It has been a while since I wrote here. Why? Simply pressed for time. My writing has been directed towards necessity for our church and for seeking ways to raise money for it, and when not doing that towards the book.
Yesterday saw The Amazing Spiderman with my wife. While the movie credits were playing, a group asked me if I was Jewish because of my shirt. I honestly don’t know, and in the family we’ve wondered about it over the years. My grandmother’s parents were out of the picture when she was born. Her mother died, and her father was gone. We’ve thought she might be Jewish amongst other things based on evidence (Native American, etc). I could only answer them, “I don’t know.” When they pressed us, we told them how we studied Hebrew, were still learning it, and loved it. I was struck by the friendliness and warmth of the people who asked. They said they were from a Jewish camp in Three Rivers, MI. My wife and I both said afterwards we felt a longing to engage them more.
I remembered the words of Scripture, in Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Unless you remember a Bar Mitzvah or are familiar with words like Schlamiel, you are probably not Jewish in tradition just as I am not. This strikes people as offensive, “to the Jew first.” But let me explain, and also offer a practical positive application.
First, explanation. It is at least a description of how Yeshua Ha Messiah came, clearly of Israel, a Jew Himself, and to His people. He even said, to one person who craved His healing, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (Matt 15:24), and sent his disciples out in Matthew 10 only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then after Jesus was killed and rose again, and told His followers to tell everyone about Him dying and finishing all the righteous work required of them, and that all who believe in that work instead of their own are saved (whew, run on sentence?), He told Peter in Acts 10, “what God has called clean, do not call common.” In other words, God began to move to the Gentiles. Finally, getting back to Paul in Romans, in chapters 9-11 Paul (a Jew of Jews) discovers the resolution God designed to the great dilemma of Israel’s unfulfilled Messianic promises: after the Gentiles who are elect have responded to God’s grace, then Israel will repent on a national level and “thus all Israel will be saved,” (Romans 11. I would cite specific verses, but you gotta read it all. Heck, start in chapter 9, you can read it all during the commercial breaks).
Why did I give the quick zip summary there of Israel and Jesus Christ? (I know, I omitted things) Because it explains “to the Jew first” historically.
Second, after this explanation, how can both Jewish and Gentile believers do something about this? We can pray for our Jewish friends and family to know the Gospel, hope for it, and when given opportunity share the Gospel in relationship.
My wife and I are going to that Jewish camp one day soon. We want to get to know the people who are ethnic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through whom God decided to be born as a man. We want to see them come to know their Yeshua Ha Messiah.
Nate
Bold As a Lion 