Hebrew New Year 5777

This year will be a year of completion of the old and stepping into complete and total restoration beginning with grace.  This has definitely been the case so far and the New Year hasn’t even begun yet.  Grace has been a constant friend over the last few months.  I have felt God's grace strengthening me and empowering me to keep going and not to give up on the promises He has given me.

The evening of October 2nd begins Rosh Hashanah 5777, the New Year on the Hebrew calendar.  We are in the Hebrew month of Elul. This month is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Tradition teaches that the month of Elul is a time for repentance.  This repentance builds throughout the month of Elul until Rosh Hashanah, and finally to Yom Kippur.

I found it particularly interesting that the name of the month Elul (spelled  אלול Alef-Lamed-Vav-Lamed) is said to be an acronym of “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li” which is “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine”. Also in Aramaic the word “Elul” means “search” which goes along with the theme of searching our hearts in repentance.

For those of you who know me this verse in Song of Songs 6:3, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine…” is very near to my heart and speaks to me of my relationship with Yeshua. (I have been wearing these words around my neck since 2009 and never take it off) I believe the fact that this month is Elul speaks to the love the Father has for His people and He calls us to repentance out of that love.  We are His beloved and He is ours so He is ever calling us higher into that love.

The other day I was asking Him about a situation I have been going through for almost three months now.  I wanted His perspective on it because when I looked at it all I saw was confusion, hurt, and pain.  I have learned that if I ask Him who He is for me in situations and who I am actually becoming in the situation it helps me.  I can get through the situation faster and easier. I can begin to agree with His perspective and see myself the way He sees me.

His response to me was this. “My goal is to make you more like me in every aspect of your life.  A large part of that is love. From the beginning I have been teaching you how to love. There have been many times that you thought you were loving but then later realized it wasn’t about love at all but more about meeting your need.  If you will learn from this your capacity to love will grow exponentially. You are learning to love the way I love. This is possible because you are My daughter, with My DNA, and you are created in My image.  Anything is possible.”

With this information I was able to see clearly that the situation was not what I thought it was. It is about love and God creating in me the capacity to love the way He loves no matter the circumstance or person involved.  I am overwhelmed by His goodness toward me, always bringing me higher into Him, calling me to remember who He created me to be before the foundation of the world.  I know this month of Elul God is using trials and repentance to position me for the New Year to come and all the favor and blessings of complete restoration. He is so good!

