When the Creator set Israel apart with grace the children of Israel learned to cry out to him for help to become worthy of the promise that the Holy One had created with them in creating their nation for Himself. That He set Israel apart for Himself spoke to them of hope, for they were, like all of humankind, otherwise under God’s sentence of certain death.
The grace of God in the experience of the Jewish people, the children of Israel, must be understood in the light of the issue of the distinction of Israel from the other nations. In being set apart as the only family and nation claimed by the Creator out of a world that was under the dominion of death meant that, by a miraculous grace, God had attached the blessing of hope to Israel, but to Israel alone. The other nations were left entirely at the mercy of death without this grace.
The position of a Kohen's hands when blessing Israel...
The distinction of Israel was marked, but it was marked in the form of promise. The full manifestation of that distinction was not immediate but was to come. Did the distinction mean that the children of Israel would forever alone have this blessed relationship with the Creator? Or were they set apart as the Creator’s nation as only a means toward the end of all families and nations coming in time to also be reclaimed by the Creator? God’s promise was that His blessing would be a blessing for all nations but that blessing would be found exclusively in Israel. In this sense, Israel's being set apart was both and end and a means.
The fact that God established His relationship with Israel in the manner of a promise meant that such questions would be generated. It also meant that the revelation of God’s mind and will concerning these questions would be learned through time. Fulfillment of the promise would bring answers to all questions.
Although the way in which God described His relationship with Israel, from the very first, when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, was in the form of a promise, it is certain that the promises of God must be kept, that if He gives His word, even in the form of a promise that He has not fully defined, it is as though it were already done. Therefore, for a Jewish person the act of faith in crying out to God for help to become worthy of Him in actions and in understanding is an act of faith that takes God at His word, that petitions God on the basis of the certainty of God’s mercy toward Israel.
When gentiles come to Jews as Christians and speak of the grace of God that has been revealed to them, they come with a very different experience of God’s grace, not because the grace of God that they have experienced is different but because they, simply, are not Jews. They have experienced the grace of God without ever having been a part of the nation that was set apart as God’s property by God’s grace. If they fail to take this into account, gentiles coming to Jews as Christians, that is to say, as followers of the one they understand to be the Messiah of the Jews, can effectively nullify the grace of God that they have experienced simply by failing to bless the children of the promise.
Even though the secret for the Jew is to cry out to God for help and the same secret is the secret for the gentile, because they can only each come to this secret from the separate and set apart places where God has placed them, it is very hard for them to recognize and respect one other’s experience of the grace of God. Nevertheless, it is most critical for the gentile to respect and learn to understand the experience of the Jew, for without doing so it is possible for them to nullify their own experience.
Although the way in which God described His relationship with Israel, from the very first, when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, was in the form of a promise, it is certain that the promises of God must be kept, that if He gives His word, even in the form of a promise that He has not fully defined, it is as though it were already done. Therefore, for a Jewish person the act of faith in crying out to God for help to become worthy of Him in actions and in understanding is an act of faith that takes God at His word, that petitions God on the basis of the certainty of God’s mercy toward Israel.
When gentiles come to Jews as Christians and speak of the grace of God that has been revealed to them, they come with a very different experience of God’s grace, not because the grace of God that they have experienced is different but because they, simply, are not Jews. They have experienced the grace of God without ever having been a part of the nation that was set apart as God’s property by God’s grace. If they fail to take this into account, gentiles coming to Jews as Christians, that is to say, as followers of the one they understand to be the Messiah of the Jews, can effectively nullify the grace of God that they have experienced simply by failing to bless the children of the promise.
Even though the secret for the Jew is to cry out to God for help and the same secret is the secret for the gentile, because they can only each come to this secret from the separate and set apart places where God has placed them, it is very hard for them to recognize and respect one other’s experience of the grace of God. Nevertheless, it is most critical for the gentile to respect and learn to understand the experience of the Jew, for without doing so it is possible for them to nullify their own experience.
