A People for His Name

“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ‘After this  I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the Lord who does all these things.’” (Acts 15:14-17)

The following excerpts (edited) were taken from “God’s Plan”

The Jewish Age

The Jewish Age, began with the death of Jacob and ended with the first advent of Jesus.

The title “Jewish Age” is used to denote this period of time because it suggests the manner in which God continued the preparatory work for the ultimate establishment of his kingdom and the consequent blessing of all peoples. During that time God dealt with a nation, the Jewish nation (rather than with individuals as he had during the previous age, the Patriarch age), and this with none other. Through the prophet he declared to them, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” — Amos 3:2

God gave Israel his Law. He sent his prophets to them. Through their priesthood he instituted the tabernacle services, which, according to the New Testament, foreshadowed the “good things to come.” (Heb 9:11,23; 10:1) God’s promise to this nation was that if they were loyal to him he would make them a “kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” (Exod 19:5,6) This meant that through them God would dispense his promised blessings to “all the families of the earth.”

But Israel as a whole did not qualify for this high and honorable position in the divine plan. (Rom 11:7) When their Messiah came to them, they rejected him and as a result were cast off from this special position of divine favor. But God’s work during the Jewish Age was not a failure. Paul tells us that the Law served as a “schoolmaster,” or pedagogue, (RV, “tutor“) to bring the Jews to Christ. (Gal 3:24)

The failure of the Jews to keep the perfect Law of God and thereby to gain life proved the necessity for the redemptive work of Christ. All nations will eventually learn the same great lesson, namely, the need of a Redeemer.

God accomplished other important things during the Jewish Age. His dealings with Israel and Israel’s successes and failures serve as valuable examples and guides to spiritual Israel of this age. The hundreds of promises made to Israel through the prophets constitute an outline of many of the important features of the divine plan and thus serve to guide the followers of the Master in their preparation for joint-heirship with him in the messianic kingdom. In other ways, too, the Jewish Age work of God fills an important place in the divine plan for human rehabilitation. God’s work during the Jewish Age was not a failure but accomplished its divinely intended purpose.

The Jewish Age came to an end at the first advent of Jesus. During his ministry and for a period of three and one-half years thereafter, divine favor continued with the Jews; and in keeping with this arrangement, Jesus confined his ministry, as well as the ministry of his disciples, to the nation of Israel until after his resurrection from the dead. Jesus said to his disciples: “GO NOT into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” — Matt 10:5,6

The Gospel Age

Following Jesus’ resurrection, he told his disciples to extend the ministry to all nations, but even then, they were to begin at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:45-49; Matt 28:19,20) According to the prophecy given by Daniel (Dan 9:24-27), in which he speaks of the Messiah being “cut off” in the midst of a “week,” there were to be yet three and one-half years of favor shown to Israel following the death of Jesus, hence the command, “beginning at Jerusalem.” A “week” in prophetic time represents seven years, on the basis of a year for a day. — Num 14:33,34; Ezek 4:6; Dan 12:11,12; Rev 11:2,3

So it was that, “beginning at Jerusalem,” the work of the Gospel Age began. This age continues until the second presence of Christ, which is also the beginning of God’s world (age) to come. The term “Gospel Age” is chosen to identify this period of time between the first and second advents of Christ because the Scriptures show that the work of God during this time is accomplished by a proclamation of the Gospel, or “good news,” of the kingdom.

As already noted, during the Patriarchal Age God carried on his work by selecting and dealing with certain individual patriarchs. During the Jewish Age his work was accomplished by dealing with the Jewish nation; but during the Gospel Age God does not limit his favor either to certain outstanding Individuals, as he did in the Patriarchal Age, or to a single nation, as he did during the Jewish Age, but has commissioned all who are his people to proclaim the glad tidings of the kingdom throughout all the nations; and those who have responded to that message have been the ones upon whom God has bestowed his favor, by inviting them to participate in his plan of the ages.

What then has been the objective of God’s work during the Gospel Age?

