The Great Commission: Israel First

At the end of the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we find the so-called “Great Commission.” That is the command to make all nations disciples of Christ. Yet the peculiar phenomenon occurs that the men who received this commission, (as far as we know from Scripture), strictly limited themselves to the people of Israel. Even a one-time visit to a “stranger within the gates” (Cornelius, Acts 10) was at first unbearable among the disciples (Acts 11:2–3). Was this disobedience? No, the point was that of all nations, first Israel had to be made a disciple of the Messiah. Just read:

These twelve Jesus sent out, commanding them, saying: Go not into a way of nations, and into a city of Samaritans do not enter, but go rather unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And, going on, proclaim, saying, The reign of the heavens hath come nigh; be healing the ailing, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons.
Matthew 10:5–8 (YLT)

In the book of Acts we see “the twelve” occupied exclusively with Israel. Israel had to come to repentance as a nation and as the first people be made a disciple. And then the Messiah would return from heaven to establish His Kingdom on earth. Peter preaches on the temple square:

“Reform ye, therefore, and turn back, for your sins to be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ who before hath been preached to you, whom it behoveth heaven, indeed, to receive till the times of restoration of all things, of which God spake through the mouth of all His holy prophets from the age.”
Acts 3:19–21 (YLT)

The book of Acts, however, is above all the historical record of Israel’s rejection and unrepentance. The “Great Commission” thereby came to a dead end. And from that situation God calls a thirteenth apostle: Paul. As an intermezzo. That is also what the name Paul suggests. His name is derived from a Greek verb pau (to stop, to interrupt), from which our word “pause” is derived. Paul writes:

“By their fall is the salvation to the nations, to provoke them to jealousy; and if the fall of them is the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them? For to you I speak — to the nations — inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations…”
Romans 11:11–13 (YLT)

The prophets and also the Gospels speak of salvation for the nations on the basis of Israel’s repentance. Paul, however, speaks of salvation for the nations in the present time, on the basis of Israel’s unbelief (“their fall”). Paul had a calling and commission that stood entirely apart from “the twelve” in Jerusalem.

It was not the making of all nations disciples of Christ that was Paul’s (and our) great commission. No, God is NOW intent on “taking OUT of the nations a people for His name” (Acts 15:14). Not the bringing in of the harvest, but the gathering together of firstfruits is the present work of God in our days. And afterward?

“AFTER these things I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David (= the royal house of David) that is fallen, and its ruins I will build again, and I will set it upright, so that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, even ALL THE NATIONS upon whom My name hath been called, saith the Lord, who is doing all these things…”
Acts 15:16–17 (YLT)

It is on that occasion that “the Great Commission” will at last be fulfilled with success. Indeed—by Israel.

Delen: