Israel Story – by John Myers

The Israel Story

Chapter 2 – The Covenant

“God’s promise to Abram and his descendants that they will inherit Canaan is based on God’s unilateral, unconditional, everlasting, blood covenant. Nothing that the Jewish people did or didn’t do, will or won’t do, can change that.

“The Jewish people were chosen by God to be His people, a special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth. Though this special relationship was initially just with the Jewish people, it was never intended to be exclusive. All of mankind has been invited into this same relationship with God through faith in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).” (Myers)

1. In Genesis 12:7, God makes it clear that He is giving the Promised Land to Abram’s descendants, it says, “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” Abram has some doubts about what God has promised.  He is an old man and God has not delivered on a son.  So God makes a covenant with Abram.

2. What is a covenant? It is a contract, agreement or pact.  One example of a covenant that we encounter today is a marriage.  Usually a covenant requires both parties to promise to do something to keep the contract in effect.  If one side fails then the other side is not bound to keep his side of the bargain.  This covenant is strange because God is the keeping up His side of the bargain.  Similar to what we read in Genesis 12:1-3, God says “I will” but Abram does not say “I will”.  This is a unilateral agreement.  Only God made a commitment to keep the covenant.  Its fulfillment relies only on God. Myers calls this “God’s unilateral, unconditional, everlasting, blood covenant.”

3. In Genesis 15, God made a blood covenant with Abram. God had him get animals and cut them in half except the birds.  Deep sleep came on Abram.  God gives him the land.  God cut a covenant with him.  God was the only one to pass thru the animals.  It was a blood covenant but only God passed so it is unilateral.  It was all God.

4. The covenant is contained in Genesis 15:17-21. It says, “17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”  Notice that the “Ites” lived on the land at this time.  Whose land was it?  God’s

5. People already live there. God is giving Abram and his descendants the land that belongs to someone else.  This goes to God’s sovereignty.  Does God have the authority to do this?  I say, “He is God and I am not.  So how can I question God?”  Paul explains it better in Romans 9:10-18. As verse 18 says, “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”  Or if you really want to be humbled, God could ask you as He did Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”  The whole conversation between God and Job in Job 38 is humbling.  All this to say, “God can give His land to whomever He wishes.”  Myers adds two more scriptures to explain why it is ok for God to take the land from their current owners and give it to the Israelites.

2 Samuel 22:31 – As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

Isaiah 55:8–9 – “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

6. If you read about when Joshua leads the Hebrew nation into the Promised Land, you will learn that God has the power to back it all up. (Joshua 5 – 12) Just consider the walls of Jericho tumbling down. Joshua 12 lists all the kings defeated by God and the Hebrew nation, 31 in all.

7. Skip ahead to Genesis 17. Sarai and Abram have taken things into their own hands and Abram has fathered a son by Sarai’s Egyptian slave (Hagar).  The son’s name is Ishmael.  Abram is now 99 years old (Remember life expectancy was much higher then) and Ishmael is 13 years old.  God restates the covenant with Abram (exalted father) and makes his name Abraham (father of a multitude).  Sarai’s name is changed to Sarah.  Both names are variations that mean “princess”.

8. Verses 7 and 8 say, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” The key word in these verses is the adjective “everlasting”.  There is no time limit on this covenant.  The descendants of Abraham will have “everlasting possession” of the land that God has given

“God’s intention is simple and clear. He has chosen a specific people and is giving them a specific land. However, due to the human element, the story itself becomes more complex. First, Abram’s wife, Sarai, decides it’s a good idea for Abram to bring forth descendants by marrying her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, which he does and as a result Ishmael is conceived and born. Then Abram, figuring that he and Sarai will never have their own children, asks God to pass on the covenant promises through Ishmael. God makes it clear that He has a different plan. His covenant promises would not pass through Abram (Abraham) to Ishmael, but instead through Abraham to Isaac, a son whom Sarai (Sarah) would bear.” (Myers)

9. Read Genesis 17:17-21. By choosing the descendants of Abraham through Sarah, God isn’t saying that this line is any better or more holy or that they will stay faithful to God than any other line.  It just means God has a different purpose and plan for the descendants of Abraham and Sarah.

10. Look at the animosity between the Arabs and Israel today. The animosity has existed since the birth of Isaac.  “The Jewish people are descendants of Isaac, whereas Ishmael is considered to be the father of the Arab Ultimately, this ancient animosity can and will only be healed and reconciled through the Messiah of all mankind, Yeshua.” (Myers)

11. The land promised to Abraham is much larger than the size of Israel today. The map below shows how much larger.  The region is purple is the Promised Land and the area labeled is a Canaan is about the size of Israel today.  Israel today also includes the desert in Negev to the south.

“Most scholars agree that it encompasses all of the Sinai Peninsula, part of Saudi Arabia, half of Iraq, all of Jordan and Lebanon, most of Syria, and a small area of Turkey.” (Myers)

12. It is interesting to think that Abraham did not have the benefit of the Bible or a long history of knowing God that we have today. God had to make the blood covenant to show Abraham that he could count on God’s promise.  Today we can read Numbers 23:19 and know that God does not lie.  We can look at the prophecies in the Bible and see that they came true.  Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.  Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”  The early Israelites could look back at the God’s deliverance out of Egypt and into the Promised Land and know that God does what He promised.

“Let’s not fast forward to current Middle East political issues. We’ll get there soon enough. The real question here is this: “Does God have the right to be God?” The answer to that is a resounding, yes. God not only has the right to give away occupied land, He has the right to do anything He wants to do, including to determine right from wrong, good from evil, and decide the eternal destinies of every living thing. That’s what it means to be God.” (Myers)

13. God reiterated the covenant that He made with Abraham to his son Isaac. God says to Isaac in Genesis 26:3, “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.”   Two words stand out in this verse, they tell us that God swore an oath to Abraham and his descendants.

14. Abraham and his descendants had a special relationship with God. In Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses describes that relationship.  He says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”  Now does this mean that the Israelites were and are perfect?  Only God is perfect.  He spent millennia trying to keep them on the right path.  Even though He punished them, He still loved

15. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus tells them just that He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” God still loved them, even when they whined in the desert for 40 years, when they created idols, when they wanted a king, when they . . .  Read Hebrews 12:6 which is a quote from Proverbs 3:11-12.  God disciplines those He loves.

16. Several times we have heard that because of our faith in Jesus then we are part of God’s covenant with Abraham. We are the children of God and the children of Abraham.  Just a few weeks ago when we were studying Colossians 3 we read Galatians 3:26-29. “26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”   

17. If God’s covenant is not valid and alive today, then what does that mean for the rest of the Bible? The Book of Genesis is foundational.  If it falls, it all falls.

Discussion Questions

1. God described His covenant with Abraham as an everlasting covenant and the Land of Canaan as an everlasting possession of the Jewish people, yet many Christians do not believe that this covenant and this land promise are still valid today. Why do you think this is? If the Abrahamic covenant is no longer valid, what implication does that have regarding all the other biblical covenants and promises?

1. By offering her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to Abram as his wife, Sarah attempted to accomplish God’s seemingly impossible promise of descendants through ingenuity, natural reasoning, and human effort. How well did that work out? Has God given you any promises that seem impossible? What are they? Have you tried, or have you been tempted to try to bring them to pass through your human efforts? How well has that worked out? What does God want us to learn from this?

The Israel Story

Chapter 3 – Commitment And Identity

“In this episode, we are going to see through the eyes of a psalmist and a prophet how deeply God is committed to doing these things. We are also going to look at how deeply He has identified Himself with both this people and their land.” (Myers)

1. Read Psalm105:5-11. These verses confirm the commitment that God has made with His people, Israel.  In the first few verses, whose God is He? He is the God of Israel or “the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob”.  What was Jacob’s name changed to?  Israel    (Genesis 35:10)

2. The psalmist used several words including covenant to describe God’s commitment to Israel. What words of God’s commitment can you find in these verses?  Covenant, oath, promise and decree.

3. What is the lifespan of God’s covenant in verse 8? Forever.  How long will His promise last?  1000 generations.  To whom did God give the land?  Israel.  Where was/is the land?  Land of Canaan.

4. Jeremiah 31:35–37 says, “It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day and the moon and stars to light the night, and who stirs the sea into roaring waves. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and this is what he says: 36 “I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature!” 37 This is what the Lord says: “Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done.  I, the Lord, have spoken!”   Through the prophet, God is sharing the commitment of God for His people Israel.  In verse 36, He says that there is a better chance that God will dump the laws of nature.  In verse 37, the depth of God’s commitment to Israel cannot be measured.

5. Those that believe Replacement Theology believe that the church has replaced the Jewish people in God’s heart. Based on these verses, how likely was this to happen?  Impossible.  In verse 37, God gives us three impossibilities.  First, it will be impossible for the heavens to be measured.  Second, the entirety of the Earth cannot be explored and third, He will never toss Israel away.

6. A well-known idiom says, “It takes two generations for people to forget their cultural identities.” Judges 2:10 says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.”  This saying always makes me think of King Josiah.  When he was king, they were doing a renovation of the Temple and they found the Book of the Law.  Duh!  It shows that they had forgotten everything about God.

7. Consider that from 70 A.D. to 1948, the Jews were dispersed all over the world. Without God, the Jewish faith would have died.  “By May 1948, when Israel declared independence, it already had a population of around 600,000 Jews in Israel.” (Google AI)  Even with the genocide by Hitler and Nazi Germany, God kept a remnant to come back to Israel.  Just as God promised in Ezekiel 36:24 “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.”

“Most people lose their cultural identities after two generations of living in a different country among different people. Two generations ago my father’s family moved to the United States from Germany and my mother’s family did the same from Russia. Now, two generations later, there is nothing German or Russian about me. Considering Israel’s dispersion from their land and scattering among all nations for almost two millennia, the continuation of the Jewish people’s unique identity is miraculous.” (John Myers)

8. This is not to say that God did not have good reason to dump them and start over with another nation. When I read the story of the exodus out of Egypt, I think, “Come on God, it is time to start over.”  When I read numerous times in the books of Kings, “This king did evil in the sight of the Lord”.  Why God did you stay with Israel?  2 Peter 3:9 states, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”   Thank God, for He has been patient with me and didn’t just start over with someone else.

9. Exodus 3:4-6 says, “4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” In verse 6, God points out that He is “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”  God essentially is saying that He is the God of Abraham and his descendants.  He doesn’t go any other direction, like the God of Abraham, Ishmael and Esau.  Three times in the Bible, God is referred to this way.

10. In case you don’t remember, there were two sects of Jews in the New Testament. The Sadducees did not believe in angels or resurrection.  (So they were Sad you see.)  The Pharisees

11. Matthew 22:23-34 records and interaction between Jesus and some Sadducees. They were trying to trap Jesus with a question on something that they didn’t even believe in.  If a married woman’s husband dies, in those days one of his brothers was to marry her.  The Sadducees carried it further and the woman ended up marrying seven brothers in all because in their example each brother died.  Their question was “If they were resurrected, then who would the woman be married to in heaven?”

12. Jesus’ answer was “29 You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” But this is only part of His response.  This part takes care of who the woman would be married to in heaven but Jesus goes further.

13. In Matthew 22:31-32, Jesus says, “31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Jesus was proving that there is an afterlife that we will be resurrected but He is also pointing out that God is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Some believe that there is a difference between the God of the OT and the NT.  Jesus says “No way!”

14. God is still the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, even today. He is still identified with the fathers of Israel.  When we worship God the Father, we are worshiping the same God that Abraham, David and the apostle Paul did.

15. Deuteronomy 12:10–11b says, “10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. 11 Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name.” God gave the Hebrew nation a specific land for them to live and worship Him.  God considered it a place to hang His hat or in this case put His Name.  It was not a temporary place but a place for Him to abide with His people, Israel, forever. The specific place was chosen by God.

16. Unfortunately things began to unravel on the human side when Solomon took wives who did not have the same faith in God. God did not want His people to intermarry because His people would be drawn to other religions and false gods.  Even then God wanted a personal relationship with His people.

17. God did not punish Solomon and his people until Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king. The punishment was the dividing of Israel into two parts.  The northern kingdom was ruled by Jeroboam and Judah was ruled by the line of David.  Even before it happened God spoke through the prophet Ahijah.  1 Kings 11:35– 36 says, “35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.”   You can hear the positive way that God speaks of King David and Jerusalem.  There is only love and no condemnation in His words.  Whose name did God put on Jerusalem?  God’s name.

“What does it mean that God has put His name in Jerusalem to abide there forever? Will an archaeologist one day find the letters of God’s name in some archaeological excavation? No, it means that God has not only identified His name with the people group He created, but also with the Land and the city that He gave to them.” (Myers)

18. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the whole world and is the God of all people, He has uniquely identified Himself and His name with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants, the Jewish

Discussion Question:

God has identified Himself and His name with the Jewish people and the Land He promised them. We’re going to answer the following question in the next episode, but before we do, what do you think is the relevance of God doing this? In other words, so what?  Consider your last name.

The Israel Story

Chapter 4 – Significance

“The creation of the Jewish people as a distinct people group, the choice of them to be His people, and the promise to give them the Land of Canaan as their inheritance were entirely God’s ideas from the beginning. God deeply committed Himself to the fulfillment of these purposes by His promise, His Word, His covenant, and His oath. In doing so, He connected His honor, character, and reputation to their fulfillment. Therefore, regardless of Israel’s failures, God will fulfill His commitments because that is who God is.” (Myers)

1. The Bible is God’s Myers says, “This is God’s story. It is about Him, for Him, through Him, and to Him.”  You cannot separate God and Israel from the Bible.  They are His chosen people from Abraham to today.  If you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then you have to accept that the Jews were and still are important to God.

2. There were times in Israel’s history that God deemed it necessary to punish Israel for their disobedience. The prophet Daniel understood that God’s forgiveness was necessary for them be reconciled back to Him and it would follow God’s timing.  He also understood that above everything, it impacted God’s reputation.

“Daniel was aware of Jeremiah’s prophecy and therefore knew when the time had drawn near for Judah’s return to their land and to the city of Jerusalem. The beginning of chapter 9 in the book of Daniel records Daniel’s prayer for Judah’s return, and starts with Daniel’s confession of all of Judah’s sins while living in their land. Then Daniel makes his appeal to God to bring the children of Judah back to their promised land. We find in Daniel’s appeal the answer to our question.”

Daniel 9:18–19 says, “18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

3. Having been to Jerusalem and having seen the remnants of the Temple laying beside the temple mount, from the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. I can see how devastated Daniel and the others that were taken to Babylon would have felt looking back at what God allowed them to do to Jerusalem and the Temple.  Seeing that rubble that the Temple had become impacted me.  Daniel says, “Look at what they have done to your city and to your Temple!!”

David Guzik calls Daniel a patriot to Judah and to God. Charles Spurgeon says, “To us, Christian patriotism means love to the Church of God.”

4. Military leaders and politicians would say “It was for the greater good. Judah had to be put back on the right road, in spite of themselves.”  In Daniel’s prayer, he points out that the remnant wants God to see what they have done and act, not because God’s people are righteous but because God is merciful.  When is that last time that you prayed where you couldn’t say the same thing?  We always rely on God’s mercy.  “We messed up again, please help us!”

5. In John 12:28 when Jesus said, “Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Jesus is saying, what Daniel is thinking.  “What will other people think about the God of Israel if you don’t do something?”

6. Casting Crowns had a song a few years back that summed up what Daniel prays, “Not because of who I am But because of what You’ve done Not because of what I’ve done But because of who You are.”

7. Do you remember that justice says, “You get what you deserve.” Mercy says, “You don’t get what you deserve.”  But Grace says, ”You get what you don’t deserve.”  Justice means that the people of Judah get punishment for 70 years.  They wanted mercy which meant they would go on as they were, unpunished.  Sometimes God says, “You need a course correction to come back to me but you still have my salvation which is my grace.”

8. God kept his promises but He also keeps His warnings. He sent the prophet Jeremiah to warn them to get back on the right track.  2 Kings17:13 says, “The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

9. In Pastor Brian’s sermon series on Revelation, what attributes of God stand out most to you? Love, mercy and just.

10. Jeremiah 25:11 tells us what they were told, “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” How much plainer could God have warned them?  What did Jeremiah get for sharing the message from God?  He was imprisoned, cast into a cistern, and eventually went to Egypt with other exiles, where he continued his ministry.  Hebrews 11:36-37 explains what happened to God’s prophets.   “36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated.”

11. This wasn’t the only time that God had to punish His chosen people. It happens again in 70  They were dispersed and scattered from their land for approximately two thousand years.  God sent a warning then by the prophet Ezekiel.  He told them what would happen if they didn’t turn from their wicked ways. Ezekiel 36:20 – When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, “These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.”  The Germans went even further than this warning.

“Do you see it? Because this whole story is about God, His idea, His promises, His covenant, His oath, and His name, when all these things appear to be unfulfilled, He is the One who looks bad. It is His reputation and His honor that are at stake.”  (Myers)

12. In 1948 when Israel became a country again, the world may not have seen it but God fulfilled His promise. God didn’t bring them back together because they deserved it.  He didn’t do it because they had done anything amazing.  Many had faith and they endured.  Does that Casting Crowns song come to mind, “Not because of who I am, But because of what You’ve done, Not because of what I’ve done, But because of who You are. . . I am yours.”  Consider your salvation, same  It is not about you, it all about Him.

13. Read Ezekiel 36:16–22. It essentially tells us about Israel’s disobedience and their subsequent punishment.  He is saying, “Ultimately I, God will restore Israel both physically and spiritually.”  Physically, like 1948 when God brought them back into the Promised Land.  Who gave them their land back?    Men may have been involved but it was all God.

14. Some believe the spiritual restoration will be a future event connected to the 144,000 “from all the tribes of Israel” in Revelation 7. In Ezekiel 36:22 God says, “22 “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations.”   Father, glorify thy Name!

15. Read further in Ezekiel 36:23–28. Verse 23 says that first God will restore His Name.  Verse 24 says God will restore His people to the land.  Verses 25 through  – The spiritual restoration will spiritually restore them to Himself but first He will put a new heart in them.  And finally, He will live with them.  Verse 28 ends with “You will be my people, and I will be your God.”  Where have we heard these words?  Revelation 21:7

16. When we visited Israel, we were told that about 20% of the Jews in Israel are religious Jews. The rest are secular Jews or Jews by birth.  Many of the secular Jews are marginal Jews which are kind of like those people that call themselves Christians but attend church on Christmas and Easter.

17. God’s plan for the salvation of the Jews is not unlike our salvation. It comes through the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus.  And how long will God keep the eyes of the Jews blinded?  Romans 11:25-26a says, “25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved.”  Until all of the Gentiles have come to salvation through Jesus.

Discussion Question:

We see clearly in this episode that what happens to Israel and the Jewish people impacts God’s name, His character, His reputation, and His honor? Did you understand this before? If not, how has it changed your perspective?

The Israel Story

Chapter 5 – Restoration: What We Had

“Restoration is at the heart of the Israel story. The story of the Jewish people’s restoration can be summarized as: they had something, they lost it, and they got it back again. Two things that Israel had were God’s face (presence, relationship, intimacy, recognition), and their land. ” (Myers)

1. The Oxford Dictionary definition of restoration is “the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.” We discussed earlier that from 70 AD to 1948, Israel had lost their land.  That is easy to see.  Myers says that they lost God’s face.  I would contend that no matter where the Jews went God knew where they were and I believe that He blessed them to a certain degree where they were.  What Myers is talking about goes even deeper.

2. Read Exodus 33:7–11a. When you can go out to a tent and talk to God that is truly having God’s face.  I have been jealous of Adam and Eve in the Garden, to be in the presence of God would be amazing.  Yes, we can speak to Him in prayer but it is not the same as going out to the Tent of Meeting and speaking directly with God as Moses did.

3. You would think that if we had a Tent of Meeting where you could speak to God and visibly see God at the opening of the tent, then things would be amazing. But then there was the whole Golden Calf incident recorded in Exodus 32.  Moses was up on Mount Sinai and the Hebrew nation pressed Aaron to melt their jewelry and make a golden calf.  I have trouble with this one, it seemed like God should have chosen a new people.  Moses spoke on their behalf or interceded and God did not start over.  Read Exodus 32:9-14.  How angry was God? In Exodus 33:3 God tells Moses, “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

4. God said He (God) would not go with His chosen people to the Promised Land. Read Exodus 33:12-15.  In these verses, God relented and said His presence or face will go with them.  Moses says, “If Your presence/face does not go with us then we are not going.”  Where had Moses and the Hebrew nations seen the presence of God?  Pillar of cloud and pillar of fire.  As the cloud on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19)

5. God commanded Moses to tell Aaron to pray a blessing over the Jewish people. This is the Aaronic blessing which is in Numbers 6:24-27.

²⁴ “The Lord bless you and keep you;²⁵ the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; ²⁶ the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

6. Verse 27 says that the purpose of this blessing was so the Israelites would have God’s name or face would go with them. What would be the benefit of having God’s face go with them?  favor, God’s presence, intimate relationship, Identity, attention, recognition of God’s face to mankind

7. Fortunately for us, we have the face of God through Jesus. When we read about Him in the Bible, we are learning about God.  “Through Him, God’s nature, character, truth, and power were revealed.” (Myers)

8. Think about it in a human way, what is the easiest way to recognize someone? From their face.  When Terry showed some people in church pictures of Jarod at his wedding, they said that he looked like me.  In a court of law, you can’t say that you recognized the defendant by the way he walked.  You can only say “I know it was him by his face, that is the man.”

9. I said earlier that I was jealous of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Maybe I shouldn’t be so jealous. When I think about it, what will I do when I stand face to face with God after death?  Will I even be able to stand?  In his lifetime, Moses was able to speak directly to God.  Not face to face but close enough.  In the encounter recorded in Exodus 33:12-15, I can almost see Moses speaking harshly to God.

10. Think about it. Moses had such a personal relationship with God that God let him get away with “If you’re not coming with us, then I not going.”  Having God’s face or being in the presence of God is just that, a close personal relationship with God.

11. I have used this illustration before but it fits. Bette Midler had a popular song, “God is Watching Us”.  The lyrics say God is watching us from a distance.”  Having God’s face means God is close.  In the Tent of Meeting, Moses and God were a few feet apart.  That is not from a distance.  Moses could say, “God knows me and I have seen Him!”  It is recognition.

12. The Israelites had only one God (monotheism). Other nations could not say that.  All other nations saw things and created their gods from them.  Consider Ra the Egyptian sun god or Ares/Mars were the gods of war, these were created by man.

13. The Israelites had witnessed God up close and personal on numerous other occasions and they still chose the golden calf. What ways had they seen God?

1. Deliverer by setting them free from slavery in Egypt (Exodus chapters 5–12).

1. Shepherd by leading them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22).

1. Warrior and Protector by leading them through the midst of the Red Sea on dry ground and drowning their enemies, who pursued them (Exodus 14:21–28).

1. Healer by making the bitter waters sweet at Marah (Exodus 15:23–26).

1. Provider by giving them bread (manna) from heaven (Exodus 16:4) and water to drink from a rock (Exodus 17:6).

1. Lawgiver by delivering His commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and writing ten of them by His own hand in stone.

14. Read Exodus 32:9–14. Because they had chosen the golden calf over God, then God was ready to take His face/presence away from the Israelites.  Moses interceded so God went with them.  Throughout the Bible, we can read how the Israelites have turned from God and God punished them, sometimes very severely.

“In addition to God’s face, the Jewish people also had the land God had given to them. God was intimately involved in Israel settling in their land. He didn’t simply say, “The Land of Canaan is over there. Go live in it.” As we read in Exodus 33:14, God accompanied Israel into their land. No gardener brings a plant home and then says to it, “Go find a place in the garden and live there.” A gardener typically carries a plant to its place in the garden. He then digs a hole, sprinkles fertilizer in the bottom of it, puts the plant in its place, packs dirt around it, and waters it. Similarly, God not only gave Canaan to the Jewish people, He also brought them into their land and planted them there (Exodus 15:17).” (Myers)

Exodus 15:17 – You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which You have made for Your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.

Discussion QUESTION

After God revealed Himself to the children of Israel in countless ways, they still chose to create a man-made idol and worship it. Why do you think they did that? What are some examples of idols that men serve today? Do you worship anything more than you worship God?

The Israel Story

Chapter 6 – Restoration: The Catch and the Fine Print

“The special relationship that God has with the Jewish people involves His promises, gifts, blessings, and calling, but it also involves responsibility, accountability, and discipline because “to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). God gave much to Israel, required much from Israel, and strongly disciplined Israel when they failed to meet His requirements. As a result of one of these punishments, the Jewish people lost their land.” (Myers)

1. Back in Chapter 2, we learned that the Jewish people hold a special place in God’s heart. The descendants of Abraham are God’s chosen  Take what you know of the Old Testament and history, has the relationship of the Jewish people and God been a bed of roses?  ________

2. Deuteronomy 7:6 says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”  Whether you think it right or wrong, it is what God has chosen.  We do not have any say in the matter.  Romans 9:15-16 says, “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”

3. People tend to chose what is said in the Bible that suits their beliefs. David Jeremiah says we treat God as a vending machine god.  They say, “I want the God of the New Testament full of love and grace and not the one in the Old Testament full of wrath and punishment.”  There is only one God.  The God of the OT is the same God in the NT.

4. On the other side of the coin, being God’s chosen people brings certain expectations by God on Israel. If they are recognized as God’s people, then anything bad or wrong that they do, ruins other people’s view of God.  If one of my son’s did something bad and he was recognized as my son, then people would view me in a bad light.  “If John’s son did something like that then it must be because John is such a poor father.”  God’s expectations were high for Israel but He was patient.  2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

5. Consider Amos 3:2 – “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Look at the exile of Judah and defeat of the upper kingdom of Israel or the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. These are all examples of God’s punishment for their “iniquities”.  They are God’s chosen people, but they have not been perfect.

6. In Luke 12:48b Jesus says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” By being the children of God, much was given but much was expected.

7. God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 40:1-2, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”  When we say that our blessings will be doubled then we are all in but double the punishment for all our sins, not so much.  In Deuteronomy 28, Moses records the blessings of obedience which look good but in the second part of Deuteronomy 28 he lists the curses of disobedience.  54 curses. 15 blessings.

8. In Leviticus 26:18-19, it says, “If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.” In this chapter alone, it says that Israel will be punished 28 times over.

9. Just so you don’t get too caught up in these punishments, let me ask, “As children of Abraham, are we subject to these same curses of disobedience?” No, why not?  Jesus bore them.  Isaiah 53:5 tells us before it happened that, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

10. Does God have expectations for us as Christians similar to what we have been reading? Read Hebrews 12:4-11.  The writer of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12.  God disciplines those that He loves.

11. A few questions ago, I said that in Deuteronomy 28 had blessings and curses. Someone read verses 63-66.  When were these written?  At the time of the exodus.  What period of time is Moses speaking about?  70 A.D. When Titus drove the Jews out of Israel and destroyed Jerusalem.

It literally covers 2000 years.  The Jews would have no rest.  They would be driven out of numerous countries.  Myers says, “Throughout history, Jews were expelled from Egypt, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Germany, Bavaria, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Holland, and Switzerland. Jews were massacred during the nine Crusades, tortured and burned at the stake during the Inquisition, and six million Jews, including 1.5 million Jewish children, were murdered during the Holocaust.”

12. Besides these losses of people, what else did the Jews lose? The Land.  Remember what God said in Amos 9:15, “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”  Whose fault was what happened in 70 A.D.?  Their own fault.  God wanted the Jews to flourish in the Land of Canaan.

13. What messages did God communicate to all of mankind through His relationship with the Jewish people about sin? God hates sin. Also there are severe and negative consequences of sin.

Discussion QUESTIONS

14. God chose the Jewish people to reveal Himself and His ways to all of mankind. God’s punishment of the Jewish people for their sins was severe. What does God want us to understand about sin through this? What is sin? If you have sin in your life, what does God want you to do about it?

15. Today, many people equate tolerance and acceptance with love. Did God’s severe punishment of the Jewish people for their sins mean that He didn’t love them? If someone’s behavior is sinful, is it unloving to say so? If you do communicate to someone that their behavior is sinful, what does God want your attitude to be?

The Israel Story

Chapter 7 – Restoration: What the Jewish People Lost

“Not only did the Jewish people lose their land as a result of sin, the majority of the Jewish people also lost God’s face: His presence, intimate relationship with Him, and recognition of God’s face to mankind, the Messiah, Yeshua.” (Myers)

1. Read Deuteronomy 31:16–18. Is God limited by space and time? No. Does He know what will happen before it happens? Yes.  What attribute of God comes to mind when you know this?  Omniscient or All-Knowing.  He knew that the Moses would die (and exactly when) and He knew that the Jewish people would turn away from Him.

2. What was God going to take away from the Jewish people in verse 18? His face.  Back in Chapter 5, we read the Aaronic Blessing (Numbers 6:24-27).  It starts with, “May the Lord bless you and keep.  May He make His face to shine on you.”  What does “make His face to shine on you” mean?  Identity, attention, recognition of God’s face to mankind, favor, God’s presence, intimate relationship

3. Most Jewish rabbis believe that they are living in a time of the “hester panim”. Panim is Hebrew for ‘face’ and hester means ‘hidden’, so it is a time for Jews living in God’s hidden face.

4. Read Exodus 33:18–23. When Moses wanted to look upon God’s glory, God would not allow Moses to see His face.  God’s face is too amazing for man to look at.  He shows them His face in other ways, can you name some of them?  The fire and the cloud.  Blessings, His presence.

5. Another way that He has shown us His face is by sending His Son, Jesus. John 14:8–9 says, “8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”  9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”  We may not have been alive to see Jesus but we can read about Him in God’s Word.  We can know who He was and what He did.

6. Myers says that by losing God’s face as punishment, they also lost the ability to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus is the face of God.  Even though God continues to bless some Jews with the saving knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, God has not opened the eyes of all Jews.  Many believe that the prophecy in Revelation about the Jews is the lifting of the veil or cloud from their eyes and they will be the witnesses of Jesus to the dying world.

7. 2 Corinthians 3:14–15 says, “14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” This is the same veil that keeps all of the Jews from accepting

“There are more than 300 Messianic prophecies and allegories in the Hebrew Scriptures that reveal many details about Yeshua’s birth, life, death, and eternal reign.” (Myers)

8. Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  This is clearly a prophecy about Jesus.

“Who else could this be but Yeshua? What other child born or son given could be called Mighty God or Everlasting Father? Yet the majority of the Jewish people don’t believe that this verse refers to Yeshua because they don’t believe in His divinity.” (Myers)

9. The religious Jews spend their lives studying and memorizing the Torah or our Old Testament. Even in Jesus’ day or today, there is very little that they don’t know about the Messiah.  Read Isaiah 53.  To me, how could they read Isaiah 53 and not see Jesus?  Calling it a veil makes sense.

10. What did John the Baptist call Jesus in John 1:29? “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”   Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb.  What was the Passover Lamb?  The blood of an unblemished lamb was put on the doorposts to spare the Israelites from the final plague in Egypt or essentially telling death to pass by.  Jesus’ resurrection shows us that death has been defeated.  Faith in Jesus as the Messiah gives us everlasting life.

Exodus 12:7 – And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

Exodus 12:13 – Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

11. Myers says, “The children of Israel had to select a lamb without blemish.” Exodus 12:5 says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.”  Jesus is that unblemished lamb, the only sinless man to walk on this earth.

12. What is the cost to redeem us from our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.    1 Peter 1:18-19 (NLT) says, “18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

13. Exodus 12:6 tells us, “Take care of them (the unblemished lambs) until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.” Who is responsible for the death of Jesus on the cross?  Not just the Jews, it was all our sins, the sins of the world that is responsible for His death.

14. I have said numerous times, “How could the Jews have missed the fact that Jesus met all the requirements of being the Messiah?” The Jews studied and still study our Old Testament.  Myers says, “They majored in our Old Testament.”  So how did they miss it, it was the veil.  Remember this icon   from my Revelation 20 sermon?  It is the Star of David or the Jews under the veil.

15. Luke 24:13-35 tells us a story of two disciples that were going to Emmaus. This occurred after Jesus was raised from the dead.  A stranger came up and joined them.  This stranger was Jesus and He made it so they did not know Him.  Verses 25-27 tells us, “25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”  These “Scriptures” were what we call the Old Testament.  Jesus showed them that He was the Messiah using the Old Testament.  The New Testament is all about Jesus and what He has done for us but the Old Testament is full of Jesus too.

16. Read Romans 11:5-8. These verses talk about the veil of the Jewish people but Paul calls it a “spirit of stupor” which is Paul paraphrasing Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10.  Paul says that there is a remnant (NASB and NKJV).  There are some Jewish people that recognize Jesus as the Messiah and they are called Messianic  So not all Jews are in this “spirit of stupor” or are veiled.

17. God hiding of His face from the Jewish people is also mentioned in the New Testament. As God said in Isaiah 6:9-10, the Jews were “ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”  Whether God was punishing the Jews or saving them, He always left a remnant.  Even when it comes to the blindness of the Jews there was a remnant that He showed grace.  He never completely shuts the door.

18. There have always been Jews who believe in Jesus as the Messiah. They are referred to as the remnant in these verses.  It’s a good thing that there were Jewish believers at that time because almost all of those that wrote the New Testament were Jews (not Luke).  All of 12 of the disciples, as well as the apostle Paul were Jews.

19. How long does Paul say that God will keep this veil over the Jewish people? “until the full number of the Gentiles has come in”.  Romans 11: 25 “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved.”  This is the 144,000 shown in Revelation 7:1-8 and 14:1-5.  The presence of the veil is not permanent.

Myers says, “The Hebrews had to spread the blood of the Passover lambs on the doorposts and lintels of their houses. When God judged Egypt with the death of the firstborn, He passed over the houses where the blood of the Passover lamb had been applied. Those within the houses were protected from judgment by the blood of the Passover lamb.  Yeshua’s sacrificial death and the blood He shed for us rescues and redeems us from the judgment of death our sins deserved.”

20. Ephesians 1:7 says “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” My mind always goes back to the Christian song, “Who Am I”.  “Not because of who I am, but because of what you’ve done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who you are.”  He redeemed us through His work on the cross.  “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.”  My sin debt is paid in full!

21. Romans 5:8–9 says, ” 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”  We are justified by His blood.  He has made it “Just as if I’d never sin.”  If my salvation hinged on whether I am good or not, then I will never make it into Heaven.  It required His work on the cross.  He paid my sin debt.

“There are many examples like these of both Messianic prophecies and allegorical foreshadowing of Yeshua in the Hebrew Scriptures, but when the majority of the Jewish people read them, they don’t see Him.” (Myers)

22. In Zechariah 2:8, God calls the Jews “the apple of His eye”. They are still His chosen people.  He hasn’t started over since Noah and the flood.  The Jewish people are just that, people.  Because God is allowing the Gentiles to be His children doesn’t mean the Jewish people are any less important to God.  You still cannot separate the story of Israel from the story of God.  Myers says that since God has hidden His face from the Jewish people, it “does not mean that Gentiles are more spiritual, more loved by God, or are superior to the Jewish people in any way. This should never be used as an excuse to reject, belittle, or disrespect them. God has a special place in His heart for the Jewish people.”

23. The veiling of the Jewish people is part of God’s plan to redeem all people, Jew and Gentile. Romans 11:30–33 – For as you (Gentiles) were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (Jews) disobedience, even so these (Jews) also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you (Gentiles) they (Jews) also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all (Gentiles and Jews) to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”

Video 17.27 minutes

“Please do not use this idea of the Jewish people being veiled as one more reason to be critical of the Jewish people, to feel superior somehow, better than, that is not what we’re talking about. And I will say this, the Jewish people have a lot of light. I mean, a lot of light, a lot of revelation. They have contributed amazingly to life on earth and continue to do so.”

“And so you know, I’ll give you some idea about this. Albert Einstein was not blinded to physics, in case you wondered. Jonas Salk was not blinded to medicine or polio. Galileo was not blinded to astronomy. Isaac Singer was not blinded to sewing machines, for that matter. Levi Strauss was not blinded to denim jeans, and the Mossad is not blinded to intelligence.”

“And in addition, let me just tell you what we wouldn’t have without Jews. There’s a really long list, but I just made a few things. Flashlights, remote controls, flash drives, drip irrigation, lasers, pacemakers, ballpoint pens, insulin, aspirin, camera phones, traffic lights, color television, videotape, faxes, microphones, cellular technology, blimps, stainless steel. Now we get to the important part. Drinking straws, lipstick, cheesecake, and teddy bears. So think, what would life be like without cheesecake and teddy bears?  It would be empty.”

“Okay, anyway, so that was a lot of stuff, you know, the inventions we talked about and so on. And that’s just a little bit, you know, I mean, that’s a tiny bit of what the Jews have done. But understand that all of those things, you know, all of those inventions, they were invented by a people group that comprises 0.2% of the world’s population.“

Discussion QUESTIONS

The most precious gift the Jewish people lost was God’s face (His presence, intimacy with Him, and recognition of Who He is). Do you have the gift of God’s face? If yes, what made that possible? If no, why not? Do you think that it is possible to grow in intimacy with God? If so, how?

The Israel Story

Chapter 8 – What We Got Back – Land and Face

“The Israel story is a story of restoration. Israel had God’s face and a promised land, but Israel lost God’s face and their land. However, through two restorations, the physical restoration of Israel (regathering to their land) and the spiritual restoration of Israel (reconciliation to their God), the Jewish people get back what they lost, and they will never lose it again. ” (Myers)

1. In Chapter 6 we learned that because the Jews had a close relationship with God, He had higher expectations for them and would eventually punish them for their sins or iniquities. Amos 3:2 says, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

2. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” (NLT) As a parent, I wanted to make sure that my sons understood that there were boundaries and that there were certain behaviors that would not be tolerated.  God punished His people more and more severely each time they failed, until He took their land from them for almost 2 millennia.

3. The punishment of His people, Israel, was not God told them in Amos 9:14-15 that He would bring them back to the land that He had given them.  “14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.  “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.  They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”

4. During their exodus from Egypt, they were punished for 40 years. They were exiled in Babylon for 70 years because of their sin.  And finally from 70 A.D. to 1948, they were punished and spread them all over the world.  In these verses from God to Amos to the Israelites, we read that God will bring them back to the Promised Land and give them back their land.

