Israel's Inalienable Possessions The Gifts and the Calling of God Which are Without Repentance

Preface

PREFACE.

The substance of this booklet is an address, afterwards written out in amplified form for The Scattered Nation, whence, by request, it is now reprinted. May the Great Shepherd of Israel bless this weak and inadequate effort to quicken interest in the hearts of Christians for the people still " beloved for the fathers' sakes," to whom He has never forgotten to be gracious even in the darkest hours of their long night of sorrow.

DAVID BARON.

Works by the Same Author

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

A DIVINE FORECAST OF JEWISH HISTORY:

A PROOF OF THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT IN SCRIPTURE.

Paper, 6<L net (post free, yd.). Cloth, Is. net (post free, is. xirf.).

" Written by one who has made its subject a life-long study, and has devoted many earnest years to work among the Jews ; . . . full of interest to Bible students."

Preachers' Magazine.

"One of the very sanest and best little books on its subject we have ever read." Life of Faith.

" The renewed scattering of the Jewish people, consequent upon the repeated massacres in Russia, will invest with timely interest Rev. David Baron's book. In a succinct manner he sketches the familiar story, and after a luminous outline of the apostasy of the nation, he deals with its unique punishment, and the testimony of ' the everlasting people ' to the truth of God's Word. In conclusion, Israel s future is indicated as foreshadowed in the prophetic Scriptures. Mr. Baron has written many good books, but none of them has made a stronger appeal than this for a prayerful perusal of those who ' pray for the peace of Jerusalem.'" The Christian.

"A clear re-statement of an interesting theme, and will commend itself to all who value the place and purpose of the Hebrew people in the general plan of history. '

Irish Congregational Magazine.

LONDON : MORGAN AND SCOTT.

The Apostle's Yearning Love for Israel

" I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh : who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."

Rom. ix. 1-5.

"As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes : but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance."

Rom. xi. 28, 29.

Israel's Inalienable Possessions.

THE APOSTLE'S YEARNING LOVE FOR ISRAEL

"For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh "

T7ROM the height of blessed- ness to which the Apostle gradually leads us in the first, or doctrinal section of the Epistle, culminating as it does in the triumphant " No condemnation " and " No separation " to " them

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that are in Christ Jesus," we are here at the commencement of the dispensational, or prophetic section of the Epistle, almost abruptly brought down into a vale of sorrow, and we hear the Apostle speak of " great heaviness and uninterrupted sorrow in his heart."

And if the question be asked, Why this sudden descent from the mountain-top of blessedness ? could not the Apostle have spared us the knowledge and the sorrow of this dispensational section of the Epistle, and have taken up the thread of his argument with the practical section which begins with the 12th chapter ? the answer is No ! For their own good the Apostle could

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not leave Gentile believers in ignorance of the mystery of God with Israel. God's dealings with Israel, God's purposes in Israel, are subjects with regard to which Christians, for their own good, cannot afford to be ignorant.

The teaching imparted in this section of the Epistle which was written for the express purpose of instructing Gentile believers about Israel is not only salu- tary but absolutely needful, and though in the course of our study of these chapters, if our hearts be filled with the compassion of Christ, we too shall be filled with sorrow in contemplating Israel's present condition, yet we too are sure in the end to emerge with the Apostle with the triumphant,

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adoring exclamation, " Oh, the depth of the riches botH of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! " And our gain in the process will consist of en- larged views of God's character and a better understanding of God's ways and, my dear friends, to the Christian there is no greater gain.

The first five verses of the Qth chapter form the introduction to this section of the Epistle, which consists of Chapters ix., x., and xi., and in these verses the Apostle Paul, before proceeding to vindicate the ways of God in His governmental dealings with Israel and the nations, stops to

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express his own sorrow and deep sympathy for that nation, which, though in the purpose of God exalted so high, is at present, through unbelief, fallen so low.