Faith

Faith
The last few months have been such a time of stretching and pulling that I am beginning to feel like taffy. Many areas of my life have been affected. My housing, finances, relationships, abilities, and destiny have all come into question. I don’t think there is one area of my life where God is not at work. I know this is an opportunity for me to grow and mature in my relationship with God. No matter how difficult it may be I choose to allow Him to weed out anything that is not of Him. This is the only safe stance for me in this season.
Faith is no longer a vague, ethereal concept that has no boundaries and no foundation. I have come to know faith as a being that is a part of God and is available to me whenever I decide to engage it. I have learned that God, YHVH (Yahweh), Adonai, Yeshua, Ruach Kodesh (Hebrew for Holy Spirit) is so much more than I have ever realized in the past.  Every aspect of God that we may think we know and understand about Him is only a fraction of who He really is.  The many attributes of God that we “put our faith in” are not just characteristics of Him but are parts of Him that come along side us and live and breathe within us who believe.  They are just as real to us as the person sitting next to us. We can actually engage them as beings and still be engaging God because they are a part of Him.
Isaiah 11:2 says it this way about Yeshua, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirits of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirits of Counsel and Might, the Spirits of Knowledge and of the reverential and obedient Fear of the Lord.”  This verse says these Spirits rest upon Yeshua.  This means they are all individual and separate spirits that are from God but come alongside and engage with Yeshua.  As believers in Yeshua, the Scripture tells us in John 14 and 17 that we are in Him and He is in us. So if this is the case these Spirits rest upon us.  We can engage with them and receive from them all that we need.
I know this is a new way of looking at this but for me it helps to see the attributes and characteristics of God as beings I can engage with because it gives more weight to them. Faith, Wisdom, Hope, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Joy, Peace, Rest, Favor, Love, Fear of the Lord, and many, many more are right there at my disposal to engage and ask for help anytime, anywhere.  And Scripture tells us in 2Peter 1:2-3, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”  By truly knowing the fullness of who God is we are granted everything pertaining to life.  All we need is truly in knowing Him and every part of Him.
How can we truly know Faith if we don’t engage with Faith? The same goes for Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, etc.… How can we engage with something that is just a vague concept?
Over the last few months I’ve had to literally call out to Faith to give me strength and encouragement.  I’ve had to ask Faith to reveal to me where Hope is showing up in my life so I could engage it as well. I haven’t done this out loud but in my spirit.  My spirit man inside has been engaging with these ministering spirits to help me stay afloat in the natural and to strengthen and build up my spirit.  This way I can continue to operate out of my spirit instead of my soul.
When we go through hard times it is easy to allow our souls to take over and lead us into destructive and even painful places. If our spirits are strong, we won’t stay in those destructive and painful places for very long because we feel the grieving of the Holy Spirit over our lives.  Many times our spirits will kick in and begin to do things that our soul has no concept of in order to bring us back to a place of union with the Holy Spirit inside of us.  As we engage with our spirits and really pay attention to what it has been doing our souls will then receive revelation and understanding about God, about our situation, and about ourselves that causes us to grow and mature.
God has allowed me to go through things so that I could more fully understand His attributes and character that are available to me.  In the midst of the hardest things we face there are ministering angels (spirit beings), who are a part of God’s very nature, and are available to us. It’s our choice to receive God’s gift of Himself or reject it.
Hebrews 1:14, “Are not the angels ministering spirits sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Replacement Theology Article 5 One New Man

One New Man

Eph. 2:14-15, For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony).  He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enemy [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace. (Amplified)

“In the Temple court there was a wall separating the court of the Gentiles and the court of the Jews, the court of the Women and the court of the Men. No longer in Christ are those walls separating our place in relationship to worship our God. We are One in Christ. Our identity as men and women Jew and Gentile remain intact but our separation because of the laws of man has been abolished by the love of God in the sacrifice of His Son.” Joan Masterson One In Messiah Ministries

Paul is writing to the Gentile believers to make it clear to them that they are now, in Christ, one new man with the Jewish believers.  He later says in Ephesians 3:6, “the Gentiles are now to be fellow heirs [with the Jews], members of the same body and joint partakers [sharing] in the same divine promise in Christ through [their acceptance of] the glad tidings (the Gospel).”

 So what is this “divine promise in Christ” that we as Gentile believers share in with the Jewish believers?  Leviticus 26:45 begins to shed light on it, “Rather, for their sakes, I will remember the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt — with the nations watching — so that I might be their God; I am Adonai.” Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

This is the promise that the same God that brought Israel out of the land of Egypt is our God too!   The powerful covenant keeping God, ADONAI is also the God of the Gentiles.  Paul also further explains this promise and the blessings that come from it in Romans 10:11-12.  “No man who believes in Him will ever be put to shame or be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord over all [of us] and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him [in faith].”

The Word of God is full of the promises to His people the Jewish nation that we as Gentile believers can also enjoy as a result of being grafted into the olive branch through belief in Yeshua. (Romans 11:17)

This idea of a One New Man has been on the heart of Father God from the beginning.  We can see an example of His heart coming through Jacob to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis 48:5.  “And now your two sons, [Ephraim and Manasseh], who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. [I am adopting them, and now] as Reuben and Simeon, [they] shall be mine.” 

Jacob took the first born sons of Joseph and made them his own giving them equal inheritance with Joseph and his brothers. This is a picture of God adopting the Gentiles as His own and putting them on equal ground with the true inheritors of the promises of God.

