Act 3 - Israel

God called Abram from the Ur of the Chaldeans and asked him to travel west to a place and land that God would show him. Abram gathered all that he had and departed. Strangely enough, Abram left behind all the gods that he had grown to know and worship. From that time, Abram decided to worship only one God. The call of Israel marked the introduction of monotheism. Beginning with Abraham, followed by Isaac, and then Jacob.

For those of us who may not know, Jacob became Israel on the morning after a tussle with an unknown man. Jacob had held on to this unknown man, and when dawn was breaking and the man demanded that Jacob let him go, Jacob wouldn’t let go until the man blessed him. The man blessed Jacob and then changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

Israel became the patriarch. And with his twelve sons, who later became the twelve tribes of Israel. One might wonder if Israel didn’t have daughters. He did - he had a daughter named Dinah. But because of the insidious nature of patriarchy, the girl seems to be missing from the picture. The sad part is that to this day, some do believe in patriarchy and the dehumanizing impact on women.

Over time, eleven of the 12 sons migrated to Egypt, joining their brother whom they sold into slavery. These became the formative tribes of Israel. Like their ancestor Joseph, the descendants of these 12 sons became enslaved in Egypt.

Even as enslaved, they knew they were people who were remarkably different from their enslavers, by one defining covenant established between God and Abraham - circumcision. But they didn’t know the God who first called their ancestor Abraham and promised to make his descendants great and mighty and as many as the stars and the sand at the shore.

The call of Moses, through the miracle of the Burning Bush, established for the first time a direct link between the people of Israel and the God of their ancestors. Bear in mind that Moses didn’t know this God, but knew that he was not an Egyptian.

The interaction between God and Moses led Moses down a different path - one from being a shepherd for his father-in-law, Jethro, to becoming the shepherd who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Granted, he never reached the Promised Land himself; however, his leadership in managing the stiff-necked people from the beginning of his ministry to his death tells a story of a man who was deeply devoted to his people.

As you may recall, one of the questions to the God who revealed himself to Moses, and one that still blows my mind, is this: if the people of Israel were to ask your name, what am I supposed to say to them? What is your name? These people don’t know you, nor do they know your name. You are a total stranger to them - tell me your name. And to this question, God responds with God’s name: ‘I am.’

I am who I will Be.

With this revelation, Moses, armed to the teeth, hurries to Egypt and tells the people of Israel about their God, the God of their ancestors, and their God’s desire to deliver them from slavery. Through a series of plagues that sometimes appeared to be a competition between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt, Moses secured the freedom of the people of Israel and led them out of the bondage of slavery.

With haste, the children of Israel hurried to the River Nile, and there, with the pursuit of the Egyptians, they experienced another miracle of deliverance.

With no real identity, a community begins to take shape as it moves toward freedom. An emerging community of believers begins to identify itself, and more profoundly, claims that up until then, no community had made such a claim - that God is one. And that God was so scared that we cannot fully mention God’s name - YHVH.

One of the remarkable formative pieces was the Ten Commandments. This was a defining instrument that established the norms by which this emerging community of people would govern their relationship with God and with one another.

By the time the people of Israel reached the promised land, it was a fully formed community - each tribe, with the exception of the tribe of Levi (who were the priestly tribe) was provided a piece of the land that was first promised to their ancestor Abram, and for which he set out from the Ur of the Chaldeans. In a sense, one could argue that the identity of the people of Israel was tied up in the land which was promised to them.

There were significant challenges throughout the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. But it became more pronounced after Israel was settled on the land. Their actions singularly remind each of us that at our core, we still deal with the inordinate desires that make us all human.

Israel’s greatest sin was idolatry or some might say, syncretism. Israel couldn’t restrain itself from worshipping other gods and copying the cultures of their neighbors. Israel couldn’t stay insular. Israel couldn’t look inward. They looked outward for all the wrong reasons, to the point where the Prophet Hosea referred to Israel as a harlot.

Guided by the prophets, poets, writers, and sages, God always sought a way to remind Israel of Israel’s obligations, not only in respect to its relationship with God but with its neighbors.

Israel consistently betrayed its relationship with God. God punished them. Israel was taken into exile. Their enemies defeated Israel. Israel was rescued. God showed mercy, again and again. Israel always seemed to get another chance to get it right with God.

The question is, were there other people and tribes whom God could have chosen? Absolutely, yes. But God decided to choose Israel. Not because of their size, privilege, power, or anything mysterious, but simply because of God’s sovereign power to choose whomever God chooses to choose for mission.

In Exodus 19:5-6: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that would reveal God to all the nations of the world. 

In Deuteronomy 7:6-8: “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors…” God makes the point that God chose Israel because of God’s love.

In Isaiah 42:6: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.” Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, to make known to the world the light that had been revealed to them, and in which all people ought to live. 

In Isaiah 49:6: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Through Israel, God’s salvation would reach to the ends of the world.



Unfortunately, Israel forgot what Israel’s core mission was-to be the instrument through which God’s salvation could reach the ends of the world, to be a light through which the world might see the mercy, graciousness and goodness of God, to be a holy people who pull everyone toward the path of holiness and to be the ultimate example of God’s love in a broken world.

Turn the page to Act 4... Jesus to the rescue.

Manny+

(I plan to devote each week to an Act, so be on the lookout for Act IV next week.)