26 Why did God create Israel?

 

As conscientious parents, we learn to anticipate the trouble that our children may encounter or engender. This causes us to make plans that will preserve a legacy to bless them with yet not handicap them by denying their exercise of free will. We must all learn that choices have consequences but we cannot learn that without the freedom to choose.

The Covenant that God made with Abraham was to ensure that the all of the peoples of the world would be blessed. The creation of a unique nation separate from the ubiquitous mother child cult provided mankind with a choice. The unconditional promise of land, seed and blessing that God made with Abraham affords every human soul an opportunity to witness the goodness of God. Like faithful Abraham, we may either embrace this truth or cling to our fallen nature and reject the goodness of God. 

We have considered how God’s Messianic purposes are traced through individuals. We are reminded that we each have opportunity to choose the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in order to leave a legacy of blessing to our descendants.

Summarizing the Abrahamic Covenant we can observe:

• The Abrahamic Covenant is the basis for the sub covenants that follow. These provide for a legacy of blessing through personal faith in God’s promise.
• The sub covenants (Mosaic, Davidic and New) expand the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) of Land Seed and Blessing.
• The Covenants legally bind God before the hosts of heaven to perform them.
• The Covenants are to be literally fulfilled through Israel in a land of prescribed boundaries

Sub-covenants

The first of the sub covenants was given through Moses. Unlike the covenant with Abraham, it's fulfillment was conditional. Whereas the Abrahamic covenant guaranteed ownership of the promised land, the Mosaic covenant stated the terms by which they would take possession of it. Chief among those conditions was to receive the King that God would choose for them.

The law provided a basis for identifying that King. Only He would be its fulfillment. This evidence was presented to the nation several millennia later when Jesus declared:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: 

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 

Matthew 5:17 KJV

Jer 31:31-34: Lastly we come to amplification of blessing found in the new covenant. The fulfillment of it will be with Israel when they finally receive Yeshua as Messiah. (Notice it is a covenant “with the house of Israel after those days” i.e. days of tribulation) 
In the early days of the church, believers were almost exclusively Jewish. James points out to these twelve tribes that are scattered and now form the early church that they are the first fruits of a greater harvest to come. The church is but the first fruits of this covenant and points to a greater harvest of redeemed souls.

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." - Jas 1:18 KJV

Paul informs us that in the church, not only are believers from the twelve tribes a kind of first-fruits, but Gentiles also share in this promise:

"that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel," - Eph 3:6 NKJV

Again, we must not confuse the new covenant established with the church as the fulfillment of the new covenant in the Millennium because we are the first fruits and not the full harvest. 

1 Cor 11:26: The new covenant sign that the Lord instituted was the communion table. The apostle Paul explains that the bread and wine not only remembers what was accomplished at the Lord’s death, but it also anticipates His return and a future harvest. This sign will still have importance in the Millennium in the same way that it is a celebration of victory as it was when Abraham rescued Lot from the grip of 10 kings. Melchizedek the priest of the Most High and King of Salem (peace) met him with emblems of bread and wine.
Importance of these covenants. Because God is legally obligated to fulfill the terms of this covenant, it forms the basis of God’s intervention in human history. 
Jeremiah 31:35-37. As the children of Israel are about to be removed from their land, God assures Israel that He is disciplining them for what they have done, but He has not cast them off.
Everything that we see in human history in terms of the movement of nations and national boundaries are the outworking of God’s plan to preserve Israel in the midst of Satanic opposition to destroy Israel.
Ezek 36:22 The regathering of Israel is for the Lord’s name. The problem with Israel was not that there was no one who believed in the promises, it is that they had allowed pagan practices to take root in their midst. This condition required God’s discipline. Those whom God loves, He rebukes and chastens.(Heb 12:6,7) It calls us to take inventory of the paganism (legalism is paganism) that we have allowed to continue and take root in our lives, our families and our churches.
“Once inaugurated, (in the Millennium) this eternal covenant (Jer. 32:37–40) will bring forth both regeneration for Israel, thereby permanently removing from them the necessity of the Mosaic Covenant” (Jer. 31:32). Woods, Andrew M.. The Coming Kingdom:(p. 36). 

This observation then reminds us of the gracious provision of the new covenant that is established with the individual believer, does away with the need for the Mosaic law. 

How does the Mosaic Covenant fit into God’s Kingdom program? It serves to provide a limited restoration of theocratic admin. Unlike he AC, It is a conditional covenant that man has a part in.
Summary of God’s kingdom program in the era of Moses - Vlatch
Summary of God’s kingdom program in the era of Moses - Vlatch
Mosaic covenant of Ex 19-24. Remember that the Lord told Abram in Gen. 15 that his descendants would be afflicted for 400 years but that the Lord would bring them out with great substance.
We remember that Abraham and his sons were brought into Egypt because of a famine and that God used one of Abraham’s sons, Joseph, whom Abraham believed had been killed by a wild animal. 
18.1.In truth, his brothers had sold him into slavery and lied to their father about Josephs death. Gen 39-41 tell the story of how Joseph miraculously came to be ruler in Egypt. So we see how God intervenes in history to act for His names sake in spite of the evil of Israel’s sons. 
18.2. Why did Jacob count Joseph’s sons among his own sons and not Joseph alone? Gen 48:5
But then there arose a Pharoah in Egypt who did not know Joseph. The Hebrews as they were known by the Egyptians multiplied in the land and were perceived as a threat by Pharoah. 
Map of exodus: Their bondage in Egypt ended as a result of the 12 plagues so that they were driven out in haste and given precious jewels, silver and gold.
Psalm 147:19-20 What is important to note is that this covenant given at Sinai, or Horeb, was given only to Israel and it stated the conditions that must be met for them to stay in the land. Remember that the Land covenant (Palestinian Covenant) of Deuteronomy 29 unconditionally states the promise of regathering after they are scattered due to violating the conditions of the Mosaic covenant.
Is there a contradiction between the 400 years of Gen 15:13 and the 430 years of Ex 12:40,41; Galatians 3:17? According to Gal. 3:17 the oath of Genesis 15:13 was the start of a 430 year period that ended on the day that Israel left Egypt. It appears that a closer examination of the chronology suggests that Pharoah caused them to be put into bondage no more than 144 years (depending on how soon after Joseph’s death a new Pharoah came to power).