#DailyDevotion Jesus Is Our Isaac & The Church Is His Israel
Jeremiah 31:7–9
7The LORD says this:“Raise a happy shout for Jacob and a hearty cry for the first of the nations! Sing loudly your praise and say, ‘LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel. 8I will bring them from the northern country and gather them from the distant places of the earth; the blind and lame will be among them; pregnant women and those in labor will be together there. A large crowd will return here. 9They will weep as they come home; they will pray as I bring them. I will lead them to streams of water, on a level road where they can’t stumble because I will be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim will be My firstborn.
I think one of the most amazing thing about this section of Jeremiah is Jacob and Israel are no more. They were taken out by the Assyrians a couple of hundred years before this. Only Judah remains and it is about to be taken out by the Babylonians. Some may want to say the LORD is talking about Judah here because at one time they were part of Israel. But post kingdom of Solomon the LORD rarely speaks this way or if ever. However, I would grant that the LORD could be and is probably speaking of a united kingdom of both Judah and the Northern Tribes under a Davidic king once again.
Now there are probably another couple of historical things one needs to remember as well. So the continental promise went from Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. Jacob’s sons all became the tribes of Israel. But wait, there’s more! Israel, before he died in Egypt had Joseph, his favorite son and oldest son by his wife Rachael, bring his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh to bless them. Jacob blessed the younger son Ephraim with the greater blessing and Manasseh with the lesser blessing the LORD had blessed him, his father and his grandfather with. In doing this Jacob adopted Ephraim and Manasseh as his own children and made Ephraim as his first born, even though he had a first born by his first wife Leah.
I have gone through all that so we could begin to understand this verse, “I will be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim will be My firstborn.” So the LORD, the Living God, YHWH will take the place of Isaac, the child of promise, and be a father to Israel and make Ephraim his firstborn. Israel is first of the nations. It is the LORD who chose them from all the nations of the earth to be his own. But they rejected him, time after time after time. The LORD though redeems Israel through the child of promise, namely Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Through his sacrifice he redeems Israel from all their sins. Yes, a great deal of them also reject him as LORD, YHWH and their god. Paul writes though in Romans 8, “6Not all who are descended from Israel are the real Israel, 7and not all who are descended from Abraham are for that reason his real children. No, “Isaac’s children will be called your descendants.” 8This means children born in a natural way are not God’s children. Only the children he had because God promised them are counted his descendants.” You see Jesus here is the child of promise who replaces Isaac. The Church then, both Jew and Gentile become his child, Israel.
Now Jesus gathers his Israel, those whom he has chosen to reveal the Living God, the Father of Lights to be his holy people. On the Last Day he will gather all of us, resurrect us us with glorified bodies and we will sing his praises as he makes us rest and partake of the river of life.
Heavenly Father, grant that we may be your children Israel who are gathered to your Isaac, Jesus Christ on the day of his revelation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.