Covenant

 These hopes and this message did not appear out of thin air and Jesus’ teaching regarding these things was not the first time the apostles heard them. Rather, these realities of a good creation gone bad and a glorious reversal of the old order at the Day of the Lord were well attested to these Jewish men in the covenants Yahweh had made with the forefathers (Rom. 9:4-5). In other words, the apostolic gospel is predicated upon real words God has spoken to real people.

 

First, God’s covenants with Israel fuel Messianic expectation.[16] Drawing once again upon the creation narrative, the Messianic offspring promised in Genesis 3:14-19 finds a home in the seed of Abraham, who will “possess the gates of his enemies” and bless the nations of the earth (Gen. 22:17-18) as a king with a scepter and a “ruler’s staff (Gen. 49:10).”

 

This promise of a kingly Messiah is then further clarified in the Lord’s covenant with David (2 Sam. 7:12-14, Ps. 89:3) as he is promised he will have a son who will forever inherit the nations and rule from Zion, Yahweh’s “holy hill (Ps. 2:2-9).” It is for this reason and understanding of the covenants that that Matthew begins His gospel (Matt 1:1-16) by naming Jesus as a descendant of Abraham and shouting, “David!”[17]

 

Jesus is the “King of the Jews (Matt. 2:2)” and the “King of Israel (Matt. 27:42)” according to the covenants. But how Jewish is his kingdom?[18]

 

Were the disciples dead wrong in their assumptions when they asked if the now risen Jesus would “restore the kingdom to Israel (Act. 1:6)”?

 

In His death, resurrection, and sending of the Spirit, did Jesus reinterpret, reimagine, rehabilitate[19], or subvert what early Jews believed and hoped in for the Kingdom of God?

 

Should the events of 66- 70AD be interpreted as the end of the Jewish people’s priestly role among the nations[20] and as God’s divorce of ethnic Israel?[21]

 

Certainly not.[22] The consequences of believing that Yahweh has in anyway abrogated his clear promises to His first-born family has terrifying implications Jew and gentile alike.[23]

 

Rather, the hopes of the Jewish people; hopes for Jerusalem to be a joy (Is. 65:17-19), for the Lord to reign on and “build up (Ps. 102:16)” Mount Zion in “Jerusalem (Is. 24:23)”, for the nations come up to “to the House of Jacob” to learn God’s ways (Is. 2:2-4) were not subverted by the Messiah’s death, resurrection, and forty days of teaching, as if the simple understanding of the Kingdom was reimagined to now be present in the heart of believers or in the church.[24] Instead, they were confirmed! This much is clear based on the disciples only recorded question after these events, “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel (Ac. 1:3-8)?”

 

After Jesus’ resurrection, the apostles still very much looked forward to eating and drinking with their Lord in His Kingdom (Lk. 22:15-30) and interpreted His individual resurrection as heralding the one to come (1 Cor. 15:20), confirming for them that the Kingdom, and with it the resurrection of the dead, was near[25]. In Jesus’ victory the promises to the patriarchs (Rom. 9:4-5) and the promise of the salvation of Israel (Rom. 11:11-29), are still on track.

 

Similarly, while the apostles held to an unchanged vision of the Kingdom of God according to the covenants, they also held to and proclaimed and an unchanged vision of the administration of that kingdom. According to the promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), the firstborn Son of David (Ps. 89:27) will superintend His Kingdom the firstborn family (Ex. 4:22, Jer. 31:9). This simply follows the basic pattern of Yahweh’s dealings with Israel the nations.[26]

 

The gospel is to the Jew first (Rom. 1:16). Wrath, tribulation, and fury at the Day of the Lord is for rejecting that gospel is to the Jew first (Rom. 2:9). And glory, honor, and peace at the Day of the Lord is to the Jew first (Rom. 2:10). This understanding of the administration of blessing to the nations through the first born[27] is undoubtedly what Jesus had in mind Matthew 19:28 when he assured His disciples they would sit on twelve thrones around his glorious throne, superintending the renewal of all things.[28]

 

This overtly ethnic portrayal of the Kingdom of God is often confusing to gentiles as they can feel slighted or feel as if the Lord’s administration of the Kingdom through Israel means God loves them less. This feeling of rejection or of the need to redefine Israel as the church,[29]however, is not necessary, for the apostles make clear that in the Messiah, God loves both Jew and Gentile alike (Gal. 3:28) and that both will inherit eternal life according to the grace of God (Ac. 15:11). The role of Israel in the administration of the blessings of the Kingdom is not according to love, but according to their responsibility as the firstborn.

 

For example, when a father dies, the oldest son, according to birthright, is charged with meting out the inheritance. This birthright is a responsibility, a privilege, and the mechanism by which the entire family is blessed with what the father has in store for them. Thus, gentiles should not see God’s faithfulness to His covenant and his choosing of Israel to administer those covenant blessings as off putting. Rather they should rejoice that God’s Kingdom plan for Jews and Gentiles is one of mutual blessing[30] and that indeed the glory of Isaiah 25 will come to pass.

 

In the City of the Great King (Ps. 48:1) gentiles will, as sons of Abraham (Gen. 17:4) and as happily engrafted olive branches[31] enjoy a rich meal with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matt. 8:11-12) as they celebrate God’s fidelity to Jewish flesh[32] and the swallowing up of death forever. This is the apostolic hope according to the covenants, both of Jews who believed Jesus to be the Messiah and those who did not (Ac. 24:15).

-----------------------------------

[16] Walter Kaiser Jr, The Messiah in the Old Testament, Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 42.

[17] Hamilton Jr, God’s Glory, 363.

 

[18] Joel Richardson, When a Jew Rules the World: What the Bible Really Says about Israel in the Plan of God (Winepress, 2018), 86-101.

 

[19] N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (London: SPCK, 1996), 446, 47.

 

[20] Mark Kinzer and Russell Resnik, Besorah: The Resurrection of Jerusalem and the Healing of a Fractured Gospel (Eugene: Cascade, 2021), Kindle. Loc. 315.

 

[21] Brock Hollet, Debunking Preterism: How Over-Realized Eschatology Misses the “Not Yet” of Bible Prophecy (Kearney: Morris, 2018), 206.

 

[22] Michael Brown, Our Hands are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the Church and the Jewish People, Revised & Expanded Edition (Shippensburg: Destiny, 2019), 166.

 

[23] Hamilton, God’s Glory, 102.

[24] Erickson, Christian Theology, 702.

 

[25] Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews (New York: Vintage, 1999), 262.

 

[26] Eisenmbaum, Paul Was Not a Christian, 207.

 

[27] Carmen Imes, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (Downers Grove: IVP, 2019), 169.

 

[28] Barry Horner, Eternal Israel: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Studies that Uphold the Eternal, Distinctive Destiny of Israel (Nashville: B&H, 2018), 17-33.

 

[29] Erickson, Christian Theology, 965.

[30] Kendall Soulen, The God of Israel and Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 132.

 

[31] Barry Horner, Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged, NAC Studies (Nashville: B&H, 2007), 252.

 

[32] Soulen, The God of Israel, 133.