Monday, July 28, 2014

God's Separate Plans For Jews and Gentiles



God's Separate Plans For Jews and Gentiles

God's Unconditional Covenants For His Names Sake

God has some covenants that are unconditional. He keeps these covenants for His names sake. This passage below tells us that His covenant with Abraham will not be broken regardless of what the Jews do. This passage is foretelling the return of the Jews to their homeland, not for their sake, but for His name.

Eze 36:22-24 LEB "Therefore thus say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Not for your sake am I about to act, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you defiled among the nations to which you went. (23) And I will consecrate my great name, which was profaned among the nations and which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the nations will know that I am Yahweh!"' a declaration of the Lord Yahweh, when I show myself holy before their eyes. "'And I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all of the lands, and I will bring you to your land.

The following two passages talk about the unconditional nature of the Abrahamic Covenant even if Israel should reject Him:

Psa 89:30-34 LEB If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, (31) if they defile my statutes and do not keep my commandments, (32) then I will punish their transgression with a rod, and their guilt with wounds. (33) But I will not break off my loyal love from him, and I will not be false against my faithfulness. (34) I will not defile my covenant, or alter what proceeded from my lips.

Jer 33:20-21 LEB "Thus says Yahweh: 'If you could break my covenant with the day, and my covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come at their time, (21) then my covenant could be broken with David my servant, from having a son who could rule on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.

The Effect of Sin

The Jews lost the land for a time, starting at the time "the anointed one [was] cut off" (Dan 9:26) even though they were given it in an everlasting covenant. They lost the land because they did not recognize the time of their visitation by their Messiah.

Luk 19:41-44 LEB And when he approached and saw the city, he wept over it, (42) saying, "If you had known on this day—even you—the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (43) For days will come upon you and your enemies will put up an embankment against you, and will surround you and press you hard from all directions. (44) And they will raze you to the ground, you and your children within you, and will not leave a stone upon a stone within you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

Daniel's 70 Week Message to the Jews

Dan 9:24-27 LEB "Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and for your holy city, to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place. (25) And you must know and you must understand that from the time of the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem until an anointed one—a leader—will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and will be built with streets and a moat, but in a time of oppression. (26) "And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and he shall have nothing, and the people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be with the flood and on to the end there shall be war; these desolations are determined. (27) And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week, but in half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering and in its place a desolating abomination comes even until the determined complete destruction is poured out on the desolator."

Daniel is speaking to Jews. He is saying that from the command to rebuild the temple following the Babylonian Captivity to the end of this age is 70 weeks. The Jews here are to understand that there are 70 weeks of years in which God will bring them to the completion of His plan for them.

At the end of the first 69 weeks, the anointed one, Jesus, is crucified. At this point, time stops for the Jews.... but we know this is temporary because there is still one more unfulfilled week in Daniel's prophecy. That week was spoken to the Jews by Daniel. So they have to come back as a nation to fulfill that 70th week. These are exciting times, because the return of Israel to their land portends the coming of the fulfillment of Daniel's 70th week.

God's Dealings With the Gentiles

The time period between the 69th and 70th week is a pause in God's dealings with Israel. The following verses indicate that God's focus has changed from Jews to Gentiles due to Israel's rejection of their Messiah. This time period will conclude

Act 13:46 LEB Both Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly and said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life! Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles!

Rom 11:25 LEB For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own sight, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,

The passage above is quoted from Isa 6:9 is spoken in reference to the blindness and deafness of the Jews in Jesus' time.

Mat 13:13-15 LEB For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand, (14) and with reference to them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, "You will listen carefully and will never understand, and you will look closely and will never perceive. (15) For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they hear with difficulty, and they have shut their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."

Additional passages speaking of the changing of times from Israel to the Gentiles follow:

Mat 21:42-43 LEB Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? (43) For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people who produce its fruits.

Rom 11:7-11 LEB What then? What Israel was searching for, this it did not obtain. But the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened, (8) just as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, until this very day." (9) And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a cause for stumbling and a retribution to them; (10) let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and cause their backs to bend continually." (11) I say then, they did not stumble so that they fell, did they? May it never be! But by their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy.

God's Dealings With The Jews Again

So the time period between the crucifixion and the commencement of the 70th week is directed at the Gentiles. But when the 70th week commences as the Tribulation, the focus will be returned to Israel. This supports a Pre-Trib rapture view, since the rapture will remove the church from earth, returning to the focus of Daniel's prophecy, the Jews.

This passage in Luke speaks to the time of the Tribulation, and that the Jews will be trampled. But we see that the trampling will only occur until the "times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

Luk 21:22-24 LEB because these are days of vengeance, so that all the things that are written can be fulfilled. (23) Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people, (24) and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

At the conclusion of the Tribulation period, the Jews shall see Christ coming in glory and power, and recognize in sorrow their Messiah, Jesus:

Zec 12:9-10 LEB And then on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem. (10) "'I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as one grieves bitterly over a firstborn.

National Israel in the Millennium

Following the Tribulation, Jesus will come to national Israel:

Isa 59:20-21 LEB "And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression," declares Yahweh. (21) "And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have placed in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children," says Yahweh, "from now on and forever."

We know this speaks of Israel, because Paul refers to the "partial hardening" that happened to them until "the fullness of the Gentiles". He then quotes Isaiah 59:20, clearly correlation it with the post tribulation salvation of the Jews, who still exist as a people. He finishing up by stating that although they turned away from the gospel "for our (Gentiles) sake", they are still dearly beloved, and that He will still honor His irrevocable Abrahamic Covenant regardless of their behavior.

Rom 11:25-29 LEB For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you will not be wise in your own sight, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, (26) and so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, "The deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (27) And this is the covenant from me with them when I take away their sins." (28) With respect to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but with respect to election, they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. (29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Israel has a prominent position following the Tribulation. Isaiah speaks of Israel during the millennium in the following passage, showing that Israel exists as a nation and location, and that Jesus will rule from there (v3):

Isa 2:1-5 LEB The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: (2) And it shall happen in the future of the days the mountain of the house of Yahweh shall be established; it will be among the highest of the mountains, and it shall be raised from the hills. All of the nations shall travel to him; (3) many peoples shall come. And they shall say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and may he teach us part of his ways, and let us walk in his paths." For instruction shall go out from Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. (4) He shall judge between the nations and he shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn war again. (5) House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.

Conclusion

There are those today who teach that God does not have a separate plan for the Jewish people apart from the church. This article clearly shows that is simply not true, and that God does have separate plans. But it is important to distinguish between the individual people of Israel, and the entity of national Israel.

Although Paul taught that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, he is speaking here of individuals, not national entities.

In the following passage, Paul clearly says that Gentiles who were apart from Christ, have been made one with the Jews through His death and resurrection, and we now both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Eph 2:11-18 LEB Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, (12) that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. (13) But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. (14) For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, (15) invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus making peace, (16) and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself. (17) And coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to the ones who were near, (18) because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Individual Jews have and do accept the New Covenant through Jesus, but as a nation, they have and are continuing in rejecting Him. So while the path is open to both Jew and Gentile, there is still the rejection of Christ by national Israel to deal with separate from the Gentiles, and that is the entire purpose of Daniel's prophetic 70 Weeks.





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