CRN.Info and Analysis

In Part I of this article, we examined what, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, the people of Israel were “chosen” for:

1. They were to be blessed in order that they would pass that blessing on to the world.
2. They are to live in such a way that the world may know that Yahweh is God, the one and only true God, of the world.

When we reconnect with the people of Israel in the gospel accounts, 400 years have passed, during which time they have demonstrated that their ‘addiction’ to worshipping other gods has finally been cured. Without this change of heart, it would be impossible to claim Yahweh as the One and only God.
Where their struggle laid was with the fulfillment of their ‘chosenness’ - being freed from the bondage of their sin and the continual need for sacrificial atonement, and understanding how to live in the ‘kingdom of God’ - the orthopraxy of ‘being a blessing’ and ‘living in such a way that the world may know that Yahweh is God’.

Jesus’ Mission

When Simeon blesses the 8-day-old Jesus in Luke 2:30-32, he uses a turn of phrase that sometimes we miss in the English translation:

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

Taken literally, Simeon says that Jesus will be a light to bring light to the Gentiles, which hearkens back to the language of God to Abraham, who would be blessed to be a blessing to the world. In John’s gospel account, his opening statements describe Jesus in similar fashion:

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

This language is not accidental. If he was to be the Messiah, then his purpose would have to be the purpose of his people.

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