, that it is motivated by sovereign affection. If we seek to delve into the secret things of God and investigate the cause behind God’s sovereign choice and actions, we can do no more than declare that His actions are indicative of two flowing emotives; love and hate. It may be right to declare of God that He is never to be found indifferent. For sovereignty and providence almost demand that God be ever active and action is from these two rivers of thought. Love and hate speak of action. I stand with Spurgeon on the understanding of these terms. Hate is a sovereign act of despotism. God does not simply choose to love Esau less, rather, he hates Esau. His actions in fact demonstrate His detestation and not just a mere indifference towards Esau. Consider the text of Malachi 1, where we learn what God’s hatred implies,

I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

God in this text actively lays Esau to waste, in contrast to His establishment of Israel, what Edom seeks to build the Lord tears down. The descendants of Esau then are those that the Lord declares His indignation forever. The have-nots then are those to whom the Lord declares His indignation forever. They then are fitted to destruction, to a different end than that of the true Israel of God. What then might we say of Israel?

2. The Haves are Loved of God

We find that love is an intricate act of election and the cause for God’s choice. Notice how Paul makes special mention of this in Ephesians, when he writes,

He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Election, calling, and promise are all bound up in the love of our Covenant Head, Jesus Christ the Lord. The have's then have the love of God and of Christ, particularly in covenant form. Thus where you find the love of God you are sure to find the Israel of God. Where you find the disdain of God you are sure to find the hatred of God. What is the Israel of God? Sovereignly chosen, loved of God, and third,

1. A Righteous People

Israel is a lawful people. If one were to seek to identify and define the people of the nation of Israel they would identify that nation as a people in the pursuit of righteousness. Their rightoeusness though they sought of the law. In a continuation of continuity in regard to the have’s and have-nots, we find then these two facts,

1. The have-nots fail in Righteousness

Intricately involved in the national claim of physical Israel to the privileges and inheritance of God, would be the issue of righteousness. The inclusion of Gentiles into the Israel of God at the cost of exclusion of many physical pursuants of righteousness according to the law necessarily implies that righteousness is not attainable under the covenant of old. Time and again the Lord for their unrighteousness rebuked the physical seed of Abraham. They were a people that bore no resemblance to Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith and declared righteousness. Where there is no faith there is no relation to Abraham, where there is no relation to Abraham, there is no Israel. Notice though what the have-nots may have. The have-nots may have zeal. For we find among many of those who perish a zeal. Paul declares of those who perish, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Just because we find zeal and that that is no indicator that we have found the Israel of God. Equally, we note that the have-nots may have religion and law. Perhaps the most outwardly ordinate of all religious people outside of Rome was the national people of Israel. Not only were they religious, but they also had works of religion. They were steeped in religious penance and sacrifice, they bore resemblance of obedience and were a people who strove for what they could not attain. Thus we declare that religion, law, obedience, and pomp, equally are not the identifying marks of the true Israel of God. What is Israel? Israel is not a religion, nor is she a law, neither is she zeal and desire. Israel is identifiable by one and only one distinguishing characteristic that has forever set the people of God apart from all others, she is marked by faith. The have-nots may have all these things, but that defining characteristic they lack, they are not a people of faith. Therefore the have-nots have no righteousness, as Paul declares,

Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Unlike them though, we find that,

2. The Have’s are Righteous people

Where you find a righteous people you find the true Israel of God. Why is this the case? Because Abraham was promised a seed like unto him. What seed was he to have? Seed after his very own likeness. What is the true likeness of Abraham? The likeness of a justified man is that bearing resemblance to Abraham. For we read in Genesis 15,

The LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

We see what can be expected of Abraham’s true seed, righteousness according to faith. Abraham’s righteousness was not according to law, or through vain efforts of his flesh, but simply, having heard the promise, he believed God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness. Paul speaks of Abraham’s true spiritual seed in this fashion,

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

If you ask, what is the Israel of God, you must declare that they are a people of faith. But of what faith do we speak? A faith resting in Christ alone for their righteousness. Like their first father Abraham, all Israel is resting in these words of Abraham,

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. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

The Israel of God is the seed of Abraham, called forth in sovereign choice, established in love, delivered from bondage by faith alone, and declared to be the sons of the living God. Here then is the answer to the question, ‘what is the Israel of God?’ The Israel of God is first to the glory of God, next sovereignly chosen, elect in love, and possessors of the righteousness that is according to faith alone. Scour the earth in search of the true Israel of God; shall you find her? Ye shall. She is a people of faith, an elect and precious treasure of God, who are richly ornate in His treasure of mercy, beloved of God, and raised as a vessel to display His magnificent glory. She simply looks like Jesus.

