---Who is the Israel of God?

---Let us think about it.

---If you ask the two Ridderbosse from Netherlands, they would say it is the Jewish nation in the Old Testament.

---They were the combination of good and bad people born with Hebrew blood from Abraham and thus real children of Abraham and thus with the Covenant set up with them, selected to be the Israel of God.

---Arabs are also children of God but they do not have a covenant with God. Thus, the Ridderbosse and many scholars all over the world.

---Well would you say that Ruth, the Moabite is the Israel of God?

---She is in Jesus’ family register.

---Would you say that Rahab the harlot is the Israel of God (after conversion though). You should. She is in Jesus’ family register in Matthew 1.

---When in the Old Testament is someone a true Israelite?

---True Israelite is the term used for an Israelite from God’s perspective. Why? Without God in the picture there is no Israelite or Israel. Get it?

---So we must not ask governments or archaeology what is and what is not Israel. Sorry William Dever.

---The Israel of God is more to be looked in the Doctoral Dissertation of Gerhard Hasel: The Remnant Motif in the Old Testament.

https://archive.org/details/remnant0000gerh

---What is a remnant? That which remain. What remain? That which it is a part of. The other part is not.

---A selected part of a whole, is a remnant. Does that makes sense?

---Does God select some to be Israel and others not?

---That is the issue here. Ruth was. Rahab was. Maybe the army captain Uriah the Hittite was.

---Now things get complicated.

---What about Ebed-Melech? Well he was an Ethiopian, correct?

---What about Amminadab? Ammon is the first part of the name. Nadab is the last.

---Why do Jewish people have Ammonite names and Moabite names?

---Intermarriage.

---So when God was looking for Israel, He was not looking at blood. He was looking at spiritual focus of the heart of the person. Jeremiah 31:33 “I will write my laws upon your heart”.

---The covenant person has the law of God on the heart and is law following, law obeying, law keeping, law protecting. The Ten Commandments is the “My Law”.

---Including the fourth commandment which is “My Sabbath” in the Old Testament. Keep “My Sabbath” as opposed to festival Sabbaths that were “Your Sabbaths”. Now it gets technical.

---If God has His own day that He owns, can I substitute it with another day? No.

---Can I ignore His day and say, I want to be inclusive of the importance of all days for Him? No. Follow the Law written on your heart. That law is clear about one day.

---Only those people who are faithful are the remnant of God and they happen to be the Israel of God.

---Which nation? Any faithful person. Ruth too. Correct?

---Any faithful person. The Assyrians at Niniveh in Jonah’s time. Correct?

---Jonah was angry because he disagreed with God there. But the Editor of the Bible, the Holy Spirit wrote this incident for us to have clarity about the intention and mind of God: if someone [any one] is faithful to Me – the person is the True Israel.

---Does it make sense?