The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Old Testament to refer to Israel as a nation, and Judah as a nation, not the original ancestors of their people.
I am, of course, aware that the Old Testament understands Israel to be a political entity. The New Testament however concentrates on the identity of Israel subsisting primarily in the Abrahamic covenant and therefore inclusive of believing Gentiles in the Christian covenant, that being the conclusion of the former.
Not true. Redemption was and is still for the Jews. Gentiles are grafted in by God's grace, but we shouldn't take this grafting as some indication of superiority.
You seem to be misunderstanding me. I am neither suggesting that "redemption is not for the Jews" or that our inclusion in Israel is grounds for superiority.
Rather, I am saying that Israel subsists in Christ; He is the Elect of God par excellence and that there is no salvation for anyone, Jew or Gentile, without Him.
For this reason, any idea of a national Israel as a separate ethnic identity is effectively and implicitly abrogated by the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus, since that covenant supercedes and subsumes any prior covenant, including those with Abraham and Jacob.
Covenants are built upon one another and do not stand by themselves, each one rests upon and involves those made before it. No covenant with Moses without a covenant with Jacob, no covenant with Jacob without a covenant with Abraham, no covenant with Abraham without a covenant with Noah.
And beyond these is the covenant of all covenants the covenant in the blood of Jesus which completes and fulfills every covenant made by God with any man before him.
But again, I never said that the Jews were not part of the plan or that gentiles were in any way superior. Quite the opposite in fact, we ingrafted gentiles rest upon nothing but the grace of God for our standing, all unmerited, without works, solely by grace.
Jer 32:36 "Now therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, 'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence.'
Jer 32:37 "Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. (NASB)
Eze 34:13 "I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. (NASB)
God's covenant with Israel is binding, and has no expiration date.
I totally agree, and now, because of Christ, it includes believing gentiles and this very inclusion underscores and reiterates the eternal nature of the covenant.
It's all very well and good to say that God is not done with the Jews, but we must also understand that they will not be saved apart from faith in the finished work of their Messiah, and that this means, necessarily, their inclusion in the church, which is, after all, Israel come of age.
