The Israel of God The prophet Hosea lived in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E.(Before the Christian Era).. During that period, many kings in both the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel were unfaithful. And their subjects followed suit, earning God’s wrath. Romans 15:4 For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope. Hosea 1.. The word of Jehovah that occurred to Ho·se′a:.. and Jehovah proceeded to say to Ho·se′a.. “Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication and children of fornication, because by fornication the land positively turns from following Jehovah. ”in Chapters 2 and 4, that which is about Hosea and his wife (Gomer) is symbolic. Gomer, became “a wife of fornication” and then ‘chased after her passionate lovers.’ Later she was forsaken, becoming impoverished and enslaved. Hosea took Gomer back at a cost, and he was urged to love her. Why? To depict graphically what was taking place between Jehovah and Israel. Jehovah was a “husbandly owner,” and his people were joined to him as a wife.(Exodus 32:7-10; Judges 8:33; 10:6; Psalm 78:40, 41; Isaiah 63:10) The northern ten-tribe kingdom was especially reprehensible for calf worship. (1 Kings 12:28-30) In addition, the Israelites did not rely on their Husbandly Owner, Jehovah, but, rather, looked to political lovers. At one time, like an obstinate zebra in heat, they went after Assyria. (Hosea 8:9) —Hosea 1:2-9; 2:5-7; 3:1-5; Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 62:4, 5.Using Hosea’s family situation as an illustration, Jehovah was still inviting his covenant people to repent. He had legitimate reasons to terminate his marriage with Israel, yet he kept sending prophets to help his figurative wife come back, even at a cost to himself.—Hosea 14:1, 2; Amos 2:11. A New Nation Under God’s Rule The nation of Israel proved unwilling to serve Jehovah faithfully. Eventually, they rejected God’s appointed Messiah, and Jehovah rejected them and purposed to replace them with a group of people who formed a new nation. As a consequence, the year 33 C.E. saw the birth of the Christian congregation of anointed worshippers of Jehovah. That congregation was, in effect, a new nation under Jehovah’s governing authority. Paul spoke of it as “the Israel of God.”—Gal. 6:16. Romans 9:25 It is as he says also in Ho·se′a: “Those not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved ‘beloved’. Hosea 2:23 And I shall certainly sow her like seed for me in the earth, and I will show mercy to her who was not shown mercy, and I will say to those not my people: “You are my people”; and they, for their part, will say: “[You are] my God. Matthew 21:43 This is why I say to YOU, The kingdom of God will be taken from YOU and be given to a nation producing its fruits. 1 Peter 2:10 For YOU were once not a people, but are now God’s people; YOU were those who had not been shown mercy, but are now those who have been shown mercy. The apostle Paul stated that ‘all Israel would be saved.’ (Rom. 11:26) Did he mean that at some point all Jews would be converted to Christianity? No, that is not what Paul was saying. As a nation, the natural descendants of Abraham rejected Jesus as the Messiah. And in the years following Jesus’ death, it became clear that there would be no wholesale conversion of Jews to Christianity. Still, Paul’s statement that ‘all Israel would be saved’ was true. In what way? Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders of his day: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43) Because the nation of Israel as a whole rejected Jesus, Jehovah would turn his attention to a new nation, a spiritual one. Paul called this nation “the Israel of God.”—Gal. 6:16. Other passages in the Christian Greek Scriptures establish that “the Israel of God” is made up of 144,000 spirit-anointed Christians. (Rom. 8:15-17; Rev. 7:4) That this group would include non-Jews is confirmed by Revelation 5:9, 10, which shows that anointed Christians come “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” The members of spiritual Israel were specially selected to be “a kingdom and priests . . . , and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” Although Jehovah rejected Israel as a chosen nation, individuals could become reconciled to him. That was the case with the apostles and many other early Christians. Of course, such Jews, like all other humans, had to be bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.—1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Heb. 2:9; 1 Pet. 1:17-19. The fact that the majority of fleshly Jews in the first century lost out on the opportunity to become corulers with Jesus did not thwart God’s purpose. This could never be, for Jehovah stated through his prophet: “So my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be. It will not return to me without results, but it will certainly do that in which I have delighted, and it will have certain success in that for which I have sent it.”—Isa. 55:11. That is true with regard to God’s purpose to install corulers alongside his Son in heaven. . Thus, when Paul wrote that ‘all Israel would be saved,’ he was not foretelling a mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. Rather, he meant that God’s purpose to have spiritual Israelites ruling with His Son, Jesus Christ, in heaven would be fulfilled. In God’s due time, the complete number of the Israel of God(Spiritual Israel)—would be in a saved condition, eventually ruling as kings and priests in the Messianic Kingdom.—Eph. 2:8.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 17:21:16 +0000
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