This question is answered for us in Acts 15:13-18. Here we are told that God visited the Gentiles “to take out of them a people for his name.” The Jews, as a nation, were to be this people, and a few of them did accept Christ, and as many as did to them “gave he power to become the sons of God.” (John 1:12) But in the divine plan this “people for his name” was to consist of 144,000 — a sizable number from some standpoints, but compared with the total of humanity, or even of professed Christians, it is, indeed, but “a little flock.” — Luke 12:32

In Rom 11:17-24, the apostle explains that Gentiles are able to come into the special privileges of this Gospel Age because the Jews, as “natural branches,” were broken off on account of their unbelief. This means that when these “people for his name” are selected from among the Gentiles they really take the places of the Jewish cast-offs in the original Israelite program — the natural, fleshly house of Israel losing this particular place of special favor. This is the reason why, in Rev 7:4-8 and 14:1-3, we find the entire company of 144,000 represented under the Israelite picture.

And note specially that here this “little flock” who are with the “Lamb” on Mount Zion are said to have the name of the Lamb’s Father written in their foreheads. Thus, are they shown to be “a people FOR HIS NAME,” that is, to bear his name.

In Rev 19:7 this same company is pictured as becoming the “wife” of the Lamb, and in this way, also, they partake of the family name of their Heavenly Father (see also Rev 21:2 and 22:17).

God’s Ruling House

In the light of the general testimony of God’s Word, this “people for his name,” gathered from among all nations by means of the Gospel, is in reality God’s ruling house. In Micah 4:1-4 we are told of the establishment of the divine kingdom throughout all the earth, and this kingdom (symbolized in the prophecy as a “mountain“) is shown to be made up of the “Lord’s house.” All the hereditary ruling houses of this present evil world have, in reality, been family arrangements, through which, from generation to generation, the rulers inherited their “right” to rule.

So, God tells us that his kingdom is to be in the hands of a ruling house, which also is to be a family arrangement. The members of this family receive their right to rule by inheritance and because they are a part of the family. It is not an earthly family, however, but a divine family. It is God’s own family. The chief one in it is his “only begotten” and beloved Son, Christ Jesus. In addition to Jesus, those who follow in his footsteps are inducted into the divine family, becoming sons of God. — Col 1:18; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1,2

The apostle explains further that if we are sons, then we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” (Rom 8:16,17) All of these joint-heirs are promised a place in God’s ruling house, and the very purpose of this Gospel Age is the selection and preparation of those who, as members of this royal family of heaven, are to “live and reign with Christ a thousand years.” – Rev 20:4; Psa 2:9; Rev 2:26,27; 1 Cor 6:2,3.

With the work of the Gospel Age complete, nothing stands in the way of the establishment of God’s new world (age) to come. Toward the close of the world of today, Christ’s second advent takes place, first of all (so far as the world is concerned) “like a thief in the night.” Christ comes first to receive his bride. (John 14:3; Rev 19:7; 21:2; 22:17) When his bride, or church, is united with him in heavenly glory, then will be fulfilled the promise of Rev 22:17, where we read that the “Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come. And … take the water of life freely.”‘

This last relates to the second part of our subject text, viz.,

“… ‘After this (or after these things, after the end of this age, after the elect Church has been completed, after the Gentiles have been taken out, the time for the restoration of the nation of Israel to divine favor will come) I will return and will rebuild *the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that (or “in order that”) the rest of mankind (the non-elect) may (during the Millennial age) seek the Lord (be taught at the hands of the Heavenly Bridegroom and Bride, until “all shall know him from the least unto the greatest” Jer 31:34), Even all the Gentiles (nations, peoples) who are called by My name, Says the Lord who does all these things.’” (Acts 15:14-17)

This is a very important set of text not only do they explain how the Lord chose to include the Gentiles in the elect number comprising the Church, making up for what was lacking from the Jewish nation (who were originally supposed to provide the full number), but it also shows the two phases of the kingdom, the heavenly phase (those who are to bless), and the earthly phase (those to be blessed). 

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*The tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, refers to the family of David, which by divine arrangement was the royal family of the nation of Israel. The last representative of David upon the throne was Zedekiah, and it will be remembered that at the time of his overthrow the Lord’s pronouncement was, “Thou profane and wicked prince, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, remove the diadem and take off the crown; this shall not be the same… I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him.” Ezek. 21:25-26.

The overturning had lasted for over 600 years until our Lord Jesus came (the greater David–the “Beloved One“), however not until after the Church, the bride of Christ, composed of both select Jews and Gentiles are selected would the kingdom be established and the tabernacle of David, which had fallen down in Zedekiah’s day, be re-established.