SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES — NOT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
To correctly understand who Gentiles are it is necessary to first understand who Jews are.

The first thing that must happen in order to come to a New Covenant understanding about what it means to be a Jew and live in the Promised Land is to understand spiritual Israel and Jerusalem. Our natural tendency is to think of Jerusalem as the ancient city of God where his chosen people live. Israel is commonly considered as the geographical land where Jerusalem is located and is strongly associated with the Promised Land. In these modern days, most people think of the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem as places of high political tension between Jews and Muslims. For many Christians, Israel is the “holy land” and the Promised Land where the religiously devout travel so they can walk where Jesus walked. And Muslims, of course, have strong feelings about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

It is understandable why people without a Biblical perspective that embraces symbolism might think of these locations in physical and political terms. It is bad theology, however, for people who claim to trust the Bible for spiritual knowledge to think of Israel and Jerusalem in these limited, worldly terms. Indeed, many events with great historical and spiritual significance have occurred in Israel and in Jerusalem. But, in order to learn what God wants to teach us, it is critical to remember that Israel and Jerusalem are spiritual places.

To gain that spiritual perspective we must keep in mind that Israel and Jerusalem are communities of ethnic Jews. Like other nations and cities, Israel and Jerusalem have history and contain architecture, infrastructure, landscape and institutions that shape their appearance and culture. And they do contain people who give the places personality and social dynamism. In God’s eyes, however, those physical features are nothing more than stages on which God plays out his relationship with his people. The physical locations are secondary to the spiritual encounters of Biblical characters who lived there. God uses the symbolism of these places and events to create a context in which he tells stories that communicate spiritual truths that transcend time.

That being the case, we need to identify who God’s people (i.e. the Jews) are. Our first thought is that ethnic Jews are the people of Israel. But in God’s eyes, being a Jew or Israelite is not a matter of ethnicity, nationality, geography or culture. Rather, being a Jew is a spiritual matter that recognizes the condition of the heart. External, physical and social conditions are never in view for God. All he looks at is the heart.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of spiritual Jews.

Putting that all together, we conclude that Israel and Jerusalem are symbolic representations of communities of New Covenant disciples (i.e. spiritual Jews) whose hearts have been circumcised and who live in covenant relationship with God and each other. In God’s terminology, therefore, anyone whose heart is not circumcised is an alien, stranger or foreigner (depending on which version of the Old Testament you are reading) and a Gentile (in the New Testament). Thus, an ethnic Jew could not be a spiritual Jew unless his/her heart was circumcised. Similarly, an ethnic Gentile would be a spiritual Jew if his/her heart was circumcised.

STUDY TIP: See Circumcision and this link for details about circumcision.

The story of the Old Testament is of Israelites cycling between being Old/First Covenant religionists and New Covenant disciples. Their spiritual status depended on who they were following — God, false prophets, evil kings or foreign gods of conquering nations. It was also determined by the influence surrounding religious nations (i.e. Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per’izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb’usites) had on them.

STUDY TIP: See Cities, Kingdoms and Nations and Egypt and Babylon for more about these religious nations and their influence on Israel.

It is not well understood that the promised land originally belonged to the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per’izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb’usites. God sent Israel into the land to drive out these religious nations because they worshiped foreign gods. Sometimes Israel followed the gods of those other nations, and sometimes it remained faithful to follow God. When they were faithful to follow God, God was with them and they had peace. When Israel relaxed in doing battle or worshiped the gods of these nations, God separated himself from Israel and disciplined it for unfaithfulness.

This dynamic made for an interesting and volatile history for Israel. It is reported in the Bible for us to learn that it is not easy to be faithful to God. The influences of the surrounding religious world continue to be very strong, but God’s command to go and drive out Old/First Covenant religions and foreign gods still applies to modern day believers. That is why it makes sense to learn from Israel’s experience. The main thing to learn is that even when God’s people are unfaithful to their covenant with him, he remains faithful to them. Of course he will discipline them and exile them when necessary, but he will always bring those whose hearts are right (i.e. New Covenant disciples) back to him after they repent of tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e. Defiled Religion).