  

We as Gentiles have our faith, our promise, our blessing because of the Jewish nation.  It is their God who became our God through Yeshua Ha Meshiach (Jesus the Messiah).  Once we realize this is the case, it changes our whole perspective of the Jewish people and Judaism.  

Cannon Andrew White wrote it this way in his booklet, Older Younger Brother, “The fact that our faith came from Judaism meant that there was no contradiction between my beliefs and the Torah.”  He further goes on to say that much of the problems we face in society today are a result of the Gentile Church detaching itself from its Jewish roots. “…the Church has detached itself from its Jewish roots…seeking to accommodate secularism by going with the flow – bowing to the tide of family breakdown, embracing multiculturalism and seeking to be non-judgmental.  The outcome has been that, faced with a society descending into moral chaos, the Church has followed suit. Believing that we all have to respect each other’s truths, it can no longer uphold truth itself.  Of course judgments – making distinctions between good and bad, right and wrong, justice and injustice – lie at the very heart of the ethical traditions of the Hebrew Bible upon which Christianity and Western morality are based.  And it is those Jewish religious precepts, putting chains upon our appetites and upholding truth and justice, which are in the sights of the big guns of ‘non-judgmental’ secularism.” 

We must get back to our Jewish roots and be willing to humble ourselves in order to learn from our older brother. Our Savior was a Jewish man who studied and lived out of the Torah even while walking in the manifestation of the Kingdom here on earth. It was His heart that we work together to walk out the Kingdom here on earth just as He did.   John 17 beautifully attests to His heart for this as we read His prayer to the Father for the disciples and for us who have come to believe in Him through their word and teaching.

“Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching.  That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.  I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one; I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23

 I believe what Jesus was saying in this prayer to the Father was that His heart and the Father’s heart was for us to be One in Him and in the Father so that the rest of the world would have an opportunity to come to the saving knowledge of Yeshua.  He even went further to say that He has given us the same glory and honor that the Father gave Him so we can be One and perfectly united for one purpose the salvation of the world.  

We cannot be fully in the will of God if we are not One with our Jewish believers. Israel is called to represent God to the nations in order that the nations would be blessed.  The Jewish believer’s call goes further to present the nations with the source of that blessing, Yeshua Ha Meshiach, so they can fully come into relationship with the Father through Yeshua.  As Gentile believers we are called to the place of being One with our Jewish believers, as such their call becomes our call. If we are to embrace this call to the nations we must embrace once again our Jewish roots.

So what happens when we become One with our Jewish believers?  Romans 11:15 gives us a glimpse of the outcome.  “For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead!”

As we come into our calling as One New Man in Yeshua and fully engage all that means for us and the world, the world will have a revelation of Yeshua and the veil will be lifted.  All Israel will say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord,” and we will see life from the dead! (Matt. 23:39)

The next and last article I will post on this subject will look into this statement Paul made concerning the acceptance of the Jewish people bringing life from the dead.  What exactly does Paul mean by the phrase life from the dead and is it just for the Jewish people or is it for the entire world? 

Replacement Theology Article 4 Gentile Role in God's Plan

Over the last several months the Lord has put on my heart Isaiah 40:1-2, Comfort, Comfort My people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her time of service and her warfare are ended, that [her punishment is accepted and] her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received [punishment] from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

These verses hold a special place in my heart because I feel this is what the Lord has called me to do among the children of Israel.   It is interesting that Isaiah goes on in this chapter to say, A voice of one who cries; Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God!  This is clearly referenced in Mark 1:3 when he speaks of John the Baptist preparing the way for the Messiah to come. 

Then further in Isaiah 40, he says, O you who bring good tidings to Zion, get up to the high mountain.  O you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!  Behold, the Lord God will come with might, and His arm will rule for Him.  Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.  He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young. These Messianic references cannot be mistaken.

