You only have I known of all the families of the earth.—Amos 3:2

Michael Nekora

At the start of the new dispensation after the flood, God revealed himself to specific individuals including Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's son Joseph. When Jacob moved his family into Egypt to avoid starvation from the famine that gripped the land, he was 130 years old (Genesis 47:9). His family at that time numbered "seventy souls" (Genesis 46:27). Jacob himself died seventeen years later. With his death the age of the patriarchs came to an end.

During the next age God dealt with one single "family of the earth," those who traced their lineage to Jacob (whose name changed to Israel at about the two-thirds point in his life). This relationship began at Jacob's death and extended to the time when that nation rejected their Messiah, Christ Jesus. The exact length of this period is a matter of controversy among experts. Generally following the biblical chronology tabulated in 1851 by the Reverend Christopher Bowen of England (Reprints, page 289), Pastor Russell believed that 1845 years elapsed from the death of Jacob to the nation's rejection of the Messiah in 33 AD (Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 2, Page 213).

Of course it was not yet much of a "nation" when Jacob died. But living in the favorable conditions of Goshen and because of God's blessings, Jacob's progeny multiplied exceedingly. As frequently happens when an "immigrant" population multiplies quickly, the indigenous people felt threatened. The Egyptians were no exception: "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now thee arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:7,8). This new king conscripted them as slaves to build his monuments and cities; but much to his surprise, the harder he worked them, the more they multiplied (Exodus 1:11, 12).

In desperation the king issued an edict that all male Hebrew babies be killed (Exodus 1:22). It is conjectured that this must have occurred after the birth of Aaron but before the birth of Moses. This law must have been sporadically enforced after the birth of Moses because at the time of the exodus, when Moses was eighty years old, we read: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children" (Exodus 12:37). Clearly there could never be this many if Moses was one of only a few who survived this murderous decree. Perhaps a successor to this evil king, understanding the benefits of cheap labor, quietly rescinded the law, or simply failed to enforce it.

Moses

The birth of Moses, his miraculous "adoption" by the king's daughter, his education in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and his desire to identify with his own people rather than Egyptian royalty, is well known. Moses is almost synonymous with the nation itself. Paul, for example, says the nation was baptized into Moses: "And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2). The name Moses appears eighty times in the King James New Testament.

This great number of slaves living in abysmal conditions could hardly be called a nation. They had no laws, o leader, no structure of any kind. The people might chafe under their taskmasters, but there was not much they could do about it. Upon this scene came the man Moses, who at the age of forty thought he could help. He was wrong and disappeared from sight for forty more years. The probability is that his own Hebrew family, and particularly his brother Aaron, had no contact with him during this forced exile.

When Moses least expected it, God sent him back to Egypt to lead the people to freedom. Moses claimed he was not "eloquent" (Exodus 4:10), which may mean he felt inadequate to express himself in the language of the royal palace after a forty-year absence tending sheep. Aaron is supplied as "mouthpiece" (Exodus 4:14-16), and together they confront the king with God's demand to let his people go. It took ten plagues, culminating with the death of all the Egyptian firstborns, before the exodus became a reality.

Many more miracles beside the plagues were required before these slaves could become a nation. They and their animals had to have food and water, had to pass through the Red Sea, be protected against those who wanted to kill them, and had to be educated in the ways of God. This was all accomplished using Moses as God's representative.

The key event that marked Israel as God's special people occurred at Mount Sinai. After several trips up this mountain, Moses brought down two tablets of stone containing ten commandments. These were what God expected of the people and the people readily agreed to do them (Exodus 19:8).

God promised that as long as the people kept their part of this covenant, he would bless them. And he did. That is why on the chart under the semi-circle marked "Jewish Age" there is a short horizontal line (marked P) and ending with a cross. The nation of Israel (marked by an e) was favored and therefore on a higher plane, but that plane was not quite as high as the horizontal line above it, the plane of actual or reckoned perfection.

