READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
St. Luke 4:14-22
James 5:7-11
Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)
From James’s letter, Jesus speaks this evening, saying:
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”
At St. James’s words about waiting for the precious fruits of the earth, this Advent I’d like to take you through 4 earths, or Israels, because as it turns out, no one knows what Israel is.
The USA seems to think it knows, as it sends billions of dollars to a nation claiming to be Israel, in the Middle-east.
So-called Christians seem to know, thinking God has revealed everything in His Old Testament about a long-gone kingdom that they seem to recognize on a map.
The Church also knows a man named Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel, by Jesus. And finally, everyone’s favorite Israel of heavenly fame, the New Israel.
If you didn’t catch all that, worry not. You have four Wednesdays to pick it up.
For this evening, we’ll talk about the Israel of earth and stone. The “geographic Israel” and clear up some modern misconceptions. Such as: the only reason we even think about the word Israel is because God made a promise to Abraham about land, but then it was not given the name Israel.
It was the land of Canaan, Noah’s grandson, about whom was said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers” (Genesis 9:25). Yikes. Regardless, much later, when Moses is God’s man, the Lord says, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites” from Exodus 3:8.
As far as we know, Canaan is the area where modern day Israel is, but it wasn’t called Israel. We don’t even hear the word Israel until Genesis 32:28, where it is Jacob’s new name, not the land’s. This will be an important point on another Wednesday, but for now…
It is not until King Saul, in 1 Samuel 11:3, that we hear of the “territory of Israel”.
And then in 1 Kings 12:20 “when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only.”
So really, it is not until the kingdom is divided do we have a proper “Israel” on the earth. Israel begins in sin. And it continues. With the Babylonian Exile in 586 BC, Israel is once again off the map and will not find its place again until the Crusades, some 1500 years later. And when the Crusaders can’t hold the territory, it leaves once again, only to come back May 6, 1948 as a decree from the United Nations.
The point is, just because we see the word “Israel” on someone’s map, does not mean this is the same Israel that Jesus talks about. The Israel of earth and stone that Jesus talks about is gone, just as His cross is gone.
As we said last Wednesday, the “land” of God’s promise is important, but it is only important because God is coming to this land in the flesh. There must be a land of Israel if there is to be born in it the Savior of Israel. More than that, St. Luke 24:47 says, “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” There must be an Israel, if there is to be a Jerusalem.
The land’s importance is is for the prophesies about the Messiah to come true. Our Introit for the Last Sunday of the Church year said, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky” (Ps 85:11). Also, a messianic prophesy from Isaiah 45:8
“You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.”
So Jesus, the Savior of His people from their sins, will come from earth. That is, He will be conceived by the Holy Spirit, but born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem, on the earth. The land itself births the Savior in order that we might find Him. If He was born from above, how we would seek Him or find Him?
God gives faith and He give it through means. A geographic Israel holds no meaning anymore, because the entire earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 24:1). With the Temple veil torn in two at the crucifixion of Jesus, the Word has gone out unto all lands (Rom 10:18). And since it is to all lands, maps, borders, and spoils of war matter not.
For now the true Israel follows Christ and He goes to all His Churches to commune. The earth-bound Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness and did not succeed in reaching it. Why? “Because they did not pursue it by faith” (Rom 9:31-32).
In Christ, we have no use for maps or empirical decrees about this or that land mass. We pursue faith. Faith saves and we believe that, “..not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel…but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Rom 9:6, 8).
For the earth will pass away and everything in it, including those map-shapes marked as “Israel”. The Word of Jesus will not pass away and will endure forever. Do we look for an earthly kingdom? Only the Kingdom of Christ, in His Church, in Word and Sacrament.
For tonight, and for the rest of your life reading scripture: you cannot associate the Israel of Scripture with the Israel of geography, unless you are simply searching the Holy Bible for a piece of land. Then you will find a relatively few amount of references for your curiosity. At least enough to get to the Mediterranean Sea.
For tonight, it is enough to take away that the “geographic” Israel of the Bible is pointing to more than just farmland and cartography. It is pointing to our Savior, Jesus Christ. That should be your watermark on everything you hear about “Israel” today. If the Israel of today is not pointing to and referring to “the coming of the Lord”, from St. James, or “Scripture being fulfilled in your hearing”, then you are no longer talking about God’s Israel.
For God’s Israel is gathered like a brood of chickens underneath the outstretched arms of Her Savior, crucified on her behalf. On this Israel, hang all the law and prophets.
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