A Nation Under God

GOLDEN TEXT: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments.” —Deuteronomy 11:1

DEUTERONOMY 7:6-11; 8:17-19

IN ALL the annals of history the ancient Israelites are the only people who could properly be described as a “nation under God.” At different times, and for various reasons, the providences of God have temporarily directed the course of other nations in order that his own purposes might be accomplished, but Israel is the only nation he has claimed as his own, and to which he gave his Law.

Prior to the first advent of Jesus no other nation claimed this intimate relationship with the great Creator of the universe, Jehovah. But since then, and under the guise of Christianity, many nations have claimed to belong to God and to be blessed with his special care. Today, the United States assumes the official position, “In God we trust.”

After the death of the apostles, ambitious leaders in the growing nominal church systems, grasping for power, joined hands with the state, and proclaimed that the nations of Europe were Christian. It was from this false claim that the word “Christendom,” meaning Christ’s kingdom, originated. But the church-state governments and nations of Europe were “Christendom” in name only. This fact is now realized by most thinking men and women everywhere. The real kingdom of Christ is yet to be manifested in the world.

It was at the death of Jacob that his twelve sons and their children were recognized by God as a nation, and accepted by him as his nation. God had dealt with their fathers as individuals. When Jacob, or Israel, died, he and his descendants were dwelling in Egypt. In due course God sent Moses and delivered them from Egyptian bondage and gave them his Law, epitomized in the Ten Commandments.

Upon the basis of this Law, God entered into a covenant with the Israelites. If they were faithful to the Law, he promised to bless them in “basket and in store” (Deut. 28:5) Indeed, he promised continued life to any who could keep the Law perfectly. The Israelites enthusiastically entered into this covenant with God, and to the extent that they were obedient to it, they received his blessings.

There was another feature of this covenant which was of great importance to Israel as a nation. It is set forth in Exodus 19:5,6, where the Lord says, “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: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

So when we read in our lesson concerning Israel, “Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people,” we are to understand that this is conditional upon their obedience to the covenant into which they had entered with the Lord. They were a chosen people, an elected people, but God placed them under the necessity of making their election sure by obedience to him.

This is emphasized in chapter 8, verse 19, where the Lord says, “If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.” God also cautioned them to remember that any power and riches they acquired was not to be looked upon as evidence of their own greatness, but of his blessing upon them.

Moses explained to Israel that the Lord did not set his love upon them because they were more in number than other people, but “because he would keep the oath which he had sworn” unto their “fathers.” It was because of this oath that he had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and had kept them alive as a people throughout their difficult wanderings in the wilderness.

The “oath” here referred to is the one sworn to Abraham, assuring him that through his “seed” all the families of the earth would be blessed. (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; Luke 1:73; Heb. 6:17,18) Primarily, it was Jesus that God had in mind in this oath. (Gal. 3:16) But Jesus was to have associates, and these would have been exclusively of the natural descendants of Abraham had they kept covenant with God, but they failed in this, and the opportunity went also to the Gentiles.—Gal. 3:27-29

But despite the waywardness of the Israelites, God’s love has continued to overshadow them. For centuries they have been a scattered people, but now, in the end of the age, and while still in their unbelief, he is restoring them to the land he gave to their fathers. This is one of the early signs of the kingdom of Christ.

QUESTIONS

Has the expression, “A nation under God,” ever properly belonged to any other people except Israel?

Was ancient Israel unconditionally God’s nation?

What was God’s “oath” to the “fathers,” and how is it fulfilled?

Does God continue to love Israel?

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