Ye Chosen Seed of Israel's Race, Part 1: Jesus as the New Israel

In my last post, I wrote about how Jesus Christ fulfills and recapitulates the life of King David, and is in effect a "new David". Today, I plan on writing the first post of a multi-part blog series on the theme of "Israel", and specifically how Jesus is the "New Israel". In subsequent posts, I will expand on this theme and show that, contrary to much popular theology, this status as the new Israel is extended to include the Church. The rest of this series will thus be a defense of what is often (and pejoratively) referred to as "Replacement Theology".

Hymns are something that I didn't really experience until my later teenage years. As one who spent most of his growing up years within the "seeker sensitive" movement, I mostly heard modern praise songs and choruses (modern that is, for the 1990s and early 2000s). I still have a great love for those songs. But when I finally got to begin singing and learning classic hymns, I found in them something that had been missing prior. One of these hymns that I didn't really learn until I was into my twenties was "All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name". It took a little while for me to warm up to it, but it has since become one of my favorite hymns. Both Chris Tomlin and Sovereign Grace Music have modernized it and added choruses. Both versions are highly recommended. The second verse, which I really enjoy reads like this:

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race

Ye ransomed from the Fall

Hail Him who saved you by His grace

And crown Him Lord of all

Hail Him who saved you by His grace

And crown Him Lord of all

The thing I love about this verse is that the hymn's author (Edward Perronet) recognizes that with the enthronement of Jesus, it is those who are ransomed from the Fall of Mankind who are the proper recipients of the title "Israel". But before we can really understand the Church's status as the spiritual Israel, it is first necessary to establish that the Church's Lord and Messiah is in fact the One who fully manifests and fulfills that honored and revered name.

In the early chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, the author describes how the events surrounding the conception, birth, and early years of Jesus fulfill Old Testament prophecy. In chapter 2, we read of an angel who commanded Joseph to take Mary and Jesus with him to Egypt to escape the wrath of king Herod. As Matthew narrates the story, he references how the flight to Egypt fulfills the words of the prophet Hosea:

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."  (Matthew 2:13-15 NIV)

On the surface of it, this may seem like a simple promise and fulfillment. The problem arises of course when you take a look at the original context of Hosea 11:1 which Matthew quotes. In the original context of Hosea, God is recounting how he had brought Israel out of Egypt, called them his "son" (Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 31:9), and brought them to himself, but they had instead worshiped other gods. Despite all the fatherly care God had given them, they continually burned incense to false gods and bowed down to idols. There isn't a hint of predictive prophecy in Hosea 11. So how then can Matthew take from Hosea to prove that the Messiah had to go to Egypt and come back out again? Is Matthew playing fast and loose with the context of Scripture?

I believe that an answer can be found in Isaiah, and especially in the Servant Songs of chapters 40-53. In this section of the Hebrew Bible, we are introduced to a character called, "the Servant of the LORD", or just simply, "the Servant". In many cases, the Servant is identified with the nation of Israel (Isaiah 41:8; 44:1-2; 45:4). However, in chapter 49 we find something interesting. The Servant is both identified with and distinguished from Israel. 

Listen to me, you islands;

    hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the Lord called me;

    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow

    and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant,

    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

 But I said, “I have labored in vain;

    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,

    and my reward is with my God.”

 And now the Lord says—

    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

    and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord

    and my God has been my strength—

 he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

    to restore the tribes of Jacob

    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

This is what the Lord says—

    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

    to the servant of rulers:

“Kings will see you and stand up,

    princes will see and bow down,

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

(Isaiah 49:1-7 NIV)

Here in Isaiah 49, we learn of the Servant's relationship to the people of Israel as well as how he will relate to the gentiles. On the one hand, he will restore and bring Israel back to God, and yet he will also paradoxically find himself despised and rejected by the same. Additionally, he will also bring God's salvation to the gentiles. But despite being distinguished from the nation of Israel and having this complex relationship with them, God still addresses the Servant with the name "Israel". What should we make of this? I think that, as it was with the name "David", so it is with the name "Israel". The Servant/Messiah will personify, fulfill, and recapitulate in himself the history of Israel. 

Seeing this helps to make sense of how Matthew could use the Hosea passage and understand it messianically. It also helps us to understand the rest of the early chapters of Matthew. The nation of Israel began in the land of promise, went to Egypt, came out of Egypt, went through the waters of the Red Sea, spent 40 years in the desert, and came to the mountain where the Law was given. Likewise, Messiah Jesus, the true Israel, began in the promised land, went to Egypt, came out of Egypt, went through the waters of baptism, spent 40 days in the desert, and then came to a mountain where the New Law would be expounded. 

This motif of the Messiah as true Israel makes it easier to understand how that concept can then be applied to the Church which is in union with him. It is that issue to which I will turn in the next installment of this series.