PART ONE / PART TWO / PART THREE
The second major bullet point for Israel’s theology and worldview, after Creational monotheism, would be eschatology. Wright says “the problem of evil” was not considered so much an apologetic challenge but a basis for certain hope that God was going to solve the problem. Whatever might be the reason for a good God to allow sin and death in his creation, he can be trusted not to leave it there. God would deliver the world.
Which brings us to the third point: election. God chose Abram of Ur of the Chaldees to be the one through whom this deliverance would somehow come. Thus, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendents that they should be his kingdom of priests.
This means that Israel is God’s new creation. Wright shows that, in Genesis, after Adam and then Noah are commissioned to “be fruitful and multiply,” God then promises Abraham in key covenantal passages that he will make him fruitful and multiply him (with that background, Jacob, who is to become the father of the twelve is given the identical command that Adam and Noah received). Isreal, in short, is God’s new Adam.
But everyone knows that “not all Isreal is truly Israel.” There has, once again, been unfaithfulness in Eden and in the sanctuary. Paul’s view in Romans 9 is, apart from the christocentric reference point, the common view of all the Jewish sects (which they all used to condemn the others). We can diagram the issue. God sent Israel to bring salvation through the world
God>>–Israel (deliverance)–>>World
But Israel’s commission is derailed by various compromisers. So now God has to do somthing about Isael if the original plan is to succeed. Here would be one version of the story.
God>>–Pharisaical program–>>Israel
But the Christians had a different idea. (Of course, the bedrock committment would be that God initially equipped Israel with the Torah for them to fulfill their commission.)
What this means is that there are strong disagreements about whom, when God finally acts and brings about the Judgment and salvation, will be confirmed as God’s true people. The pharisees, for example, have questions (at least) about what will happen to the non-pharisees. In their view, the true people of God who will be vindicated (i.e. justified) in the future are those who show in the present that they truly belong to him by following the Pharisaic holiness program.
. . .God initially equipped Israel with the Torah for them to fulfill their commission.
Didn’t GOD “initially equip” Israel with the Torah to do precisely the opposite? To show them that they could not accomplish what was contained in the law and fulfill their commission?
Have I misunderstood your meaning?
Yes, the Torah showed Israel that they were still in the Old Adam and were unfaithful. Paradoxically, God’s plan all along was to bring about salvation through their unfaithfulness. Hence, Paul’s letter to the Romans.
I understand but I don’t see how that is a fulfillment of their “commission.” Obviously, the LORD did not commission Israel to fall into disobedience so that He might save the Gentiles. In that sense, it would seem that Torah did not help Israel fulfill its actual “commission.”