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{"id":18206,"date":"2016-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2987"},"modified":"2016-06-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T00:00:00","slug":"israel-my-firstborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/06\/israel-my-firstborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel My FIrstborn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

T<\/span>he genealogies of Chronicles begin with \u201cAdam,\u201d and the ancestors of the Chronicler\u2019s people Israel appear only after a half-chapter of names. Yet the Chronicler, like other Old Testament writers, considers Israel the \u201cfirstborn\u201d nation (Exod. 4:23). As Scott Hahn puts it (The Kingdom of God as Liturgical Empire<\/em><\/a>), \u201cThe genealogies reflect a familial vision of the human race. The Chronicler\u2019s genealogies, like those of Genesis, reveal Israel\u2019s solidarity with the entire human family. They also reflect Israel\u2019s deep sense of its own \u2018election\u2019 . . . of its being a people set apart, specially chosen by God to be his \u2018firstborn\u2019 . . . among the peoples of the world\u201d (20). <\/p>\n

Hahn points out that \u201cIf Israel is his firstborn, as God told Moses . . . this is not a statement of historical or anthropological fact but of divine election\u201d (27). That is, the firstborn status is not by nature but by election. Israel is firstborn not by creation but by virtue of second creation, by virtue of God\u2019s intervention into a pre-existing humanity. Like other ancient peoples, Israel considered itself the first of nations. Unlike other ancient peoples, this was not because Israel emerged first in history but because her God makes the last first.<\/p>\n

Further, Israel\u2019s preeminent status isn\u2019t for her own sake. By starting the genealogy with Adam, Hahn argues, the Chronicler \u201cis reminding Israel that its national destiny cannot be separated from the destiny of the world\u201d (22). Even in its \u201cideal\u201d state in the Chronicler\u2019s genealogy, it is not a pure-bred, separate people. It existed for the nations, and even the royal \u201cline of Judah includes such non-Israelite groups as Canaanites, Ishmaelites, Arameans, Egyptians, Moabites, Calebites, Midianites, Jerahmeelites, Maacathites, Qenizzites, and Qenites, among others\u201d (34). Israel\u2019s ultimate aim is to bless the nations, and the Chronicler \u201chints that Israel\u2019s mission to bless the nations has already begun: sojourners and strangers have already begun identifying themselves with Israel\u2019s God\u2014through intermarriage and through their worship of Israel\u2019s God\u201d (34-35).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"