CHAPTER 19
THE AGE OF ISRAEL
All people came from Adam and Eve. Then after the Flood only eight people (four men and four women) survived in the Ark, and all subsequent people came from those eight people, namely Noah and his wife, and their sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives. These eight were the only ones to survive the Flood. However, less than 1000 years later a new race was added by divine changes of the DNA of two people descended from these eight. This new race was the Jewish race. During the Age of the Patriarchs in about 1920 BC Abraham and his wife Sarah were old (99 and 90 respectively) and childless, and Sarah had been barren all her life. God not only made them capable of having children, but He also changed their DNA so that they became young again, not simply fertile. This resulted in a new race of people. The Age of Israel began when this new Jewish race eventually became a nation roughly 500 years later after they had departed from slavery in Egypt and entered the Promised Land in 1406 BC to form the nation Israel.
The Jewish nation was chosen by God to evangelize the world and also keep the Scriptures. These were their two primary tasks from God, and He made a covenant with the Jews in the form of the Old Testament, starting with the Mosaic Law. The unfortunate truth is that although there were sporadic successes, the Jews generally ignored their mandate from God. As part of the revelation of the coming Messiah, Israel was set up as God’s chosen people to deliver that information to the world so that all people would have the gospel message. The Old Testament Mosaic Law was therefore given to Israel to establish how it would function as a spiritual nation with God as its direct ruler. They were directed to keep the Scriptures and evangelize the world until the Messiah would redeem mankind from the curse of sin. That was their purpose, and when that purpose was eventually complete and the Messiah removed the sin problem, a new covenant would replace this Mosaic Law covenant which was given to the Jews.
The Mosaic Law is the early part of the Old Testament which provided laws, moral codes, social directives and ceremonial requirements for Israel to live by, essentially the latter part of Genesis and most of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These were a temporary covenant with Israel and meant only for them as God’s chosen people who were the keepers of divine truth and also required to evangelize the world. This is what it means the Jews were God’s chosen people, since they were chosen to be the keepers of the scriptures and the evangelizers of the world, both during Old Testament times and again in the future Millennial Age. But currently all Jews who are believers are simply part of the Church. More detail is available in my other book if it is desired, so we will stick with the main subject here, namely time and locations. But since time and the Ages are intertwined in human history, we are exploring the Ages of time in overview form, not in deep detail.
The theme of the Old Testament was that mankind was in slavery to sin, and God would provide a Messiah to deliver mankind from the curse of sin. At the end of the Age of Israel the most important dividing issue in the plan of God occurred, which was the cross when the Messiah paid for the sins of all mankind, past and future, and satisfied the demands of God’s perfect character by making full payment for sin. God needed to deal with man in certain different ways until the salvation work was actually completed on the cross, then after the cross He was able to offer increased grace and access to Himself once the sin issue was finally removed. This is the defining issue with regard to why there was an Old Testament which dealt with mankind in a provisional way and then a New Testament which now deals with mankind under the reality of a completion of reconciliation between God and man. Therefore God provided the Old Testament to be used until the cross, then the Law portion of it was set aside as no longer directive to believers after its usefulness was complete. Once the Messiah Jesus Christ completed the salvation work on the cross the Mosaic Law portion of this old covenant became outdated and no longer in effect, so it was set aside in favor of a new covenant to the Church, commonly known as the New Testament, which replaced the requirements of the Mosaic Law portion of the Old Testament. But otherwise the Old Testament remains for our instruction and all prophecies from it must be fulfilled.
The Age of Israel is split into two parts, with the Church Age inserted between those two parts. The first part of the Age of Israel went from 1405 BC when the Jews entered the Promised Land until just after the cross in 33 AD. The Great Tribulation will resume and finish the Age of Israel since it was interrupted seven years short of completion when the Church Age was instituted shortly after the cross on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-3). It is important to understand that the Tribulation is part of the Age of Israel since this explains many things about events which will occur during that period of time, and also fulfills the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9. This will be discussed in a later chapter, and for additional details my book "The Future Times: Biblical Prophecies About the Remainder of History & Beyond" is available free online.
We must view the Age of Israel as part of the overall appeal trial of Satan and the fallen angels, just as all the Ages are part of that trial. The Ages vary in how they are set up and conducted to show various aspects of God's love and fairness to refute Satan's claims against God. Accordingly, the Age of Israel set up the coming of the Messiah, with the Old Testament, including numerous prophecies, analogous rituals (all animal sacrifices, feasts, etc.), "types" of Christ, representative Temple furniture including the Ark of the Covenant, and other portions which represented the future Messiah, whether directly or indirectly. Vast portions of the Mosaic Law were representational analogies to Christ the Messiah and His work of salvation, and He fulfilled all the Mosaic Law requirements for righteousness and reconciliation which the Law could never provide, and on the cross paid in full the penalty for sin required by God the Father. The entirety of the animal sacrifices, food offerings, Levitical priesthood rituals, tabernacle and temple furnishings, and so on presented the future Messiah in analogous terms which demonstrated how God required a true sacrifice for the sin issue, and the animals and other offerings were merely representative of the future Messiah. But they never pleased God of themselves, they only taught how God would be pleased by the Messiah. By taking away the sin issue and providing reconciliation between God and man on the basis of faith in the Messiah, Christ fulfilled and then canceled the Mosaic Law as a directive code. The Messiah would fulfill all of the representational analogies, prophecies, and so forth contained in the Old Testament. That is how the Age of Israel should be viewed, as setting up the coming of the Messiah which was the key to refuting the appeals of Satan.
The Mosaic Law was never a means of salvation, but rather showed how man could never save himself since the issue of sin could not be conquered by any sinful person. No one could ever attain the perfect righteousness required to live with God forever on their own. Therefore salvation has always been by faith in the Messiah (Savior). During the Old Testament people believed that God would send a Messiah to reconcile God and mankind, and by this faith in a future Messiah they gained salvation. After the cross people have salvation by believing in Jesus Christ as the actual Savior. Once the reality of the cross has occurred, those provisions which looked forward to reconciliation between God and mankind were set aside. The shadows have been replaced by the reality, and with that a new set of divine rules apply. That is why the New Covenant (New Testament) to the Church was provided and a new Age began, called the Church Age.
We will now view the timeline of the Age of Israel in summary form to show how it fits together from start to finish.