.....and what I believe is incorrect about this view - above - is that it's overlooking the premise of Scripture that points to Jesus as the promised Messiah and the building of His Kingdom.
Quoting Todd Dennis: Another aspect of the Lord God's covenant with his people: the promise of Messiah. In Genesis 49, Jacob announces God's blessings upon each child/tribe. The blessing for Judah was very significant, however, as God, through Jacob, proclaims that "the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (v. 10).
So we see a the transmission of the covenant to both Ephraim (birthright) and Judah (scepter). From Judah's blessing we can see the continuing prophecy of the coming Messiah, which will save God's people from their sins (
Matthew 1:21). Another very interesting aspect of this blessing is the proclamation that "unto him (Shiloh/the Messiah) shall the gathering of the people be" (v.10).
Before we understand the meaning of this, we must see more of the history of the nation of people called by the name "Israel".
After Isaac and Joseph died, there arose a king which knew not Joseph, and became fearful of the people of Israel for their multitude. He enslaved them, and, eventually, God sent them a deliverer in Moses. Explaining to Moses His plan for the people Israel, the Lord God said,
"I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God" (
Exodus 6:2-7).
In the following chapters we see that God does indeed deliver them from their "burdens" and "bondage", and brings them out of Egypt to the outskirts of the land of promise.
At mount Sinai, God enters into a covenant with Israel which had nothing to do with the land of promise, but entirely upon the three great promises that, "if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me..: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:5,6). Within the space of forty days, they broke this covenant. God was minded to destroy the people, and make of Moses a great people, which He could lawfully do, as Moses was a direct descendant of Abraham. Moses then entreated God to not destroy the nation, which He determined not to do.
Then, in the land of Moab, God made a substituted (Deut. 29:1), bloodless covenant, which had nothing to do with these eternal promises, and everything to do with the terms of their obedience relative to the land upon which they were heading to enter (See
God's Promises Through Moses To Israel).
This covenant was clearly conditional upon their obedience (Deut. 28:15,22-26). This covenant confirmed the everlasting covenant given to Abraham and all Israel that, through faith in Jesus Christ, they "shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" if they "obey my (God's) voice indeed, and keep my covenant".
The everlasting Covenant was made with Jesus Christ, and is redeemable through the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made the regathering of Israel, and citizenship in the kingdom of God contingent upon his salvation (
Deut. 4:27,
28;
John 14:6), thereby becoming a child of God (
Romans 8:14). If children, we then become joint-heirs with Christ of the eternal inheritance. This is because of the nature of the 'last will and testament' of Jesus Christ, that, just as an earthly will and testament, includes an inheritance. This inheritance is only received through Christ, 'for where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.' (
Heb. 9:16).
Through faith in Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, one is added to the 'body of Christ', which household of God is 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone' (
Eph 2:20).
The possession by Jesus Christ of the birthright (Matthew 21:38; Heb. 1:2), and scepter (Gen. 49:10; Acts 2:29-31) were given upon His fulfillment of the everlasting covenant, and demands that Israel is no longer a nation after the flesh, but the eternal nation of all saved throughout history (Ephesians 2:19-22) according to, and within, the Body of Jesus Christ. For through his death on the cross, Christ offered this same covenant to any who call upon his name, thereby taking hold of his covenant (Isaiah 56) by being 'fished in' (
Jer 16:14-16;
Luke 5:10).
This 'circumcision of the heart' makes them the 'holy nation', to which Christ referred in
Matthew 21:43, and Peter confirmed in
I Peter 2:9. Those not circumcised in the heart, whether of the nation of Israel according to the flesh or not, ceased having any portion, or position of authority before God when Shiloh came (
Romans 9:6-9), and the temporal nation was destroyed in that same generation (
Matthew 24:34).
The scepter, and the Inheritance, were taken from Ephraim and Judah, and the kingdom given to Christ, just as it had been taken from Saul, and been given to David, in shadow. Now, according to scripture, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
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Christ's Ministry of Reconciliation