Though the people agreed to everything, they quickly forgot their God and what he was able to do for them. Most egregious is the example of their rejection of the report given by the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, who urged them to take the land God wanted to give them. Instead, the nation wanted to kill them both and return to Egypt (Numbers 14:10). It did not happen. They were all forced to wander for forty years in the wilderness until faithless adults with a slave mentality were dead. It was their children, born and bred in the harsh conditions of the wilderness, who under the leadership of Joshua went in to possess the land.

Moses, following God's instruction, introduced one other element of culture to this nation: a set of religious ordinances which included a place to worship and specific people who were the religious experts. Many chapters in Exodus and Leviticus describe the construction of the tabernacle and the duties of those who served in it. How different the tabernacle must have appeared to the Jews. It seemed to insignificant compared to Egyptian temples. But its beauty was only for the initiated, those who ministered inside the structure where they were unseen by everyone else.

Christians who see little connection between Old Testament types and New Testament realities may want to look again at the book of Hebrews. There the apostle explains the reality of many types. Likewise, the examples of the nation's faithlessness during their time n the wilderness and in the land would seem nothing more than ancient history were it not that Paul wrote, "All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The Nation Thrives

Forty years after leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt in the exodus, Moses died at the top of Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34:1, 5-7). Leadership of the nation passed to Joshua. Once again God's chosen people were blessed in proportion to their faith in Him. When they trusted in God, they were victorious against their enemies. When they were complacent and thought they could do as their neighbors did and still maintain their special relationship with God, they were punished. Each successive generation seemed to go through the same experiences, echoing the dictum that the one who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it.

A few years after entering Canaan and carving up the land among twelve tribes{1} the nation entered the first of many forced servitudes to their enemies. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Moab, Midian, Canaan, and Philistia all oppressed and dominated Israel at one time or another.

God established judges in the land to provide leadership. These were more like military leaders rather than judicial magistrates. The last of the judges was Samuel, one of Israel's greatest prophets. But when Samuel was old and his sons became leaders, they became corrupt, which may have been why the people demanded a king. Samuel warned the people that a kind would make their situation worse (1 Samuel 8:1-5, 18, 19). In demanding a king, Samuel told the people they were rejected God (1 Samuel 10:19).

Saul was the first king, David the next, and Solomon the third. Each reigned for forty years. Saul and David fought one battle after another, and peace with their neighbors was rare. But Solomon consolidated the gains of his father David and entered into alliances with the surrounding kings (typically heads of small cities), primarily through marriage. That brought peace, but at the high price of introducing heathen religious practice via the wives. 

When Solomon died, the binding of the twelve tribes into a nation came undone and produced a northern ten-tribe kingdom (called Israel, or sometimes Ephraim) and a southern two-tribe kingdom (called Judah). Each had its own capital and place of religious worship. War with their neighbors continued; sometimes they fought each other.

Idolatry was a continual problem in both nations, undoubtedly fed by the practices of the heathen nations surrounding them. This continued rejection f God coupled with the oppression of the poor and helpless among them (Amos 8:4-8) eventually resulted in the overthrow first of the northern kingdom and some 120 years later the southern kingdom. The wonderful verse of Amos 3:2 -- "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" -- continues with the words, "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." And God died. The Jews of all people should have known better.

The era of the prophets whose pronouncements and ministry are recorded in the major (in the sense of long) and minor (shorter) prophets at the end of the Old Testament, began about seven hundred years before Christ. The last of the prophets was Malachi, whose words, though undated within the book bearing his name, are thought to have been uttered about 374 BC. After Malachi's time, there is nothing more recorded.

The Nation Barely Survives

First Assyria took away the 10 tribe kingdom. Later Babylon conquered the entire land. These oppressors killed many, and carried off the cream of the crop to serve foreign masters. One would think that should have been the end of the Jews as a nation. It was the end for the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, and all the other "ites" who lived in this land. But within Israel there was always what the Scriptures called a "remnant" who maintained their trust and faith in the God of Abraham. Daniel is an excellent example of someone who was a trusted "civil servant" of foreign kings, but who never compromised his relationship with God.