For the Israel of God is but an image of her covenant head. Israel is the reflection of her Lord. She is a kingdom of those Lorded over by one Jesus. He was a man much like her. He was a man of comeliness, a man of faith, a man of obedience, a man of love and law. He was a man of God’s choosing, He was one in whom the Lord was well pleased. And it is in Him that the Israel of God is found. Abraham saw in the promises of God regarding a seed this seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus declared,

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

He is the preeminent one. He is the Lord of Israel; a people redeemed from all peoples to bear the name of the Lord.

When we began this matter we made note of the fact that any biblical investigation must end in profitableness. Thus it behooves us to see application to this most profound and delightful doctrine. Let us seek then to understand how a clear and right understanding of the ‘Israel of God’ bears application to us today. In our day, where it appears that Israel has been carried into bondage, where her once glorious streets have been tarnished and unkempt, where the pure trophy of faith and substitutionary atonement have fallen by the wayside of relevancy and indifference, is it not time that the Israel of God again was reformed? For trampled underfoot in the scattered hills of Israel today are the doctrines of God’s glory and sovereignty, the design of particular blood, and the blessed sweet chalices of effectual atoning mercy have spilled and dripped away. What once was a city set high upon a hill has now been overrun by her enemies. It is far time that the Israel of God arise to the splendor of her wealth. How might such a task be accomplished? In these two points of application,

Application: God’s glory and Our Chief Delight

1. God’s glory

When the nation of Israel was brought forth into the land of Canaan, all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. When the nation of Israel were brought forth by a strong and mighty hand of the Lord, surely all the earth stood in awe and fear. For they saw a nation of slaves and nomads delivered from the greatest army upon the face of the earth. They heard of waters parting, of food falling from heaven, of rivers flowing from rocks, and of an army that drew forth in battle bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel. In those days the Lord was magnified, glorified, and dignified in delivering a people from bondage. Fear fell upon the hearts of men and kings as the name of a mighty, saving God filled the earth. When the true Israel of God went forth into all the earth and spread aboad into the Four Corners of the earth, the earth did quake an marvel at an army whose sword was its blood, whose tactic was its gospel, and whose shield was its crucified Lord.

Who today stands in awe of the saving and sovereign God of Israel? Perhaps there is not much trembling because there is little preaching of sovereignty and divine providence. Perhaps there is little fear because there are few people feeding upon manna, drinking from rocks, passing through seas, and being led by clouds and fires. Perhaps there is little regard this day for the people of God because there are few that espouse God’s glory. Perhaps it is because there is little preaching of sin, of salvation, of redemption, of reconciliation. Perhaps it is because we don’t hear of propitiation and of faith. Perhaps it is because we hear little of election and of true saving love. Perhaps it is because we hear little gospel preaching these days. This question, ‘what is the Israel of God’ is vital we answer. For if we again restore to our understanding the chief cause and purpose of the Israel of God, then it may be that she might once again cherish her role in the glory of the sovereign Lord. Answering the ‘what’ informs the ‘who’ ‘why’ then must do. For to know that they are a peculiar treasure, a holy people, a chosen, elect, called, beloved, and redeemed people of God, becomes then their chief identity. And when Israel knows her identity then is her God made known. Soli Deo Gloria.

But there is another reason for us to understand this matter, we must do so because, it is,

2. Our Chief Delight

Josiah was no evil king. Josiah was no merciless lawman. Josiah was no legalist bound to bring a people misery. Josiah was a king of blessed reform. But why was this king so blessed? We read of the Lord,

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.

