(Commentary on a YouTube video.)
After
viewing your video “: Why Bible believing Christians should support Israel” I
started researching on the subject and find
Paul’s writing in Acts 13 particularly enlighten in addressing the
revelations of God to the “Jewish” question.
Then Paul
stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear
God, give audience.
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted
the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high
arm brought he them out of it.
18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the
wilderness.
19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he
divided their land to them by lot.
20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four
hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the
son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be
their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David
the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto
Israel a Saviour, Jesus:
24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of
repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I
am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his
feet I am not worthy to loose.
26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever
among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they
knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath
day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they
Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took
him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which
was made unto the fathers,
33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art
my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more
to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies
of David.
35 Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of
God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in
the prophets;
41 Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in
your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it
unto you.
42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles
besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and
religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them,
persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to
hear the word of God.
45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,
and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and
blaspheming.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that
the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from
you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles.
47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a
light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of
the earth.
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified
the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the
chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and
expelled them out of their coasts.
51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came
unto Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.
Paul
recounts in brief the entire history of Israel and the transformation of his
religion and doctrine. On verse 33 we read “that the promise which was made
unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled that same unto us their children,"
and that it was fulfilled in Jesus, and only in Jesus, as the 39th verse brings
out clearly: "By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore!"
I was
impressed THE CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF THE GOSPEL IN VERSE 46--that it was to
be preached first to the Jews, or the Jewish church of that day, the supposed
worshippers of the true God, to give them first chance to hear it, but also to
reject it, which, evidently, a good many of them promptly did, stirring up a
lot of trouble for the Apostles, verse 50, so that they had to leave town.
This did not
mean that God was entirely through with the Jews but simply meant what He (God)
had been trying to show them all along, and what they themselves proved
continually even unto this very day, that they were absolutely no better than
anyone else, without God, and that they could only be saved by His grace and
that through faith. They can only come to God the same way as everybody else
and that is only through Jesus.
Pharisees
wanted to know when the Kingdom of God should come and Jesus answered “Kingdom of God cometh not by
observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the
Kingdom of God is within you. " Luke 17:20,21
Jesus is not
talking about a literal Promised Land or Kingdom of Heaven on earth. His words
are to liberate us from the narrow confines of carnal human limitations of
national boundaries or borders. From the earthly Jerusalem to the “holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God”
“36 Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but
now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36
As followers
of Jesus also this world and its nations are not our home.
“8 By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land
of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
11 Through faith also Sara herself
received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was
past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
10 For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
12 Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and
as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
on the earth.
14 For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been
mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had
opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Hebrews 11:8-16
I cannot be
but blown away by the magnitude and the scope of God’s words that catapult us
into a much bigger and all-encompassing vision for the salvation of humanity.
Jesus’s Words and His inspired revelation through the scriptures challenges us
out of our comfort zone and call us to repent from our sins and earthly
concepts. We are to be a light in gross darkness and the gates of hell shall
not prevail.
I pray the
Lord helps us all to open our hearts, minds and souls to receive “
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9