Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Bereshit / Genesis 12:1-3; ESV)
In the New Covenant book of Galatians, Paul refers to this week's Torah portion, when he says,
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." (Galatians 3:8; ESV)According to Paul, God's promise of blessing to the nations through Abraham (who was called Abram at the time) is the gospel. The word "gospel" comes from the Greek word, "euangelion," meaning "good news" and is most likely in reference to the "good news" passages in Isaiah (40:9, 41:27, 52:7, 60:6, and 61:1). Let me quote one:
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." (Isaiah 52:7; ESV)According to Isaiah here, the good news has to do with the proclamation of the reign of God. For Israel, the reign of God means release from foreign oppression and spiritual restoration for the nation. Paul may have also had in mind how the Greek word was used in the Roman Empire of his day. A proclamation by Caesar that would bring benefit to the empire was called "euangelion," - "good news." Therefore, for Paul, while "good news" was rooted in Jewish expectation, he also had in mind its world-wide implications as he announced the reign of the true king.
This good news was the objective of God's promises to Abraham. God called him away from his homeland in Mesopotamia to journey to a foreign land, which would one day be called Israel, in order to accomplish his desire to resolve human alienation from God, which began with our first parents in the Garden of Eden.
Paul's reference to this good news finding its origins in Abraham confirms the Bible's teaching that the coming of Yeshua as Messiah is part of God's overall plan and purpose from the beginning. God's choosing of the people of Israel through the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was the necessary outworking of his plan to make himself known to all nations. God's choosing of Israel was not simply a warm-up to the coming of the Messiah, as if God was biding his time until then. Nor was Israel some sort of "Plan A" that failed when the majority of Israel failed to recognize Yeshua as Messiah. Rather, beginning with Abraham, God worked out his master plan through to its fulfillment in Yeshua.
God chose Israel to reveal himself to the world. His revelation through the Hebrew Scriptures is the basis of what we know of the true God. The nature and personhood of God is provided to us through the prophetic history of Israel. While general things about God as Creator can be known through creation, it is through Israel that we learn about him and his ways. Also, it is the Hebrew Scriptures that provide us with the Messiah's credentials in order to recognize him when he came.
The good news is not just a message of individual salvation. That's included, but more fully it is the grand announcement that the long-awaited Messiah, through whom God would establish his reign, as foretold by the Jewish prophets, has come. In Yeshua the expectation of Abraham is fulfilled, Israel's oppression under foreign control is over, and God's reign as King over all the earth is established.
2 comments:
Dear Alan,
Shalom from Toronto.
It has been too long, brother.
Thank you for writing (and continuing all these years) your TorahBlog. By Yeshua's grace I think I will tune in semi-regularly (as the HS leads). I appreciate and agree with the vast majority of what you say, however: in the spirit of--there has and always only been one plan, and God Reigns--I respectfully offer these comments:
1. Concerning: "Rather, beginning with Abraham, God worked out his master plan through to its fulfillment in Yeshua."
I know that you are focusing on Lekh Lekha and Yeshua, but technically and biblically speaking the implementation of the plan began right at the Fall (Genesis 3:15): "and enmity I will put between you [the snake] and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel." (my rough translation from MT + BDB for "Shuf").
Also, the combination "in Yeshua" can be a bit misleading. A more helpful word may be "through" Yeshua, since the Telos=goal-of-the-plan is the New Jerusalem: "No longer will there be any curse. The Throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever." (Rev.22:3-5, NIV) Please notice the implicit reference to Genesis 1: where light was created before the Sun was. Also-- and I could be wrong about this, but--I would argue that "they" who reign are the very ones for whom the Lord God (kurios ho theos = ADONAI haElohim?!) is the light! Which brings me to my next point...
2. Concerning: "In Yeshua the expectation of Abraham is fulfilled, Israel's oppression under foreign control is over, and God's reign as King over all the earth is established."
Again, technically and biblically speaking "God's reign as King over all the earth" has never really ceased since he created the "earth" in Genesis 1. It has been contested by us (sinful humanity) since the fall, and by Satan (through the power he gained through us)-- since we were given dominion over said "earth." Also, it is abundantly clear that God has always reigned because if he didn't the "earth" would cease to function: both the substance of which "earth" is made and the laws that govern it (which we use our science to describe - gravity, for example) would have long ceased to work and exist -- and us with them.
Again, the final consummation of these promises is in the New Jerusalem and only the beginning of the end seems to have been brought on by the Incarnation and--about 33 years later--the Ascension.
Shabbat Shalom and Warm Greetings to you and your family.
Nathaniel Wiseman
Response to Nathaniel: Thank you for your comments. Good to hear from you.
Re: #1: Certainly Gen. 3:15: is the initial promise of God's plan to undo the rebellion of our first parents in the Garden, but I would say that Gen. 12:1-3 is the initial implementation of that plan. 3:15 is the "what", but is the "who" and the "how". God's determination to put an end to sin, death, and evil is clear in 3:15. But the details as to the outworking of that plan doesn't get rolling until Gen. 12:1-3.
Re: #2: I think there is a "both/and" going on here. There is a sense in which God has always been king over his creation. His throne has never been toppled or abdicated. He has always and will always be in control. But in so far as we human beings have rejected his kingship, beginning with our first parents until this day, he does not reign in the same sense that he will when Yeshua returns.
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