Contours of Old Testament Theology

9. The People of God

9. T H E P E O P L E OF GOD We have seen that the exposition of Old Testament theology begins with the self-disclosure of the holy God who chooses to enter into relationship with a par­ ticular people. This community is to be God's "treasured possession out of all the peoples" (Exod. 19:5) and to be the agent through whom divine blessing is medi­ ated to other families of the earth (Gen. 12:3). The God oj Israel The name of this people is "Israel." In a secondary sense the term, both in biblical times and today, may be used of a political state (e.g., the northern kingdom of Israel or the modern state of Israel). Sometimes the term "nation" (goy) is used, as in the divine promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:2), the "eagles' wings" passage (Exod. 19:5-6), and the "little historical credo" (Deut. 26:5)—usages that probably reflect the nationhood at the time of David. But "Israel" is primarily a sacral term that refers to a community of faith, "the people [Hebrew am] of Yahweh" who are bound together by various ties (kinship, language, territory), but fundamentally by a religious devotion.1 Yahweh is "the God of Israel," and Israel is "the people of Yahweh," as we read in the ancient poem in Judges 5 called "the Song of Deborah," dating from the premonarchic period. The mountains quaked before the LORD [Yahweh], tfce One ofSinai, before the LORD [Yahweh], the God of Israel —Judg. 5:5; cf. v. 11 The designation of the people as "Israel" goes back to two centuries before David, the time of the "judges" (1200-1000 B.C.). This is evident not only from the Song of Deborah, just quoted, but also from the earliest reference to this people outside the Bible, in the victory stele of Pharaoh Merneptah (ca. 1220 B.C.).2 In view of contemporary political realities, one must emphasize that this ethnic group was called "Israel" long before it became a nation-state. During the early monarchy Israelite storytellers projected back to the pre­ monarchic era, or even before into the ancestral period, the ideal unity of the people as a twelve-tribe confederation, symbolized by the twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan River Gosh. 4:8-9) or the twelve pillars at the foot of Sinai (Exod. 24:4). In the final form of the Pentateuch this pan-Israelite consciousness is reflected in the stories of the ancestors, especially Jacob who, during a crucial encounter with God at the ford of the Jabbok River, received the new name Israel (Gen. 32:22-32). These stories are not straightforward history but narrative por­ trayals of the ups and downs of faith as the people of God, represented by their 1. See Ronald E. Clements, 'The People of God," chap. 5 of Old Testament Theology: A Fresh Approach (Atlanta: John Knox, 1978). 2. On the Merneptah stele, see above, chapter 8. 74 The People of God 75 ancestors, move toward the horizon of God's promised future. This people, then, is defined primarily by relation to the God who is manifest in the "root experiences" of exodus and Sinai. Yahweh is the liberating God "who brought you out of the house of bondage" (Exod. 20:1). Yahweh is the command­ ing God, the "One of Sinai" (Judg. 5:5), who makes known the divine will accord­ ing to which the people are to live. This God speaks in relational language: "1 will be your God and you shall be my people." The formula "your God . . . my people" recurs again and again in narrative, prophetic oracles, and psalms of praise. In a profound sense, which transcends political boundaries and divisions, Paul could speak of the Christian community as being essentially related to, and indeed part of, "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16). Those who have the faith of Abraham are his true descendants, children of Abraham and Sarah (Rom. 4:13-25).3 People ojtbe Covenant In the Bible the primary term for expressing the relationship between God and people is "covenant." After much scholarly discussion, it has become evident that covenant is a fundamental reality in the religion of Israel.4 The Hebrew term bent seems to have the root meaning of "bond, fetter," indicating a binding relationship,and the Greek term syntbeke also suggests the idea of "binding, putting together." Another term used in the New Testament...