The remnant in the center is spiritual Israel, made of believers of all nations. One does not replace the other.
I think what a lot of people tend to fail in understanding is that the Israel of God parallels the one the Lord made in the Mosaic Covenant. For that Israel had those who were believers/ethnic Hebrews who served the Lord - and yet they spoke out frequently to those who either became Apostate Hebrews or agnostic Hebrews trying to lead the Israeli Government of their day (like Elijah and the Remnant against the prophets of Baal and the Hebrews in Deuterononmy being told how to handle others who went against God's covenant).
Within that you also had Gentiles who chose to convert/become adopted into Israelite culture - and they, once accepted, were treated as Israelis (i.e. Gentiles like Ruth, Rahab, Caleb - from the line of Esau but adopted into the tribe of Judah, etc.) - and then you also had Gentiles within the land who were physically in Israel but did not do the same...with the Lord having specific guidelines for them and yet the Lord had no issue with them living as they did so long as it was not sin - even giving them unclean meat in light of how the Hebrews alone were required to abstain from that due to being set apart (the stranger/foreigner who was to be treated with respect per Leviticus 19:33, Deuteronomy 14:21, Deuteronomy 23:16 and Exodus 22:20-22 amongst others ).
Granted, when it comes to the issue of foreigner, there were differing categories of foreigners - from those who were servants of the Lord and yet foreigners in Israel...to those who were foreigners who did not serve the Lord as their God. Some things for the foreigners who did not serve the Lord were not allowed - such as promoting witchcraft in Israel since that was something universal that was not allowed, be it for Hebrew or Foreigners - but on other things, the foreigners themselves did not have the same level of association as the Hebrews.
As it concerns other categories of foreigners, there were also those who were temprorary visitors, in the same way that you'd be either in another country as a tourist or on a business trip. You also had those who were residents thankful for the People of Israel/the area they resided and yet they may've not been devoted to serving the Lord - much in the same way that you had others like King Darius with Daniel or King Cyrus who helped the Jewish people return home in addition to
being beloved by their subjects for the ways they treated others/
allowed a significant deal of multiculturalism and supported a policy of multi-religious views to flourish.. and was well known for being "The Lord's Anointed One"/"God's Servant"/ "God's Shepherd" (
Isaiah 45:1-3 /
Isaiah 44:27-28 (- more shared here in #
1)according to Isaiah....or King Hiram who helped Solomon in His kingdom (
1 Kings 9:13 2 Samuel 5 /
1 Kings 5 /
2 Chronicles 2 /
2 Chronicles 2:10-12 ).
In all of that, there was never a category of "foreigner" that was equated to being a Hebrew who was called to do the same things at all points as the Hebrews were explictly called to do. It is a very black-and-white discussion - even though it's sadly the case that others may say otherwise. Some other things one can consider on the subject is the dynamic of what the actual terms in language mean when it comes to how "foreigner" was always meant to convey - and as tends to happen in many Hebrew Roots cults, the focus may go toward "Well, the Hebrew says this..." - despite where the Hebrew can have multiple meanings at times and what determines meaning primarily is the actual practice that surrounded it.
If you'd like the Hebrew definition of foreigner, one can go
here. One can also go here, if they so choose, to
Strangers and Gentiles - Jewish Virtual Library for a erudite discussion on the issue of what being a stranger meant.
That said - in going back to the issue of what differing categories of foreigners were present - you also had others outside of Israel who were also included amongst God's people/used to bless it - folks like Jethro being one of them ( who helped Moses, bringing with him Zipporah and her two sons - meeting at the "mount of God," where "Moses told him all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh"
Ex. 18:8 and they celebrated the Lord together - even though he had to go back to Midian - and then later on Jethro, observing the multiplicity of the duties devolving on Moses, advised him to appoint subordinate judges, rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, to decide smaller matters, leaving only the weightier matters to be referred to Moses, to be laid before the Lord. ..and this advice Moses adopted
Ex. 18 and it was made apart of Mosaic Code). In addition to Jethro would be others like the Rechabites, the Ethiopian
EBED-MELECH who rescued Jeremiah from the dungeon/pit he was trapped in and was praised by the Lord for it(Jeremiah 38, Jeremiah 39 ) whereas Apostate Israelites tried to kill Jeremiah/harm others speaking against them were denounced sharply.
