My People

     Rom 9:25-26 Just as He says in Hosea, Those who were not My people I will call My people, and her who was not beloved [I will call] My beloved.  [Hos 2:23.] And it shall be that in the very place where it was said to them, You are not My people, they shall be called sons of the living God.  [Hos 1:10.]AMP

In May of 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued the following decision: "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

While not immediately accepted by all, this watershed decision concerning public education eventually changed many other aspects of American society. Up until this time, certain institutions were open only to the people of one race, with others excluded on the basis of their skin color. Once access to schools had been mandated by the federal government, many other doors eventually opened as a result.

Gentile worshipers of Israel's God shared a similar experience. Although they were allowed to worship as proselytes and to offer sacrifices, their access to the place of worship was limited. They were permitted to enter the outermost court of the temple, known as the court of the Gentiles, but they could not pass beyond it. This area was separated from the temple's inner courts by a stone balustrade, or railing, of several feet in height. Warnings were posted along this barrier in Greek and Latin telling Gentiles that they would be put to death if they went beyond it.

Despite this barrier, the Bible gives evidence of God's deep and lasting concern for the Gentile nations. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He promised that Abraham's seed would bless all the nations of the earth (Gen 22:18). Isaiah later prophesied that Jesus would be a "light to the Gentiles" (Isa 42:6; cf. Luke 2:32). It is this promise —that God would one day call the Gentiles to Himself—that Paul refers in Rom 9, where he appeals for scriptural support from two passages in the book of Hosea.

The prophet Hosea was a kind of living object lesson to the nation of Israel. He was commanded by God to marry an adulterous woman, and his children were given names that symbolized God's anger over Israel's unfaithfulness. The first child was named Lo-Ruhamah, which literally meant "not-loved." The second child was called Lo-Ammi, a name that meant "not my people." Because the northern tribes had refused to listen to the appeals of God's prophets to repent, they were to be treated by God like those who have been divorced or disinherited. However, this rejection was only temporary. Hos 1:10 promised: "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the Living God.'" This promise was repeated in Hos 2:23: "I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'

According to the apostle Paul, these promises were proof of God's willingness to reach out to those who are alienated from Him. Paul was calling the Gentiles to become part of the church. Their acceptance by God, in turn, would spur Israel to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

Like the people mentioned in these verses, we were alienated from God prior to trusting in Christ for our salvation. Like Israel, our sins had made us God's enemies. The living God was our Creator but not our God. We were His creation but not His people. Like those who were kept from the inner courts of the temple by the wall that separated them from the rest of God's people, we had no direct access into God's presence.

Prior to our trusting in Christ, God could not claim us as His own. Despite our best intentions, we were separated from Him by a wall of sin. It is true that God loved us even then, but because our sin deserved His wrath, God could not freely express that love without compromising His righteous standard. But now that we are in Christ, our status has changed. Jesus has broken down the wall of unfulfilled commandments that kept us from God's presence by fulfilling the law of God on our behalf (Eph 2:14-15). He resolved the dilemma posed by our sin by becoming a sin offering for us.

It is easy to forget that we were once strangers to God's promises. In time, we may even come to think that this freedom of access into God's presence is something that was owed to us. Or we may have the opposite problem: We may be so overwhelmed by the mistakes in our past that we cannot possibly see how God could accept us. These verses provide a remedy for both extremes. For the complacent, they offer a reminder that there was once a time when we had no legitimate right to call on the God we now worship. We did not deserve God's love but only His anger. Every opportunity to pray, worship, and serve God is a gift. For those troubled by their past sins, these verses offer the encouragement of knowing that God is pleased to reach out to those who are alienated from Him. Whatever our past, if we come to Him in Christ, God will accept us.

These words also provide us with an example of the kind of attitude that we are to have toward others. Just as God was willing to reach out to those who had distanced themselves from Him, we have a responsibility to reach out to others. Like Hosea's wife and children, they will often seem like unlikely candidates for our interest. But our God seeks the unlovable and the uninterested. He is a God who reaches out to people just like us!

My God and Savior, thank You for opening the way into Your presence through Your Son Jesus. Open my eyes to see others as You see them and to seek those that You are seeking. Amen

Thanks to John Koessler for allowing us to publish his material.www.johnkosessler.com

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John Koessler serves as chair and professor of pastoral studies at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to Jane and has two sons, Drew and Jarred. John is the author of ten books and numerous articles. He also serves as a contributing editor for the Moody Bible Institute publication Today in the Word, where you can read his monthly “Theology Matters” column. You can contact John via email at John.Koessler@moody.edu or by phone at (312) 329-4077.