"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." By this solemn asseveration the Apostle wants, not only to im- press us with the sincerity and truthfulness of his sorrow and sympathy for Israel, but to teach us that the feelings to which he gives utterance are no mere natural sentiments, such as a Jew might be supposed to have for his nation. He speaks as a man " in Christ," that is, as a man whose conscience, whose whole being, has been renewed

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and illumined, and who, at the very time of writing, is conscious of being under the direct opera- tion of God's Spirit. It is not as a natural man, but as a spiritual man; it is not as a Jew, but as an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile it is as an inspired Apostle that he speaks, and he may therefore well serve as our pattern.

He says, " I have great heavi- ness (or " I have great grief") and uninterrupted pain in my heart." The Apostle, my dear friends, had indeed drunk deeply of the Spirit of his Divine Master, our Lord Jesus, Who for our sakes became a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, Who was ever moved to compassion

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when He beheld the multitude of Israel, and Who wept over Jeru- salem.

We may pause for a moment at this second verse, and ask our- selves, " How did this Divine sympathy, this Spirit- inspired grief, operate in his heart ? What did it impel him to?" It impelled him first of all to earnest prayer and intercession on Israel's behalf.

" Brethren," he exclaims, at the beginning of the loth chapter, " my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved " ; or, more literally, " The good pleasure of my heart and supplication to God on behalf of Israel is for their salvation. " The good pleasure of my heart "

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the Apostle found delight in prayer for Israel. I wonder of how many it is true now that they pray for Israel at all. And among those who are watchmen on the walls of Zion, and who do pray for Israel's salvation, I wonder of how many it can be said that it is done in " the good pleasure of their hearts," and not rather as a duty at the best. The Apostle found delight in his supplication for Israel, because it brought him so near to the heart of God, who has never ceased to yearn for His wandering people, and because his prayers sprang from sympathy with, and a deep understanding of, the purposes of God, not only to bless, but to make Israel yet the centre and

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channel of blessing for the whole earth.

But he not only prayed for them his divinely - given sym- pathy for Israel impelled him also continually to labour for them. Paul was specially commissioned of God to preach the glad tidings of salvation through the crucified, risen Messiah to the Gentiles ; yet, if we follow his missionary career, we find that wherever he went he always sought out the Jews first, and preached to them in their synagogues. " // was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken to you," he says in one place ; and when the Jews in that city shut their ears and blasphemed, and he had to turn to the Gentiles, we read that

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in the very next place which he visited, Iconium, he and Barnabas went again together into the syna- gogue, " and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed." And this we find to be the case to the end of his career. And he not only preached the Gospel to them, but he cared for the temporal necessities of the believing Israelites ; and when a famine broke out in Judea he was the first to raise his voice among the Gentile Churches which he had founded, calling upon them to help these believ- ing Jews, and reminding them that " if the Gentiles had been made partakers in their spiritual things, it was their duty also

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to minister to them in carnal things."

But even all his labours and all his prayers did not fully ex- press his yearning love and desire for Israel. He went much fur- ther. This is brought out in the 3rd verse. What a wonderful verse this is ! " For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, my kins- men according to the flesh:' Shrink as we may, my dear friends, from the full meaning of these fervent words of the Apostle, sure it is that no other meaning will sufficiently satisfy the plain sense of the words, than that the Apostle actually went the length of wishing, if it had been possible, and if Christ had permitted it, to

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be himself cut off from Christ in the place of his people.

" The wish," says Dean Alford, " is evidently not to be pressed as entailing on the Apostle the charge of inconsistency in loving his nation more than his Saviour. It is the expression of an affec- tionate and self-denying heart, willing to surrender all things, even, if it might be, eternal life itself, if thereby he could obtain for his beloved people these bless- ings of the Gospel which he now enjoyed, but from which they were excluded. . . . Others express their love by professing them- selves ready to give their life for their friends ; he declares the in- tensity of his affection by reckon- ing even his spiritual life not too

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great a price if it might purchase their salvation."

