God’s Unilateral, Unconditional, Everlasting Covenant with Israel
To the most casual reader, it’s obvious that the Old Testament is a telescopic story that begins with God choosing Abraham and then expanding His unilateral covenant promises to Abraham’s descendants along the line of Isaac and Jacob (later renamed Israel). Israel, God’s chosen people by sovereign election, is the subject of God’s dealings in the Old Testament. God’s ultimate desire is that, through this covenant relationship, all the nations of the world would be blessed.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1–3 ESV).
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:17–18 ESV).
God dealt with Israel unlike He did any other nation. Not because He was unfair or simply because she was His favorite, but because Israel had a special relationship (a covenant) and, therefore, a special responsibility. As the Israelites walked before the Lord according to His will and covenant, they experienced blessing. When they rebelled and went astray, God sent prophets and judged them. When they hardened their hearts and refused to hear His call to repentance, He would allow them to go into exile until such time as they once again called upon Him.
This judgment of exile was actually merciful, in that God would not allow them to change the conversation. Too much was at stake. Not just for Israel but for the world that would be the recipient of the overflow blessing through Israel as a light unto the nations. As God said to the Israelites through Moses, the great deliverer who led them to the Promised Land:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them(Deuteronomy 4:26–31 ESV).
Part of the covenant that God made with Abraham and with the descendant Jews was connected to the physical land of Canaan. God’s goal for Israel was to be a servant nation to the other nations of the world. For Israel to be this kingdom of priests and a holy nation that would provoke the Gentiles unto jealousy and draw them, Israel had to be faithful. Her people could not become swept up into idolatry. Unfortunately, they were over and over again—even after the Twelve Tribes possessed the Land of their inheritance in Canaan.
When they were unfaithful, as the biblical text shows us, God removed them from the Land. When they repented, God restored them to the Land. It was never an issue, though, or even a thought in God’s mind that Israel would be permanently removed from the Land. That was not His plan.
—excerpted from An Overview of Why Israel Matters by Lee Cummings
