Jewish history is especially the manifestation of the glory of Jehovah. To ask, In what does this history concern us? is to say, Of what use is it that I should know what my Father is about to do for my brethren and the manifestation of His character in His acts?
It is evident from the place which the subject occupies in His Word that their affairs are very dear to our God and Father, if they be not to us. It is in this people, by the ways of God revealed to them, that the character of Jehovah is fully revealed, that the nations will know Jehovah, and that we shall ourselves learn to know Him.
The same person may be king of a country, and father of a family; and this is the difference between God's actings toward us and the Jews. Toward the Church it is the character of Father; toward the Jews it is the character of Jehovah, the King. His faithfulness, unchangeableness, His almighty power, His government of the whole earth—all this is revealed in His relationship toward Israel. It is in this way that the history of the people lets us into the character of Jehovah.
"When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion,... then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them." Psalm 126:1, 2.
See on the same subject, Eze. 39:6, 7, 28: "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD. So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD [Jehovah], the Holy One in Israel.... Then shall they know that I am the LORD [Jehovah] their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there." This is the way in which Jehovah reveals Himself. The Father reveals Himself to our souls by the gospel, by the spirit of adoption; but Jehovah makes Himself known by His judgments—by the exercise of His power on the earth.
I have said that the Father reveals Himself by the gospel, because the gospel is a system of pure grace—a system which teaches us to act toward others on the principle of pure grace, as we have been acted on by the Father. It is not "eye for eye, tooth for tooth"; it is not what justice requires, the law of retaliation, or equity, but a principle according to which I ought to be perfect, as my Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). But it will not be mere grace that is suffering evil and doing good in the government of Jehovah.
Jehovah, without doubt, will bless the nations; but the character of His kingdom is that "judgment shall return unto righteousness" (Psalm 94:15). At the first coming of Jesus Christ, judgment was with Pilate, and righteousness with Jesus; but when Jesus shall return, judgment shall be united to righteousness. The people of Christ now, the children of God, ought to follow the example of the Savior; that is, not expect or wish that judgment should be in the rigor of righteousness, but they should be gentle and humble in the midst of all the wrongs which they suffer on the part of man. United to Christ, they are indemnified for all their wrongs in the strength of His intimate love which comforts them by the consolations of the presence of His Spirit and, more than this, by the hopes of the heavenly glory. On the other hand, Jehovah will console His people by the direct acting of His righteousness in their favor (see Psalm 65:5), and by reestablishing them in earthly glory.
The Jews then are the people by whom, and in whom, God sustains His name of Jehovah, and His character of judgment and righteousness. The Church are the people in whom, as in His family, the Father reveals His character of goodness and love.