We Are His Representatives.
"Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today."--Deuteronomy 10:15, NRSV
GOD DESIRED TO MAKE of His people Israel a praise and a glory. Every spiritual advantage was given them. God withheld from them nothing favorable to the formation of character that would make them representatives of Himself.
Their obedience to the laws of God would make them marvels of prosperity before the nations of the world. He who could give them wisdom and skill in all cunning work would continue to be their teacher and would ennoble and elevate them through obedience to His laws. If obedient, they would be preserved from the diseases that afflicted other nations and would be blessed with vigor of intellect. The glory of God, His majesty and power, were to be revealed in all their prosperity. They were to be a kingdom of priests and princes. God furnished them with every facility for becoming the greatest nation on the earth.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, 221, 222.
Through Israel it was His design to impart rich blessings to all people. Through them the way was to be prepared for the diffusion of His light to the whole world.--Testimonies for the Church, 221.
"His glory is His children's good; his joy, His tender Fatherhood."--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 77.
But you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation,
These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."
--Exodus 19:6, NRSV