People, in asking and answering the question, ‘what is the Israel of God’, we do not seek vain glory. We do not seek to bite and rail against those troublers of Israel that seek to construct the high places of fleshly prominence or foolish fantasies. Rather, we seek to restore our joy. For like Josiah of tender heart, there is misery in Israel, when her privilege is concealed. Let all the Israel of God stand and be counted.

Section 2: A Free People

What was life like for Isaac once Ishmael was cast from his father’s home? Life was one of liberty. No longer were Hagar and Ishmael near to chide and berate the promised son, now Isaac could live in peace and freedom in his father’s house. Yet, we find that Ishmael and his descendents did not cease to laugh at a son so rightly titled, as from the outskirts of the land of Canaan mocking and scorn could readily be heard. In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, Ishmael again began his scornful laughter. Rising in the house he did scoff and sneer at the one who was to be born of promise, they could be heard berating Him, "we are Abraham’s children, you are born of fornication." It is an echoing jeer that was silenced by the sons of the house of Abraham back in the early days of church that has in our day met with a renewing ridicule and derision.

All around us the descendants of Ishmael are laboring to berate the promised son and to bind up his conscience. They seek to yoke us with their bondage; they strive for freedom from their wretched estate, and look upon the true heirs of Abraham’s house with utmost contempt. Ishmael has entered the house. Ishmael is heard again scoffing at the son. Ishmael again must be cast out. For as Sarah becried, cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac, so must the true Israel of God guard her liberty and sonship with utmost regard. Let us turn our attention to the text of Galatians, where we shall learn the titled privilege we bear as the seed of Abraham to guard our liberty with care, as we read,

Scripture Reading: Galatians 4: 16 - 24

In our last examination of the question, ‘what is the Israel of God,’ we came away with a definitive caricature. The Israel of God, we said, was that which is sovereignly called, beloved of God, and distinguished by a righteousness according to faith. These were the components of means God has used to accomplish the ultimate goal in establishing an Israel to His glory alone. They were to be a peculiar people and a holy nation. For in living, the Israel of God is tasked with the glory of God and her pleasure in Him. In the Old Covenant, if we were to ask ‘what is the Israel of God’, we would surely not only be confronted with a physical description and ancestry of a people, but also we would surely be given a synopsis of their peculiar living. They were a people of law. They were a people of regimen. They were a people of restriction. They were a people of fear. The physical nation of Israel was a people that could be defined by their actions and their restrictions; simply, they were a covenant people. As the physical nation of Israel were defined by their covenant, so much more so then is the anti-type, the true Israel of God bound up in its covenant. For in it is liberty and grace.

Pentecost has become the true Israel of God’s departure from Mt Sinai. She goes forth to conquer and possess what has been freely given her. Where before Mt Sinai the nation of Israel in form existed; a people, a promise, a hope, in the establishment and mediation of a covenant has in the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit obtained national status. The true Israel of God, we find, was under the law in the age of the Old Covenant. He was kept up under the law, bound up as a son in Abraham’s house, but he was forced to live under a schoolmaster and with his brother Ishmael. But now that Christ has come, now that He has ascended the Mount and given His law, now that upon the cross He has sealed the covenant, he has put an end to the cohabitation of the free with the bond son. Now he has poured out His Spirit upon His people, to lead them through the wilderness of life, now is Israel become a people of true freedom.

Yes, every Old Covenant believer was saved by faith in Christ, each one of faith was regenerate of the Spirit of God, and was a member of the true Israel of God. Yet they looked forward for the fulfilling of the promise of the seed that would come and build the house. Just as 400 years passed from Jacob’s sojourn in Egypt to the redemption, so was a period of time established between the promise of Abraham and the coming of Christ. Just as Israel was constituted and organized as a body at Mt Sinai, so was the true Israel of God constituted and organized at Pentecost. So we find with all expectation that just as physical Israel was defined by her covenant, so then is the true Israel of God defined by her covenant. Notice then that the Israel of God is not simply the church, thought the church is the true Israel of God. Nor is the Old Covenant saint alone the true Israel of God, though they are of the true Israel of God. Neither are the physical descendants of Jacob or those of Abraham necessarily the true Israel of God, even though descendants of Jacob and Abraham were of the true Israel of God. Neither is the physical nation of Israel the same as the true Israel of God, though in it was the true Israel of God. The true Israel of God is a people of faith spanning two covenants. Still, when Christ came there was a change. For in that day was the separation of the true seed from cohabitation with the physical seed of Abraham. Therefore there has been a change in the manner of living for the Israel of God, since Christ and the Holy Spirit came. Let us investigate in our introduction to this matter, what separates true Israel from the physical nation of Israel. If we want to answer the question ‘what is the Israel of God’ we must consider the matter of covenant. For how she is governed broadens our understanding of what she is.