After reading through this chapter many times I feel my role as a Gentile is to do exactly what Isaiah is speaking, comfort the people of God and pray for their release from warfare; go up to the mountain of the Lord and proclaim Yeshua as Messiah who will bring life back to them just as John the Baptist did when he said of Yeshua, …He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of Whose sandals I am not fit to unfasten.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing shovel is in His hand to thoroughly clear and cleanse His threshing floor and to gather the wheat and store it in His granary, but the chaff He will burn with fire that cannot be extinguished. Luke 3:16-17.

Other Gentile believers may not see their role in the same way but I think it is important to explore what the Bible says our role should be in regard to Israel. Let’s start by looking at Romans 11.  Paul is addressing the Gentiles in this chapter because they had decided that God was finished with the Jews; that His promises to them were no longer in effect because they had fallen so far away from Him.  In verse 11 Paul writes, So I ask, Have they stumbled so as to fall?  By no means!  But through their false step and transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to arouse Israel [to see and feel what they forfeited] and so to make them jealous.

Paul is saying God allowed them to stumble so that we as Gentiles could have salvation and make them jealous so they would come back to Him.  Let me ask you, have you made a Jewish person jealous lately?  Does your life as a believer in Yeshua cause anyone to be jealous of what you have in His salvation?  What does that actually look like anyway?  According to Paul the only reason we actually have salvation is because God wanted to make the Jewish people jealous so they would come back to Him.  In my mind this puts a whole new spin on my relationship with Yeshua and Father God. 

If my love for Yeshua is genuine and I want to please the Father, my heart and mind will be on what is on His heart and mind.  Apparently that is the Jewish people.  Now does His love for them diminish in any way His love for me? Certainly not! As Paul writes in Romans 11:17…some of the branches were broken off, while you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share the richness of the root and sap of the olive tree…As believers we are grafted into the richness of the family of God and share in all the blessings and promises that were made to the Jewish people. God’s purposes don’t always make sense to us but they are always good and bring us to a place of fullness in Him.  There are many instances in the Bible where God used Gentiles to bring about blessings for the Jewish people.  In every case the Gentiles He used were blessed as well. So although He is the God of the Jewish people and His heart is toward them we as Gentiles also get to benefit from the promises He made to them and enjoy the fullness of relationship we can find in Him.

Paul further writes …Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in! That is true. But they were broken off because of their unbelief and you are established through faith [because you do believe].  So do not become proud and conceited, but rather stand in awe and be reverently afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.  Then note and appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God….otherwise you too will be cut off. (Romans 11:19-22)  We must watch our attitudes towards God’s chosen people.   We must never think ourselves better than them because of their unbelief. 

Many well-known Christian leaders over the centuries have made this mistake. Martin Luther is the reason we have our Bibles and can read them in our own language.  He brought about many changes in the church that we benefit from today. However, later in his life he got so frustrated with the stubbornness of the Jewish people toward Yeshua being the Messiah that he wrote; “the Jews are a defiled bride, yes an incorrigible whore and evil slut, a whoring and murderous people, and bloodthirsty bloodhounds and murders of all Christendom” He would also argue that the reason they were in exile was because they crucified the Messiah. 

http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/lutherandthejews.html

I would dare to say that if we were living during the time of Yeshua we may very well have been one of the ones who yelled on that day before Pilate, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!  We must be careful not to judge the things of which we have no understanding. According to Paul our job is not to judge the Jewish people, but to bring them to repentance through our love and our actions; to make them jealous so they will come back to the Father through Yeshua.

So what is our role as Gentile believers in God’s plan?  Cannon Andrew White in his book, Older Younger Brother, outlines the documented recommitment of the International Council of Christians and Jews in 2009.  In this document the ICCJ invites all Christians and Christian communities to “join them in their efforts to remove all vestiges of contempt towards Jews and enhance bonds with Jewish communities worldwide” through the following actions: “combating religious, radical, and all other forms of antisemitism; promoting interreligious dialogue with Jews; developing theological understandings of Judaism that affirm its distinctive integrity; praying for the peace of Jerusalem; acknowledging the efforts of many Christian communities in the late 20^th century to reform their attitudes towards Jews; examining Jewish texts and liturgy in the light of these Christian reforms; differentiating between fair-minded criticism of Israel and antisemitism; offering encouragement to the State of Israel as it works to fulfill the ideals stated in its founding documents, a task Israel shares with many nations of the world; enhancing interreligious and intercultural education; promoting interreligious friendship and cooperation as well as social justice in the global society; enhancing dialogue with political and economic bodies; and networking with all those whose work responds to the demands of environmental stewardship.”

