ISRAEL by Frank A. Frost

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 26, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 33.

ISRAEL

By Frank A. Frost

ONE of the grandest truths in God’s great plan of redemption is contained in the word “Israel.” The word is first used in Gen. 32:28, and the meaning is, “One who prevails with God.” Jacob represented a person whose sins were as scarlet; Israel, one who had prevailed with God, whose sins were made white as snow. In fine, it is the family name of all the children of our heavenly Father, for those who have comprised the true Israel in all ages have been those sinners who by God’s grace have been forgiven, and have prevailed over sin.

In Gen. 35:11 God told Israel that a nation should be of him. In Ex. 19:5, 6 he tells the children of Israel that he has called them to be a holy nation, and under that name he showed them by types and shadows his great purposes concerning Israel for eternity.

Israelites were citizens of that commonwealth. Gentiles were all those of any nation who were not worshipers of the one true God, altho those who were descended from Jacob after the flesh held the conceit that they were the conservators of all God’s favors, and that those not of their lineage had no hope for the future more than a dog, hence the name “Gentile dogs.” But God would teach them that he is no respecter of persons, but of character, so John the Baptist says, “Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” Matt. 3:9. This was no new truth, for we read in Lev. 19:34: “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

God caused Paul to repeat this thought in Rom. 9:6, 8: “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel;” “that is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” In Gal. 4:28, 29 we find that the children of the promise are those born of the Spirit. In Gal. 3:29 we are told, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs,” or children, “according to the promise.” Most expositors have stumbled over Gen. 17:8, which to them seems to include the literal seeds. But the promises were not made “to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” Gal. 3:16. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed.”

Israelites are those to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, and should they become corrupt and blackslidden, the treatment of them by God is no different than of others, for he changeth not.

To find what this is we turn to Heb. 10:26–29: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy; . . . of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

In this we read the fate of the first house of Israel, and all others who determinedly, wilfully turned from God.

God and Christ have no fellowship with a Gentile; for when he comes into fellowship with them, he is no longer a Gentile, but one of Israel. As a Gentile he is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger “from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12. But a person, Jew or Gentile, who has been “naturalized,” so to speak, by the blood of Jesus, is no more a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God, which is Israel. Hence all true Christians are Israelites, even as Nathaniel, of

whom the Saviour said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”

So James was perfectly consistent when he addressed his epistle to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, for he was delivering God’s message to the second house of Israel. God’s plan of division into tribes for the second house of Israel, or the Christian church, is the same as that for the first house, or church in the wilderness. They were divided into twelve tribes, each with a name. So we read in Revelation 7 that the redeemed will be divided into the same twelve tribes, that the purpose of God might stand. So to-day we can say with Paul, We by faith in Christ are Israelites, “to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.”

Those who were Israelites indeed in the first house of Israel waited for the consolation of Israel, or the Messiah, the Babe of Bethlehem. So true Israelites to-day wait for his Son from heaven, “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

FRANK A. FROST.

Marblehead, Mass.