I. True Israel in the Old Covenant

Under the Old Covenant, the law governed the true Israel of God. There was little to separate her from national Israel. Paul writes,

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

The true Israel of God under the Old Covenant was shrouded in mystery, overshadowed by the physical seed. There was little to distinguish a true heir from the bondservant. Paul here uses the illustration of two children in a father’s house, where both are raised under a tutor with little difference in their upbringing. However, when the true heir comes of age, there is a separating and differentiating between the two sons. We can understand then the confusion of a great many in their failure to differentiate between the true spiritual seed of Abraham and the physical seed. For there was little in those days to separate the two. Thus Paul often refers to the identification of the true heir as a mystery that has been revealed in the fullness of times. Notice how this then sheds new light on Romans 11. For Paul speaks of the ignorance of the mystery that blindness in part. But when did that blindness remove? When the fullness of the Gentiles came in, that is, when the wild branches were cut out and the gentiles grafted in the tree. Thus all Israel is saved. She is delivered from bondage. The mystery is revealed, as Paul writes in Ephesians,

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

What then has changed since the shroud has been removed? What has happened since the veil has been rent in two? What has occurred since the physical Israel of God was separated form the true Israel of God and met with judgement from God? True Israel is established in a covenant of liberty. We find Christ coming to lead captivity captive and to give gifts to men. Thus our chief task at hand today shall be to identify the liberty of the true Israel of God in the New Covenant Era. For where you find liberty, you find Israel.

II. The True Israel of God under the New Covenant

Under the New Covenant, freedom is the discriminating mark of the true Israel of God. The effects of election, of calling, love, and promise that we spoke of last, were but precursory acts of grace to the establishment of a free body; they were the gathering of building materials. It was the same as Jacob’s seed sojourning and growing in grace in the land of Goshen, until the children of Israel, like Sarah, would cry for freedom. The true Israel of God has met with emancipation, freedom from bondage, and has been delivered unto liberty and status of sons in the house of God. Israel has come of age and no longer remains a slave bound up in the Old Covenant of God. The epistle to the Galatians is the only New Testament scripture that actually contains the phrase, ‘the Israel of God’ and that is most fitting. For in that the epistle to the Galatians Paul speaks of our rule of life, according to the New Covenant, as the emancipated and covenanted people of God. The phrase ‘the Israel of God’ stands at the end of the epistle and has caused great consternation to many that labor over the identification of ‘the Israel of God.’ The language is not overly complicated and in fact is easy to comprehend. The apostle Paul, having just completed a letter, in which he describes both Jew and Gentile believers as ‘children of God’, ‘Abraham’s seed’, and ‘heirs according to the promise’, concludes his epistle with a psalmodic benediction upon his readers, whom he declares to be ‘the Israel of God.’ It is verse 16 of chapter 6 that is in question. You will note that Paul defines the phrase ‘Israel of God’ in the beginning of the verse as ‘all those who walk according to this rule’, who are the ‘as many as’ and what is the rule? The ‘as many as’ are both Jews and Gentiles alike and the singular rule that invokes the blessing and declaration ‘the Israel of God’ is the rule of faith. Some will say that the phrase ‘Israel of God’ is not the same as ‘them’. To these contortionists we simply state two undeniable facts; 1. How contrary to the whole of letter it would be, for Paul to go to great lengths in substantiated the removal of national or physical distinctions, only to reassert them in absolute confusion at the end, and 2. The phrase ‘the Israel of God’ is clearly epexegetical of the demonstrative as is used in the Psalms. It is a Psalmodic formula. Therefore, as Paul here defines the Israel of God as those who ‘walk according to this rule’, it behooves us to define the rule of which he speaks, if we are to adequately answer the question ‘what is the Israel of God’. For the Israel of God are a people that walk according to this rule, the rule is liberty from the law and freedom in faith and the liberty is the distinctive mark of the New Covenant. The people of Christ are a free people, free from the Old Covenant and the bond son, the manner in which we live differs drastically from the Old Covenant saint, and that which identifies the true Israel of God in the New Covenant age is his liberty.