As I was researching this topic and I came across this list of actions I realized these all line up with Biblical principles as well as common sense and are exhaustive in their approach.  Not all of us will be placed in situations where all of these will come into play in our daily lives, however, we can take them and incorporate them on a level that would apply and know we are living out of the heart of the Father for His people.

In summary I feel it is imperative to know the heart of the Father regarding the Jewish people.  It is also imperative to have the understanding that we were grafted in only at their expense and it is God’s desire for us to make them jealous so that He can graft them back into the olive branch which is Yeshua.  So that being said, our goal is to ask the Father what He would have us do with the Jewish people right where we live.  To ask Him to connect us with those of the Jewish community in our cities that He wants to love and bring to a place of jealousy and repentance.  Then, to ask Him to show us how He would have us make them jealous.

Paul wrote in Romans 11:12 and 15 Now if their stumbling has so enriched the world and if Israel’s failure means such riches for the Gentiles, think what an enrichment and greater advantage will follow their full reinstatement. For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? It will be nothing short of life from the dead!

I want to be in a position to see this life from the dead in the world around me, so I will prepare my heart in order to follow the Father’s heart. Will you join me?
  

Vision From the Lord for Israel

                                                                                                                                                                                

Ever since I was a little girl there has been a place in my heart for Israel and the Jewish people. I became a believer in Yeshua at the age of five and loved Him with all my heart.  Since that time that love has grown so deeply and wonderfully.  Yeshua is my husband and I would be lost without Him in my life.  At an early age I decided that if Yeshua was Jewish then I wanted to love all Jewish people because they are His family and a part of my family.  I knew this really made Him happy and that was what I wanted more than anything.  Throughout my life He has directed my steps, opened up opportunities, and taught me much about the Jewish people. 

In 2009, my daughter was going to go to Israel with YWAM and so I asked Yeshua if I could be there with her.  He said yes, and provided a way for me to go.  As the plane landed on the runway in Tel Aviv, I heard Him say you are home, and I began to cry.  That trip was the start of this adventure He has me on now.  The land came to life for me and I did not want to leave.  I came home and He continued to open my heart for the Jewish people and Israel.  I knew I would go back but I had no idea when that would happen. 

In January of 2014 I heard Him say I want you to go to Harvest School in Mozambique, Africa.  I asked Him why and He told me, if I didn't go now I would never realize my destiny with Him.  Once I applied and was accepted I had the opportunity to go on outreach with a team after the school was completed.  When I saw that Israel was one of the choices for outreach I knew this was how He would get me back into the land.  So in the summer of 2014 I spent 2 months in Israel and the Lord did amazing things in my heart.  When it was time to leave, He asked me if I would be willing to come back in the spring of 2015 for an extended time.  Of course, I said yes.

While in Israel those 2 months last summer, Yeshua showed me the hearts of the people and what they are feeling and experiencing living in the land with the threat of war, persecution, rejection, hatred, and the list goes on.  I especially saw the hearts of the young men and women who are believers in Yeshua, the pain, hurt, and loss of identity they carry.  He also allowed me to feel a small portion of His heart for them at times, which was overwhelming.  Since I have been home they have been on my heart and in my prayers.

Also while there in the land the Lord opened up opportunities for me to minister and counsel with leaders of ministries there who have been disappointed, heartbroken, worn down, and wondering why they are even there.  Life can be difficult in Israel and can wear on every part of you.

It is my prayer that when I go back I will be able to help both of these groups of people at some point in the future.  Although I know the Lord can open up opportunities to serve, minister, and counsel, I also understand the importance of building relationships and trust through community and spending time just being there and being present, stopping for the one in front of me.  Many people come and go so often; there is not enough time for relationship and trust is hard to build.

