Monthly Archives: May 2021

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING!

Bible Study, ,

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING!

“But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!” Romans 11:12.

Now there’s a thought!

If the door of God’s grace was opened to the Gentiles because the Jews refused it, and blessing came to the whole world instead of to only one small group, just imagine what would happen if the Jews as a people, and not just individuals here and there, were to receive Jesus as their Messiah. The entire Jewish nation, not only those in Israel but those who are scattered all over the globe, would be a blessing wherever they are! Isn’t that what God promised Abraham?

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2, 3.

However, that does not give the Gentile believers any cause to gloat. We who are not the natural descendants of Abraham, have no reason to think that, because the Jews refused their Messiah and we received Him, that we are any better than they.

“I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and so save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” Romans 11:13-16.

Paul was doing much more than expressing wishful thinking or inventing a reason for believing that the Jews will still play a big part in God’s plan for the world. His reasoning was based on a solid Biblical principle which applies anywhere and everywhere. It’s called terumah or the firstfuits offering.

From the beginning of time, God required the first portion of the increase of the harvest, and the firstborn of the flocks and herds to be given to Him. Hence Abel’s offering of the firstborn of his flock was acceptable while Cain’s sacrifice of “some of the harvest” was unacceptable because he did not honour God first. The terumah, offered to God and given to the high priest to support him and his family, guaranteed God’s blessing on the rest of the harvest.

“Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfuits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9, 10.

Israel was God’s “firstborn” son, set apart and belonging to Him. Every firstborn son belonged to God and had to be redeemed by the payment of a sum of money to the high priest. God redeemed Israel through the blood of a lamb – symbolising the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He took the Levites to be His special tribe in place of all the firstborn of the nation. 

“I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, for all the firstborn are mine.” Numbers 3:11-13.

Therefore, according to Paul, if the Israelites were holy, set apart for God, then the rest of the harvest (the world) is holy. Since the door of grace has already been opened to the Gentiles because the Jews, God’s firstborn, refused Him, in order for the blessing which has come to the world through Abraham’s descendants to be authentic, the firstfruits of the harvest must be given to God – that’s the Jews.

Paul, basing his case on sound Biblical truth and in a kind of reverse reasoning, argued that, since the rest of the harvest is already being blessed i.e., the Gentiles, the full harvest of His people, the Jews, must be blessed and gathered in as well since the firstfuits, the Jews, were gathered in at Pentecost.

That puts paid to the teaching that God is finished with the Jews. He cannot be because He is always true to His word and His nature. The firstfruits and the full harvest are inextricably tied together. Since the blessing of Abraham has already come to the Gentiles, it must still come on the Jews because they are his natural offspring. By faith in their Messiah, they will also become his spiritual children and the full harvest, which began with the first believers who were Jews, will be gathered in.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

DON’T BLAME GOD

Bible Study, ,

DON’T BLAME GOD

“What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly, they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear to this very day.”

“And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”

“And again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.” Romans 11:7-11.

Paul is adamant that, although most of the Jews forfeited their place in the New Covenant because of their unbelief, God still has a remnant, as He had throughout their tragic history, who have not “bowed the knee to Baal.” Scattered throughout the earth today there are many Jewish people who have recognised and embraced the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. They are counted among God’s people as the spiritual sons of Abraham and members of the “Israel of God” because of their faith.

There is a serious warning in Paul’s words about the Jews. Before God endorsed their choices, He gave them many opportunities to listen to His entreaty and to return to Him, but they refused. He sent prophets time and again to both the southern and the northern kingdoms, calling the people back to God and warning them of the consequences of their stubborn unbelief.

They had the example of their ancestors who perished in the wilderness because they refused to trust God and obey His instructions. Their unceasing complaints and rebellion angered Him so much that He withdrew His protection, and left them to suffer the ravages of the desert. Fiery serpents bit them and many died until they cried out to God. In His mercy, He delivered them and healed those who looked in faith at the brass snake He had commanded Moses to make.