We find then the importance of this study and the bearing that a proper identification of Israel, the true Israel, has upon Christian living. For a proper identification of the Israel of God and her relationship to the old and new covenants is critical in defining the manner in which Christians live. Are the sons of God in this era bound by the law of the Old Covenant? Is the free son kept under a tutor? Is it right to carry forth into the free sons’ home those things that once kept him constrained? We see that there is a sharp distinction between the way true Israel lived and the way it now lives. For once the true seed of Abraham came born under the law that he might redeem a people from it. We find that a different covenant and law govern Israel now, it is a law and covenant mediated in Christ. Where our last message silenced must of the folly of dispensationalism, this message will address the infringements of various theologies that seek to bind the true Israel of God with an archaic covenant. It helps to define our relationship to the Covenant of Old and draws great distinction between the physical nations of Israel, her covenant, and her regulation, in contrast to the manner in which the true Israel of God live. For the epistle to the Galatians is an epistle to the free son, exhorting him to no longer dwell in the bondage of the past. Instead, he is to stand fast in the liberty of Israel. Israel is to guard her liberty well.

Let us examine the text of Galatians 4 and see how Paul draws the distinction between the old and new covenant identifications for the true heir of Abraham from an allegorical illustration. In this distinction we shall understand the Israel of God in relationship to the two covenants. First then, let us examine the two sons.

III. Two Covenant Children

Israel of the Flesh (Ishmael) – Old Covenant

Paul equates the Old Covenant with that Covenant established at Mt Sinai. He makes allegorical reference to Sinai, equating all those physical descendants born under that covenant with Ishmael. What identifies and distinguishes the two sons of Abraham? Let us begin with the distinguishing marks of Ishmael. He was,

1. Born after the flesh

We have seen the manner in which the flesh gives birth: generation, will, labor, and blood. Ishmael was a product of the will of man. He was brought forth from the labor of man. Human hands circumcised him. Yet he was not chosen or the promised Son of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. This is the abiding message of the gospel; that which is of the flesh is born of the flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit. If we were to look at Ishmael what would we find? We would find a child that bears resemblance to Abraham. We would find a child of circumcision. We would find a child first-born of his father. But we would also find a child that was not born according to the promise of God. We would find a child brought forth by the weakness of the flesh. When we see Ishmael we see the prize trophy of the Old Covenant, man’s greatest work of self-righteousness, yet a far cry from an acceptable heir. For God said of Ishmael

As for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Here then is the mystery, in that Ishmael and Isaac have little in the days of their childhood that visibly differentiates the two sons. Both are sons of Abraham by physical descent, both are circumcised, and both are blessed of God. Yet, we know that God had declared that Ishmael would not inherit the promises, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. What then do we say of the generation of Ishmael? Consider his mother, for

2. Hagar is the mother of slaves

When Ishmael was yet in Hagar’s womb, Sarah drove her from the household of Abraham. Hagar was met by the angel, who told her,

Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son; and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because Jehovah hath heard thy affliction. And he shall be as a wild ass among men; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his brethren.

The Israel of God is not a wild ass among men, nor is his hand against men and every man’s hand against him. The Israel of God is no wild slave but a blessed son. But that which is born according to the flesh, born a slave of the flesh, is to be a wild man. Israel of the flesh was a wild man. Those rebels of the flesh at Mt Sinai would meet with apostasy and error, and with a continual rebelliousness would persist in unbelief. There nature was not a regenerate nature, nor were there hearts circumcised by faith. Thus their hearing was not mixed with faith and a stiff-necked and rebellious people they remained. A remnant of that seed according to the promise would prevail, but the vast majority of the slaves of Sinai would perish along the way. For Ishmael has a rebellious and unregenerate nature, he has no affection for the Lord, but is driven by fear and threat. Though the wealth and blessings of Abraham’s house surround him he remains a wild man. He is the son of a bondwoman. Here then in allegory Paul demonstrates the nature of that first covenant. It was a covenant of bondage. It was a covenant after the flesh. It was given to a people brought forth by the flesh that according to the flesh would have no inheritance in the promises of Abraham. The first covenant was a covenant of slavery and demand. But all along while the slaves rebelled in their fathers house, there was another son, a quite son, the true Israel of God, the true heir of the promises, who though a child would one day receive liberty from the oppression of living with a rebellious son. We speak next of the heir,

