I was taught that the Israelites are the promised people. I did not really understand what that meant…only that Israel was considered the “Holy Land,” and its people were the “holy ones.” The problem was, I did not study Israeli culture or history in school. The closest I came to Israeli cultural education was when Israelite Germans were persecuted during the Holocaust. It is the saddest, most painful time in history…
I think Dr. McDermott’s teaching of the Bible as a story and historical breakdown is very important. I too, used to be taught that the Old Testament upholds the importance of the “Israelites” and the New Testament is universal to appealing to all countries, all races. The problem here, though, is that it erases the existence of Israel. It imposes a system of “covenant” with everyone else except the Israelites. I do not think the Old Testament favours Israel, it is just going through cultural heritage. God made a covenant with Abraham and must honour it to the utmost.