In this respect there are two men in the history of Israel who stand nearest to Christ for their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their people. One was Moses, who, after the apostasy of Israel in the matter of the golden calf, prayed to God, " Yet now if Thou wilt forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of the book which Thou hast written." And the other was this Apostle, who said, " I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

And remember, my dear friends, that the man who gives us this glimpse into the intensity of his

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heart's love and yearning for Israel is the one who perhaps, next to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, has suffered most at the hands of his people. Again and again, as he was proclaiming to them the fulfilment of the promises made to the fathers in God's gift of His only begotten Son, they cried : " Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live ! " Five dif- ferent times did they lay many stripes upon him in their syna- gogues ; they hunted him from place to place ; wherever they could, they stirred up tumults against him ; they beat him, they stoned him, they heaped all sorts of reproaches and blasphemies upon him ; and what pained him

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perhaps most of all was that they tried by all the means in their power to frustrate his Apostolic commission, "forbidding him to preach the Gospel to the Gen- tiles that they might be saved."

And yet, all through, and to the end, not only had he no incli- nation or desire to " accuse his nation " before the Gentiles (Acts xxviii. 19), but he never ceased to love them and to yearn for them. Truly such k)ve sprang from no mere natural or human source, but was part of that wonderful, everlasting, unchange- able love of Jehovah toward the children of Israel, which even all their many sins and apostasies could never quench, and was drawn by the Apostle from the

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great heart of his Divine Master, who wept over Jerusalem, and who, even on the cross, prayed, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

And it is only in this same spirit of a love which never faileth, and of Christ-like com- passion, that we too shall be able to persevere in our prayers and in our efforts for the salvation of gainsaying, disobedient Israel, else we shall soon turn away from them discouraged if not em- bittered, as has been the case, alas ! with some who began well, but whose knowledge of this peculiar people has been shallow, and whose interest did not rest on the deep-enough basis of an intelligent understanding of God's

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will and purposes, and was not impelled by the all-constraining love of Christ, which alone can prevail.

" A parallel case," as Dr. Adolph Saphir observed in one of his last addresses on this sub- ject, "is this: Jesus asks Peter, ' Lovest thou Me ? ' then He says, ' Feed My sheep.' It is not love to the sheep that will sustain Peter in feeding them. It is the fact that they are Christ's sheep. It is not because the sheep are lovable that his interest in them will continue. It is because Christ is lovable. Likewise, unless you believe that Israel is God's nation, and your interest is based on the Word of God, your efforts to evangelise

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among Israel will soon languish, and your patience will be ex- hausted."

To return to the Apostle's willingness to sacrifice himself for his nation, I would remind you that neither a Paul nor a Moses, nor even an archangel, could suffice for the redemption of the people, or of even one soul in Israel. One there is Whose death alone is a sufficient ransom, and He not only "wished," but was actually made a curse for us, that we might be freed from the curse of sin and the law.

Yes, it was necessary, not on the ground of human " expediency," as Israel's apostate high priest expressed it ; but because of a Divine necessity, springing from

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the eternal principles of God's moral government of the world, that the Christ Himself "should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not" (John xi. 49-

54

And Jesus did die for that

nation, and in that great and wonderful fact rests the certainty of Israel's future salvation. But blessed be His Name, He died, not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad, which en- sures also the eternal salvation of every one of His people indi- vidually, of whatever nation, who have been brought to faith and reliance on Him.

The Significance of the Name Israel

II

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME ISRAEL

"Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel"

' I "HE chief reasons of the Apostle's interest in and love for Israel are given to us in verses 4 and 5. These two verses practically summarise " the gifts and the calling of God" oi which he speaks in the 29th verse of the nth chapter, and which are " without repentance," that is, without a change of mind on God's part the gifts or privi- leges and the high calling, namely, 26

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which God irrevocably bestowed on the chosen people, and which are Israel's inalienable posses- sions. And these reasons, my dear friends, still remain, and they are the permanent grounds why we now should be interested in and love Israel. As we ex- amine Israel's divinely bestowed gifts and calling, as summarised in these verses, I beg you to note that we have here a gra- dation in these privileges, cul- minating in the last, which is the highest and greatest.