Israel of the Free (Isaac) – New Covenant

1. Born according to the promise

Isaac, unlike Ishmael, was a child born according to the promise and not according to the flesh. Hebrews issues forth reference to heavenly Sinai, declaring,

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Here we have the place of generation, the manner of birth, the cause of birth, and the design of that birth mentioned. Heavenly Jerusalem, that Sinai above, engenders a free son. Who is that free son? Isaac, the heir according to the promise, who in the coming of Christ has been separated from the bondson. We have two antithetical pairs: kata sarka/kata pneuma and hupo nomon/di epangelias. The child of promise is born according to the spirit and not the flesh, one brought forth from faith, another from the labor of the law. What we find then is a distinct difference in the manner of birth between the true children of Abraham and those born according to bondage. Under the Old Covenant Abraham’s physical children bore physical resemblance to Abraham, but were not the children of promise. For they differed in manner of birth, as does Israel today from the true Israel of God.

2. Jerusalem is the mother of free men

Sarah gives birth to a free son and those born after her son are free children. It speaks of both Jew and Gentile, as Paul’s audience is primarily Gentile in Galatia and in the gospel we see the destruction of all physical barriers and boundaries established at Mt Sinai, as we read in Ephesians,

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Jerusalem he speaks of is the antithesis to the present Jerusalem. For the Old Covenant established barriers according to the flesh, while the New Covenant removes those barriers, establishing spiritual barriers. Faith then is found the identifying mark of Abraham’s true seed, as are the works of Abraham that naturally flow from faith. The true Israel of God is distinguishable by faith and her manner of living, as the just live by faith.

We find in this allegory of Galatians then that Paul is drawing a sharp distinction between the two mothers, the two covenants, and the two Jerusalems. In vv 25 and 26 Paul uses the form Jerousalem, whereas in 1: 17f and 2: 1 he used the hellenized plural Jerosoluma. In those references he has the geographical site in view; here the emphasis is more on the religious significance of the city. In our present text, just as he nun Ierousalem is not primarily the geographical site, so he ano Ierousalem is not spatially elevated but is the community of the new covenant. She is our mother, we are born from the hand of God. In 4: 27 we have a quote from Isaiah 54: 1which is a locus classicus. The derelict city of Jerusalem bereft of her children who have been carried into exile in Babylon, has within her midst the true Israel of God that has returned and finally been established in the promise. As John the apostle saw, that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God. What we see then is that under the Old Covenant there was a clear distinction between the true Israel of God and the slave of the flesh, but that distinction was indiscernible in the shadows of Sinai. One was born of promise, but bore in his manner of living little difference from the slave’s son. But the promised son, he looked forward in hope to the day when the bond son would be cast out. He looked forward to the day of liberty, when difference would be made and the true Israel of God would no longer be shrouded in the mystery of childhood. That day has come. What then is the Israel of God? Historically, there was a day when it was living with a bond son, where little evidence set the two apart. But now, Israel has come of age.

Now the true Israel of God has reached the day when difference is clearly made. It began when God made a difference between the two sons, as Abraham did when he showered Isaac with gifts. At that time Ishmael could no longer dwell in the house of Abraham. That day was the day in which God, who had declared,

