I said -
And...yes God knew Adam would mess up and God was merciful.
And....Yes God knew that Israel could not obey Him and God will be merciful to them too.
God is just and merciful.
You are only giving God`s mercy for individual people in Israel, whereas I am saying that God made the nation of Israel, (knowing they couldn`t obey Him) however God will be merciful to the NATION of ISRAEL, (in the future).
Contrary to what your Dispy teachers have taught you, salvation has never been by race, but rather by grace. Many Dispensationalists look back to Old Testament Israel through rose-tinted glasses. They talk as if the nation was in step with God in loyal covenant relationship. It is as if they were always faithfully walking in favor with God. Yet the reality was regularly quite the opposite. They often walked in idolatry and disobedience. The carnal rebellion of the children of Israel is repeatedly recorded throughout the Old Testament. Despite their privileged position, their tendency was often to fight the purposes of God. The prophets constantly rebuked them for their folly. They also frequently highlighted the small remnant number that were faithful.
Scripture shows, Esau’s natural birthright, like our own, was not sufficient to impute righteousness into him. All it did was take him to a lost sinner’s hell outside of
But let us look at other examples of this.
Numbers 16:26 describes Israelites Korah, Dathan, and Abiram as “wicked men.” Whilst all of these were off solid Hebrew stock, they did not belong to the Lord. Their awful end (and that of their families) is seen when confirms that: “And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods” (Numbers 16:32).
No one could argue with any validity that these men and their families were the chosen seed of Abraham! These were not God’s people! They were Israelites that were of their father the devil.
What about the apostate priests Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-3? These were sons of Aaron, yet they “offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.” What resulted was not pretty: “And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.”
Whilst the religious credentials of these men were impeccable, they were strangers to God, and strangers to salvation. 1 Samuel 2:12 gives us another similar example of priestly man who where enemies of God:
"Now the sons (Hophni and Phinehas)
of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD."
Belial was a common name for Satan in the Old Testament. 1 Samuel 25:25 gives us another example of an Israelite who was unsaved. He is described as “this man of Belial, even Nabal.” Earlier and 1 Samuel 25:3 he is described as “the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.”
Whilst he had good pedigree, being “of the house of Caleb,” he was nonetheless a child of the evil one.
We find a Benjamite in 2 Samuel 20:1 who is described as
“a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba.”
Numbers 14:29–30 confirms that not all of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt entered into the Promised Land. God dealt very harshly with those who sinned against God, by complaining and refusing to believe Him:
“Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.”
Unbelieving Israelites didn’t enter into God’s “rest,” however, believing Israel did. This is a pattern in Scripture. God is bound to a believing people. His elect are a company of faith.
Hebrews 3:16-19 substantiates this saying,
“For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Only Joshua and Caleb and all those under 20 years old experienced Canaan land.
Things got to such a low ebb in Elijah’s day that there the Lord disclosed that were only “seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). This shows us the degree of apostasy that had overcome natural Israel. While Israel may had had 3 million citizens, amazingly, there were only 7,000 Israelites that were true Israelites in Elijah's day,
It is quite amazing the amount of kings both of Israel and Judah that did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The Old Testament shows us many cases of them building the high places, raising up altars unto Baal, setting up graven images, making groves, worshiping the host of heaven, and serving them. Sadly, the people followed them like poodles.
Israel’s wicked kings included Jeroboam I, (931—910 BC), Nadab (910—909 BC) Baasha (909—886 BC) Elah (886—885 BC), Zimri (885 BC), Tibni (885—880 BC), Omri (885—874 BC), Ahab (874—853 BC), Ahaziah (853—852 BC), Jehoahaz (814—798 BC), Joash (798—782 BC), Jeroboam II (793—753 BC) Zechariah, (753 BC), Shallum (752 BC), Menahem (752—742 BC), Pekahiah (742—740 BC), Pekah (752—732 BC), and Hoshea, (732—722 BC).
Judah’s wicked kings and a queen included Abijah (913—911 BC), Jehoram/Joram (53—841 BC), Ahaziah (841 BC), Queen
Athaliah (841—835 BC), Ahaz (735—715 BC),
Amon (642—640 BC), Jehoahaz (609 BC),
Jehoiakim (609—597 BC), Jehoiachin (597 BC), and
Zedekiah (597—586 BC).
These kings and queens lead Israel and Judah into much idolatry. They rebelled against God. They fought against God. They refused to buy down to his precepts. And, sadly, Israelites followed him into error.
Kingdom favor has been redirected from national Israel to the international New Testament congregation.
