God and Israel, Israel and God
1. The nation of Israel was created with a special position before God
Exodus 19:5 (KJV) Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Deuteronomy 7:6 (KJV) For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 14:2 (KJV) For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
1 Samuel 12:22 (KJV) For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
Psalm 33:12 (KJV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Psalm 135:4 (KJV) For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.
Amos 3:2 (KJV) You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
2. God entered into a covenant relationship with Israel only
Genesis 12:1-3 (KJV) Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 17:7 (KJV) And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Exodus 6:4 (KJV) And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
Psalm 105:8-9 (KJV) He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;
Luke 1:72-73 (KJV) To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
Romans 9:4 (KJV) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Ephesians 2:12 (KJV) That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
3. God’s commitment to Israel remains unaltered
1 Samuel 12:22 (KJV) For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
Psalm 89:33 (KJV) Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Psalm 89:36 (KJV) His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psalm 91:14 (KJV) Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 (KJV) Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Lamentations 3:31 (KJV) For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
Romans 11:1 (KJV) I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
A plain reading of texts such as those above and the one coming up leaves no reasonable conclusion to be drawn other than the fact that God still has a plan for Israel, that he will be dealing with them once more in the future, and that the fulfilment of his intended relationship with them will occur during the future, 1000-year reign of Christ on earth.
Ezekiel 37:24-28 (KJV) And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.