Today's Reading
Deuteronomy. This is more than a refresher on the Ten Commandments. It is a word picture of the possibilities if God's people will completely follow Him and teach succeeding generations to do the same. It includes the need to resist temptation. God was setting Israel up as His people through whom the whole earth could know about Him. They failed. Will we?
Luke. I am moved by the compassion Jesus showed when healing the widow's son. Then He uses John the Baptizer as an example to demonstrate the religious leaders' blindness. You and I must beware of rejecting the true works of God because they come packaged in a way we didn't anticipate.
Psalms. I like the verse today: "Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past."
Often the best way to prepare for today's challenge is to remember God's previous acts of faithfulness to us.
Proverbs. "Those who bring trouble on their families inherit the wind." When you think about it, that is downright scary.
Your comments and questions bring great insight to the rest of us. What's on your mind today?
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Concerning your comment "God was setting Israel up as His people through whom the whole earth could know about Him. They failed. Will we?", consider Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's commentary on Romans 11:18 -
ReplyDelete"If the branches may not boast over the root that bears them, then may not the Gentile boast over the seed of Abraham; for what is thy standing, O Gentile, in relation to Israel, but that of a branch in relation to the root? From Israel hath come all that thou art and hast in the family of God; for" salvation is of the Jews "(John 4: 22).
I agree. Joshua and Caleb entered in to the promised land. Their descendants faithfully defended and maintained God's Word from generation to generation, just as God had commanded.
And, precisely because they safeguarded and meticulously transcribed God's word, we now have the words of the New Covenant, written primarily by believing Jews who spread the good news of the Messiah to untold numbers of people and planted the first congregations far and wide. In so doing, these men are described as having "turned the world upside down"! (Acts 17:6)
Faithful Jews (and even unfaithful ones) have suffered, and continue to suffer for their faith. From my viewpoint, which I believe is a Biblical one, the world owes the Jewish people a debt a gratitude and an acknowledgement of the many blessings they have brought to the world not only spiritually, but also pragmatically!
At the very least, our thinking about the Jews ought to reflect the tenderness of God's heart for them...
33:19 This word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu [Jeremiah]: 20 "Here is what ADONAI says:
'If you can break my covenant with the day
and my covenant with the night, so that daytime and nighttime no longer come when they are supposed to,
21 then my covenant with my servant David
also can be broken, so that he will not have a descendant to reign from his throne
or L'vi'im who are cohanim [priests]
to minister to me.
22 To the degree that the armies of heaven are past counting and the sand by the sea past measuring, I will increase the descendants of my servant David and the L'vi'im ministering to me.'"
23 This word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu: 24 "Haven't you noticed that these people are saying, 'ADONAI has rejected the two families he chose'? Hence they despise my people and no longer look at them as a nation. 25 Here is what ADONAI says: 'If I have not established my covenant with day and night and fixed the laws for sky and earth, 26 then I will also reject the descendants of Ya'akov [Jacob] and of my servant David, not choosing from his descendants people to rule over the descendants of Avraham, Yits'chak [Isaac] and Ya'akov. For I will cause their captives to come back, and I will show them compassion.'"
-Jeremiah 33:19-26 (and the entire chapter) CJB
"But Tziyon [Zion-Israel] says, 'ADONAI has abandoned me,
Adonai has forgotten me.'
15 Can a woman forget her child at the breast,
not show pity on the child from her womb?
Even if these were to forget,
I would not forget you.
16 I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,
your walls are always before me."
-Isaiah 49:14-16 (CJB)
"Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.
- Isaiah 44:21 (NIV)
C2L, you have put forth an excellent argument which I will answer with caution. I have no disagreement with your thoughts, but I believe we have shown opposite sides of the same issue. Consequently, I stand by my original statement. Jesus Himself was the one who said (Matthew 15:8), "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are from from me."
ReplyDeleteYou have rightly said that, "At the very least, our thinking about the Jews ought to reflect the tenderness of God's heart for them..." Do we owe them a debt of gratitude? Yes! Can we learn from their mistakes? Also, yes!
As someone who has served in a pastor role for most of my life, I can similarly be quick to point out that we stand on the shoulders of church leaders who paid a steep price to plant the fellowships we call our spiritual homes. While forever grateful to them, I can just as quickly make the case that the failure of many of those same churches to adapt has left them spiritually anemic and, in some cases, at the end of their ecclesiastical lives.
The mistakes made by others aren't always as earth-shaking as our own, but they are usually far less expensive!
My point is not that the people Israel is perfect, or that we can't learn from their mistakes. Of course we can and I pray we do! My point is simply that not ALL of Israel has failed to be a light to the nations.
ReplyDeleteQuite the opposite is true, God's word recounts a long list of imperfect Hebrews in both the Old and New Covenants who were faithful in spite of their flaws. Not only were Jesus, the Apostles, and most of the writers of the New Covenant Jewish, but also, faith in Yeshua began as an offshoot of Judaism within the synagogue walls.
When Yeshua quoted Isaiah in Matthew chapter 15, he was addressing the Pharisees and the Torah-teachers. He was not addressing the entire nation. Therefore, it is not true that "they [the Jews] failed".
Now, the Israelites of the generation that received the commandments at Sinai DID fail. Well, most of them did. All but Caleb and Joshua failed to enter the promised land. Even the great leader-prophet Moses failed to enter.
However, Moses had already fulfilled God's command to be a light to the nations. Indeed, God, foretelling of Yeshua, promises his faithful servant Moses, "I will raise up for them [Israel] a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him. Whoever doesn’t listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, will have to account for himself to me. (Deuteronomy 18:18–19) CJB
I know you well enough, Sam, to say that you don't have an ounce of prejudice or antisemitism in your body. So, I'm not sure exactly how to word this, but what I am really trying to express is that it's very easy to say that the Jews failed (some even say that the Jews killed Christ). In other words, there is still a great deal of antisemitism in this world, and I think some of it is unintentional, and some of it stems from ignorance. And I believe this grieves the heart of God because it causes a wall of separation between the Jewish people and Himself.
May God bless us to show His mercy and love to His people Israel so they may be provoked to jealousy, so they will receive their promised Messiah, in Yeshua's name, so be it!
Point well-made, C2L. Thanks for your insight!
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