This is Part 3 of the Understanding the Whole Bible series. (Formerly called Hope for Humanity.)
The story so far:
Which brings us to Israel's failure...
If you read the last post in this series about God’s grand plan for Israel to be a blessing and light to the nations of the world, you may have been left feeling like that plan isn’t very obvious throughout the Old Testament. Well, if you weren’t aware of God’s purpose for Israel that’s because Israel often wasn’t aware of it either!
Israel existing to bless other nations isn’t obvious to the average reader of the Old Testament because of how often they strayed from and rebelled against God’s intention for them. They quickly spiral down into fighting with each other for power, worshipping the idols of other nations, treating the poor and vulnerable unjustly, serving corrupt kings, and more. Israel—the very nation God chose to respond to humanity’s problem—has become part of the problem! It’s like if a fire truck was sent to put out a fire, but instead the fire truck crashes and bursts into flames itself!
However, what if behind the scenes God was incorporating even Israel’s failure into his plan to restore humanity as his representatives?
The key to understanding how God did this is to understand that Israel not only represents God to humanity, they ALSO represent humanity to God. Not only do the representation arrows go in this direction:
They also go in this direction:
There is a sense in which Israel represented the rest of humanity because God desired them to exemplify what he wanted all people to eventually become. It’s like when you pick the first ripe apple off an apple tree to eat. The rest of the apples are not ripe yet, but the ripe apple you picked represents what you hope the rest of the apples will become.
At least, that was God's original intention for Israel. But even though Israel didn't end up being the model nation he wanted them to be, they still ended up representing humanity in their sin and suffering.
Think for a moment about Israel’s exile. Have you ever noticed that it mirrors the creation story? Adam and Eve were given a special land (Eden), but they disobeyed so they were kicked out of that land. Similarly, Israel was given a special land (the “Promised Land”), but they disobeyed so were exiled to Assyria and Babylon. This is no coincidence. Israel would have understood themselves as a microcosm, a mini-representation, of what happened to all humanity on a larger scale. They embodied the sin and suffering of all humanity.
Here’s where things get even more mysterious and intriguing. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul is reflecting on the story of Israel and states that the law (i.e. God’s commandments) “was brought in so that the trespass [i.e. sin] might increase” (Romans 5:20).
Wait a minute…God gave Israel the law so that sin might increase? Why would God want sin to increase?
Well, it would take us too far into the weeds to fully answer that question, but in places like Romans 7 and Galatians 3 we get the sense that God was luring Sin into one place (Israel) in order to decisively deal with it. Similar to how you might lure pests into a trap in order to eliminate them. God knew that Sin, by taking advantage of Israel’s inability to follow God’s law, would grow and fester and concentrate itself in his chosen people. And because Israel represents humanity, if he decisively deals with the Sin that has gathered itself in Israel, it would be decisively dealt with for everyone.
This sets the stage for what Jesus will do in the New Testament, where the Sin which had accumulated itself in Israel will concentrate itself even more onto the person of Jesus. We'll get back to that idea in a couple blog posts :)
I know there's been some pretty big ideas in this blog post, so let's review the big picture:
God's hope in creating humans was that they would represent him (be his "middle-management") to the rest of creation.
Humans rebelled, but God is committed to working through humans. He has no "plan B".
Instead of giving up on humans he chooses Israel to represent him to humanity, so that humanity could eventually be rehabilitated as his representatives to creation.
Unfortunately, Israel—God's "rescue team"—similarly sinned and rebelled. But God finds a way to use even Israel's sin to advance his plan.
As God's chosen people, the nation of Israel represented on a small scale all the nations of the world on a large scale. God's commandments had the effect of "luring" Sin to accumulate in Israel, so that one day he would be able to defeat Sin not only for Israel, but the whole world as well...