Does the OT teach a future for Israel?

In my last post, entitled ‘A Future for Israel?’, Troy asked an excellent question:

“Why are the quotes from the OT that teach the future restoration of the nation of Israel not valid? And why are they not taken at face value just as the NT quotes?”

Now, Gordan had a great response to this question (see the comment section), and I encourage you to read his comment, but I thought a detailed response here might benefit our readers who don’t usually stray into the comment section.

The question essentially is: what about all of the OT promises that teach a glorious future for Israel?

First, let me remind you to brush up on your Dispensationalism so that you accurately understand how these men interpret scripture.

Secondly, let me say that I do take the OT promises concerning a future for Israel literally, though I clearly let the New Testament define these terms. Let me explain:

To put it in the simple terms, when the Old Testament speaks of Israel, it is speaking of the ‘type’ or ‘shadow’ of God’s chosen people. Israel was chosen out of all the other nations on earth, and God set His special love on them. He delivered them out of bondage and into the ‘promised land’. All of these are figures of how God deals with His elect. Bondage represents our sin, promised land represents the heaven that awaits us, the unconditional ‘choosing’ of Israel represents the unconditional choosing of His elect, etc. Even more so, the imagery gets very explicit and Christ-orientated. The serpent on the pole represents Christ on the cross, the manna represents Christ and the ‘bread from heaven’, the rock represents Christ in ‘living water’, the entire sacrificial and priesthood system represented what Christ does for us now, so on and so forth.

Essentially, the Old Testament uses lots of symbolism in pointing to realities that were to come, and the book of Hebrews is a good place to research this more. But Christ is the ultimate reality to which all of these 'figures' pointed to. This is one reason why the Jews of Jesus’ day missed their Messiah: they were focused so much on the realities in the OT that they missed the truth that the realities OT pointed to! Jesus Himself repeatedly said that the Law and the Prophets all speak of Him. All of the ceremonies, temple, sacrifices, sabbaths, etc., pointed towards what would be a reality in Christ.

Thus, when we get to Israel, we find another ‘type’ and a ‘shadow’ that modern day people focus on instead of the reality to which the term points! Are we honestly going to say that Israel the nation is something special because of bloodline and not because of Christ? No, Israel is simply ‘the people of God’, and nationalities play absolutely no role in the matter once Christ has come. All who are in Christ are in the 'Israel' of God! How can I say this?

-Romans 11:13-24 clearly says that us Gentiles have been ‘grafted in’ to Israel. Does that mean we have replaced Israel? By no means! But we have been joined with Israel in Christ.

-Paul, in Romans 2 says that “no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.” And to follow that up, in Romans 9 he says “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’”.

But how does Paul follow those up? Well, in regards to Romans 2, he says elsewhere in Colossians 2 that ‘In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism…” He also calls the church the “true circumcision” in Philippians chapter 3. And in regards to the Romans 9 passage he follows up the 'not all are of Israel' comment with affirming that it is God's elect who are of Israel when he says, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

-Peter in 1 Peter 2 calls the gentile church “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,” This is language used specifically to describe the nation of Israel in the OT. In Exodus 19:6 God says “and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

-Jesus states in John 10:16 that, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

-In Ephesians 2 it says: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Much more scriptural evidence could be given (for a detailed look at this, see this document), but I hope that this little taste of scripture will show the reader that there is ‘neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” – Galatians 3: 28.

What are those who are 'Abraham's offspring'? Israelites of course! How can anyone seriously dispute this scriptural truth? It is so crystal clear, but for some reason, just like in Jesus' day, you have people focussing on the temporal instead of the heavenly reality. Just as the author of Hebrews states: "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," and a little later..."For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." (Hebrews 12:22; 13:14)

OT promises concerning Israel are indeed future realities to be hoped for by us, but the authors of the New Testament clearly show that what the prophets had in mind was not a group of people with a certain bloodline, but rather that Israel was a ‘picture’ or a ‘shadow’ of the true people of God: the Israel of God, Galatians 6:16.

SDG