“Lord Jesus, Your plan for the redemption of all peoples of the world was through faith in Jesus. The Jews were to be Your channel of blessing to the rest of the world. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 3:25-26 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ (26) To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
The Jews were God’s covenant people. As His covenant people, the Lord carried them on His wings and watched over them. Psalms 105:8-15 He remembers His covenant forever, The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, (9) The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac, (10) And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, (11) Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the allotment of your inheritance,” (12) When they were few in number, Indeed very few, and strangers in it. (13) When they went from one nation to another, From one kingdom to another people, (14) He permitted no one to do them wrong; Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes, (15) Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.”
In reminding the Jews that they were God’s covenant people, Peter and John were emphasising that they were to love God and keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
The Jews would be a blessing through righteousness, which is by faith since that was the basis of the covenant blessing of God with Abraham. Romans 4:13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
The blessing of God upon the Jews would then pass on to others. Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
The Jews needed to understand that for them to inherit the covenant blessing of God, they must come to Christ by faith. Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (7) Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
God’s covenant blessing on the Jews was to redeem them from the law. In coming to God through faith in Jesus, they would become heirs of God through Christ.
This was what Zachariah the priest, prophesied. Luke 1:67-72 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: (68) “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, (69) And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, (70) As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, (71) That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, (72) To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant,
Zachariah’s prophecy was amazing, for God was showing how His covenant blessing on the Israelites was in His redemption plan through Jesus.
When a person comes to God through faith in Jesus, he inherits God’s covenant blessing. There is no more Jew and Greek but we are all one in Christ Jesus. When we are Christ’s, we become the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3:27-29 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
This was how the Jews would be a blessing to the nations of the world. Ephesians 3:6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
God’s wonderful plan of redemption was being worked out through Christ by faith. This was the covenant blessing of God to the Jews and through them to the rest of the world. We must always be in awe and worship God for His wonderful plan of redemption that He worked out by faith in Jesus.