The Great Commission: Israel First

At the end of the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we find the so-called “Great Commission.” That is the command to make all nations disciples of Christ. Yet the peculiar phenomenon occurs that the men who received this commission, (as far as we know from Scripture), strictly limited themselves to the people of Israel. Even a one-time visit to a “stranger within the gates” (Cornelius, Acts 10) was at first unbearable among the disciples (Acts 11:2–3). Was this disobedience? No, the point was that of all nations, first Israel had to be made a disciple of the Messiah. Just read:

5 These twelve Jesus commissions, charging them, saying, “Into a road of the nations you may not pass forth, and into a city of the Samaritans you may not be entering.
6 Yet be going rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 Now going, herald, saying that ‘Near is the kingdom of the heavens!’
8 The infirm be curing, the dead be rousing, lepers be cleansing, demons be casting out. Gratuitously you got; gratuitously be giving. Matthew 10:5–8

In the book of Acts we see “the twelve” occupied exclusively with Israel. Israel had to come to repentance as a nation and as the first people be made a disciple. And then the Messiah would return from heaven to establish His Kingdom on earth. Peter preaches on the temple square:

19 Repent, then, and turn about for the erasure of your sins, so that seasons of refreshing should be coming from the face of the Lord,
20 and He should dispatch the One fixed upon before for you, Christ Jesus,
21 Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of restoration of all which God speaks through the mouth of His holy prophets who are from the eon.
Acts 3:19–21

The book of Acts, however, is above all the historical record of Israel’s rejection and unrepentance. The “Great Commission” thereby came to a dead end. And from that situation God calls a thirteenth apostle: Paul. As an intermezzo. That is also what the name Paul suggests. His name is derived from a Greek verb pau (to stop, to interrupt), from which our word “pause” is derived. Paul writes:

11 I am saying, then, Do they not trip that they should be falling? May it not be coming to that! But in their offense is salvation to the nations, to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if their offense is the world’s riches and their discomfiture the nations’ riches, how much rather that which fills them!
13 Now to you am I saying, to the nations, in as much as, indeed, then, I am the apostle of the nations, I am glorifying my dispensation,
Romans 11:11–13

The prophets and also the Gospels speak of salvation for the nations on the basis of Israel’s repentance. Paul, however, speaks of salvation for the nations in the present time, on the basis of Israel’s unbelief (“their fall”). Paul had a calling and commission that stood entirely apart from “the twelve” in Jerusalem.

It was not the making of all nations disciples of Christ that was Paul’s (and our) great commission. No, God is NOW intent on “taking OUT of the nations a people for His name” (Acts 15:14). Not the bringing in of the harvest, but the gathering together of firstfruits is the present work of God in our days. And afterward?

16 AFTER these things I will turn back, ‘And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen… And its overturned structure will I rebuild, And I will re-erect it…
17 So that those left of mankind should be seeking out the Lord, And ALL THE NATIONS, on them over whom My name is invoked, Is saying the Lord, Who is doing these things.’
Acts 15:16–17

It is on that occasion that “the Great Commission” will at last be fulfilled with success. Indeed – by Israel.

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