5. During this study, we read in Deuteronomy 28 how God warned them that He will punish them with curses when they aren’t obedient. Read Deuteronomy 30:4-6.  God tells them that when they do mess up, then He will restore them with the blessings of His face and land.  Finally, in Deuteronomy 31 God told them that they will rebel against Him and it will be very bad for them. Read Deuteronomy 31:15-18.  He warned Even before they did rebel, He told them how He was going to restore them.

6. In Deuteronomy 30:4-6, it says that God will restore them. What kind of restoration is God talking about through Moses?  A physical and spiritual  He will bring them physically back to their land and spiritually He will circumcise their hearts.

7. In Romans 2:28-29 Paul says, “28 For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. 29 No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” (NLT) The circumcision of the hearts is a spiritual

8. He did this for us. Revelation 13:8b says, “all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”  How is He going to restore people to Himself? with Jesus.  How long has that been His plan? From the creation of the world.  This was His plan all along.  He knew mankind would fail.  It didn’t take Him by surprise.  Jesus wasn’t Plan B.  He was the plan from Creation.  Just as He knew the Israelites would rebel and have to be punished.

“In addition to being loving, gracious, and merciful, God is also an awesome, creative artist. The world around us declares it, from sunsets to platypuses. Because Israel’s restoration is so important to God, He created a picture for us, so that we wouldn’t miss it.” (Myers)

9. Read Ezekiel 37:1-8. So what is going on?  What kind of restoration is this?  Physical.  Myers says that this is Israel today.  The Jews in Israel only make up 73% of the population.  The remainder is made up predominately of Arabs. The Jews in Israel are 80% secular Jews or Jews by birth that do not worship God and 20% are religious Jews.   So Myers says that the dry bones which have been put back together are the secular Jews.  They look alive but they are missing something.

10. After the dry bones are made physically whole, what does it say in verse 8 that is missing? Their breath.

11. Read Ezekiel 37:9-14. In verse 11, God says, “these bones are the people of Israel”.  Christian pastors may preach relating it to a backslidden believer or a church that has become stagnant.  God leaves no doubt that it is the Jewish people.

12. Since May 14, 1948, Israel was physically restored on the Promised Land but they have no breath in them. Myers says, “but I can say that the breath is just beginning to return to it, and that in a day yet to come, it will fill this resurrected body, the nation of Israel, and the Jewish people to overflowing.”

13. In this story, the people of Israel are the Jewish people without life or breath. The breath in reality is the Spirit of God.  Where have we seen God breathe life into something that was lifeless.  At creation when man was created. (Genesis 2:7)  On the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) God gave the early Christian believers the Holy Spirit.

14. Zechariah 12:10 says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”  Who is the one they pierced?  Jesus.  Why are they grieving? Because they recognized that they were wrong.  Because the veil has been lifted and they will see Jesus as He truly is, the Messiah.

“Before concluding this summary, I (Myers) want you to see how accurate in their details the restoration prophecies of Amos and Ezekiel are, prophecies declared more than two and a half millennia before their fulfillment. Amos’s prophecies are dated between 760-750 BC. Ezekiel’s prophecies are dated between 593–573 BC.” (Myers)

“In Amos’s prophecy of Israel’s return to their land, he declares that they would rebuild the waste cities and inhabit them (Amos 9:14– 15). Just to name a few of Israel’s current cities: Jerusalem, Caesarea, Shiloh, Bethel, Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ein Gedi, and Rehovot have all been built upon their ancient foundations.” (Myers)

15. Amos 9:13-15 says, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, 14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.  “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.  They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;  they will make gardens and eat their fruit.  15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”  Why do you think that for so many years that there have not been vineyards in Israel?  The Muslim inhabitants did not drink wine.

16. When the prophet Amos prophesied that God would restore the Jewish people to their land, what words did Amos use to describe God’s involvement in the Jewish people returning to their Land? bring back, plant

17. The accuracy of the Dry Bones prophecy in Ezekiel 37 is what you would expect from God. Verses 11 and 12 say, “11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”  When in history was the hope of the Jews the lowest.  The holocaust.  Myers says, “Six million Jews murdered, including one and a half million Jewish children.”  How much lower could things have been?

18. But at their lowest point, God brought out a remnant and on May 14, 1948, God restored them to their land. Myers says, “The modern nation of Israel was birthed out the ashes of the Holocaust, and God revealed it to Ezekiel more than 2,600 years before it happened.”

Discussion QUESTION

God promised to restore the Jewish people to their Land, and that they would never be uprooted again. This was the desire of Jews through all of their years of wandering. At the end of every Passover seder celebrated out of the Land, they said, “Next year in Jerusalem.” It was an expression of yearning for their homeland. Do you have a homeland that God has promised you? Do you yearn for it? How does that affect your life practically?

Here are a few verses to consider as you answer these questions:

John 14:2-3

Matthew 16:19–21

Hebrews 11:13–16

The Israel Story

Chapter 9 – Salvation

“The life of Joseph foreshadowed the life of Yeshua. The scene of Joseph making himself known to his natural brothers is a foreshadowing of Yeshua making Himself known to the Jewish people. This represents the removing of the veil and the Jewish people seeing the face of God in Yeshua. The Jewish people will have their greatest blessing, God’s face, restored to them and it will never be taken away again. The Israel story has a good ending!” (Myers)

1. Earlier in this study, we looked at Abraham taking Isaac up to sacrifice him as God had asked. Abraham was willing to give his one and only son to be sacrificed which points to God doing the very same thing except there was no ram stuck in the thicket.  God followed through and Jesus took on the sins of the world for all time.

2. In this episode, we will begin by looking at Joseph. Myers calls this the foreshadowing of Jesus.  Who was Joseph?  Jacob’s favorite son.  What did Jacob give to Joseph?  The coat of many colors.  What did his brothers do to Joseph?  They wanted him dead but sold him into slavery.  Even with every bad thing that happened to Joseph, he still rose to power in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.  He saved the entire region including Egypt.  He brought salvation to the Gentiles.

3. Who was Jesus? God’s only begotten son. As a human, Jesus was God’s favorite.  What did God give Jesus?  A throne in heaven.  What did His people do to Jesus?  They turned him over to the Romans to be crucified.  When Jesus rose from the dead, God raised Him to a position of authority at the right hand of His Father in heaven where He brought salvation to all people, Jew and Gentile.

4. Remember in the story of Joseph when his brothers came to him for help during the famine, he hid his identity from his brothers. This is similar to the veil preventing the Jews from recognizing Jesus as the Messiah that we talked about a few weeks ago.

5. Genesis 45:4-5 tells us, “4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” Joseph had the authority at that time to put them to death.  What did Joseph give them instead?  Grace.

6. Joseph wanted to draw his brothers to himself and greet them as their brother. Matthew 23:37 tells that Jesus wanted to do the same with the Jews.  It says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”  Who wasn’t willing?  The Jews.

“Yet a day is coming when Yeshua, like Joseph to his brothers, will say to the Jewish people, “Please come near to Me,” and they will come near. Then what will they hear? Words of accusation, blame, and guilt? No! They will hear kind words of explanation that it was not them who had sent Yeshua to the cross, but God who had sent Yeshua to the cross to save them and all of mankind.” (Myers)

7. Joseph recognized that God is in control of every Genesis 45:7-8 tells us,”7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”  Gods uses all situations for good according to His plan.  Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

8. Read Ezekiel 39:21–24. This is a summary of what the Jewish people lost.  It is interesting how the Jews live and breathe the Old Testament/The Law and the Prophets.  They can only see what God will allow them and us to see.  What is one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit?  He helps us to interpret what we are reading in God’s Word. 2 Peter 1:21 tells us, “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  Without the help of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is foolishness.

9. These verses tell all that read it that the Jewish people were not obedient to God and the end result was severe punishment. They ruined their relationship with God and we can too.  God hates sin!

10. Read Ezekiel 39:25-29. This is a summary of what the Jewish people will get back.  The story of Israel is a story of turning away from God but it is also a story of restoration.  Consider that for almost 2000 years Israel did not exist as a country.  Then on May 14, 1948 this press release was published.

At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel.  And President Harry S. Truman signed this statement:

This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof.

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.

Harry S. Truman

Approved, May 14, 1948.

11. The last several chapters have talked about the Jewish people having something and then losing it and then having it restored to them. Remember what they were?  Their land and God’s face.  In 1948, their land was restored to them.  The veil is still covering Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.  There is coming a time when the veil will be lifted and they will see Jesus for who He is, their savior.  Jesus is the God’s face.  2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”  We can know God by knowing Jesus.

The Israel Story

Chapter 10 – Salvation

“In Romans 11:25, we read about two blindnesses: the blindness of the Jewish people to Yeshua being their Messiah and the blindness of the followers of Yeshua (the Church) to God’s plan and purpose to save the Jewish people. Followers of Yeshua are warned not to be prideful and arrogant toward the Jews, who do not yet share their faith. Why? Because their faith is rooted in and supported by God’s interaction and cultivation of the Jewish people for thousands of years, and their Messiah and Savior Himself is a Jew.” (Myers)

Romans 11:25-27 says, “²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: 

“The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

1. Paul wants all believers to understand God’s plan of salvation. He uses the Greek word ‘agnoeō’ which means ‘ignorant’ or ‘not understand’ or ‘uninformed’.  It is the same word that he used in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 where he didn’t want them and us to not understand what happens to the dead at the time of the Rapture.  Paul wants us to understand that God has not forgotten or tossed aside the Jews (Jacob).  Salvation through Jesus is for all  There has been no replacing God’s love for His chosen people.