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

We find that the difference is found in the coming of the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ the Lord, the testator who has died. He comes to set Israel at liberty, to establish her alone in the house of God, to cast out the bond son and his mother, and to raise up a banner to the nations. Jesus Christ comes to enact a covenant and rule over the true Israel of God. He comes to seal and ratify their liberty with His blood. What is the Israel of God? Free in Christ, circumscribed in heart with the affections of the laws of God, obedient, holy, knowledgeable of the Lord, propitiated, redeemed, a peculiar treasure to the Lord. She has achieved status of sonship in Christ. She has been separated by the identifying mark of faith from the laborous laboring of the house of bondage. She is free from the covenant of old and all its labors and is now free to live according to the rule of faith. Israel is a holy people of obedience, of worship, and of thanksgiving; they drink rivers of flowing water from a rock, they have food that has come down from heaven, they are led through the wilderness of living by the Spirit of God. They have a mediator, a lawgiver, a high priest, all in one. They have of them declared by the Lord; I will be their God and they will be my people. And Israel does walk in faith, singing daily

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Israel sings in the wilderness on her way to the Jordan. Israel is a peculiar people over all the peoples of the earth. Israel serves and worships the living God. But what has become of Ishmael?

4. The Relations between Abraham’s Covenant Children

The bond persecutes the free

Tension defines the relationship between the two covenants, the two mothers of Abraham’s children. We find that from the beginning Sarah sought to expel Hagar from the house of Abraham. But it was not until the two sons came of age that we find God separating the two sons. When did Ishmael begin to ridicule Isaac? It was on the day when the true son was reared and weaned, when Abraham had made a great feast for his son. There we find Ishmael mocking Isaac. From thence Sarah sought to drive Ishmael and Hagar from the house of Abraham. We are told,

Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Great tension accompanied the coming of Christ the Lord into the world and the separating of the two sons. We find that nearly every New Testament epistle addresses the issue of Jew/Gentile slave/free. The chief persecutors of our Lord were His kinsmen in the flesh, that physical people called Israel. He was mocked, ridiculed, and blasphemed, until they succeeded in putting Him to death. Here is the Seed of Abraham at the day of his inauguration meeting with Ishmael’s mocking. Even while He hung on the cross dying, Ishmael could be heard mocking,

He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

For that day our Lord did come forth to separate the true from the false, to drive out the bondson, his mother, that old covenant, and the father of them all the Devil. For He came to call Israel from bondage, from the house of bondage, and establish her in liberty. Hear the Son of God on the very crucible of His death declare that day, saying,

Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

It was a paramount event in all of history, the first advent of our Lord, in which Christ the Lord did drive out the bondwoman and her son. And Hagar and Ishmael are heard wailing and becrying their rights as they are left desolate in a wilderness place. But even then we see the compassion of Abraham and His Seed for those that stumbled. But in Isaac was His seed called. The relationship between the two covenants is one of tension. For the bondwoman did seek a place for her son in Abraham’s house.

This tension can be further illustrated in the life of Isaac’s son Jacob. For after God met Jacob and wrestled with him, we find that Esau was to be dealt with. Thus God did separate Jacob and Esau once and for all. Never again would Esau threaten Jacob with death. Never again would there be a question of birth right. For Jacob had been separated once and for all from Esau. Yes Edom for ages to come would bring tension to Jacob, but he would be but a minor troubler of Jacob’s liberty. We must come to understand the great tension that separated the two covenants in the day of Christ. It was not an easy separation or division. For even as they are separated we notice that there was much in common between physical and true Israel. We see confusion in the early church, primarily because of Ishmael’s troubling, in regard to liberty. There was an apostolic period of establishment in regard to the liberty of the Israel of God. There was a guarding of liberty, so much so, that the full and complete separation of the bond son from the free was accomplished with great sufficiency by the end of the first century. The apostolic preaching and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there was a time of closure and separation, as the physical peoples were divided from the ekklesia of the Lord. We find then that the church obtained an identity of her own, the true Israel of God that was for so long held in childhood under the Old Covenant, was set at liberty from that covenant and all of its bindings. Thus we understand the nature of the true Israel of God in the New Covenant era, as a people of liberty separate from the covenant of old.