That being said, the Lord is telling me to go to Israel with the sole intention of serving the people, living in community with them, and learning the language for at least the first year.  The “plan” so far, as much as it can be, is to volunteer/serve in the local Messianic Congregation in Jerusalem, (King of Kings Congregation) in whatever capacity the Lord opens up for me and to go to Hebrew University in Jerusalem to study the Hebrew language during the summer months. 

This means I will be leaving at the end of March and arriving in Jerusalem on April 1^st.  I will need housing and that looks like it will be about $1000 dollars a month.  I will live and serve in Jerusalem until the end of June when my three month tourist visa expires at which time I begin Hebrew language classes at Hebrew University. The classes along with housing on campus will be around $4,500. By doing this I will be able to stay in the land on a school visa until the classes end at the end of August.  I will return home for the month of September and hope to leave again in October to go back possibly with a volunteer/work visa through the King of Kings Congregation. 

These “plans” are subject to change and get revised at any moment because I have learned to expect the unexpected and to continually be flexible to the leading of the Lord.  However, I will go on what He is showing me right now as that is always the best route to take.

One of the most important things I learned at Harvest School last summer was to go low and slow and be teachable.  This means taking the time to get to know the people and the culture so that I can understand their needs as well as God’s heart for them. My desire is to develop trust, relationship, and community with the people that God has so heavily laid on my heart.

If you would like to join me in this adventure with God and sow into the land of Israel you can either support me with a one-time gift or a reoccurring monthly gift.  Any support I get will go toward housing, school tuition, and daily expenses, as well as giving gifts, tithes, and offerings as the Lord leads.

There are a couple of ways to give as you feel led:

1.      1.  Checks made out to me, Suzanne Singleton, and sent to:

Brenda Marshall, 1009 Cashmere, Thompson’s Station, TN  37179

2.      2.  My PayPal account under my email address:  jehovahraphaislord@yahoo.com

(Keep in mind PayPal does charge me a 5% fee on each donation to use their service)

Unfortunately right now there is no tax deductible way to give.

I also need intercessors to stand with me, covering me in prayer and encouragement daily.  I will be updating everyone monthly through email on what the Lord is doing and to let you know of the needs that may arise.  If you would like to receive my monthly  newsletter feel free to email me at jehovahraphaislord@yahoo.com

May God richly bless each one of you!

Shalom!

Article 3 - The Jewish Role in God's Plan of Redemption for the World

Replacement Theology Article 3

Jewish Role in God’s plan

From the very beginning of time the Jewish role in God’s plan has been for them to bring the knowledge of Himself to the nations. The covenants that God made with Israel were specifically for the purpose of calling the Jewish people out as a servant people of God that would bring the Messiah forth, and establish the nation of Israel.  The calling of Jewish believers today is to “return Yeshua to His original framework as the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Eitan Shishkoff; What About Us, 2013)

God’s intent from the beginning was that the whole earth would know Him and this would come through the Jewish nation and His Son, Yeshua.  He revealed this throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

           

And the foreigners who join themselves to ADONAI to serve him, to love the name of ADONAI and to be his workers, all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant, I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.  Isaiah 56:6-7

But as sure as I live, and that the whole earth is filled with the glory of Adonai.  Numbers 14:21

All the nations you have made will come and bow before you, Adonai; they will honor your name.  Psalm 86:9

God chose Israel to be His servant nation to bring all other nations to Himself. In this choosing God gave the children of Israel His presence, made covenant with them, gave them His Word, taught them the best way to live in order to prosper, and gave them an inheritance of land with a future.  God did this so that they could live out the call He had placed over their lives.  Paul alludes to this in Romans chapter 9.

