There have been lots of interpretations on who constitutes the true Israel of God ... the national Jews, the Church, the 144,000 in Revelation, ... I found this diagram from my OT Theology course in Regent College (taught by Bruce Waltke) very helpful to me. It is a graphical interpretation of Romans 11. The Old Testament needs to be interpreted in light of the New Testament. The New Testament does not talk about the land that belongs to Israel anymore. It has been spiritualized or Christified in the teachings of Jesus, it is a land of rest (Hebrews 4). Christ is the land we are to possess, not the physical land. Should we then support Israel? Yes, but not more or less than any other nations. All nations / people are precious to God. God will save Israel in the end, but thinking to side Israel to be on the good side of God, or that God will favour those who treat Israel favourably only, or that Israel is a nation of ethnic superiority over other nations, I don't think so. It is ALL nations, ALL people that true Israel is called to love.
2 comments:
I think this is can be a very dangerous way to interpret Scripture. I completely agree that OT needs to be interpreted in light of OT, and even taken further, Jesus' words need to be interpreted in light of Epistles (Jesus doesn't give the meaning of many things, like the Cross, but only the content; interpretation is pretty much all done in the Epistles). But HOW one interprets the OT in light of NT is important. I don't have the time to write much here, but I just wanted to list a couple of things:
1) Land means land: I just did a quick word study of the word "land" in the NT (NASB) and every instance seems pretty clear that it's talking about land (e.g. - land of Egypt, sea and land, dry land, when the boat reached land, etc.) Nowhere does there seem to be an implication of "land" meaning "Christ".
2) One example of danger is 2 Chron 7:14. This passage speaks of the land being healed from the devouring of locusts as a promise God makes if His people pray, humble themselves, turn, and look to His face. This certainly doesn't seem to mean Christ being healed, but more importantly, I think it's especially dangerous to speak for God and say that in this specific passage, He promises us (the Church) something if we pray, humble OURselves, turn, and look to His face.
This isn't to say that we should politically or militarily support Israel anymore than other countries based on this one issue, but I do think God is not yet done with Israel. The Church is new in our time now, but Israel hasn't been replaced. As the writer of Hebrews teaches us, even OT characters' faith was what counted, not their legal following of the law in and of itself, etc.
Yes, land can mean physical land in the NT, but I don't think it applies to every instance in the NT. E.g. Matthew 10:15, 11:24 talk about the "land of Sodom", it does not refer to the physical land, but people characterized by the sins of Sodom. Some will interpret land as physical land even in these cases but ultimately, because God will judge the physical land, the judgment extends to the people as well.
As for 2 Chron 7:14, no it is not talking about Christ being healed, it does refer to God's people, who will eventually have Christ dwell amongst them, being healed.
Interesting the word "land" is not mentioned in the NT after Acts until we see a few uses of the word in Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation.
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