2. There has been a remnant of the Jews that believe that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah but there will come a time when the veil is lifted from the eyes of the Jews and they will see Jesus as the Messiah. When will that be? When “the full number of the Gentiles has come in”

3. In verses 26b and 27, he is quoting Isaiah 59:20-21. My Bible has footnotes to Isaiah 59:20-21 but it also includes Isaiah 27:9 and Jeremiah 31:34-35.  Isaiah 27:9 says, “Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven; And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones; When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.”  The reference to Jacob is all Jews or Israel.  This verse in Isaiah 27 says that the sin of the Jews will be forgiven.  All of their idols will be destroyed and they shall only worship one God.

4. Jeremiah 31:33-34 says, “33 This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  Verse 33 should sound familiar.  God said it to John as recorded in Revelation 21:3, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

5. Verse 34 says that God will forgive their sins, just as He does our God’s faithfulness has always included forgiveness.  My mind goes to 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  This is what God told King Solomon.

6. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Does this verse say that God is patient with all Gentiles or all Jews?  God says everyone, even the Jews.

7. When we started this lesson, the quote from Myers said that there are “two blindnesses”. The first one was the veil preventing the Jews from recognizing that Jesus as the Messiah.  So what is the second one?  So far we have only touched on it.  In a previous chapter, we said that the veil was only temporary.

8. Romans 11:25 says it a little more clearly. It says, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited.” So Paul is warning those believing Jews and Gentiles not to become conceited or “think more highly than you ought” (Romans 12:3).  Regarding this phrase, David Guzik says, “Paul does not tell the believer to take an attitude that finds pleasure in humiliation or degradation. Rather, the idea is that we should see the truth about ourselves and live in light of it. When we see ourselves as we really are, it is impossible to be given over to pride.”

9. When we look at the Jewish people, then we should not take any pride in what we have done. I have said numerous times through this study, “Why didn’t God just start over and dump the Jewish people for their failings?”  Why didn’t he?  As Paul said it in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Because if we would have been in their shoes, we would have most likely behaved the same way.  The Jewish people are humans.

10. God’s plan of salvation was for all The Jews didn’t get that the Messiah would come for all people, not just the Jews.  Then when the Jews failed God and salvation was open to the Gentiles, the Gentiles don’t seem to understand that the Jews are God’s chosen people even today.  Those that believe replacement theology believe that the Church has replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people.  This is not true.  God’s covenant with the Jews is forever.

11. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jerusalem and Judea point to the Jews.  Samaria and the ends of the earth point to the Gentiles or everyone else.

12. Let’s look at Acts 10. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, is visited by an angel.  He and his family “were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly”. None the less they were Gentiles.  God wanted to get Peter and Cornelius together as a teaching moment for Peter and a blessing to Cornelius and his family.

13. Both men have visions about their meeting. In Peter’s vision, God tells Peter to eat of “all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds”.  To the Jews many of these animals were considered unclean to eat.  God tells Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  God was talking about more than just food here, God is talking about people Three times God tells Peter that He not to call anything unclean.

14. Guzik says, “Peter was saved, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and Peter had been greatly used by God. At the same time, Peter was still Peter. God didn’t use him because he was perfect, but because he was in the right direction and he was available. We often fall into the trap of thinking that we must be perfected until God can really use us.” The Jews have always believed that they had salvation because they were born Jewish but God wants Him to realize that salvation is for

15. On the flip side, God wants us to realize that the veil preventing the Jews from seeing Jesus as the Messiah is just temporary. Don’t behave like Peter who needed to be reminded that Jesus came for all.  Salvation is a gift through grace.  We can’t earn it.  We are not better than the Jews.  Their time will come.  This is the second blindness.  Because they failed and were punished by God, He isn’t done with them.  They are part of God’s plan of salvation.

16. Verses 34 and 35 of Acts 10 says, “Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” That is every nation.  Remember what it says in 2 Peter 3:9 God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  Not just the ones that we select but EVERYONE.  

“Also included in this letter, is a warning of the serious consequence if believers fail to understand God’s heart and plan for Israel’s salvation. That consequence is being “wise in your own opinion,” which speaks of pride and arrogance, specifically in this context, the pride and arrogance of believers in Yeshua toward Jews, who do not yet share their faith. This expression of pride and arrogance is written about earlier in the same chapter. Before we look at those verses, I just want to say that our opinions don’t really matter that much. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have them. It’s just that we are not the ultimate judges of what is true. That right and privilege belongs to God alone.” (Myers)

17. When I think about the difference the Christianity that God wants and the religion that man has created, it comes down to our opinions. True Christianity says salvation has come to all  Religion says, “In my opinion, you must do . . . to be saved.”  Consider in Acts 15:29 which lists the prohibitions for early Christians: abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.  These were added because the Christian Counsel didn’t believe that salvation could come just by faith in Jews, or man’s opinion.

18. Look at how many denominations there are today and each one has added their own spin to faith in Jesus. Each one believing that they are doing it correctly.  Google AI says that there are 45,000 different denominations of Christianity depending on how you define the word “denomination”.  You could fill a book with descriptions of what has been added to grace through faith Christianity.  Some putting other things ahead of faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

19. Each one thinking that they have it right. But when it comes down to it, your pride and arrogance or your opinion will not get you into Heaven but it may keep you out.

20. Romans 11:17-18 says, “17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Paul reminds us (Gentiles) that we are the wild olive shoot grafted onto the olive tree.  The root of the olive tree is Israel/Jews.  We are only grafted in by the grace of God and not by our own doing.

“When an old olive tree had lost its vigor, it seems that one remedy in antiquity was to cut away the failing branches and graft in some wild olive shoots. The result was said to be the invigoration of the failing tree.” (Morris)

21. Romans 11:24 says, “After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!” The idea that Paul is trying to make is that we were the wild olive trees and we can be grafted into God’s olive tree (become children of Abraham) then how much easier would it be to graft in a branch that was part of the original tree (non-Messianic Jews).

22. By claiming Jesus as our Savior, Gentiles are grafted onto the Jewish olive tree or we become the children of God. We don’t become biological Jewish but we can have the close personal relationship with God that God wanted for the Jews.

God still has a plan for the Jews who have not claimed salvation through Jesus as the Christ.  He has not abandoned them.

The Israel Story

Chapter 11 – The Root

“The root of the cultivated olive tree of Israel supports followers of Yeshua in their faith, whether they know it or not (Romans 11:17–18). Yeshua spoke about this clearly when he declared to the Samaritan woman at the well, “salvation is of the Jews,” speaking ultimately of Himself. He gave further insight about it when He described the blessing His Gentile followers would have to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the Jewish patriarchs) in heaven (Matthew 8:11). Yeshua’s sacrificial death made it possible for the blessing of Abraham to come upon the Gentiles (Galatians 3:13–14), and the New Covenant, into which all followers of Yeshua enter, was a covenant first promised to and made with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31–34). If you are a follower of Yeshua, these are all examples of the root system that supports you in your faith.” (Myers)

1. Last week (episode 10), we learned that Paul referred the Jews as the “cultivated branches” and us, the Gentiles as the “wild branches”. Before God sent His Son to save all mankind, He chose Abraham and his descendants to be His people.  He cultivated them for several millennia.  Cultivation in the sense that Paul is speaking of, is God trying to teach the Jews His ways and His expectations.  It is teaching them how to develop a personal relationship with Him.

2. We have read how they rebelled against God, so God made His salvation through Jesus available to the Gentiles. When Terry and I traveled through Israel there were olive trees almost everywhere.  In Romans 11, Paul used something that at that time and in that region everyone was familiar with, olive trees.

3. In Galatians 3, Paul spoke about why we get to be grafted on to the olive tree that he wrote about in Romans 11. Galatians 3: 7-9 says, “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”  9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”  So the root is Israel or Abraham and just like Abraham, if we have faith in God through Jesus then we can be grafted on the tree or we can become children of Abraham.  We are blessed because of God’s promise to Abraham.  Genesis 12:2b says, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”  Abraham was blessed because one of his descendants, Jesus, brought salvation to the world.  We are blessed because we have salvation through Jesus.  “God’s oath to Abraham is part of the root system of the cultivated olive tree of Israel, into which followers of Yeshua have been grafted.”  (Myers)

“There are essentially two types of righteousness: righteousness we accomplish by our own efforts and righteousness accounted to us by the work of God when we believe. Since none of us can be good enough to accomplish perfect righteousness, we must have God’s righteousness accounted to us by doing just what Abram did: Abraham believed God.”  (Guzik)

4. Our faith does not make us righteous but God credits us righteousness because we have faith in Jesus as the Messiah. It is still all about Him and not about us.  We benefit from His mercy and grace.

5. John 4:1–26 records Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus shocks her by telling her about how she has lived her life, her five husbands and the man that she was living with but not married to.  In verse 20, she asks Jesus about the proper place to worship God.  She says, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  In His response to her, Jesus says, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” 

“What did Yeshua mean when He said that salvation is of the Jews? That subject could fill a library, so let’s keep it very simple. God chose the Jewish people that through them salvation would come to all mankind. This is what God meant when God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him. Blessing has come to mankind in many ways through the Jewish people, but salvation has come to mankind through one Jew, the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. Yeshua’s name in Hebrew means ‘salvation’. When Yeshua said that salvation is of the Jews, He was speaking of Himself. The central and most important element of the cultivated olive tree’s root is Yeshua Himself.” (Myers)

6. Read Matthew 8:5–13. How much faith did the centurion have?  Jesus said the centurion’s faith was greater than anyone that He has encountered in Israel.  What is the significance of the people from the east and the west?  These are Gentiles.  Jesus even tells us about Heaven in these verses.  He says that we will sit down at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Myers says, “If you don’t like Jews, get over it, or you won’t like heaven!”  Which feast do you think that is?  Wedding Supper of the Lamb?

