In my view, the Torah provides two pictures to help us understand Gentile inclusion into the commonwealth of Israel and the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12).
- First: Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh.
- Second: the mixed multitude's presence at Sinai.
Picture 1:
In Genesis, Joseph has two sons during his residence in Egypt (i.e., the Gentile world). Their names are Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh (E&M) are Gentiles according to Jewish law because their mother was a Gentile. And growing up in Egypt, E&M knew only the Gentile version of Joseph. They knew little of their father's Jewishness. They knew, perhaps, that his Jewish brothers had rejected him, had put him in the ground, had sold him for silver, had passed him off to the Gentile world, had vetoed his place among the family. Indeed, E&M may have esteemed their father's Jewish roots to be of very little worth to them.
Fast forward.
Later in Exodus, the sons and daughters of Ephraim and Manasseh leave behind everything they have ever known. They leave Egypt and all its trappings to travel alongside the families of Jacob. They journey to a place entirely unknown to them. They are nevertheless determined: they belong to Israel now, not to Egypt – even though their fathers E&M never once left the Gentile world! The tribes of E&M represent us Gentiles who find our place among the family of Abraham. We are not Jewish to be clear, but we do inherit the covenants of promise and the commonwealth of Israel. Recall, Jacob didn't adopt Ephraim and Manasseh. Israel adopted them. From this we derive an insight: we Gentiles are not the sons of Jacob (i.e., Jews), but we are the sons of Israel – products of the one who wrestled with God and persevered, albeit with a limp.
Picture 2:
At Sinai God gave His Torah to the Israelites, and hearing this, we tend to think of the Jews only, and no one else. But what about the great mixed multitude that went out of Egypt with the Jews? Those Gentiles who saw the judgement of Egypt and recognized that the God of the Hebrews was, indeed, the one true God. Maybe they put the blood on their doorposts; maybe they lost a firstborn son. Whatever the case may be, they left Egypt behind and bet their lives on a new way forward.
I believe this mixed multitude represented every nation on earth. How can I say this? Because Genesis 41:56 says a great famine was over "all the face of the land." The whole civilized world was affected by this famine. Egypt became the best-known place to go for food. Some hungry travelers came and went; others came and stayed. I believe God used a global famine to bring people of every nation into Egypt so that, in time, He could pinch away a sample of the world and bring them to Sinai.
No matter what happened, we know a great mixed multitude was present at the foot of Sinai. They, too, had a Pentecost experience when God gave them the Torah. These Gentiles came to see themselves as partakers in the covenants of promise, members of the commonwealth of Israel. God didn't just give His Torah to Jews; He gave it to Gentiles too. He gave it to His assembly, the kahal, the sons of Israel.
Final Thoughts:
These two pictures color my thinking as it pertains to Gentile inclusion. Remember, the New Covenant was made not with Gentiles but with the house of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The way we Gentiles enter into the New Covenant is by being grafted in to the house of Israel.
With that said, I look at the elders in Acts and I appreciate the wisdom of their light-handed approach to things regarding the Gentiles. Leading with grace and patience, they leave the coming together of Jews and Gentiles so open ended. In Acts 15, they prescribe four basic laws which work to get Gentiles into a synagogue in such a way they don't offend their Jewish counterparts. Once in the synagogue, Gentile believers would hear Scripture read (no New Testament at the time), they would learn about God and His commandments, and they would learn more about their Messiah in the context of God's great redemption plan. Where they went from there would a personal journey, but that journey was always seen as being downstream of God's blood covenant with Abraham.