No amount of miraculous intervention could convince them that God was real and that He meant what He said. They cried for help when the chips were down, only to pursue their old ways as soon as things were back to normal. As then, so now, miracles do not produce faith. Faith produces miracles. God purposely put them to the test, allowing them suffer hunger and thirst to see whether they would trust Him or not. Their hardships exposed their wicked hearts of unbelief. They tried God’s patience until He gave them what they confessed – death in the desert.

“Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter His rest if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.” Hebrews 3:16-19.

In all of Paul’s discussion about the fate of the Jews, let us not miss the message meant for his readers. The Jews chose unbelief and hardness of heart in response to God’s grace. They could hardly blame God for the outcome since He confirmed their choice, not His, with blindness and deafness. We too, cannot blame God for what we get because the invitation is His but the initiative to believe is ours.

Yet, for the Jews, the door of grace still stands open and will remain open until Jesus comes. As we read on, we shall learn of God’s purpose for them. But what of us? The Word of God assures us that, as long as it is still “today”, we have an opportunity to turn away from our man-made beliefs and receive, by faith, the gift of righteousness. There is still a rest from our own self-effort into which we can enter and receive what Jesus did for us. “It is finished!” He declared, on the cross. Everything God promised in the Old Covenant was completed at that moment.

“Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today”, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness…There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:1; 3:13; 4:9-11.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

IS GOD FINISHED WITH ISRAEL?

Bible Study, ,

IS GOD FINISHED WITH ISRAEL?

“I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah – how he appealed to God against Israel. ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’? And what was God’s answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So, too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” Romans 11:1-6.

There is a stream of teaching in the church today that says that God has washed His hands of the Jews. If Paul were here, he would vehemently defend the argument of Scripture that God still has a plan for them in spite of their mass rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. ‘If not,’ says Paul, ‘then why is it that I, who am an Israelite and a descendant of Abraham, am also one of his spiritual sons, by faith in Jesus?’

The Bible teaches that there are two “Israels” – natural Israel, those who are the physical descendants of Abraham, and spiritual Israel, those who follow Abraham’s example of faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Not all natural Israel are God’s children because they have rejected Jesus, set up their own standard of righteousness and fallen short of God’s requirement, perfection. On the other hand, Gentiles who have no claim to Abrahamic descent, have been welcomed into the family of God because they did what Abraham did; they believed God’s promise and received His righteousness as a free gift. And this when they were not even actively seeking Him!

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. Romans 9:6-8

What Paul is clearly teaching is that God has established a new covenant with Israel, not based on the law but based on the one who perfectly fulfilled the law. Only those who receive and participate in this new covenant are the true people of God. Jews and Gentiles are included in the New Covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus.

This covenant was not an afterthought. It is the central message of the Bible and the fulfilment of God’s covenant with Abraham. The Mosaic covenant was an interim agreement by which God set up His holy standards to show His people what was needed to be accepted and which was intended to show them just how far short they fell and how impossible it was to achieve the righteousness acceptable to God by their own efforts.

No, God did not reject the Jews, but He did show them that they are no different from the Gentiles. They have to come to God in exactly the same way as any non-Jew – through the one whom God appointed to be the mediator – His Son, whom He sent to be the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

However, at the same time, does that mean that He has no further use for the Jews as a nation? Does He treat them as He does any other nation on earth? He chose Abraham and promised that He would make of him a great nation and through him all the nations on earth would be blessed. Did God cancel His promise to Abraham? Did He go back on what He had said simply because Israel failed to keep their side of the agreement? Does that make God’s sovereign plans subject to human failure?

Some argue that God is finished with the Jews; that He wiped His hands of them when they crucified their Messiah. That’s the reason the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD and scattered the Jews. That’s why Hitler exterminated millions during WW2. That’s why the world is against Israel today and the Arab nations are bent on wiping the Jews from the face of the earth – so they say.

But is that what God’s Word says? We shall have to read on to find out what God has to say about Israel…

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.