The people of Israel!  They were made God's children, the Sh'khinah has been with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the Temple services and the promises. Romans 9:4

This "calling out" of the Jewish nation began with Abram. Genesis 12 gives us the account of God asking Abram to go out from the country of his father’s house to a land He was to show him. With this request God bestows on Abram His first of many promises, to make of him a great nation and to bless him abundantly, making his name famous and causing him to be a blessing to others.  He also added that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.

The land to which God sent Abram was called Canaan.  It was a large and prosperous country that today corresponds to present day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel.  In Genesis 10 we find that this land was named after the grandson of Noah.  Abraham journeyed through and lived in Canaan, building alters to God, digging wells, making covenants with others, fighting for the lives of his family, and blessing every people group with which he came in contact.  He lived in the land that the Lord had said was his inheritance for many years.  He stopped at 17 different locations as he moved throughout the land starting from Ur of the Chaldeans where he grew up in his father's house.

Haran (Gen 11:31-12:4), Damascus (Gen 15:2 Eliezer his highest ranking servant came from Damascus), Shechem (Gen 12:6-7 built an alter to the Lord), Bethel (Gen 12:8 built alter to the Lord), Egypt (Gen 12:9-20 during time of famine in the land), Bethel (Gen 13:1-9), Hebron (Gen 13:10-18; Numbers 13:22; Promise of inheritance of the Land and built alter to the Lord); Dan (Gen 14:1-14), Hobah (Gen 14:15), Salem (Gen 14:17-21 later called Jerusalem), Hebron (Gen 15:1-21; 16:1-16; 17:1-27; 18:1-19:38 Promise of inheritance of the land), Gerar (Gen 20:1-18), Beersheba (Gen 21:1-34), Moriah (Gen 22:1-18), Beersheba (Gen 22:19), and Hebron (Gen 23:1-20 Abraham bought a field and cave to bury Sarah, burial place of his family). 

In many places that Abram pitched his tent the Lord came to him and spoke promises over him and the nation that would come out of him.

Inasmuch as Avraham is sure to become a great and strong nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by him? Genesis 18:18

And by your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed — because you obeyed my order. Genesis 22:18

I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, I will give all these lands to your descendants, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless themselves. Genesis 26:4

Many times the Lord promised Abraham all the land on which he was traveling would be his inheritance. God was creating a nation for Himself in order to bring the world to Himself.  God’s plan from the beginning has always been to redeem the entire world through the nation of Israel.

Isaiah even saw the "light" or salvation for the nations coming from among the descendants of Abraham.

I, Adonai, called you righteously, I took hold of you by the hand, I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Goyim. Isaiah 42:6

To sum up, Israel's call is to bless the nations with the knowledge and understanding of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God brought Abraham into the land and gave him a promise of land, a nation, and a future.  Today that call has not changed.  Israel is still called to bless the nations with the knowledge and understanding of God through His Son, Yeshua and usher in His Kingdom as Israel says: "...Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai" Matthew 23:39.

In the next article we will look at the call of the Gentiles in God's ultimate plan of redemption for the world.

Replacement Theology Article 2

In Article one, we began this journey of understanding Replacement Theology.  We looked at Paul’s response to the Gentile Christians who were beginning to adopt the theology and offered a different perspective.  For Article two, I felt it was important to delve further into the origins of Replacement Theology and the result of the Christian Church adopting its philosophy.

Replacement Theology says that the Jewish people have lost their covenant status with God. God got so angry at the Jewish people for their disobedience and inability to keep their part of the covenant that he decided to transfer over the covenant promises to the Gentiles and the Jews won’t get it back. The Jews are no longer God’s chosen people.

Unfortunately, in my research I discovered that this ideology has been around almost since the beginning of the church.  As more and more gentiles came to faith in Jesus they began to reject the idea that the Jews had any part in Christianity and no longer wanted anything to do with Jewish believers.  The Christian church has come against the Jewish people almost from the beginning.