7. We forget that faith in God is us believing and trusting that what God has said He will do. It is not us saying, “I like the God of the New Testament, He is loving and forgiving.”  It is us believing that the Bible is God’s Word and what He has said, then He will do.  It is the good and the bad.  Punishment for bad and blessings for the good.  We cannot be selective in what we want to believe.  He put it in His Word and it all crumbles without us believing or having faith.

8. The God of the OT is the God of the NT. One of the key attributes of God is immutability.  He is unchanging.  There is only one God.  Did Abraham live a perfect life?    Remember when he went into Egypt and he tells his wife, Sarah to tell them that she was his sister.  Not too righteous.  He may have failed or made mistakes but he believed God.  He put his faith in God and this allowed him to develop a personal relationship with God.

9. When Jesus and His disciples were in the upper room for the “Last Supper”, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Which cup was it?  The third one, the cup of redemption.  This was a seder meal or Passover meal.

10. There were four cups according to Exodus 6:6-7. 6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. (Sanctification)   I will free you from being slaves to them, (Deliverance) and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. (Redemption)  7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” (Praise)

11. For Jews it was a new covenant but for Gentiles, it is the only one that we have. “What is the new covenant all about? It is about an inner transformation, that cleanses us from all sin: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).  It is about God’s Word and will in us: “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33).  It is about a new, close, relationship with God: I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Jeremiah 31:33).  Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can have a new covenant relationship with God. But many Christians live as if there is no inner transformation. They live as if there is no cleansing from sin. They live as if there is no word and will of God in our hearts. They live as if there is no new and close relationship with God.”  (Guzik)

12. We couldn’t have this covenant until Jesus was crucified. Before the crucifixion of Jesus, only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies.  Matthew 27:51 says, “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”  This action gives us full access to God through Jesus.  Through Jesus work on the cross, we can have an intimate relationship with God.

13. Before Jesus went to the cross, we had the Law but afterwards God is going to write His laws and statutes on our heart as Jeremiah wrote. We will know sin because we have the Holy Spirit living in us.  We can have intimate fellowship with God because our sin has been washed away by Jesus work on the cross.  And that’s why he said, “take and drink this cup”. It is the new covenant in Jesus’ blood.

14. As a Gentile believer in Jesus, this is our covenant with God through Jesus. It is a blood covenant based on Jesus work on the cross.  Jeremiah 31:31 says, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”  Who does it say the covenant is made?  the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

“Now think about that. Behold the days are coming says the Lord. I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”   This is that cultivated olive tree. This is that covenant that the Jews who don’t believe in Yeshua have been broken off of. This is the covenant when you believed in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua you have been grafted into. This is the root system that’s supporting you and your faith therefore don’t boast against those branches because remember you don’t support the root. What? The root supports you.”  (Myers)

The Israel Story

Chapter 12 – Israel and the Church: Ignorance and Pride

“Yeshua’s early Jewish disciples’ understanding that the Gentiles could also become followers of Yeshua was a paradigm shift for them but once they understood it, they received Gentiles into the “family” with humility, joy, mercy, and grace. Conversely and tragically, when the Gentiles became the overwhelming majority of followers of Yeshua, many of them rejected Messianic Jews, expressed hatred toward and persecuted non-Messianic Jews, and intentionally severed connection with the Jewish roots of their faith. Out of the pride and arrogance that motivated these attitudes and actions, a belief system (theology) developed, which asserts that due to the Jewish people’s failures, the greatest being the majority’s failure to believe in Yeshua that the Church (followers of Yeshua) has replaced Israel as the people of God, and that God no longer has a unique plan, purpose, or destiny for the Jewish people. The treatment of the Jewish people by many who have professed faith in Yeshua during the last two thousand years has created a major stumbling block to the Jews even considering that Yeshua could be their Messiah.” (Myers)

1. Last week we read about Jesus telling the Samaritan woman at the well that “salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:22) There was another time that Jesus said that “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  This was when He had traveled up to Sidon and Tyre which is modern day Lebanon.  The account is recorded in Matthew 15:21-28.  Read Matthew 15:21-28.

2. Just to set a foundation, the woman is referred to as a “Canaanite woman”. What do you suppose is the significance of this title for the woman?  She would have been viewed as an enemy by the Israelites.  Wasn’t Israel a part of Canaan at one time?  Yes.  How was it taken?  By Force.  Barclay said, ‘Of the Phoenicians, the Tyrians have the most ill-feeling towards the Jews.”  This Canaanite woman could have said that her people were very anti-Semitic.  Phoenicia was Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel.

3. There are numerous prophecies in the Old Testament that a Messiah would come and deliver Israel. Jesus was that Messiah.  It wasn’t until He came to the earth that Gentiles would have known about Him.  Consider that the Jews thought that the Messiah would come as a great military leader.  Daniel 2:44 says, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”  There would be no foreseeable benefit to any other nation but Israel in this prophecy because they believed that the Messiah would come and save them.

4. Jesus chose Jewish However in Mark 16:15, Jesus instructed them to tell the world about Him.  It says, “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”  I wonder when it truly sunk in that He meant the whole world, not just the Jews.

5. Just like Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, He is testing the Canaanite woman to see how much she really believes that He can do what He says. She had more faith than He expected.  She knew that even “His scraps” were more than enough to save her daughter’s life.

6. Sound like the centurion in Matthew 8:10b–11. “Just say the word Lord and it will happen.”  This is a rhetorical question but “Where is your faith right now?”  Do you believe “I must ask Jesus.”  There is an old hymn with the chorus, “I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! I cannot bear my burdens alone; I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus! Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.”  These Gentiles believed it.

7. In Galatians 2:11-21, Paul rebukes Peter for not treating Gentile Christians as equals. Verses 12b and 13 say, “when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”  Not only did Peter question his beliefs but it also led others astray.

8. In verses 19-21, Paul sets Peter right. Paul says, “19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”  By accepting the part of the “root” that contained the Law, Peter was saying that a Jewish Christian was better than a Gentile Christian.  Paul was saying salvation cannot come through the Law, it can only come by faith in Jesus.  It is all about God’s grace, not our own righteousness.

9. Since the time of Abraham, believers in God were predominantly Jewish. As Christianity spread the Jewish leaders tried to hold the Gentile Christians to their Jewish roots.  Remember in Acts 10 where God spoke to Peter telling him “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  God wasn’t just talking about food, but also Gentile believers.  If God gave Gentiles salvation through Jesus, then they too are clean.  Peter went and baptized Cornelius and his household.

10. In Acts 15, Peter repeats this story before the Christian Counsel in Jerusalem and they were in awe. But they still added that the Gentiles must not do 4 things.  Verse 20 says, “telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.”  They had to hang onto some of their Law.

“Once Gentiles became the overwhelming majority of followers of Yeshua, and particularly after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and dispersion of the Jews from Israel in 70 AD, the Gentile leaders of the early church (followers of Yeshua), and those who followed them, made decisions to intentionally sever faith in Yeshua from its roots in Judaism.

In 175 AD, Pope Victor condemned the use of the Bible’s Jewish calendar for dating Christian holy days.

In 325 AD, the Council of Nicea rejected the biblical date for celebrating Resurrection Day to sever its connection with Passover. They stated, “It is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious (repulsive) people.” This is why today Easter and Passover, unless by happenstance, are not celebrated at the same time. This is crazy when you consider that God intentionally and specifically chose the time of the Passover celebration for Yeshua’s sacrificial death. Why? Because the initial Passover sacrifice and the protection provided by the slain lambs’ blood on the doorposts and lintels of the Hebrew’s dwellings in Egypt were a foreshadowing of deliverance and protection from God’s judgment provided to followers of Yeshua through His death on the cross.

Then there is Saint Augustine, who described the Jews this way in 415 AD: “The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus.” Thank you, Saint Augustine! He could have said that the true image of the Hebrew is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Peter, James, John, or Paul. But instead, the Jews get Judas Iscariot. Then Saint Augustine goes on to say that the Jews will never understand the Scriptures. That’s interesting when you consider that Jews wrote almost the entire Bible, including the New Testament. He also includes the pervasive accusation of the Jew’s guilt for the death of Yeshua.

In 787 AD, the Council of Nicea II required Jewish believers in Yeshua to formally renounce and condemn observance of the Sabbath, biblical festivals, and all expressions of Jewish worship. It’s a good thing that Yeshua and the apostles were no longer on earth when this decision was made because all of them would have been banned from the church.

During the Middle Ages, Jews were subjected to baptism under the threat of expulsion, torture, or death. Jews were beaten as the highlight of Easter celebrations because they were considered to be the murderers of Yeshua. A common slogan during the Crusades was, “Kill a Jew and save your soul.”

The Protestant Reformers were not immune to this form of anti-Semitism. Three years before his death, Martin Luther published a 65,000-word treatise entitled, “On the Jews and Their Lies.” Luther advocated that Jewish homes be destroyed, Jewish prayer books confiscated, Jewish travel rights suspended, Jewish prayer prohibited, and rabbinic teaching banned under the threat of death. Four hundred years later, Hitler’s Third Reich implemented Luther’s “advice” and expanded upon it. As a result, six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children. The sign that greeted the Jews arriving at Dachau, one of the most infamous Nazi death camps, read, “You are here because you killed our God.”

11. Once the Christian religion became predominantly Gentile, they had forgotten that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and Jesus came to erase our sin but it required His death. So was it just the Jews that killed Jesus or was it the Romans, they nailed Him to the cross.  No, it was all sin that hung Jesus on the cross, including yours and mine.

12. When Mel Gibson produced the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, there were numerous outcries from the public and news media that said that this movie was anti-Semitic or that it would turn people against the Jews. They said that people would blame the Jews for Jesus death.  True believers knew the truth, we all hung Him there.

