The Root and the Branches
In the previous posting we began to think about how we can understand the Israel of today and the Israel that overwhelmingly determines the content of the entire word of God, Gt as Nt. In some peculiar way, Israel is required to have a standard for its actions that no other people are expected to have. They are expected to kindly and obediently accept the right of their enemies to kill Jews but are not allowed to kill those who have chosen that as their life’s mission. They are in fact surrounded by killers who deny them the right to kill. Jews are expected to be more ethically superior than those around them, but if they are they are paid with more violence and more condemnation and are accused of arrogance and haughtiness. Simply because they will never again allow themselves to be brought to the precipice of death. The Jews are judged by standards others have no intention to uphold for themselves.
Prophecy declares
No one can read the prophets of the former covenant without noticing that this poor Jewish people exhibit every conceivable reason for the history of their suffering. They almost had it all, but often blew it all away. Their place in God’s sovereign election of those who are the people through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed obligates them in a way that no other people has ever experienced. Anyone who has read Deuteronomy chapters 28-29 knows that with great blessings come equally great conditions. Israel is the true rootstock, the original Olive Tree. The future fate of all the peoples of the world is connected with how these nations have acted towards Israel, but first God has shown that He does not turn a blind eye to Israel’s sin, and therefore neither to the sins of the other nations.
It emerges from one prophet after another that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is harsh towards His own. That He demands of them a higher standard than the others allow themselves. It is significant in its own way that it is the author of the Letter to the Hebrews who describes without hesitation the way in which God the Father raises his sons. But Israel has not yet opened its eyes to the hard mercy of grace. Read with me Hebrews 12:4-11, and note especially the quote from Proverbs 3:11. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or lose heart when he disciplines you, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he disciplines every son he loves .” Israel’s history to this day has these elements: the privileged are held accountable for how they live in the world into which they have come through the providence of a loving God. They did not choose themselves for their special position.
Chosen people, reason enough to hate
The almost universal and growing hatred for the Jews is partly due to the fact that God chose them for the specific task of “preparing the way of the Lord.” But the reason for this choice of God is not based on any notion that this particular people would be better, more morally upright, blameless, and superior to other peoples. Nor is the accusation that Satan likes to use to smear Job true .
“Job worships you only because you have surrounded him with blessings, but put out your hand and touch everything he has, and Job will curse you to your face!” Job 1:9-11
Of course there are and were Jews who, in arrogance and pride, misunderstood the meaning of God’s choice of them as his covenant people. But then again they are not the first or the last to have a superiority complex. But they have in their Torah the crystal clear message that any such hubris, such a notion of their superiority is not justified at all. They read aloud every year from Deuteronomy 7:7 onwards:
“It was not because you were more than any other people that the Lord chose you, for you were the least of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he had sworn to your fathers that the Lord brought you out of the house of slavery, from the hand of the king of Egypt, from the hand of Pharaoh.”
God has chosen what was nothing in the world. Not so that they would exalt themselves and believe themselves to be better than others, but so that through them, and all that God has given them, blessing will come to all those who did not belong to them. It is a pain in the eyes of the world that >Jews excel in everything they attempt to do.
The purpose of the call was not an end in itself or an excuse for the kind of national pride that has historically brought one arrogant nation or civilization to the abode of its shadows. Israel has paid many times over for its recurrent apostasy, but no apostasy in a generation has yet prevented this people from rising again. And today’s Israel is no exception. Since 1948 they have been rising, but as a people they do not yet understand that they have God to thank for it. Nor are they more righteous than other peoples. They are sinners in desperate need of their Messiah, their saving God. But even today there is a remnant of God’s people in Israel. Their sins they are as many as those of all other godless people.
Blessed to be a blessing
They were blessed in order to bless. Now in our day they are cursed by those who do not understand that cursing them is the sealing of our own ruin. It seems inevitable that if I curse those through whom the blessing came or would come, I will lose that blessing. The Spirit of God warns in the scriptures that those who curse Israel cannot expect mercy from the God of Israel. We do not bless Israel because they have not yet become what they will be in the future, but because they will become what they are not yet. Like all other people, they have the right to act as they find right and necessary. God is the one who will judge. “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” “If God did not spare his son..”
Root and branch
Paul addresses this phenomenon in his detailed description in Romans 9 to 11. With several symbols from the former covenant, he argues about Israel’s place within the framework of God’s future order with clear strokes of the pen. Read from 11:16.
“If the firstfruits are holy, the whole lump is holy. And if the root is holy, the branches are also holy. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and became partaker of the nourishing root of the true olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you boast, know that it is not you who bears the root, but the root bears you.”
It is very easy to forget that we did not invent the wheel or that life did not begin with us. It eats away at our self-image that we are just a small branch on a gigantic tree, and that the tree’s existence does not depend on us one iota. The immense arrogance that dismisses Israel and the Jews from their root is completely misguided. Just listen to what follows.
“Now you may object: “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” It is true, they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.”
The idea that we would have replaced the Jews or the Jewish believers is fundamentally wrong. God has not given up and has never taken back his promises to them. And that promise includes both the physical territory of Israel and the new city of Jerusalem and the Son of David Messiah as King of Kings over all the nations of the world.
“Brothers, I want you to be aware of this mystery so that you may not be arrogant in your own eyes: a hardening has happened to part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written.”
There is one further statement to be added. This time from Romans 15:8-10
“Receive one another, then, just as Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the father’s, and thus the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, ‘Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and will sing praises to your name. And again it says: Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”
The Israel of God and the Gentiles are inextricably joined together. Gentiles are not shown mercy at the removal of mercy from Israel, but together with. What God has joined together, let no man rent asunder. The primary ministry of Christ was to reassure the Israelites that Gods promises to Abraham stand the test of time.What did the apostles think of this?
Jesus’ disciples were absolutely certain that a restoration of Israel and the house of David would come. Hours before Jesus Christ was to return to his Father, these twelve asked the question, “Lord, is it now the time for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?” What was the answer? “It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.” Shortly afterward, he was taken from their sight, and while they were trying to come to terms with this, they learned that what the prophet Zechariah had seen and related in chapter 14 of the book of Zechariah would be fulfilled.
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Zechariah saw this fulfilled.
“In that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem on the east… Then the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with you.” Zechariah 14:4, 5.
But the question of when this will happen is not yet answered. But one thing is certain, what is happening in the world now is part of the upheaval. And the answer is found in Acts 3:19-21 Our future is no more in heaven than it was vain for the disciples to stand and stare at the sky.
“But God has fulfilled what he had foretold through all his prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets.”
Remember that the Lord Himself had made it clear that His ascension would not be followed by ours. John 3:13
“No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
The restoration of Israel must come when all things are prepared here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is never established in heaven, although it is a heavenly kingdom. John heard and saw where the kingdom was to be established. The fallacy of salvation being the “robbing the earth of people to populate heaven” is a well ingrained myth, but is not a true myth.
“And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, for you were slain, and with your blood you redeemed people for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation . You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth .” Rev 5:9-10
It is far too early to write off Israel especially if you believe you are bought with the blood of the Lamb of God. The kingdom of God that we pray for in most churches to come has always been on its way from heaven to here. And when the Jewish people see Christ they will see Him whom they have pierced and repent and mourn for Him as one mourns for a firstborn son.
Zech 12:9-12
“Write off Israel and you will write yourself out of the Book of Life.”
True or false? Discuss..
Teddy Donobauer