THE CHOSEN MANTLE: PART ONE

       God chose Moses to deliver His people from the house of bondage saying, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:6-9). God brought them out of bondage to bring them into the land He had allotted for Himself to give to them.
     Fast forward several thousands of years later to another triumphant entry recorded in Luke 19:37-44. “Then, as He [Jesus] was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
         Moments later Jesus is weeping over the city of Jerusalem and prophesies the destruction of their temple saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Lk. 19:41-44, emphasis added).
           As a nation, the Jews had rejected the first “visit” of the Messiah. Forty years later (AD 70) their Temple was destroyed and no stone was left unturned. They were scattered across the world.  The Apostle Peter asks a question that is still debated today: “Has God cast away His people?” (Rom. 11:1). No, they have not been replaced. Peter then gives an interesting analogy that deserves a closer look. He compares the situation to a time in the prophet Elijah’s life when he is frustrated by the people’s response to God’s correction. He wastes no time in complaining to God.
         God’s response? In effect, He always has “a remnant according to the election of grace.” Paul describes this same situation as the mystery of blindness in Romans 11. God is still in control. It is all part of God’s prophetic great Week of the plan of redemption. It is unfolding at the appointed time. Israel, the “natural branch,” is cut off temporarily because they rejected Jesus. This “blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom. 11:25b). The plan shifts from an emphasis on the ethnic lineage of Abraham to an emphasis on spiritual identity in Christ (Rom. 3:21-23).
       Notice a seemingly small word full of prophetic significance--until. There is a time limit to the time of Jacob’s trouble. At the appointed time, they will be grafted back into the Olive Tree because the “gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (v. 29).
         End-Time Lesson: Peter had an understanding of the times and seasons of God’s plan (2 Pet. 3:8). He describes this same shift in Romans 9, quoting the prophets Hosea and Isaiah. God would choose others to be His people (Gentiles), who through adoption would be called sons of the living God. Still, a remnant of Israel would be saved at the appointed time. For now, during this present Messianic Age that features the Church as the Body of Christ, any Jew who accepts Jesus as the Messiah is likewise placed “in Christ” by faith, election by grace once again.
       Stay tuned to find out what Hosea prophesied and Elijah foreshadowed concerning Israel’s position and the appointed time.