The first is expressed in the words, " who are Israelites" This is the name of honour given by God to Jacob. It is, I may say, the ideal and prophetic name of Israel in the future, into the

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full meaning of which they will only enter after they shall have passed through the same expe- rience which Jacob had made on that night when his name was changed from Jacob to Israel.

Let me remind you of that mysterious transaction recorded in Gen. xxxii. 22-32. In " that night," in anticipation of his meeting with his brother Esau, when his heart was full of anxiety and fear, Jacob, after taking his family and all he had over the brook Jabbok, " was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when He (this mys- terious man) saw that He pre- vailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh ;

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and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. And He said unto him, What is thy name ? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Is- rael ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name. And He said, Wherefore dost thou ask after My name ? And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel ; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And

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as he passed over Peniel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh."

This historical incident forms at the same time one of the most beautiful parables of God's present and future dealings with Israel ; and Jacob may, in this mysterious and wonderful trans- action, be very well regarded as the type of his whole posterity. This, my dear friends, is the " night " period of Israel's his- tory ; and a long, dark, and dreary night it has proved full of sorrow and of weeping, which will not cease till joy is ushered in, in that looked-for morning, by the sudden rising upon them of the Sun of Righteousness.

And it is still the "Jacob"

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period of Israel's history. Not yet are they as a nation " Israelites " princes having power with God and with men, and prevailing. There have indeed always been individuals among them to whom the Lord Himself could bear witness and say : " Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile " ; but as a nation it is the " Jacob " name which still ap- plies to them. And there is a man wrestling with them un- known, His Name not yet re- vealed to them it is "the Man Christ Jesus " ; it is the Messiah, the Angel of the Cove- nant.

What are all God's dealings with them as a people ? What are these chastisements the

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various strokes which they re- ceive in this their night of sor- row ? Are they not all God's wrestlings with them, with a view to bringing this national Jacob to an end of himself. But we read that Jacob withstood, even as the nation withstands now, until, finally, before the breaking ojK the morning in the last dark hour of the dark night of which we read in the prophetic Scriptures in that final sorrow and " great tribulation " which is to come upon them, Jacob's thigh shall finally be out of joint ; and then all that they shall be able to do will be to cleave to Him, the Mighty One, and say, " We can- not we will not let Thee go, except Thou bless us." And

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then, having been overcome, they shall be overcomers.

In Hosea xii. 3, 4, we have light thrown on this mysterious transaction. There we read that Jacob " by his strength had power with God ; yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed ; he wept and made supplication unto Him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spake with us ;" from which we see, not only the true character of the mysterious " Man " who wrestled with him that night, that He was none other than the Divine Angel of the Covenant, in and through whom all the theophanies of the Old Testament took place the Eternal Sen of God, Who in the fulness of time became flesh and

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dwelt among us, that men may behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; but we are also let into the secret as to how Jacob, after he was first of all prevailed over, had power with God and over the Angel, " and prevailed." " He wept and made supplication unto Him. " He wept over his past over the corruption of his nature and the crookedness of his life, which he confessed when he said, " My name is Jacob"; and he "made suppli- cation " for pardon and grace and for the power of a new life when he clung to the Angel, saying, " I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me."

This is how Jacob became " Israel " a prince having power

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with God; this is how he "pre- vailed " in the same way as the helpless little child prevails over the strong father whom he has offended or grieved ; not by resisting him, or making ex- cuses for his sin, but by throwing himself into his father's arms in penitent sorrow and love.