Eventually, before the time of Nehemiah and Ezra, the Persian king Cyrus issued a proclamation that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt (Ezra 1:1-5). Of course, God moved his heart to do this, but from a strictly economic point of view, far-off Palestine with its capital Jerusalem was an "undervalued asset." It would be far more valuable to Cyrus if the city were rebuilt so the people could afford to pay taxes. Having Palestine as a buffer between his realm and potential enemies, and placing in it people who owed their allegiance to him, undoubtedly entered into his mental calculations as well.

The rebuilding did occur, and the willing of the exiled Jews did return and rebuild their nation. But in spite of all that God had done and continued to do for them, the Jews continued to provoke him by their unfaithfulness (see 2 Chronicles 36:14-16 and Amos 8:4-8). Medo-Persia was eventually superseded by Greece under Alexander the Great. And Greece was eventually supplanted by Rome, though it is said that Greek thought, culture, and manners represented by far the greatest threat against the Jewish polity. Generally, those things prized by the Greek were prized by the world, but not by the faithful remnant.

It was, perhaps, the wonderful Law covenant that God instituted with their fathers that kept some of the nation from being assimilated into the heathen nations. Year after year the Torah (the first five books of Moses), together with the rabbinic writings known as the Talmud, were taught and memorized. Circumcision was the outward symbol of this covenant, a practice the Greeks considered strange.

The focus of religious worship of the Jews was the temple in Jerusalem. It was to this place that faithful Jews made their way at set times of the year. The experts in the law (called lawyers), plus Pharisees, Sadducees, and others, taught the people about their religious responsibilities. But after more than eighteen hundred years, this religion was mostly a straitjacket. The people had no hope, were constantly reminded of how far short they came from God's righteous requirements, and, if they thought about the past at all, had to wonder what had happened to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why had God abandoned them to this heathen, imperial power called Rome?

This was the Jewish world as Jesus found it. What the religious leaders and the people did not know was that their Law, their special relationship with God, was meant to bring them to Christ (Galatians 3:24). But because Jesus was seen as a threat to the religious leaders, they plotted to kill him (John 11:53).

Once again there was a remnant: "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. ... Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:2,5). This faithful remnant accepted Christ while the nation as a whole rejected him. So Christ rejected that nation: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38). That is when the Jewish age came to an end. Henceforth God would reveal himself to the footstep followers of his son Jesus Christ. The age of the gospel had begun with the express purpose of calling out a people for his name: "A hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in" (Romans 11:25, RSV).

The Future of Israel

Yes, as a nation the Jews were blind to the special opportunity that could have been theirs and once again God's punishment came upon them. In 70 AD the Roman army razed their temple and all Jerusalem, and scattered the Jews to the four corners of the earth. For most of the two thousand years since it has looked as though God had abandoned them completely. But such was never God's plan. "Hath God cast away his people? God forbid" (Romans 11:1).

Even in their scattered condition, the Jews have maintained their "separateness" though many craved assimilation into their host nations. Against all odds and historical precedent, from 1878 to 1948 a "remnant" of the Jews have been gathered from throughout the world into a little strip of land called Palestine. In 1948 these returned Jews proclaimed the State of Israel, in fulfillment of the last words of the prophet Amos: "I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God" (Amos 9:15).

God may punish, not to be vindictive as some men, but for a purpose. God has not preserved the Jews for thirty-five hundred years, and now brought them back to their land, to do nothing with them. He intends to bless them. Paul continued: "And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sakes; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefather" (Romans 11:26-28, RSV).

When Christ's kingdom is fully set up, Israel will see God's plan in all its brilliance. Their eyes will be open and their hardness of heart removed. They, along with the entire world of mankind, called the ransomed of the LORD by Isaiah, shall "come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10).