Tag Archives: my people

BELOVED GENTILES

Bible Study, ,

BELOVED GENTILES

“As He says in Hosea: ‘I will call them “my people” who are not my people; and I will call her “my loved one” who is not my loved one,’ and “in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called “children of the living God.”

“Isaiah cried out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence on earth with speed and finality.’

“It is just as Isaiah said previously, ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.'” Romans 9:25-29.

Paul was concerned that his own people had got it back-to-front. They considered themselves God’s privileged people; therefore they were high on the agenda of God’s priorities while the Gentiles, who were scum in their eyes, and naturally, in God’s eyes as well, according to them, were the rejected ones.

But God had other ideas. Through Hosea’s own tragic experience, He had shown Israel that, because of their unbelief, they had become the rejected ones. Like the loose woman whom Hosea married and who bore children that were not his, God’s people were living like spiritual prostitutes and reproducing themselves in their offspring, and not children who loved and obeyed God. Hosea reflected, in the naming of Gomer’s children, God’s attitude towards His people. ‘Not my people! Not loved!” was His cry against them.

However, it is not in God’s nature to go back on His word. He had called Israel to be His own people and, despite their disobedience, He promised that there would always be a remnant who would remain true to Him. From them He would rebuild the nation – a people who would be true to Him and who would fulfil His desire to call the Gentiles into faith as well.

Through God’s mercy, there were many Jews who embraced Jesus as their Messiah and the restoration of God’s rule on earth, and went forth in obedience to Him to take the good news to the world. The rest of the Jews, in their mistaken racial pride, persecuted the remnant for daring to include Gentiles in a relationship with God which they believed belonged exclusively to them.

Paul and his fellow apostles tasted the viciousness of their opposition in every city and town they visited. So relentless was their campaign against them that Paul cried out to God for relief.

“In order to keep me from becoming conceited, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties for, when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10.

What was Paul saying? Just as God had warned Israel in the early days of their nationhood, that they would be persecuted by those who rejected His ways (Numbers 33:55; Judges 2; 3), so now the Jews who rejected Jesus were thorns in the flesh of believers. They disqualified themselves from receiving God’s mercy, opening the door for the Gentiles to become part of the people of God.

The unbelieving Jews had themselves to thank, in the sovereign plan of God, for giving the opportunity to the despised Gentiles to hear the gospel from the very men who had preached to them and offered them the first choice to receive their Messiah. Paul had decided that he would no longer waste his efforts on them. To the Gentiles he would go – and they received the message gladly!

Acknowledgement

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

A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

Bible Study, , ,

A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

“I speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:1-5.

What an illustrious pedigree the Jewish people have! Is it any wonder that they are so hated by the rest of the world! The devil has made sure that God and anyone or anything that has to do with Him is thoroughly vilified.

Since the call of Abraham, the Jews have been the most blessed and privileged people on earth. From the first family, they have been surrounded by God’s protection and provision. Abraham was called from his idolatrous environment in Ur to a journey of raw faith in a God who was unseen but real to him. He heard Him speak and learned to follow His instructions with amazing results.

Who else, at the age of one hundred years, when his wife was old and barren, became a father because God said he would? Who else was so blessed that he became so rich and famous in a foreign land as a nomad that he was respected wherever he went?

Abraham’s descendants became so numerous in Egypt that they were a threat to the Pharaoh of a new dynasty who disregarded Joseph’s contribution to his nation? Who else was delivered from slavery in such a dramatic way that it became their signature? God, Israel and deliverance were tied together as their unforgettable identity. “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Who else received a constitution for their nation, written on stone by His own finger, that has never been surpassed? God’s covenant with His people, if faithfully obeyed, would have elevated them above all other nations in their care for one another and for the foreigners who found shelter among them. It bound them to God in an indestructible union in which He pledged to live among them and be their God. What a God to worship! To belong to Him was the safest relationship in the entire universe.

What other nation had the glorious presence of their God in a visible representation within the very building in which they worshipped Him? Other nations had gods of wood and stone but they were as dead as the material that represented them. Only the God of Israel was among them, symbolised by the unearthly light that radiated His glory from the mercy seat between the golden cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant.

No other temple on earth was as beautiful or lavishly adorned as the temple that Solomon built as a place of worship for his God. It was David’s dream to honour the God he adored with the best he could give – a dream carried out by his son – as a permanent and visible reminder of the glory of their God who was among them.

What other God wanted a family of sons and daughters who would live in harmony with Him and with each other in an eternal bond of love? What other God came in person to His people to tell them and show them how much He loved them – so much, in fact, that He paid the debt of their sin by giving His own life for them?

Is it any wonder that Paul grieved for his people, so much so that, if possible, he would have forfeited his own place in the family of God for them, if only they would believe? But Paul knew, just as it had taken a mind-blowing encounter with the living Christ to convince him of the truth, that his people needed the power of the gospel through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to faith in their Messiah.

It had happened in Jerusalem fifty days after the resurrection, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers and the church was born, Jewish to the core. But, once again, the stubborn hearts of his people turned them from the Messiah and drove many of them into becoming bullying persecutors.

And Paul grieved for their loss.