There was a Samaritan believer ca. 150 A.D. named Justin Martyr who first began to propose the idea that God was finished with the Jewish people and therefore the Gentile Christians would become the new Israel.  According to Avner Boskey in his book, Israel the Key to World Revival, Martyr’s presuppositions could be summarized in the following way:

1.       “Jews have forfeited the title ‘Israel’ but Gentile Christians have received it;

2.       Jewish physical circumcision is a sign of judgment;

3.       God likes Gentile worship better than Jewish worship;

4.       Jews have forfeited the Bible and it now belongs to Gentile Christians;

5.       Gentile Christians are now the ‘true Israel’.”

These presuppositions planted seeds into the heart of the Gentile Christian Church and grew until anti-Semitic acts began to manifest. Some of the earliest anti-Semitic acts perpetrated by the Gentile Christian Church included the following:

*175 AD Pope Victor condemned the use of the Jewish calendar;

*306 AD the Council of Elvira, Spain forbid Christians to marry Jews, receive Jewish prayers

  or blessings, and eat with Jews;

*325 AD Council of Nicaea severed the Jewish connection of Passover with the date of   Resurrection Day;

*345 AD Council of Antioch excommunicated Christians who celebrated Passover with a 

  Jew;

*Antisemitism increased year after year with canons forbidding Christians from attending

  Jewish festivals, enforcement of strict rules for the baptism of Messianic Jews, preventing

  Jews from holding public office;

*1492 Spain expelled all Jews who do not renounce Judaism and Old Covenant practices,

  even to the point of burning them at the stake if they did not comply;

*1542 many Jews were burned at the stake by the Church for following Old Covenant 

  practices;

*1936 Hitler under Germany’s National Reich Church required pastors to expel all Messianic

  Jews or Christians of Jewish descent from the church.

Why did Christian Church Fathers allow such hatred to be enacted against our Jewish brothers?  Apparently Paul saw this coming when he addressed it in Romans 11:18.  He wrote “Do not boast over the branches and pride yourself at their expense. If you do boast and feel superior, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.” Clearly Paul saw that the Gentile Christians were beginning to feel superior to their Jewish brothers.  

Paul also writes that it is the root that supports the Gentile Christian Church not the other way around.  The word root here is speaking not only of Jesus, as in Isaiah 11:10, “And it shall be in that day that the Root of Jesse shall stand as a signal for the peoples; of Him shall the nations inquire and seek knowledge, and His dwelling shall be glory”; but it is  also referring to Israel and the Jews as the root or the nation from which the Messiah came.

How can the Christian Church, whose foundation hinges on a God who sent His Son to be born into a Jewish family, and raised as a Jew, persecute and excommunicate the very family of that Son.  The Christian Church would not know Salvation and how to worship God if it were not for the Jewish people.  The first church was not Christian and made up of Gentiles it was formed from Jewish men and women who followed the Torah and believed that their Jewish friend was the Son of God.

It wasn't God’s intent to send His Son that only the Gentile Christian Church would be saved and walk in the Kingdom.  It wasn't His intent to use the Jewish men and women to spread the message of the Kingdom to the Gentiles and then take the Kingdom away from them completely.  This is not the nature of the God we serve.

Paul addresses this issue in Romans 11:8-10.  He writes that God gave the Jewish nation a spirit of stupor so that their eyes could not see and their ears could not hear the truth of the Messiah Jesus.  In verse 8 Paul starts out by saying “As it is written” then he goes on to say in verse 9 that David discussed this very thing in the Psalms.  (Psalm 69:22-23) Paul appears to be saying that God planned from the beginning to give the Jewish people this spirit of stupor. 

So does that mean that God took the Kingdom away from them?  According to Paul the answer is no.  Romans 11:11-12 clearly says that God gave them this spirit of stupor so that the Gentiles could have a part in the Kingdom.  And if the Gentiles are so blessed with Salvation then there will be even greater riches when God lifts the spirit of stupor and the Jewish people recognize Jesus as their Messiah.  So according to Paul God had a purpose all along and it wasn't to completely cut off the Jewish people from His covenant promises.

   

So what was God’s purpose in using the Jewish nation in this way?  We will explore the Jewish role in God’s plan in the next article.