13. Isaiah 53:5–6 says, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” He was wounded for our sin.  This was written more than 700 years before Jesus was crucified.  Why did He have to die?  “For without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness from sin.”  (Hebrews 9:22)

14. John 10:17–18 – “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” They did not take His life, He gave it up freely.  He could have called down 70,000 (12 legions) angels to save Him but He died for you and me.

15. Jesus, the one who freely gave up His life for us was born a Jew. At 12 years old, He taught part of the Israel Story to the Jewish Rabbis in the Temple. (Luke 2:41-49).  Verse 47 says, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”  Why wouldn’t He be able to teach the Israel Story at 12, it was His Story too.  Even His Mother was a Jew.

16. The Jewish people were mistreated for the last 2000 years. Even without the veil preventing them from seeing Jesus as the Messiah, the mistreatment alone would have prevented them from accepting Jesus as the Messiah.  Remember early on in this study, we said that the behavior of the Jews reflected on God’s face.  The same thing applies here.  The behavior of Christians reflects on Jesus’ face.  It became a stumbling block for the Jews.

17. So how did Christians get so far off from what Jesus taught? Remember when Jesus came, He spoke mostly to the Jews.  When Paul went into a city, He went first to the Jews at the Synagogue, then to the Gentiles.  “The Church” reached a point where Jews were not only excluded from the mission outreach but they were hated.

18. Let’s start back at Romans 11:25-26a which says, “25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.” Paul is warning the Roman Christians and us of potential pride and arrogance toward Jews, who don’t fail to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  The ignorance and pride results from knowing God’s heart and plan to save them.

19. Our look at the history above shows us how ignorance and pride led to anti-Semitism. We learned that the Jew’s blindness is temporary. God has not replaced the Jews as His Chosen people.  When we went through Revelation with Pastor Brian, we learned that the 144,000 Jews will be God’s missionaries to save those still on the earth during the End Times.

Myers says, “It was also ignorance and pride that gave birth to the theology that undergirded, contributed to, and in some instances sought to justify this painful history. This false belief system, referred to as either replacement theology or supersessionism, asserts that due to the Jewish people’s failures, the greatest being the majority’s failure to believe in Yeshua, that the Church (followers of Yeshua) have replaced Israel as the people of God, and that God no longer has a unique plan, purpose, or destiny for the Jewish people.”

20. Remember in Chapters 10 and 11, we talked about the “cultivated” and the “wild” olive trees and how we as Gentiles are the wild olive trees grafted into the root that supports our faith. Those that believe replacement theology have not only rejected the Jewish people but they have negated the covenants and promises made by God to the Jewish people.  God said that these covenants were forever.  This would be equivalent to the “wild” olive trees cutting down the root that supports them.  This would be saying that an immutable or unchangeable God changed His mind.

“The content in this episode is disturbing and painful to examine. Nevertheless, it is important to clearly observe and understand the grave errors of the past, so that we don’t repeat them. My intention in sharing this history is not to motivate you through guilt. Guilt is a very poor motivation for our actions. Love is infinitely better! In our next episode, we’ll discuss the relationship that Yeshua desires between His followers and the Jewish people.” (Myers)

The Israel Story

Chapter 13 – Israel and the Church: Mercy

“God has a role for believers in Yeshua to play in His plan, purpose, and destiny for the Jewish people. This role that stands in stark contrast to the two thousand years of history, which we briefly covered in episode 12, is to be vessels of His mercy!

In Romans chapter 11, Paul addresses many issues regarding the Jewish people. He states emphatically that God has not rejected them, that at the time of his writing, there were Jews who believed in Yeshua, that the others were temporarily veiled and broken off from their cultivated olive tree, that Gentile believers in Yeshua were grafted into that olive tree and should not be prideful toward non-believing Jews, and that God has a plan to save all of Israel that He wants followers of Yeshua to know, discern, recognize, understand, but not ignore. Then we arrive at the “punchline,” the role that believers in Yeshua have in God’s plan and purpose for the Jewish people. That role is to be vessels and instruments of His mercy!” (Myers)

1. Let’s go through Romans 11:28–31 verse by verse so that we don’t miss anything. Verse 28a says, “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake”.  Paul is speaking about the Jews that have not accepted Jesus here.  All through Paul’s missionary journey, he encountered Jews who caused him troubles.  He called the Jews the enemy of Christians.  Consider that before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul persecuted Christians and even had them put to death.  He even held the coats of the men that stoned Stephen to death.

2. The Jews were the enemy of the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul wrote “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews”.  We spent a significant amount of time talking about the veil that prevented and still prevents the Jews from knowing that Jesus is the Messiah.  Enemy may sound harsh to us but at the time, it was appropriate.  The Jews pursued Paul and eventually led to his beheading for the Gospel message that he was preaching.

3. It was God’s plan all along to include the Gentiles in His plan of salvation. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Gentile).”  When Paul entered a city, he would head for the synagogue to deliver the message of salvation to the Jews first, then he would take it to the Gentiles.

4. Paul continues in Romans 11:28 with “But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs”. God made promises to or covenants with the Jewish patriarchs that He said were forever.  Our God is unchanging and if He said that the covenants were forever, they are still in effect today.  At the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jews were God’s chosen people and they still are today. Verse 29 confirms this, it says “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” 

5. Romans 11:30 says, “Just as you (Gentiles) who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their (Jews) disobedience”.  This is more than as it says in Romans 3: 23,“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Before we accepted the Gospel message, we were being disobedient to God.  2 Peter 3:9 says, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  God’s plan is for everyone to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.  When we reject Him, then we are being disobedient to God and we are enemies of the Gospel.

6. Since the Jews were first to be given the Gospel message but they rejected God’s route to salvation through Jesus, then salvation was made available to the Gentiles, to us. We get the benefit of salvation because the Jews were disobedient and rejected God’s plan of salvation through Jesus.

7. Verse 31 says, “so they (Jews) too have now become disobedient in order that they (Jews) too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you (Gentiles).” Since the Jews are viewed as disobedient as we were before we accepted Jesus, then God will make salvation open to the Jews.  John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  It does not say that He sent His Son for the Jews or Gentiles.  The King James version says, “Whosoever believes”.

“What a plan! Only God could figure this out. Do you see what He has done and what He is doing? He called the Jewish people to be a blessing. All of their experiences, lessons, victories, defeats, successes, failures, and most of all, their Messiah, Yeshua, have been used to bless all of mankind. Yeshua and the gospel came first to the Jews (Matthew 15:24, Romans 1:16). The Holy Spirit first fell upon Jews and filled them in the city of Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-13). Jews were the first to proclaim the gospel message in Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, to you (Acts 1:8)! Now, as this incredible story is moving toward its conclusion, God is calling the Gentile believers in Yeshua to bless the Jews in return. The same wind of the Holy Spirit that blew out to the ends of the earth through Jewish believers in Yeshua is now beginning to blow back to its place of origin, back from the ends of the earth, back to Samaria, back to Judea, back to Jerusalem, back to the Jewish people. Who do you think God is calling to be vessels for that breath of life, and specifically vessels for His mercy to the Jewish people? That’s right, followers of Yeshua, and if you are one, you as well. (Myers)

8. Back when we looked at Ezekiel 37:1-14, we learned that the dry bones were the Jewish people that had lost their land for almost 2000 years. The first thing that happened is that the skeletons were covered with muscle, tendons and organs just like humans.  They lacked breath so they were not alive.  There will come a day when God removes the veil and breathes His breath, the Holy Spirit into the Jews.

9. Ezekiel 37:9 says, “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” Myers believes “that the four winds represent the Gentile nations. Today, the breath, the Holy Spirit, dwells in believers in Yeshua. Myers believes that Ezekiel’s prophecy represents God’s calling upon Yeshua’s followers today to return blessing to the Jewish people by being vessels of God’s mercy to them through participating in the miraculous restoration of the Jewish people to their land and reconciliation with their God through their Messiah, Yeshua.”

10. Acts 1:4-5 tells us, “4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” When we accepted Jesus as our savior, we received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the breath that Ezekiel prophesied about in Ezekiel 37.

11. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Myers believes that the phrase “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” could be easily changed to “the four winds” from Ezekiel 37.

12. Together these verses tell us that we have the Holy Spirit living in us so we have the breath and we are to breathe the Holy Spirit into all people all over the world, including the Jews to fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy.

13. Where in the Old Testament do we find a story of a Moabite Gentile woman that ends up a believer through her Jewish mother-in-law? Ruth.  “When Naomi had lost everything, her husband, her sons, her land, and had absolutely nothing to offer Ruth. In response to Naomi’s insistence that Ruth not stay with her, but instead return to her family, Ruth made one of the most beautiful and profound declarations found in the all of Scripture.” (Myers)

14. Ruth 1:16-17 says, “16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Everything about this story shows God bringing salvation to the Gentiles

15. Myers says, “What an awesome, prophetic foreshadowing of Gentile branches being grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Israel, to be forever united with its Jewish branches!” This story also foreshadows our salvation through Jesus Christ just as Boaz was Ruth’s kinsman redeemer.  Leviticus 25:25 states the kinsmen redeemer law, “If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.”  Boaz completed the legal process by purchasing the land and taking Ruth as his wife, with witnesses present.  We know that the church is called the “Bride of Christ”.  Ephesians 5:22-33 explains the relationship between husbands and wives using Christ as the husband and the church as the wife.  Verse 22 says, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.”

16. By committing herself to Naomi and ultimately to the God of Israel, she becomes a blessed Who are the descendants of Ruth? She was the great grandmother of King David, and came into the lineage of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus.

“It is through the grace and mercy of God that the Jewish people will come to recognize that Yeshua is their Messiah. We see that it is the Spirit of grace that will remove the veil and enable the Jewish people to recognize the face of God to mankind, Yeshua.”

Zechariah 12:10 – “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.)”