Marc Chagall: "Moses [iii]" (1956)
Scripture recounts that God chose the descendants of Jacob to serve him as a nation of priests to the world.
Whereas the covenant made with Abraham entailed exclusive devotion to El (God), the covenant made with the descendants of Jacob further established that no other god exists apart from El (ref. Deuteronomy 32:39a) who now revealed himself as YWHW, a name that not even Abraham had known. Moreover, the descendants of Jacob were chosen to serve YWHW as priests to the nations to bring them to a knowledge of the one true God.
God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am [YWHW]. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God [El Shaddai], but by my name [YWHW] I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. (Exodus 6:2-4)
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5-6a)
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
When the [El] gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.* But the [YaWeH]’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1; ref. Isaiah 41:8)
Good standing as a priesthood was, however, conditional not just upon the nation's fidelity to God but also to a vast priestly code promulgated at Mount Sinai. (ref. Romans 2:25-29)
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5-6a)
Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. (Deuteronomy 29:18-19)
Not surprisingly, Israel's failure to keep the covenant was anticipated from the beginning, and the eventual exile of Israel was anticipated. What is astonishing is that God promised that those exiles who turned to the Lord (Judah but not Israel) would be returned to the land of Canaan.
And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:1-3)
God promised that God himself would consecrate the hearts of those who returned so that their outward expressions of faith sprung from within. This chastised Israel would become the true nation of priests originally intended.
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
As with many prophesies of scripture, however, a telescoped view collapses into a single frame what might be multiple iterations of instances separated by many centuries, and the ultimate fulfillment may look quite different from what anyone might have expected.
[*A poetic allusion is made to the seventy sons of El, who in Canaanite religion were the gods of seventy nations (ref. Genesis 10).]
