What Does The Bible Say About Church and Culture pt. 3

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Israel: God forms a people to prepare for a better place

Read: Genesis 12:1-3 and Exodus 19:3-6

So, based on these passages, what are the main functions of Israel?

1) Move away and remain separate from the other nations. They can’t really be a set apart, holy nation, if they are no different from the people around them

2) Bless the other nations. But the question remains, “How are they a blessing to other nations? Are they tasked with going out into the nations to recruit new converts? Or are they called to be so attractive by their way of live that the other nations will be so impressed and eager to join in in worshiping YHWH that they are busting down the doors to try and get into this new way of living?

Read: Deut. 4:5-8

How does this passage describe Israel’s way of interacting with the surrounding nations/ people groups?

They would be so impressed with Israel’s way of life that they wouldn’t be content just to look on from a distance. “Come, let us go up to the mountain…that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.

 

Read: Deut. 30:15-20.

Both of these passages provide proof that Israel will bless the nations. The question is how will Israel do that? These passages show us that:

1) Nations will notice Israel is different

2) Nations will see Israel's superior way of living and be impressed.

3) Israel would be renowned for its wisdom and would serve as a light to the nations.

 

But will the nations be content with just that? Will they be content to just look on from afar or from a distance? Why or why not?

 

Notice the crucial order which God Sets up Israel.

Read: Isaiah 2:2-3

1) God takes his people away from the nations and sets them up to be distinct

2) God's people order their lives according to the instruction that God established

3) God's people thrive because these instructions are superior to the world's way of doing things and thus they are blessed

4) The nations take notice and they are admittedly impressed with how Israel lives

5) The nations - on their own - decide to come close to the people that God is blessing so that they might learn how they themselves can learn this new way of life. 

 

Notice what God did NOT tell his people to do

Read Deut. 11:10-12

Why did the land flow with milk and honey and produce bounty and thrive with water and plenty? It's not because it was fertile land like Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon. It was because God provided these blessings.

So God did not call Israel to be a world agricultural powerhouse.

 

Read Num. 10:9; Joshua 6:5, 10:11, 23:10, 24:12

What do these passages tell us God did NOT instruct his people to do?

They tell us that God did not call his people to establish an official standing military. Instead, they were to assemble an ad hoc militia that would rally at a moments notice to fight battles. They also tell us that God would be the one fighting their battles for them.

 

Think about Israel's form of government. The nation was divided between 12 territories which each had their own judges, prophets, priests, rulers, etc. There were originally to be no official capital cities or a central temple complex. We see this with the existence of the Tabernacle - a mobile place of worship that would travel between tribes so no one tribe could hold all the power. 

Deuteronomy 17 lays out the concession for a King, but this ruler must obey God's instructions and not rule like the other nations. 

 

God did not set Israel up to be a powerhouse like the nations. At best, Israel was to be a small "quirky" nation that appears to the other nations as a people group that has a somewhat unhealthy co-dependency upon their deity to help them with their way of living, fight their battles, and provide for their basic needs. 

What happened when Israel tried to be like the other nations? Good or bad things? 

 

Consider this

 God does not command Israel to do the things that the nations are doing.

Israel is meant to be a set apart, holy nation, that will be a light to the nations and be a blessing to other nations.

“God does not command Israel to go out and make the world a better place. They do not engineer their own path to success. They do not seek to enlarge their territory by absorbing other nations, they do not colonize other nations for their own good. They simply live how God calls them to live. They don’t try to make the world a better place. They humbly accept that God is making them into a better place.” (Nugent, 54).

Note also that the prophets never “Fault God’s people for neglecting to make the world a better place.” Yes, prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah, all cry out against Israel for their social injustices, but they are injustices being done by Israelites against other Israelites. The prophets never condemn Israel for not reaching out to their neighboring nations to help with their social issues.

Israel was never rebuked for not caring for the widows and the orphans of other nations, because Torah called them to care only for the poor and needy members of their own communities– Just read Deuteronomy 15. “There will be no poor or needy among you. (vv. 2, 4) ” “Cancel any debt made to a fellow Israelite.”(vv. 3, 7).

 

But you might ask, "What about Jonah? He went out and preached against the evils of Nineveh?"

Excellent point! However, Who then makes the social reforms within the City of Nineveh? Does Jonah enter into the government system, roll up his sleeves and starts making Nineveh a better place?

Nope! The Assyrian government makes these reforms. (Jonah 3:6-9) Jonah’s only mission was to “announce that God planned to destroy the capital city.” And that is IT. 

 

Take away

So, when Jesus comes on the scene, he inaugurates a better place. Jesus takes what Israel had started and fulfills it. And next week we will look at how exactly that is described in the New Testament.

But know this, Israel was meant to be so attractive, so new, so superior to the world's way of doing things, that people would come from every nation to try and get into and be a part of God’s chosen people and His kingdom.

This is why when Israel sinned, they were punished with Exile. The other nations were deterred from wanting to join because they would argue, “why be a part of Israel if they aren’t doing anything different from us? What makes them so special or have a superior way of living?”

Through Jesus and his inauguration of the Kingdom of God, we realize that Jesus is taking God’s chosen people of Israel, and extending the Kingdom to all people. Now all nations can come in, enter, and embrace, display, and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God.

So we covered the start of this new perspective with a focus on God’s chosen people Israel functioning as the start of a better place. The systems that God has established within the nations serve as the means by which the world will improve. The nations will never make the world the best place because it is through God’s chosen people that we will be the better place rather than trying to make the world a better place.

 

Next week: We will take a more in-depth view of the specific language the NT uses to describe this better place, and what the Church’s task is. There will be lots of Bible digging, so come prepared.

 

 

Copyright © 2016 John Nugent. All rights reserved. All credit for this material belongs to Dr. John Nugent at Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan.

Nugent, John C. Endangered Gospel: How Fixing the World is Killing the Church. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016.