A New Nation: Israel
A New Nation: Israel
The nation of Israel came into being through resurrection in the lives of the patriarchs, beginning with one man and his wife—Abraham and Sarah. Israel is the most important nation God has placed on earth, because “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). The Jews not only gave the world the knowledge of the one true God, but they also gave us the Bible and, most important, the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Lord called Abraham and Sarah to leave their home, relatives, and idols in Ur of the Chaldees and to go to a new land He would show them. There they would begin to build a new nation that would bring blessing to the whole world. God revealed His glory to Abraham and covenanted with him to make him and his wife into a great people (Gen. 12:1–3; Acts 7:1–8). When they left Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham was seventy-five years old and his wife was sixty-five. Not only were they childless, but they were also past the age of begetting and bearing children, so how could they ever become a great nation? They felt that they were as good as dead! But that’s when the miracle resurrection power of God went to work.
The fulfillment of God’s promises doesn’t depend on human resources but on faith in the promises of almighty God. Abraham tried to fulfill God’s promise his own way by marrying his wife’s Egyptian servant, Hagar, and having a son by her, but God rejected Ishmael and gave Isaac as the heir. Faith is living without scheming, and Abraham’s scheme brought trouble into his marriage as well as into his walk with God.
Abraham and Sarah both needed to experience God’s resurrection power! Here’s how the apostle Paul explained what had happened:
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Rom. 4:18–21)
Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah was ninety, so Isaac’s birth was certainly a miracle. God was to Abraham and Sarah “the resurrection and the life.” He honored their faith and gave them the resurrection power they needed to enable them to become parents. We tend to admire Abraham’s faith and forget Sarah’s part in this miracle. Hebrews 11:11 says, “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” Isaac was blessed with godly parents.
When Isaac was a young man, God commanded Abraham to offer him on the altar as a sacrifice, and Abraham obeyed (Gen. 22). The future of the Hebrew nation was wrapped up in that lad; but God didn’t want Isaac’s life, He wanted Abraham’s heart. God wanted Abraham to trust Him and not the blessing God had given him. Again, it was faith in God’s resurrection power that turned trial into triumph. “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.… Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (Heb. 11:17, 19). It’s a wonderful thing when a father and son experience the resurrection power of the Lord.
Isaac and his wife, Rebekah, had twin sons, Jacob and Esau, and the Lord chose Jacob to inherit the covenant blessings. His story is found in Genesis 28–49. Jacob knew the Lord, but he tended to make his own plans and depend on his own clever schemes to accomplish what he wanted. He became the father of twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jacob’s favorite son was Joseph. Rachel, Joseph’s mother, also gave birth to Benjamin. Joseph’s story is in Genesis 37–50 and tells of how ten of his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. He ended up in Egypt and through the guidance of God eventually became second ruler of the land, but the boys lied to their father and told him that Joseph was dead. Nothing could comfort the aged patriarch, who vowed that in mourning he would go down into his own grave and join his son (Gen. 37:35). Jacob was a pessimistic man who often spoke of “going down to the grave in sorrow” (see 42:38; 44:29, 31).
But when the ten sons traveled to Egypt to get food during the seven-year famine, the Lord set in motion a process that brought Joseph and his brothers together. But even more, it brought the ten brothers to the place of repentance and confession! They returned home and told their father the truth, and Jacob experienced resurrection power and joy in his aged body and weary mind. He moved the whole family to Egypt, where Joseph had prepared places for them to live. When Jacob met Joseph in Egypt, he said, “Now I am ready to die,” but he lived peacefully for seventeen more years! God graciously lifted him out of the pit of despair and gave him a new beginning. It was an emotional and spiritual resurrection.
Joseph’s story begins with his seventeenth year, when God gave him two remarkable dreams and he announced them to his family (Gen. 37). The combination of his dreams and his father’s preferential treatment caused his brothers to hate him. They plotted to kill him but then changed their minds and sold him as a slave. His first “resurrection” occurred when he was taken out of the pit. He became a slave to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers, and eventually managed the entire household. Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him and then lied about him, and he ended up in prison. The word dungeon is used in Genesis 40:15 and 41:14, the same term that is used for the pit of death in Psalms 28:1, 30:3, 88:4, and 143:7. So, when God delivered him and made him second ruler of the land, it was like a “resurrection” from the dead. When you review the “resurrections” of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, you realize that Israel is truly a miracle nation. But there is yet another resurrection, for Paul compared Israel’s future restoration to “life from the dead” (Rom. 11:15; see also Ezek. 37:1–14).