God's Purposes With IsraelНамуна

Day 1 – Humanity disappoints

Before we dive into God’s purposes for Israel, some context is helpful. The Bible begins with the story of Creation. An opening straight from heaven! God’s perfect creation seems wonderful, and promising, with humanity as ‘the crown of creation”. But as you continue to read the first eleven chapters of the Bible things don’t look quite as rosy.

The one commandment that Adam and Eve had to follow, turned out to be too much for them. Jealousy rose up between the first brothers on earth, Cain and Abel, leading to the first murder. People turned out to be so violent that God regretted creating them. And if you think that there was a fresh start with Noah, you are sadly mistaken. After the flood people became so arrogant that they thought that by building the tower of Babel they could literally storm the gates of heaven.

This is the context the Bible gives before the calling of Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis; the earliest beginnings of the nation of Israel. So you can see this as the backdrop of Abraham’s calling. In fact, the calling of Israel is God’s answer to a humanity that has deeply disappointed God and only seems to move further and further from Him.

Something to think about: Nowadays we also see the world moving further from God. Do you think that Israel has a role to play here too?