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.
Let's start with the first. To begin we glean a clue from the First Century.
Jesus would have been known as Jesus son of Joseph among His contemporaries. As far as I am concerned, this has a strategic double-meaning. (Why is it strategic? Because God created the genius of all the best poets. As such, He is doesn't stumble into coincidences.) The character of Joseph in Genesis portrays the person of Jesus son of Joseph. In Genesis, Joseph has two sons during his residence in Egypt – that is – the Gentile world. Their names are Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh (E&M) are Gentiles according to currently-held, centuries-old Jewish law. Why? Because both were born of a Gentile mother in Egypt. And growing up in Egypt, E&M knew only the Gentile version of Joseph. They knew little of their father's Jewish life. 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 esteemed their father's Jewish day to be of very little worth. It was an offense, in ways. Their immediate contribution to Joseph's story had aged quite poorly.
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 of its trappings to travel along with the families of Jacob toward a place entirely unknown. Whereas the other tribes/familes are returning to a place they came from, the tribes/families of E&M are traveling to a place that is alien to their origin story. They are nevertheless determined: they belong to Israel now, not to Egypt – even though their fathers E&M have never been to the land of Israel! The tribes of E&M represent us Gentiles who find our place in the family of Abraham. We are not Jewish 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, but we are the sons of Israel – products of the one who wrestled with God and persevered, albeit with a limp.
Let's jump to the second picture:
At Sinai, God gave His Torah to the Israelites. Right? Well yes, but when we say it this way, we tend to think of "the Jews" 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 experiences a change of heart? This Gentile multitude recognized that the God of the Hebrews was indeed the one true God, and they gave Him their allegiance. Maybe they put the blood on their doorposts; maybe they lost a firstborn son. Whatever the case may be, they left Egypt and risked their lives on that decision. Not only was this multitude a big crowd of Gentiles, it was a crowd of Gentiles that (I believe) represented every nation on earth. How can I say this? Genesis 41:56 says that a great famine was over "all the face of the land." (Read the various translations and you get the sense that the whole civilized world was affected. The world's population at the time was largely concentrated in and around that area of the globe.) This famine brought people from all over the known world to Egypt. Some came and went, others came and stayed. I believe God used the famine to bring a mixed multiple of people into Egypt so that, in time, He could draw them out and bring them to Sinai. This speculation aside, a great mixed multitude of Gentiles was nevertheless present at the foot of Sinai and 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 people, the kahal, the sons of Israel.
These two pictures inform my thinking on a number of items. That said, I look at the elders in Acts and I appreciate the wisdom of their light-handed approach to things regarding the Gentiles. They leave it so open-ended. In Acts 15, they give four basic laws which get Gentiles through the door of synagogue (see Acts 15:21). In synagogue, they would hear the Torah read, learn about their God, learn background about their Messiah, learn about the commandments. Where they went from there would a personal journey, but the elders had to assume that Scripture (ie. the Old Testament) would speak for itself. (Remember: there was no "New Testament" at the time.)