Out of all the foreigners, IMHO, Jethro is the most interesting. For Jethro stood outside of the Covenant Community...yet displayed uncanny knowledge of God. With Jethro, in Exodus 18, he was a priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1, Exodus 4:18)...and in light of the difficulty of both Egypt and the journey to Rephidim, Jethro's coming to meet Moses displays a relational posture of peace and encouragement, similar to when Aaron met Moses "at the mountain of God on his return from Midian (Exodus 4:27-31). Amazingly, after simply hearing about what the Lord had done on Israel's belalf, Jethro's words and actions represent a more faithful response than came from many of those who had experienced the events in Egypt (not to mention Egypt itself, as well as Amalek).
When he says, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods" in verse 11, he echoes the purpose that the Lord said the plagues were to have for both Israel (Exodus 6:7) and Egypt (Exodus 7:5, Exodus 7:15). When Jethro brought burnt offerings and sacrifices and ate before God with Moses, Aaron and the elders, he prefigured the pattern of life that the Lord would reveal further at Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 12:5-7). And as said before, Jethro was used by the Lord to help him find a faithful and workable way to have others bear the burden of judging the people and ensuring their well-being --His words becoming central to Israel's makeup in choosing judges (Exodus 18:13-26).
In all of that, God's People were united under him - differing levels and interactions - and none of it involved people looking the same or being the same at all points. Yeshua emphasized this as seen in
- Luke 4:18-26 of Naaman the Syrian (from II Kings 5) as the only one who was healed/blessed of God despite all the other Israeli lepers because of his trust in the Lord,
- The Widow in Sidon that Elijah went to despite all the other widows in Israel and that Yeshua also noted in Luke 4
- John 4 with the woman at the well/her town coming to faith in Him,
- Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-39 in emphasizing what it meant to reflect the Lord and how even Samaritans were able to do that
- The Roman Centurion in Matthew 8 who had greater faith than anyone in Israel
- The Samaritan leper in Luke 17 who ended up healed/placing faith in Yeshua
- The Demonized man in Gentile territory in Mark 5 who was told to go back to his people/testify of what Yeshua had done
- The Greeks who came to hear of the Messiah in John 12:20-25
- The Syrian-Phonecian Woman in Matthew 15 whose daughter was healed because of her faith in Him
- The Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 who was able to read of the Messiah because of Philip
- The Samaritan Towns in Acts 8 which were evangelized by Philip, the towns evangelized by Paul
- Cornelius in Acts 10-11 during the Gentile Pentecost and the Holy Spirit coming upon them
All of that was in addition to the Law itself (more discussed in in #
11 (as well as #
146, #
147 #
77 and #
75 )... the Prophets and all of the Messianic Writings which speak of Yeshua and His focus. Historically, whenever Jewish believers/Jewish Christians (Messianic Jews) spoke of their relationship to Gentiles in the 1st Century, they'd not that they were all apart of God's Israel and yet they as Ethnic Israel were distinctly different than Gentiles were in their mission to reach out to the Physical State of Israel/other non-believing Jews.
That is radically different than what's commonly ascribed in modern times to Replacement Theology because of a lack of understanding that says either the Jewish people God no longer loves (false) or a view saying Gentiles are now the equivalent of Jew/Hebrews and must identify with the Hebrews in all their actions in order to truly support Israel/it's king - a view that is
ONE Law and also a form of Replacement Theology.
There are many in the Messianic Movement who've taken the stance that Israel is one part of the Community of G-d (Ekklesia), and the saved Gentiles are the other part of the Ekklesia - believing that we are all part of the same Body.... Jews and Gentiles being
sharers together in the promise in Messiah, which shows that the Ekklesia (Church) has not replaced Israel or taken over the promises from Israel. Others advocating this are individuals such as
Gene Shlomovich (author of Daily Minyan) - one who has shared some very good thoughts on the issue even though I don't necessarily suscribe to everything he supports. He seems to have the same theological point of view as Boaz Michael from
First Fruits of Zion , both being advocates against specific forms of One Law and specific forms of Two House theology. This is from FFOZ's site, Found under "
Where do Jewish believers stand with FFOZ?" here at
Frequently Asked Theological Questions | FFOZ
"At First Fruits of Zion, we teach the unity of Jew and Gentile in Messiah. We assert that Gentile believers are grafted into Israel as Paul says in Romans 11, forming one new man (Ephesians 2:15) and that in Messiah, there is neither Jew nor Greek. (Galatians 3:28) However, none of that diminishes the unique and precious distinction of ethnic/halachic Jewish identity."
And from
Biblical Foundations | First Fruits of Zion
"We believe that all non-Jewish people who trust in Yeshua are grafted into Israel. While this does not make them Jewish, they are full and equal participants in the covenants of promise. (Ephesians 2:12; Romans 11:1124; Jeremiah 31:33)"
And on things Gene Shlomovich has noted: