ARE WE LEARNING FROM THEM?

HAVE WE LEARNED FROM THEM?

                For I do not want you to be unaware brethren that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea: and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock is Christ. Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” 1 Cor. 10:1-4, 11.

                When Adam and Eve sinned Satan became the god of this world and as the rightful god of this world, his first and foremost priority was to seek out and destroy the Seed that God had promised, that would crush his head  and secondly to establish His kingdom in rebellion against God. So from the beginning then Satan has desired a global kingdom… a kingdom in which there are no dissenters.

                We see Satan’s first attempts at a global kingdom there on the plains of Shinar where the people gathered together under Nimrod (The first antichrist type) and they began to form a global government and a tower of unity around which to build their religion and to link up with the gods who had ruled the world before the flood. ( We now have a tower of unity in New York City and we too are attempting to unite the religions of this world and the gods of this world as equals with Christ so nothing has changed.) So when God came down and destroyed the Tower and confused the languages, the world was divided into 70, or 72 nations each ruled over by one of Satan’s gods.

                We gain a peek into this satanic hierarchy in the book of Daniel where the prince of Persia resisted the angel’s answering Daniel’s prayer for 21 days. (Dan. 10:12-14) This world literally belonged to Satan and he ruled the nations and few of us realize what Jesus accomplished in breaking this hierarchy and introducing His Holy Spirit into the world, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

                The point today is that God sought for one man of faith who would come into covenant agreement with Him.  In other words God had no right to this planet. He had given it to mankind… mankind had sold out to Satan… now Satan was the rightful owner and king of this domain and the only way that the God of heaven could operate in this world is through a man…any man that would come into covenant agreement with him, thus giving God permission to act through that one man.

                So God chose Abram. He called Him right out from the center of Nimrod’s Kingdom, Ur of the Chaldees was a pagan city fully under the rule of Nimrod, in fact the book of Jasher tells us that Abram’s father served Nimrod as a military officer and the family business had something to do with making idols for pagan worship.

                So out of the seventy nations, each ruled by one of Satan’s princes, God called Abram and by covenant He made Abram and his seed into a nation… a nation that belonged to God by covenant. And it would be through this one nation then that God would bring the promised Seed as well as to bring forth His Word and His Law

                So, with this background in mind, we now understand what Paul is telling us here in 1 Cor. 10:1-11. It was through this one covenant nation (Israel) that God would carry out His purposes in the world and to provide a way of salvation for all who would, like Abraham, come into covenant with Him. In fact, when we come into covenant with God through Jesus Christ we are grafted into the covenant that God made with Abraham. “ By faith we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to covenant.” Gal. 3:29

                So we see Israel being called out of Egypt and baptized in type in the Red Sea and guided by the Holy Spirit in type in the cloud and drinking water from the rock which was Christ in type… and all of this God did not only to bring about His purposes in the world, but to serve as types and shadows pointing forward to what the Messiah would do and along the way, God also used Israel as an example for us upon whom the end of the age has come. We must learn from them, both from what they did right and what they did wrong.

                Most people, who create heroes, cover their mistakes and bring forth only those points that made them heroes in the first place, but not so with God. God’s biblical heroes are all people who struggle between good and evil… who win some and lose some and in this God demonstrates His long suffering and His infinite love, in while they were yet sinners and in rebellion against God, Jesus came into the world and died for them and for us and even as they put Him to death, He prayed, “Father for give them for they know not what they do.”

                And Jesus was telling the truth. They didn’t really understand what they were doing when they crucified Jesus or that they were destined to do so for the salvation of all mankind. So we grossly misunderstand God’s plan when we point fingers at the Jews and blame them for fulfilling their role in the salvation process. They have suffered greatly for it, but Paul also informs us that a time is yet ahead when, they will be reconciled to Yeshua (Zech. 12:10) And Romans 11 explains to us that God’s gifts and calling to Israel are irrevocable. “For just as you once were disobedient to God but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.” Romans 11:29-31.

                So if we point the finger at the Jews and condemn them to death today, how much worse should be our punishment who have sinned and crucified Jesus afresh, having the full knowledge of who He is and what His sacrifice was all about.

                We love to point fingers at the Jews and assure ourselves that God rejected them forever, but we forget that not even Satan understood what was happening, for it says that if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…(1 Cor. 2:8) Why? It is because Satan sealed his own eternal doom. Satan cannot be forgiven, for he rebelled, even though once having been a covering Cherub around the throne of God. But as for the Jews who unknowingly took part in Satan’s folly, Jesus did forgive them even as He hung on the cross.

                And so salvation is equally available to every Jew who comes to and receives the Lord Jesus by faith even now. Salvation is no different for them than it is for us. We must all be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble is designed to do just that for the Jews.

