Aunty Jane
Well-Known Member
I take Jesus’ words to the Pharisees to be a sentence passed on this nation whose track record was appalling.Why not both?
Matt 23:37-39....
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent to her—how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings! But you did not want it. 38 Look! Your house is abandoned to you. 39 For I say to you, you will by no means see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in Jehovah’s name!’” (Quoting Psalm 118:26)
Jerusalem here is not just the city, but represented the very centre of Jehovah’s worship on earth...the location of his temple where the Jewish people could have their sins temporarily atoned for by the sacrifice of animals.....picturing the blood that the “lamb of God” would sacrifice on their behalf.
Why would Jesus say the above? He recounted the fact that many of the prophets whom God had sent to his chosen nation were murdered, (stoned to death) because they dared to try and correct this wayward people. How often did Jehovah lament their disobedience and disgraceful behaviour! Jesus in his pre-human existence had witnessed it all through their sad and sorry history, as they tramped through the wilderness for 40 years. That was punishment for their disobedience as soon as they were liberated from slavery in Egypt. Yet because of his covenant, he provided for them in that harsh environment.
Only two of the original adults who left Egypt, after seeing all that Jehovah did in humiliating Egypt’s gods through the 10 plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea, actually set foot in the Promised land. And even after their coming into that land promised to their forefathers, their prosperity did not last, and they fell away to false worship....resulting in 70 years of exile in Babylon.....time and again they failed him. But God had made a covenant with Abraham, that one of his seed would save, not just Israel, but the faithful ones found in “all the nations” would also be “blessed”.
So it never was just about Israel....whom he kept as his people until his part of the covenant was fulfilled and when they proved by their final despicable act that they merited abandonment, Jehovah cast them off as a nation......but never did he cast off individuals from that nation who accepted his son as Messiah....or any other nation. (Acts 10:34-35)
John the Baptist told the Pharisees that God could raise up “sons of Abraham from the stones” if he needed to. Direct descent from the Abrahamic line meant nothing if they could not be faithful and obedient to their covenants with God. (Matt 3:7-10)
I have never lost sight of the big picture......in fact, I see in many of the responses on these threads, that so many who identify as “Christians” really have no concept of that “big picture”.What if never keeping their covenants was God's purpose? (Think big picture.)
In choosing a nation to represent him to the world, Jehovah did not choose Israel because they were better than any other people....he chose them because he was going to bring his Messiah into the world and he wanted to reward his most faithful servant Abraham, who never got to see the terrible history that his descendants made....but in the big picture, God could use Israel as examples of those who were born into a covenant relationship with him...the only nation on earth who were obligated by birth to obey the laws laid down by their God. He demanded obedience (under penalty) and his laws were perfect, but his people were not. So Israel served as both good examples and bad ones. Showing us in the future what God expects of his worshippers. God’s laws were not hard to keep, but imperfect humans would find sin easier to obey.
Their need for a savior was evident in their repeated sacrifices to atone for their sins.
So the big picture for me is different from those who might see “Israel” as something she is not.
“The Israel of God” according to the apostle Paul was not fleshly Israel but a new Israel, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers who accepted Jesus as Messiah and therefore accepted his means of forgiveness of their sins. Those who do not accept Jesus as their savior are still in them.....the nation of Israel was given back to the world to become a political nation rather than a spiritual one. She is a blood spiller, like all the rest and God will hold her just as accountable as he does those who take human life when Jesus told us to ‘love our enemies and to pray for them’. (Matt 5:43-48) You cannot “love” anyone with a weapon......so we are told by Jesus to be “no part of the world” just as he was no part of the world in his day. (John 17:16) He never got involved in politics, and he never interfered with the Roman government in their domination of his people....he showed them how to live in spite of what was going on around them.
So my big picture may be a lot different to those who see literal Israel through human eyes.....I see Israel through God’s eyes as he portrays them in his word, and in the words of his son and appointed judge and King.
Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders......”you will by no means see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in Jehovah’s name!’”
For the last 2000 years, the Jewish people as a nation, have rejected the one who came in the name of their God...a name that they have not uttered for all of that time. What makes us think that they will all just ‘jump ship’ at the end? That fleshly nation is not the one Jesus came to save......the “Israel of God” was created by Jehovah to replace the disobedient nation who only ever brought reproach on that holy name.
They assumed that “taking the Lord’s name in vain” would be nullified if they stopped saying it.....but that is not what that Commandment meant.....it meant not bringing reproach on Jehovah’s reputation by their disgraceful conduct...a memo they never seemed to comprehend.
They have never had peace...and as just another one of the political nations of this world, they never will.