After the first human attempt at globalisation was thwarted (tower of Babel), God chose to raise up a special special people – his own treasured possession. The Jews were to be a separate nation under God as an example of how to live a righteous life. They were to live by the words of God, and not the ordinances of man.
God chose Abram and promised to make him a great nation. He specifically promises to curse those that treat him (and the subsequent nation) with contempt.
Genesis 12:1-3 The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
God promises land to Abram and his offspring forever.
Genesis 13:14-15 After Lot had separated from him, the LORD said to Abram, "Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
God's promise is unconditional and everlasting. Despite how the Jews may behave, the land is their eternal possession. If something is an eternal possession, then both the possession and possessor are eternal!
Genesis 17:7-8 I will keep My covenant between Me and you, and your future offspring throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing - all the land of Canaan - as an eternal possession, and I will be their God.
God chose the Jews because they were insignificant.
Deuteronomy 7:7 "The LORD was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
The Jews are the apple (pupil) of his eye.
Zechariah 2:8 For the LORD of Hosts says this: "He has sent Me for His glory against the nations who are plundering you, for anyone who touches you touches the pupil of His eye."
God entrusted his written word to the Jews to faithfully record and disseminate.
Romans 3:1-2 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the spoken words of God.
Jesus came to his own, but the Jews rejected their messiah.
John 1:10-11 He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
Salvation is of the Jews. No Jew, no salvation! To those who are saved into eternal life we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the Jews.
John 4:21-22 Jesus told her, "Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews."
The Jews cannot be destroyed because God is unchanging (the promises he made always stand). As proof of this, consider that for 4,000 years the Jews have survived the Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and the Third Reich.
Malachi 3:6 "Because I, Yahweh, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed."
Psalm 121:4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.
The sun, moon and stars will cease to exist before Israel ceases to exist.
Jeremiah 13:35-36 This is what the LORD says: The One who gives the sun for light by day, the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar — Yahweh of Hosts is His name: If this fixed order departs from My presence — this is the LORD's declaration — then also Israel's descendants will cease to be a nation before Me forever.
They will survive Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Turkey and Russia. This is foretold in Ezekiel-38 that when the onslaught against Israel is so great and no one will stand with them, then God will reveal himself and personally intervene!
Ezekiel 38 The word of the LORD came to
me: "Son of man, turn your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog,
the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him and say:
This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Gog, chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in
your jaws, and bring you out with all your army, including horses and
riders, who are all splendidly dressed, a huge company armed with
shields and bucklers, all of them brandishing swords. Persia, Cush,
and Put are with them, all of them with shields and helmets; Gomer
with all its troops; and Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the
north along with all its troops - many peoples are with you.
…
Now
on that day, the day when Gog comes against the land of Israel" -
this is the declaration of the Lord GOD - "My wrath will flare up.
I swear in My zeal and fiery rage: On that day there will be a great
earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of
the sky, the animals of the field, every creature that crawls on the
ground, and every human being on the face of the earth will tremble
before Me. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will
collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. I will call for a
sword against him on all My mountains" - the declaration of the
Lord GOD - "and every man's sword will be against his brother. I
will execute judgement on him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour
out torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone on him, as well
as his troops and the many peoples who are with him. I will display
My greatness and holiness, and will reveal Myself in the sight of
many nations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.
Does this mean the Jews are perfect? By no means! But like a rebellious child disciplined a good parent, they would never allow an outsider to harm their them. God repeatedly warned the Jews to obey his ordinances and not to follow the practices of the previous occupants. But they were disobedient and consequently exiled to Babylon for 70 years, and Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.
Jeremiah 21:10 "For I have turned against this city to bring disaster and not good" — this is the LORD's declaration. " It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, who will burn it down."
When the Jews rejected their messiah, God in his great anger cursed the land and scattered the Jews to the outermost parts of the earth. For two millennia He denied them their promised homeland, but there were numerous promises that they would return. The most vivid of these is probably:
Isaiah 66:7-8 Before Zion was in labour, she gave birth; before she was in pain, she delivered a boy. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labour, she gave birth to her sons.
Israel was literally reborn on 14-May-1948 exactly as the prophecy foretold!
When a person accepts the gift of salvation offered through the sacrifice of Jesus, they become partakers of the promises made to the Jews, and are in no way superior.
Romans 11:17-18 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, do not brag that you are better than those branches.
Jesus will not return to Jerusalem until the Jews acknowledge their offence and seek him in their deep distress.
Hosea 5:15 I will depart and return to My place until they recognize their guilt and seek My face; they will search for Me in their distress.
At his second coming, Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem, to Israel, to his kin.
Zechariah 14:3-4 Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations as He fights on a day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south.
He will destroy the final kingdom of man.
Revelation 19:11-15 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and He judges and makes war in righteousness. His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on His head. He had a name written that no one knows except Himself. He wore a robe stained with blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies that were in heaven followed Him on white horses, wearing pure white linen. A sharp sword came from His mouth, so that He might strike the nations with it. He will shepherd them with an iron sceptre. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.
He will judge the nations on account of their treatment of the Jews and Israel. Jesus states that the Jews and Israel are his inheritance, and when he claims it, he will restore their fortunes. In order to destroy his inheritance, it would be necessary to defeat Jesus himself, and God by implication.
Joel 3:1-3 Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgement with them there because of My people, My inheritance Israel. The nations have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided up My land.
He will set up the Millennial Kingdom, and reign as the rightful King for 1,000 years.
Revelation 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the people who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of God's word, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with the Messiah for 1,000 years.
This will be the age when the rich promises made to the Jews will be fully realised. Isaiah is full of promises like:
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. An infant will play beside the cobra's pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake's den.
The eternal impact of the Jews cannot be underestimated. The Jews were chosen by God as his treasured possession. Thy were entrusted with the written word of God. Jesus was born into the Jewish nation, and they are his kin. He is the only way to the Father, and heaven by implication. He came first to his own, and when they rejected him, salvation became available to all mankind. Jesus confirmed that salvation is of the Jews.
When a person accepts the gift of salvation, they are grafted into the olive tree and become partakers of the promises made to the Jews. Believers are neither superior to the Jew, nor have replaced them. How is it possible to hate the Jew through whom we have acquired eternal life? With a proper understanding of the role of the Jews in the plan of salvation, we would do well to consider very carefully our attitude towards them. We ought to be extremely grateful for them, and support and pray for them, because one day we will be held to account for how we treated them.
Created: 2024-Apr-18. Revised: 2024-Apr-23