                We see them in their zeal trying to force the coming of the Messiah as they build their third temple and it sounds like a wonderful thing, but the Bible informs us that the antichrist will step into this temple and claim to be God. But when he does, then God’s Remnant Jews will suddenly understand with horrifying clarity that this cannot be the Messiah and they will flee to the mountains. (Mt. 24:15-21) In their desperation they will realize that the Messiah must be someone else and the scriptures will be opened to their understanding and they will see Jesus as their long lost brother as in the story of Joseph and they will mourn openly for Him. They will gaze upon Him whom they have pierce and so as Paul says in Romans chapter 11…”thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob and this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins..

                This event Paul informs us will take place when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in… and believe me, the fullness of the Gentiles has not yet fully come in, for if so, then there would be no further need to evangelize the world. There is a final harvest to be accomplished in latter rain power… and when the last Gentile has come in, then God will turn back to the Jews and He will both judge them and save as many as come to Him.

                God used the Jews to save the world. He promised Abraham that through his seed all of the nations of the world would be blessed. And Jesus reiterated this when He spoke to the woman of Samaria saying, that salvation is of the Jews.(John 4:22) And make no mistake about it: Jesus was then and still is a Jew from the tribe of Judah and of the lineage of David. He has a plan for His own people.

                Elijah once complained to God that he was the only one left in Israel that served Him to which God replied: “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So Paul says: “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Romans 11:6

                We have no idea what we are saying, or the judgement that we place upon ourselves when we say that God rejected Israel… for if grace is not grace then none of us is saved. Salvation is of the Jews and it is by being grafted into that one chosen nation that we too are saved. (Romans 11:17, 18)God called one nation out from among the gods of this world and through that one nation He wrought salvation for all of mankind… that is, all who will receive Him as Savior, Lord and King by covenant.

                We love to point our finger at the Jews for their many failures in history, and yet, our own nation, having the full knowledge of the life, death and resurrection of Christ has now turned back to idols and many who call themselves Christian today will deny the Lord and they will take the Mark of the Beast and they will join Satan on his train to hell… and we are without excuse because we do know what we are doing. We do know who Jesus is and yet we are rejecting Him anyway. How much greater punishment do we deserve than the Jews, who along with Satan didn’t understand, or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1Cor. 2:8)

                To see all that the Lord has done in using the Jews to bring salvation to the world … and that even their rejection of Jesus brought salvation to us, then it borders on blaspheme to say that God has ultimately rejected them. We don’t understand our Bibles to say such things, for Ephesians 2:11-22 tells us that God’s plan is to reconcile Jews and gentiles and to make them into one new man and He even tells us how He will do it:

                “ But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, For He Himself is our peace who made both groups ( Jews and Gentiles) into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity.

                And it should not escape our attention that the New Jerusalem is just that… The New Jerusalem” and its foundations are the 12 Jewish apostles and its gates are the 12 tribes of Israel and there are going to be a whole lot of confused Jew hating Christians who may feel uncomfortable in such a Jewish City as the New Jerusalem. Are we out of our minds?

                I thank God that Jesus forgave the Jews   and that He stands ready to reconcile them back to Himself through Yeshua. That means there is yet hope for me, even though my sin is greater than theirs, since I have sinned with the full knowledge of Jesus and His cross and the blood of salvation.

                This is why the false doctrine of replacement theology is one of the most egregious doctrines ever devised by Satan. It totally misrepresents the character of God and destroys the eternal nature of His covenants, thus making God a failure in what He set out to do with Abraham by covenant. For by faith we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. (Gal. 3:29)

                Now don’t be confused here. Salvation, for Jews and Gentiles alike, is through Jesus Christ. There is no other door and no other means of salvation. The Jews do not have a separate covenant of salvation as some teach for everything in the Old Testament points forward to the New Testament just as Jesus said. But even that event, for the Jews, is in God’s capable hands and He will bring it about in His prophetic timing. He will work out their salvation either by choice in good times or by the crucible of the time of Jacob’s trouble in which Daniel explains that “Many will be purged, purified and refined and he ties this event in with the abomination of desolation that is yet to take place. In fact Jesus Himself placed the Abomination of Desolation at the very end of the age in Mt. 24:15.

                We need to understand these things for they help to form a framework in understanding the issues that we now face as we see the final global kingdom being formed as Satan seeks to rule the world in the place of Christ… and this is exactly why Jerusalem is the most hotly contested piece of real estate on this planet Just as God said it would be in many places including Zech. 12:1-9.

                Some of us really need to update our understanding of these things. God brought Israel back into their land as promised, not for glory, but for judgment… but that judgement will result in God’s Remnant Jews receiving Him whom they have pierced. Zech. 12:10, Rev. 1:7

                But the question still remains for us: Have we learned from their example or are we as a nation falling away from God and turning once again to idols… to serve the gods of this world? The truth is, America is inviting the gods to rule our nation once again in the place of the God of heaven and our sin is infinitely greater than the Jew’s sin which was done in ignorance.

                Those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior need to rightly understand the issues and to take our stand as citizens of God’s kingdom, in the midst of a kingdom of darkness. We are the light of the world because we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power might be of God and not from ourselves. 2 Cor. 4:6-10.