All Jesus

"God foreknew the Jews."

UNTIL YOU see the Jews, you will not understand the Gospel. We, the Gentile church, have taken it to ourself and pretty much erased them from it. All of our interpretation is made from our standpoint as people raised outside of Jewish thinking. From the words of Jesus to the prophecies of His apostles, we’ve drawn a picture of our modern worship. Modern theology.

There is a place in the Word for us to appropriate its promises and apply them to today. Jesus wants this. But we cannot do it at the exclusion of the Jews, who it was spoken to, without making mistakes. The Old Covenant is Jew. The New Covenant is Jew. 100% Jew. Both are all Jesus. And in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – He is just as much Hashem as Jesus. Matthew 10 sets an example. Another example is Matthew 24, which is fulfilled. You heard me. John’s Revelation is written to Jews. The Gentile church is in it, but most of what we’ve predicted as tribulation for ourselves was prophesied and fulfilled in Jewish history. Including the number 666.

The Jews have already been numbered and counted with the intent of their extinction.

Matthew 24 speaks of this. Matthew 10 as well. Verses 17-20 say, “But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” If you are listening, you will hear them, what they said in that hour. And you will know what is meant in Verses 21-25. It is not what we thought.

Acts 2 was given to the Jews. Jewish men and women gathered in the Upper Room at the instruction of the Jewish Messiah to await the infilling of the Holy Spirit in a Jewish city during a Jewish holiday. In the end, 3,000 Jews were saved. The apostle Paul, who we so much revere, is a Jew, a Pharisee who got saved. He spoke of his love for his family in Romans 10:1. “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Then in Romans 11, he asks an important question. “Hath God cast away his people?” And answers it, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

God foreknew the Jews, what they would suffer, where they would stand today and why they worship as they do, so He made them a covenant. He promised to always be their God and that they would always be His people. Always. No matter what happened on the earth. The loss of the nation, the loss of the temple, the loss of their lives, the constant wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). His heart for them is set in stone.

His heart for us is seen through them. We are grafted into their roots (Romans 11:17), partaking of their salvation (John 4:22). Their Messiah, their King, is our God (Matthew 2:2). And theirs. Until we view it through them, we will miss the greatness, the faithfulness of Him, and will not see His heart. Nor the beauty of what He speaks to them through the Torah. Today, one wrote, “We are now His temple.” And another speaks of the joy of prayer. And still another blesses those seeking healing, and wonderous miracles are seen.

What I see is an image of Jesus, who expounded the Scriptures about Himself to two of His disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:27), after His Resurrection. Yet, they didn’t recognize Him. Who quoted the Torah in His teachings on the hills of Judea (Matthew 5:17-18). Who was born in a stable in Bethlehem, exactly as prophesied, the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 1:1).

“It is in Juda God makes himself known, in Israel that his name is extolled; there, in Salem, he makes his abode, dwells in Sion.” (Psalm 75 (76):1-3 Knox)

Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com