Acknowledgement

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

Beloved Gentiles

Bible Study, , ,

BELOVED GENTILES

“As He says in Hosea: ‘I will call them “my people” who are not my people; and I will call her “my loved one” who is not my loved one,’ and “in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called “children of the living God.”

“Isaiah cried out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence on earth with speed and finality.’

“It is just as Isaiah said previously, ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.'” Romans 9:25-29.

Paul was concerned that his own people had got it back-to-front. They considered themselves God’s privileged people; therefore they were high on the agenda of God’s priorities while the Gentiles, who were scum in their eyes, and naturally, in God’s eyes as well, according to them, were the rejected ones.

But God had other ideas. Through Hosea’s own tragic experience, He had shown Israel that, because of their unbelief, they had become the rejected ones. Like the loose woman whom Hosea married and who bore children that were not his, God’s people were living like spiritual prostitutes and reproducing themselves in their offspring, and not children who loved and obeyed God. Hosea reflected, in the naming of Gomer’s children, God’s attitude towards His people. ‘Not my people! Not loved!” was His cry against them.

But it is not in God’s nature to go back on His word. He had called Israel to be His own people and, in spite of their disobedience, He promised that there would always be a remnant who would remain true to Him. From them He would rebuild the nation – a people who would be true to Him and who would fulfil His desire to call the Gentiles into faith as well.

Through God’s mercy, there were many Jews who embraced Jesus as their Messiah and the restoration of God’s rule on earth, and went forth in obedience to Him to take the good news to the world. The rest of the Jews, in their mistaken racial pride, persecuted the remnant for daring to include Gentiles in a relationship with God which they believed belonged exclusively to them.

Paul and his fellow apostles tasted the viciousness of their opposition in every city and town they visited. So relentless was their campaign against them that Paul cried out to God for relief.

“In order to keep me from becoming conceited, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties for, when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10.

What was Paul saying? Just as God had warned Israel in the early days of their nationhood, that they would be persecuted by those who rejected His ways (Numbers 33:55; Judges 2; 3), so now the Jews who rejected Jesus were thorns in the flesh of believers. They disqualified themselves from receiving God’s mercy, opening the door for the Gentiles to become part of the people of God.

The unbelieving Jews had themselves to thank, in the sovereign plan of God, for giving the opportunity to the despised Gentiles to hear the gospel from the very men who had preached to them and offered them the first choice to receive their Messiah. Paul had decided that he would no longer waste his efforts on them. To the Gentiles he would go – and they received the message gladly!

Acknowledgement

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

 

A Privileged People

Bible Study, , , ,

A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

“I speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:1-5.

What an illustrious pedigree the Jewish people have! Is it any wonder that they are so hated by the rest of the world! The devil has made sure that God and anyone or anything that has to do with Him is thoroughly vilified.

Since the call of Abraham, the Jews have been the most blessed and privileged people on earth. From the first family, they have been surrounded by God’s protection and provision. Abraham was called from his idolatrous environment in Ur to a journey of raw faith in a God who was unseen but real to him. He heard Him speak and learned to follow His instructions with amazing results.

Who else, at the age of one hundred years, when his wife was old and barren, became a father because God said he would? Who else was so blessed that he became so rich and famous in a foreign land that he was respected wherever he went, although he was a nomad?

Abraham’s descendants became so numerous in Egypt that they were a threat to the Pharaoh of a new dynasty who disregarded Joseph’s contribution to his nation? Who else was delivered from slavery in such a dramatic way that it became their signature? God, Israel and deliverance were tied together as their unforgettable identity. “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Who else received a constitution for their nation, written on stone by His own finger, that has never been surpassed? God’s covenant with His people, if faithfully obeyed, would have elevated them above all other nations in their care for one another and for the foreigners who found shelter among them. It bound them to God in an indestructible union in which He pledged to live among them and be their God. What a God to worship! To belong to Him was the safest relationship in the entire universe.

What other nation had the glorious presence of their God in a visible representation within the very building in which they worshipped Him? Other nations had gods of wood and stone but they were as dead as the material that represented them. Only the God of Israel was among them, symbolised by the unearthly light that radiated His glory from the mercy seat between the golden cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant.

No other temple on earth was as beautiful or lavishly adorned as the temple that Solomon built as a place of worship for his God. It was David’s dream to honour the God he adored with the best he could give – a dream carried out by his son – as a permanent and visible reminder of the glory of their God who was among them.

What other God wanted a family of sons and daughters who would live in harmony with Him and with each other in an eternal bond of love? What other God came in person to His people to tell them and show them how much He loved them – so much, in fact, that He paid the debt of their sin by giving His own life for them?

Is it any wonder that Paul grieved for his people, so much so that, if possible, he would have forfeited his own place in the family of God for them, if only they would believe? But Paul knew, just as it had taken a mind-blowing encounter with the living Christ to convince him of the truth, so his people needed the power of the gospel through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to faith in their Messiah.

It had happened in Jerusalem fifty days after the resurrection, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers and the church was born, Jewish to the core. But, once again, the stubborn hearts of his people turned them from the Messiah and drove many of them into becoming bullying persecutors.

And Paul grieved for their loss.

Acknowledgement

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