This is how we, too, may become spiritual Israelites. My friends, have we all passed through such an experience ? Have we confessed and wept over our past, and by faith laid hold on God's strength and made supplication unto Him, saying, " I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me"? Then we know what conversion means ; then only do we know the meaning of that

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word, "for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

And that is how the whole Jewish people shall at last enter into the meaning of the name " Israel," which was divinely bestowed on them. Oh, what a day that will be when " the spirit of grace and of supplications " is poured upon Israel, and when the whole nation confesses and weeps over its past. What are many of the psalms and prophecies ? What is that wonderful 53rd chapter of Isaiah but inspired future penitential confessions of repentant Israel ? Yes ; " in that day shall there be a great mourn- ing in Jerusalem, . . . and the land shall mourn, ... all

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the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart."

And this sorrow and weeping will be accompanied by supplica- tions and by a clinging in faith to the promises of God " But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father : we are the clay and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember in- iquity for ever ; behold, see, we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people." " Turn us again, O Jehovah, God of Hosts, cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved" (Isa. Ixiv. 8, 9; Psa. Ixxx. 19).

Then it is that " worm Jacob " shall become " Israel," strong in

D

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the Lord and in the power of His might, having power with God and with men, and prevail- ing. Then also will Israel see " Peniel " again which means the " Face of God," which now is hid from them in consequence of their sins, but which they shall yet behold in greater glory and favour than before, when the Sun of Righteousness shall rise upon them in the glorious appearing of their Messiah-King.

It is interesting to observe that the Apostle himself was proud of the name "Israel" "Are they Israelites ? " he says, " so am I " " for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin": and truly he knew from experience the full signifi-

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cance of the name, for, after the persecuting Saul, who had so long resisted Christ, had been conquered and turned into Paul, he became a true prince among men, having in a measure, even unsurpassed by prophets and apostles, "power with God and with men, and prevailing."

Israel's Adoption

Ill

ISRAEL'S ADOPTION "Israel is My son, My firstborn"

The second of the irrevocable gifts or privileges included in Israel's high calling of God, as enumerated by the Apostle in this scripture, is expressed in the words, " To whom pertaineth the adoption," or more literally, "the sonship." At the very beginning of their national history, when God sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt, His word to Pha- raoh was, " Israel is My son, My firstborn, and I say unto thee,

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Let My son go, that he may serve Me."

Thus Jehovah avouched them in a special sense as His pe- culiar people His firstborn from among the nations ; and all His subsequent self- revelations to them, and all His dealings with them, were designed to teach them what is implied in this blessed relationship ; what it means in the spirit and in truth to pronounce the word " Abba." Hitherto, though Israel has had this most precious Name of God much on their lips, they have not as a nation entered experi- mentally into its meaning, nor have they as yet corresponded to the character of " children of the living God." There, has, indeed,.

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always been the little remnant according to the election of grace, who worshipped God in the spirit and in truth, and who by the spirit of adoption which was in them cried, " Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknow- ledge us not ; Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy Name is from everlasting " (Isa. Ixiii. 16) ; but to the people as a whole the words uttered by Malachi to the priests may well be applied : "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master ; if then I be a father, where is mine honour ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith Jehovah of Hosts."

One of the most pathetic

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complaints of God against Israel in this connection is to be found in Jeremiah iii. 4. In the first verses of that chapter He re- minds them of their many grie- vous sins and apostasies from Him of their spiritual adultery, which, if He dealt with them ac- cording to law, would be suffi- cient to separate them from Him for ever ; but being full of com- passion, He is willing to forgive all the past, and cries, " Yet re- turn again to Me, saith Jehovah." Then follow those wonderful words which give us a glimpse into the yearning and love of His heart for His people, and show us His longing that they should at last understand and enter ex- perimentally into the relations in

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which He stood to them accord- ing to His covenants and pro- mises : " Wilt thou not from this time (Wilt thou not now at last) cry unto Me, Abi (' my Father') Thou art the Guide of my youth?" The word, " alluph? translated here " guide," is the same as in Prov. ii. 17, where it is used of the "strange" adul- terous woman who forsake th "f/ie guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God" a truer rendering, however, of which would be : " Who for- saketh the gentle mate, or friend (or husband], of her youth " ; and so, by this act forgetteth or breaketh, the covenant of her God.