| Christian Life and Doctrine | August 1966 |
Contrary to Nature
THE coming of the Messiah was an event in the plan of God to which all God-fearing Israelites looked forward with high hope and fond anticipation. When Jesus, the promised Messiah, did come, the vast majority of the little nation of Israel were not prepared to accept him, although a remnant of them did. John wrote, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.”—John 1:11,12
It was not until after Pentecost, and through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, that the followers of the Master learned that Jesus was to have a group of people associated with him as a messianic company. Paul illustrated it this way: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ [Messiah].”—I Cor. 12:12
At first the Gospel was proclaimed exclusively to those of the nation of Israel. Jesus instructed his disciples not to go to the Gentiles, nor to the Samaritans; and he confined his own ministry to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 10:6) This meant that the Early Church, beginning with Pentecost, and for a short time thereafter, was made up exclusively of believing Israelites. This situation did not continue, for in due time, through the providences of the Lord, the Gospel was preached to Gentiles, and then many of the congregations became mixed.
The promise of a coming Deliverer, a messianic “Seed,” was made to Abraham and was reiterated to his descendants from generation to generation. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, had his name changed to Israel, and this name was given to the entire nation. The name means “prevailed with God,” and it was based on Jacob’s earnest and prevailing prayer at the time he was about to meet his brother Esau, from whom he had fled for his life many years before.
The entire nation of Israel professed to be God’s people, and he acknowledged them as such, saying, “You only have I known, of all the families of the earth.” (Amos 3:2) But from generation to generation the majority of the Israelites were not pleasing to God and did not prevail with him. This was true at the time Jesus came, and the test upon that generation was whether or not they would accept Jesus as the promised Messiah.
How Many?
As we have seen, prior to Pentecost even the faithful Israelites supposed that Jesus alone would constitute the Messiah. But since the plan of God calls for a messianic company who together, under the headship of Jesus, will rule and bless the world in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, the question naturally arises as to how many there will be in this group, which Paul describes as “the body of Christ.”
We know that it will not be a large company—not even by comparison with the little nation of Israel—for Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) But in Revelation 14:1 we are given what seems clearly to be the exact number of this “little flock.” In this text Jesus is spoken of as a “Lamb”—reminding us of his work of sacrifice—now exalted on Mount Sion; and the text states that there are with him “an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.” In verse 4 we read that “these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
In the divine arrangement all these would have been selected from among the natural descendants of Abraham, but not enough of these responded to the Gospel when the opportunity was given to them. It was then that God turned to the Gentiles, “to take out of them a people for his name.” (Acts 15:14) However, the Scriptures identify the entire messianic company as Israelites. This identification is given in Revelation 7:2-8. Here we are told that “twelve thousand” are sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, which makes up the total of one hundred and forty-four thousand.
Many students of the Bible have concluded from this that the entire company of the “sealed” ones is composed of the natural descendants of Abraham. However, other Scriptures reveal that this is not the case. The 11th chapter of Romans emphasizes this point. As we have seen, to begin with, the opportunity of following Christ and becoming a part of his messianic company was given exclusively to the nation of Israel. But soon after Pentecost this situation changed, and in the 11th chapter of Romans Paul explains what this change implied for the unbelieving Israelites and for the Gentile believers who then began to come into the church.
Opening this chapter, Paul asks, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” (vs. 1) Paul then explains that just as in Elijah’s day, so at that time, there was a “remnant according to the election of grace,” who had prevailed with God because they had accepted Jesus as their Messiah. These were the ones referred to by John who, based on their belief, had been given the authority to become the sons of God.—John 1:11,12
The Olive Tree
In Paul’s further discussion of the Israelites’ relationship to the promises of God he likens them to branches of an olive tree. The “olive tree” was not cast aside because some of its “branches” were cut off. Instead, Gentiles were grafted into the tree to take the places of the broken-off branches.—vss. 17-24
In this lesson Paul speaks of the Gentiles as being “wild” branches. In some Mediterranean countries the desired varieties of cultivated olives are grafted onto wild olive trees which grow on the hillsides. When this is done, the cultivated olive branches do not take on the nature of the wild tree to which they are grafted, but simply derive their nourishment from that tree, enabling them to bear the cultivated fruit for which they were developed.
But Paul explains that the grafting of the Gentile branches into the Israelitish olive tree was contrary to nature. In nature, the cultivated is grafted onto the wild; but here was a case of the wild being grafted onto the natural, or cultivated “tree.” Besides, in nature, the branch that is grafted bears, not the type of fruit grown by the tree to which it is grafted, but its own, the cultivated fruit. But in the illustration the “wild” branches do not remain wild, but are changed into the nature of the tree to which they are grafted.
This is a wonderful illustration, teaching that the entire Christ company is looked upon by God as Israelitish. In the beginning of the development of this “little flock,” all were from the natural seed of Abraham. And it could be that there were representatives among these from all twelve tribes of natural Israel. James wrote, in the two opening verses of his epistle, of “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” sending them greetings and referring to them as “my brethren.”
In the divine viewpoint this same tribal division is maintained and applied to the Gentile “branches,” which, “contrary to nature,” are grafted into the Israelitish olive tree to make up the foreordained number of those who will be with Jesus on Mount Sion, and who will live and reign with him. Thus we see that by taking all the scriptures into consideration it becomes evident that there will be many Gentiles in the “little flock” who “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” but that the Lord looks upon them as Israelites, because, contrary to nature, they are transformed by the nutriment of the “natural” olive tree, the root of which is the Abrahamic promise.