My dear readers,

Who are the Israelites?

Conflicts will always be common all over the world. Countries expand their territories because they can. Tens of thousands of lives die due to such expansions. The world experienced two world wars, and millions died in the process. If there are no wars between nations, conflicts in our lives resemble mini wars – at home, work, school, and even in church. Mistrust leading to angry words and actions result from man's sinful nature. Such is the inevitable troubled life of all men if God had not intervened.

God intervened through a nation that His Messiah (in Greek – “Christ” i.e. anointed; Christ Jesus – “the anointed Saviour”) must come from. That nation is Israel!

God has made Christians a spiritual people through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 2:10-16). Every believer must view his life and the world from a spiritual perspective. If he does not, he will not be able to understand his life from God’s perspective. God says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This spiritual wrestling is every believer’s experience as he serves God.

The spiritual struggle began in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee [i.e. the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The enmity will end with Christ's return to judge this sin-filled world including the old serpent. Until this happens, the enmity between the woman and the serpent continues. The woman does not refer to Eve. It refers specifically to the virgin Mary. God created Israel through Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob and Jacob's twelve sons. Mary came from the lineage of King David of the tribe of Judah (cf. Luke 3). Mary was an Israelite.

Israel was the new name of Jacob, given to him by God, when he was born again in Christ. Genesis 32:28: “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Israel would be the target of the old serpent. The old serpent is also the god of this world. The god of this world hates everything that originates from God, for he hates God who cast him down from heaven. He was Lucifer and became Satan (i.e. an adversary) when he fell from heaven. Since then, he has blinded the minds of those who reject the gospel of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

As Gentile believers and God’s children, we need to see Israel as God teaches in the Bible. The text that captures this teaching is Romans 9:1-5: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”

• Heaviness of Heart – The Apostle Paul testified that he had great heaviness and continued sorrow in his heart for his people. Paul was an Israelite and so had such feelings. We are Gentiles, so why should we have such feelings like Paul? Paul's feelings are God's feelings, by inspiration. Paul's feelings were not based on pedigree or race but on a spiritual reason. Paul was addressing Gentile believers. Israel was the nation God prepared explicitly through His promises in His Holy Word. Israel was the nation best prepared by God to recognise Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ since Israel's entire culture and existence was ordained by God and rooted in God's Word. Jesus was an Israelite. Generations of Israelites looked forward to the coming Messiah. Israel had the prophets ministering to them through God's Word to help them recognise the Messiah when he comes. Israel had the dwelling place of God (cf. the Tabernacle and then the Temple). Despite all these spiritual blessings, Israel rejected Christ! How can any believer not feel for Israel, who failed tragically, after all that God did to help them to see Jesus as the Christ?

• Believer's adoption – Through Israel, we have the gospel in Christ. We were born in sin and enemies of God because of the sin inherited from Adam (cf. Rom 5:12) and our wilful sins committed in thought, motive and deeds (cf. The Ten Commandments). Yet because of Christ, an Israelite, we have been adopted into God's family as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

• Believer's glory – Because of Christ in our lives, all believers will be glorified one day. Christ rose from the dead for our justification with a glorified body. This will be the same body that every believer will receive from God at Christ’s return. Our glorification is made possible because God raised Israel to be a holy witness and nation through which Christ ultimately came to be the Saviour of the world. To this end, Israel played a crucial part in Christ's humanity and our glorification.

• Believer's covenants – We have the covenant of works and grace bestowed to us in Christ by God. In the covenant of grace, we have the covenant of the national witness and the covenant of the church witness. God always deals with man through covenants, which He never breaks. We have the assurance of an eternally secured salvation because God in Christ is a Keeper of covenants. God cannot lie! The covenant is rooted in God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the seed of Israel.

• Believer's Word of God – The Bible (i.e. the milk and meat from God to every Christian’s hungry soul) was given through the Israelites. The Old and New Testaments were mainly written by Jewish writers whom God inspired to provide us with His holy Word. God teaches in Holy Scriptures the truths of every believer's salvation, sanctification and hope of eternal glory. The Jews were the first guardians and teachers of God's Word. Believers today follow in their holy footsteps and have inherited their God-given responsibilities.

• Believer's service – Every service toward God began with the Israelites, from the Levitical priesthood to the priesthood of believers today. Israel left behind a long list of examples of what to do and what not to do in our service to the Lord. We learn how to serve the LORD faithfully and courageously through the service and holy witness of Moses, and the three friends of Daniel who refused to bow in worship to the image of King Nebuchadnezzar even when it meant being thrown into the fiery furnace. The Scriptures have been given by God as examples to help us.

• Believer's salvation – Without the Israelites, the gospel of salvation would not have become a reality, for this was God's promise and plan from Genesis 3:15 when He preached the first gospel. The Israelites were given the faith first to believe in Christ by faith. Then they preached it to the Gentiles who believed the same gospel through faith. Romans 3:29-30: “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.”

The old serpent has been attacking and thwarting the work of God to save man from sin since the beginning of the fall in Genesis 3. He attacked God's prophets who faithfully and courageously brought the Word of God as seen in Israel’s history. Today he attacks God's Word through many false pastors and teachers in the church. The church has temporarily inherited the spiritual responsibility as God's people. The Israelites rejected Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah but it does not mean that they ceased to be God's people whom God raised from birth and through whom the Messiah obtained His humanity.

God's plan of salvation in Christ for Israel has not ended. Romans 11:1-5: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

This enmity that the world has against the seed of the woman is a spiritual struggle between God and the old serpent since the beginning of the fall of Adam. This struggle is every believer's struggle too. It will only end with the return of Jesus Christ. Pray for Israel that many will turn to Jesus of Nazareth and receive Him as their Messiah – because He is!