This past Sunday we jumped into a new section of Ephesians, as Nate preached on Ephesians 2:11-18. This section (which we’ll continue in this coming Sunday) deals with the relations of Jews and non-Jews (known as Gentiles) and how those relations are transformed in Jesus.
Now, a question that may be on your mind as you hear this passage is this: Why did God initially choose one people—Israel—to reveal himself and work among? This seems odd to us today.
This passage in Ephesians doesn’t really answer this question, and so we’re not going to spend a lot of time on it in the sermons. But it’s a relevant and important question, and the Bible does give us some answers. So I wanted to provide some explanation to this here.
From the beginning, God had a grand, universal plan to save a people for himself, and to display his glory to the world. We saw this in Ephesians 1: “In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace…” (1:4-6).
This plan began by creating the world, then be revealing himself to one man, and then to that man’s family line, which eventually became a people group, or nation: the Jews. God’s concern was always for the world, but he began with a family. He would reveal himself to them, teach them his ways and commands, show them his glory and power, affirm his love for them, also discipline them when they strayed.
And all this had a few purposes: Certainly it was for their own sake, as they witnessed and experienced God’s glory, grace and goodness. It was also for the sake of the watching world. Their obedience to God was to be a witness, as we read in Deuteronomy 4:
“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” (Dt. 4:6)
And it was for the sake of preparing the way for Jesus, who would be the Savior of all of the peoples of the world. As Paul explained in Ephesians 1, God’s “purpose (was) set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time…” (1:10).
And it is this purpose that I want to explain in more detail. How did God’s work among the Jews prepare the way for Jesus? To put it another way, how does God’s workings among the Jews over hundreds of years relate to God’s eternal, universal redemption?
- It revealed the character of God, and the will of God, both through God’s actions and through God’s laws and commands.
- It revealed the extent of human sin and depravity, and the brokenness and despair it brings. It doesn’t take long reading the OT to see the failures of God’s people and God’s leaders. It doesn’t encourage hope in humanity.
- It revealed what it means for Yahweh—the God of the Bible–to be your God. In the story of Israel, you get a picture of God’s love for his people, God’s faithfulness to his people, as well as God’s justice and discipline when his people forsook him. You see how good it is to acknowledge and worship the Creator God, and how evil it is to forsake the Creator God.
- It revealed the need for a priest or mediator to go between sinful humanity and a holy God.
- It revealed that no mere human was sufficient to rule God’s people with wisdom, justice and mercy, and enable them to thrive.
- It revealed that no mere human was sufficient to save God’s people from their sin, both the guilt and condemnation it brought about, and the wicked desires and godless tendencies it led to.
And we are right to imagine that all of this revelation through Israel’s history is intended by God to teach us, because God works “to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12, 14). And we are right to imagine that God had purpose in bringing Jesus onto the scene when he did, that the timing and place were all “according to his purpose” (Eph. 1:9).
Of course, this sketch probably does not answer all our questions, and the Bible does have more to say about this. But it helps to step back and see some of God’s purposes in choosing Israel, and working in and through them in a unique and particular way for hundreds of years.