Still we find that the free son is ever since those early days threatened and berated in her liberty. There have been constant assaults upon the liberty of the free son of Abraham. A history is found of Ishmael and his descendants persecuting the true son. What we have today is nothing more than Ishmael’s allies rising to persecute the free son. Whenever anyone champions the issue of the flesh, whether it be the will or generation, he persecutes the son that has received the right by promise. Isaac named laughter, as Sarah declared that ‘everyone who hears will laugh over me (Gen 21: 6)’ speaks of Ishmael laughing and mocking Isaac joining in universal laughter. Isaac is laughed at for he claims legal right though he is not firstborn, he claims legal heirship and freedom. There have been countless attempts at reconstructing rudiments of the old covenant and there have been a multitude of those who have labored to place the free son back in the house with the slave woman. But we have left those days, there remains no place for Hagar with Sarah. Sarah is to be free, as is her son, and as are his descendants. Thus Paul exhorts the true Israel of God,

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

Liberty is to be guarded in Israel. The son that is free is not to labor in the flesh or construct the days of his servitude again. Free sons are delivered unto liberty that they might serve the living God. When Israel came forth from Egypt and was made a nation at Sinai, she did worship and serve the living God. The Israel of God then, the workmanship of the Lord, is to worship and serve the living God in faith, in hope and in love, as Paul writes,

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Here then is Israel; they are people marked by obedience in love, they bear evidence of their election in their love for God and one another. They are kept from the works of the flesh and that, which wars against the Spirit. They are peoples where the fruits of the Spirit line the city streets. They are a willing people, made willing by their arrested affections. They are a people of peace. They are a people like unto the Lord. What then is a conclusion to this matter and the consummate answer to the question, ‘what is the Israel of God?’ The Israel of God is a sovereign work created and set at liberty to the glory of God. Israel is a peculiar treasure to the Lord,

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.

Let us stop then in closing and consider one last time the full necessity of this study.

Application

The chief reason in identifying and knowing Israel is to consider and declare its design. Israel is a people created to glorify God and to enjoy the fruits of His mercy forever. Thus we must guard our joy and the Lord’s glory. As Moses pleaded with God concerning the issue of His honor and Daniel would pray zealously to the Lord for His glory, so must Israel keep herself set upon the pursuit of her joy and God’s glory. How is this done? By standing fast in the liberty by which she has been made free.

Israel was not to be placed in subjection to Esau. There was no be no common dwelling between the two. Though Esau sought his brothers companionship and common dwelling, Jacob would have nothing to do with it. For if Esau is to dwell with Jacob, then Jacob would not be free. Religion is always striving to bind the Christian, the Israel of our day with the yoke of bondage. Many seek to regulate our lives with the rule of old statutes. They bind conscience with days and feasts and diet, ever seeking to infringe upon our consciences with those fleshly distinctions. Israel’s distinction is holiness to the Lord. She is set apart in her heart, in her affections, in her desires. The Lord has given her a heart and she is set upon His glory. For love restrains her feet, chastity is her bridal delight, and her freedom is her crown jewel. She waits and lives by faith apart from the law, as a bride awaits her groom. No man need instruct her to keep herself pure for purity is her greatest joy in love to her groom. No man need to demand she long for His return, for she waits and stirs in the night, she slumbers not, her mind and heart restlessly await her groom. Keep yourself Israel awaiting your Lord. let no man yoke you with those bonds of old that your Lord has cast off. There is no going back to Egypt, only pressing on to the Jordan.

We find also another matter of care in the story of Jacob. For when he left Esau the household of Jacob met with trouble in Canaan. Dinah went and gazed at the daughters of Shechem, she set her attention and affections upon an accursed place. Great trouble was brought upon the house of Israel because of Dinah’s roaming eyes. The Israel of God must keep her eyes above, where her true love lies. For this world offers nothing but temporal joy and lasting misery. There is no delight in disobedience, only infirmity, fever, and sickness. The body is to keep itself from the world and its pursuits, because these things are but defilements of her purity. Dinah gains nothing in Schechem but shame and misery and trouble for Israel. What appears pleasing to the eyes and satisfying to the soul, is but poison to the soul. Keep yourself Israel from the lies of Esau and the delicacies of Schechem. For you are to be a people peculiar to the Lord. Thus we conclude our story.

A banner has been raised in the holy city of Jerusalem, an ensign, a whistle has gone out to the ends of the earth. The Lord is heard to say,

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Come ye elect of the Lord, gather to Jerusalem this day. For in it is our Christ, in it is our Lord, in it is salvation for the lost and wayward soul. Come to Christ this day. Amen.

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