They Never Understood

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” – Exodus 19:3-6.

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. – Romans 11:28-32.

Abba Eban said that Ben Gurion considered Israel both the descendant of the biblical Israel and the harbinger of the messianic peace dream. Ben Gurion had his history right, but not present day Israel’s purpose in the world. Golda Meir made a similarly vacuous statement: “As for the Jews being a chosen people, I never quite accepted that. It seemed, and it still seems to me, more reasonable to believe, not that God chose the Jews, but that the Jews were the first people that chose God, the first people in history to have done something truly revolutionary, and its was this choice that made them unique.”

The Jews have always had a problem with God. Despite the personal attention he paid them, and his repeated revelations to them, God remained a mystery to his people. It was, as Pascal wrote, given to the Jews to love the Old Testament, but not to understand it. God revealed so much to the Hebrew nation, to have so little of it understood. Yet, they cannot to this day escape what Golda called the “religious question.” “Suffice it to say that no easy way was ever found of getting around the place of religion in the Jewish state. It bedeviled us then, and to some degree it bedevils us now.”

For sure. The Jews have never known quite what to do with God. But God knows exactly what to do with them. He will be finished with them only when he fulfills his promises to their founding fathers.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved.