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Bagel LancersThis is a new column dedicated to our Jewish friends, to encourage them to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Having lived in Miami for years, I learned to enjoy a favorite dish of our Jewish friends–bagels, lox and cream cheese, and onions. With so much anti-semitism going on, and increasing until it reaches its climax in the Tribulation, we want to be on record as showing from Scripture that God has a plan for the Jews. Principle:“I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse: and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves,” Gen 12:3.
Saturday, June 22, 2002As Christians, how do we objectively look at the Jews?
What Advantage Has the Jew?“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or, what is the value of circumcision?” Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the Oracles of God, Rom 3:1. God chose to give the Jews the responsibility of the custodianship and dissemination of the Scriptures.
Sunday, June 23, 2002Why is There Such Hostility to the Jews?There are basically three categories of hostility directed toward Jews.
Monday, June 24, 2002The present Middle East crisis is but one of those wars that the Lord Jesus Christ referred to in Matthew. “Wars and rumours of wars till I come.” Just as certainly, the push to eradicate the Jews will persist. Satan has sponsored antagonism toward the Jew throughout history, the current age being no exemption. However Satan will initiate a period of unparalleled anti-semitism in the Tribulation. Rev 12:17.
Satan, in an all out effort, will culminate in the future day when four major power blocs will converge on Israel in an attempt to utterly annihilate the Jews. Satan reasons that if no Jews survive, God’s character will be impugned, because His covenant Word to Israel is proved false. The unconditional covenant is an everlasting treaty into which God entered with Abraham and his born-again progeny. Gen 17:7. The treaty consists of four separate paragraphs and guarantees the Jews a future, a purpose, and a title deed to a land of their own. Unconditional in nature, the treaty depends solely upon the character of God for fulfillment.
To understand the scenario for the future conflagration in the Middle East, we must know the essence of prophecy concerning the resumption and course of events in the final seven years of the Jewish dispensation. Two important factors will herald the beginning of the Tribulation and accelerate Satan’s offensive against the Jews.
After the Rapture, the Tribulation commences with three and a half years of power politics in which four major spheres of influence will vie for world domination. Keep in mind that no matter what political situation may exist, all directions given in the Bible are given in their relationship to Palestine. Paralleling this power struggle, unprecedented evangelism will be conducted by 144,000 Jewish evangelists during the entire Tribulation, Rev 7:4-10. But in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation, anti-semitism and general alienation toward the Jew will become so intense that the period is called “The Great Tribulation,” Matt 24:21, 22; Rev 7:14, 12:17.
Tuesday, June 25, 2002Early in the first half of the Tribulation, a ten-nation federation will be arrayed in the west (of Israel) with headquarters in Rome. The ten-nation federation are the “ten horns” of Dan 7:7, 23, 24, Rev 13:1-10, and 17:8-10 and is sometimes called the Revived Roman Empire. This kingdom is related to the Roman Empire by Daniel’s vision of the “great statue,” Dan 2:31-45 The five major divisions of the statue represent five great Gentile kingdoms beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, Dan 2:38. The fifth kingdom, “the feet and toes of iron and clay,” is a future extension of the fourth kingdom, “the legs of iron,” the Roman Empire. The ruler of the federation, the king of the west, is referred to as “the beast” (Rev 13:1, 2), the “little horn” (Dan 7:8), “the prince that shall come” (Dan 9:26, 27), the “god of fortresses” (Dan 11:38), the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thes 2:3-10), and the “scarlet beast” (Rev 17:3).
An improbable alliance between the Gentile dictator of the Revived Roman Empire and the “false prophet” (Rev 19:20, 20:10), the Jewish dictator of Palestine, will be consummated. Dan 11:36-39. By the middle of the Tribulation, the statue of the Roman dictator, the “abomination of desolation” (Dan 12:11), will be erected in the restored temple in Jerusalem. The three remaining spheres of influence in this drama will not languish idly and allow their expectations for power to vanish. They plan an offensive against the king of the west and the dictator of Palestine. This war of wars will be launched by a simultaneous attack from the king of the south and the king of the north. Dan 11 cf Ezek 36, 39. These forces will be counterattacked by the king of the west and the kings of the east. Dan 11:44, Rev 16:12. But the final conflict cannot transpire until after the Rapture of the church.
Wednesday, June 26, 2002Peace TreatiesAlthough the Arabs may find it expedient to pen their names to any number of peace pacts with the Jews, like the devil who sponsors anti-semitism, they will only depart “to a more convenient time,” Luke 4:13b, to await a more favorable advantage for attack. The Jews know this and maintain constant vigilance.
God made a solemn promise that Jews will always remain on the earth. If He will preserve them in the Tribulation, the bleakest hour of their history, He will never abandon them now.
Abram lived in Ur of Chaldees, southern Babylon, under a system of decadent culture and totalitarian paganism. Convinced of the existence of God, He came to know and believe in the Saviour as He was then revealed, Gen 15:6. Because it was imperative that He be separated from His background and surroundings of idolatry, the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you,” Gen 12:1. To that command of separation God added five distinct Promises.
“I Will Make You a Great Nation,” Genesis 12:2The first Promise God revealed to Abram revealed the founder and foundation of the Jewish race and augured great national blessings for the future.
The second Promise provided personal blessings for the patriarch, particularly once he reached spiritual maturity. The next two Promises indicated the very structure of Abraham’s life and the last paragraph concerned the seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, Gal 3:8, 9, 16, cf
Thursday, June 27, 2002The Origin of the Jews!The Jewish race is unique in all history. God formed this people for the specific purpose of being His instruments for the development and dissemination of His Word. As Israel’s Founder, God selected a man of pure Chaldean extraction and his name was Abram. He was the ninth in the line of Shem. Semitic Abram was Gentile just as the Arabs today are Semitic but Gentiles. In those days long past, there was no division of the Earth’s population into Gentile and Jews. Such a dichotomy occurred later when Abram, renamed Abraham by God in Gen 17:5, was circumcised at the age of 99 to become the father of the Jewish race. Until then there were only Gentiles of Hamitic, Semitic, and Japhetic origin, but no Jews.
We have to bear in mind that descent from Abraham does not automatically qualify one as a recipient of the four unconditional covenants. “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendents; but “through Isaac your descendents will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God. But the children of the Promise are regarded as descendents, Rom 9:6-8.
Both Jacob and Esau were grandsons of Abraham. But God did not look on them with equal favor. “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” Rom 9:13, cf Mal 1:2, 3. Jacob received the blessing because he was regenerate, a child of God through spiritual birth. Therefore, the real foundation of the Jewish race is regeneration. Abraham was born again. Rom 4:1-5, Gen 15:6, John 3:3-7, 16. He exhibited faith in the Promise of God and God gave to Abraham what he could never merit on his own – Isaac – and Jacob also believed. Esau did not. In the formation of true Israel the racial Jew must become the regenerate Jew. Spiritual birth designates the judicial imputation of eternal life that occurs by Grace through faith in the Person of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham, Gen 15:6, and Nicodemus, John 3:1-16, are clear examples of men who are born again.
Friday, June 28, 2002“I Will Bless Those Who Bless You and the One Who Curses You, I Will Curse,” Genesis 12:3Gen 12:3 is by no means the only statement of Divine approval of pro-semitism and Divine condemnation of anti-semitism. Other affirmations are given in principle and fulfilment throughout the Bible. To cite but two examples:
Thus a correlation exists between the rise and fall of individual nations and empires, and their attitude toward the Jew.
The Lord Jesus Christ returns at the Second Advent to deliver the Jews. Isaiah 10:20-23, 11:11-16, 14:1-3; Joel 2:16-3:21; Zech 10:6-12 And to establish His kingdom, which is called the Millenium. Psa 72, Isa 11, 15, 62, 65, Zech 14:4-9, Rev 20.
Saturday, June 29, 2002God feels strongly about the Jews. So strongly, in fact, that He refers to them as “the apple of His eye," Deut 32:10, Psa 17:8, Prov 7:2, Zech 2:8. The pupil is one of the most protected parts of the human anatomy. The frontal bone structure of the face guards the recessed pupil from potential injury. The brows and lashes screen out dust and the eyelids shield the pupil from the harmful glare of the light and the tear ducts wash away smudge and dirt. Likewise, Divine intervention protects the Jews from, the devastating blows of anti-semitism. In other words, God Himself ensures that the Jews cannot be abused without impunity.
Wherever anti-semitism prevails, the people involved are underwriting their own destruction. No individual or nation ever survives anti-semitism. They destroy themselves. The outworking of this principle is recognized in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, s.v. “Jews.” It is a noteworthy fact of history that great conquerors, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, have always treated the Jews well. They recognized their religious function and sought to give it freedom to develop, for their own advantage as well as that of the Jews. On the other hand, lesser men, endowed with narrower outlooks, have failed to recognize the Jew and have sought to crush him. In their desire to impose an artificial uniformity, they “broke down the boundaries of people and put down the inhabitants,” Isaiah 10:13. But such procrustean methods are contrary to nature, and tyranny, whether towards Jews or others, hase never secured permanent results. The same policy of religious unification has characterized subsequent dynasties, from the Assyrians to the Romanovs, and the same fate has overthrown them. The Jew has survived their disappearance.
The Jews have met with personal antagonism since the founding of the race. But while they experienced oppression on a grand scale in Egypt, they had yet to encounter anti-semitism as a nation. The first instance occurred shortly after the exodus when God used Moses to bring the Jews out of Egyptian slavery. The account is described in these terse words. “Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidium,” Ex 17:8. The attack was treacherous and completely unprovoked, directed against the Jewish stragglers, the rear guard, as they journeyed through the wilderness. Thought to be the progeny of Esau, Gen 36:12, the Amakelites existed in the days of Abraham, Gen 14:7. Although they figured prominently in the Old Testament, they have since vanished from history.
Monday, July 1, 2002The Amalekites hold the dubious honor of being the first nation to wage war against the newly chartered Jewish nation. Num 24:20. The assault guaranteed their doom as God announced “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven,” Ex 17:14b. The Israelites were to be the appointed executioners of the Amalekites. Deut 25:17, 18; 1 Sam 15:3, 18. But God knew that they would fail to carry out His sentence. 1 Sam 28:18, 19. How much suffering and pressure the Jews may have spared themselves had they obeyed God’s mandate promptly and completely. But since Amalek would continue to be Israel’s bitterest foe, God sware that “the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,” Ex 17:16. The Jews would continue to be victimized time and time again by Amalekite aggression. Judges 3:12, 13; Judges 10:12; 1 Sam 15:3, 30:1.
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
The Greek word for “advantage” is “PERISSOS,” which means, “over and above.” “PERISSOS” indicates the extraordinary, the remarkable. The exact meaning this passage conveys is one of preeminence. The answer to Paul’s rhetorical question deals with Israel’s past and defines the advantages of the Jews in the age of Israel as one of privilege and responsibility.
The Advantages of Being a Jew, Romans 3:1, 2In the short phrase, “great in every respect,” Rom 3:2, all of Israel’s advantages are brought into focus. These advantages are linked to God’s Word. And to Israel, this is what it meant.
From the call of Abraham, to the time of the Exodus; and from their wanderings in the desert through their turbulent history as a nation, Israel was ever the recipient of God’s bountiful Grace. None of us, Jew or Gentile, earn or deserve preferential treatment from God. Yet it pleased God to make the Jews His own special people. All Divine revelations which have been reduced to writing came to and through Israel. Every writer of the Old Testament Scriptures was a Jew. Furthermore, God made the Jews the beneficiaries of four unconditional covenants. This everlasting treaty into which God entered with Abraham and with his born-again progeny, Gen 17:7, consists of four separate paragraphs and guarantees the Jews a future, a purpose, and a title deed to a land of their own. Because the covenants are unconditional in nature, their fulfillment depends solely upon the character of God. The four paragraphs of the unconditional covenants will be described next. Each one has an everlasting clause.
Thursday, July 4, 2002
The passage distinguishes between racial Israel–those who are Jews by birth, those who are Jews by religious tradition–and regenerate Jews, those Jews who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and are members of the family of God. These three same distinctions apply to the term “Jew and Hebrew.”
The Bible declares any descendent of Abraham who possesses the genes of Isaac, Jacob, or any of the patriarchs, to be a racial Jew. Gen 38:16. He need not be a full-blooded Jew in order to be Jewish. Racial purity is a myth.
Consider the fact that the first Jew was a Gentile Chaldean and the early Israelites usually chose their wives within the family, Gen 24:4, 28:2. Although the Mosaic Law later imposed marriage restrictions upon Israelites, Deut 7:3, 4; 23:3; 7:8. Interracial marriages were not unusual. For example, Joseph’s wife was an Egyptian, the daughter of a Gentile high priest in Pharaoh’s court. Gen 41:45. Their two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh were half-Jew and half-Gentile. But they were included among the Israelites and not among the Egyptians. Gen 48:15, 16 causing the original 12 tribes to expand into 13 tribes, Gen 48:20.
Friday, July 5, 2002One of the most revered Jews of all time is Moses, a true descendent of the tribe of Levi, Ex 2:1. Moses married outside the Jewish tribal system. His first wife was a Midianite, Ex 2:15-21. His second wife was an Ethiopian, Num 12:1. Both were Gentiles.
Even in the Davidic line we find intermarriages between Jews and Gentiles. Absalom’s mother was an Armenian princess, 2 Sam 3:3. And Solomon’s queen, the daughter of Egypt’s Pharaoh. In fact, most of Solomon’s concubines and harem beauties were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel.
In the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ appears the names of two outstanding Gentile women–Rahab, a Canaanite, and Ruth of Moabite. Matt 1:5. While records have been lost in the process of Israel’s captivity in Babylon and during the dispersion of 70. A.D., the Jews have done a splendid job of tracing their lineage over the centuries. This makes relatively easy a verification of ancestral background to determine whether or not a person is a racial Jew.
Religious IsraelContrary to popular opinion, religion is not synonymous with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, relationship with the Lord, or devotion to God. As an ingenious counterfeit of the Truth, religion is one of the devil’s trump cards. Religion emphasizes what man does to earn the approbation of God. As opposed to what God in Grace does for man.
Religious IsraelWhen God’s Grace is removed, the Gospel is obscured, 2 Cor 4:4. Victims of religion are either lulled into complacency concerning their eternal future or their hope for an eternal future is used to enslave them in the legalistic rituals and traditions of man. Mark 7:8, Col 2:8. The Gospel frees man to serve the living God. John 8:32. The Bible condemns religion and rightly so. Jer 8:8-12, Matt 23. In the name of religion, and alleged Christianity, horrible crimes have been committed. When Jews erroneously identify the Cross with anti-Jewish persecution, they develop hostility to the declaration of the Gospel, and remain confused about the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They reject an intimate, personal relationship with God and choose religion instead.
The Religion of the Jews is Called JudaismModern Judaism evolved from the tenets of the Pharisees and the Saducees of the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically, Judaism embraces three divergent views–orthodoxy, conservatism, and reform, with variations among these persuasions. In practice, the Orthodox Jew adheres strictly to the Torah and the rabbinical interpretation. The Conservative Jew observes the traditional rituals of Judaism, but allows for a more liberal interpretation of the religious fundamentals and of the Jewish way of life. Conservative Judaism, is, in fact, a compromise between orthodox and reform Judaism. Reform Judaism is both modernized and secularized, as the least stringently demanding. Reform Judaism is the most remote from the traditional definition of Jewry. Between these three views of Judaism is one common bond, loyalty to and interest in the state of Israel.
The Religion of IsraelAlthough Judaism generally represents the religious Jew, a Jew may or may not be religious. The Knesset definition of a Jew states that Jewishness may be a matter of birth, or a matter of belief. One need not be an ethnic Jew in order to be a religious Jew. One can be a proselyte, Matt 23:15, Acts 2:10, or one can be both, racial and religious.
Regenerate Israel!“But he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh,” Rom 2:28. The Biblical concept of the true Jew combines racial and spiritual factors. Regarding the racial Jew, this is what the Scriptures declare in this verse. The statement indicates that overt characteristics are not necessarily proof of Jewishness. The spiritual rebirth mandated, for example, to the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3:1-18 is a necessity for inclusion. The only method of spiritual rebirth is declared in John 3:16.
Saturday, July 6, 2002“Regenerate Israel” is the technical designation of a Jew who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as He was revealed in Old Testament. The Jew who accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour in the Church Age is unique. In the body of Christ race is no longer an issue. The Jew is entered into union with the Lord Jesus Christ and becomes a member of the royal family of God. Gal 3:28, 29; Col 3:11, 1 Pet 2:9. The same spiritual transformation applies to the Gentile. He ceases to be a Gentile, and like the Jew, merges into the body of Christ, and both become one in Christ.
The apostle Paul was a true Jew in every respect. He referred to himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” A racial Jew, he was descended from the tribe of Benjamin. According to the Mosaic Law, he had been circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Furthermore, before he was saved, Paul belonged to a religious sect known as the Pharisees and considered himself above reproach in the observance of the Law, Phil 3:5, 6.
Paul in His Misguided Zeal Relentlessly Persecuted the Early Church, Philippians 3:6Then his own conversion, rebirth, or regeneration, occurred, Acts 9:1-6. Although God appointed Paul an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul deeply desired the salvation of his Jewish compatriots and he expressed his concern in the 9th chapter of the epistle to the Romans.
Tuesday, July 9, 2002I took the title of Bagel Lancers from a fighting Regiment in England during WW II called “The Bengel Lancers.” How will the Jews recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour Messiah?
Christ will still bear the identifying marks in His body, all other bodies will be without blemish. Easy identification. “As one freshly slain.”
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 | “Who hath ascended to Heaven and come down?” “Who hath gathered the wind in His fists?” “Who hath wrapped up the waters in a garment?” “Who hath established all the ends of the earth?” “What is His name?” “And what is His Son’s name?” |
| “Surely you know!” Prov 30:4. |
Once saved, Paul was deeply solicitous for the salvation of his countrymen. Never before had he realized that to be a Jew by virtue of race or religion did not automatically guarantee a favored status in time and in eternity.
So Paul set out to explain that the Jewish race must be based upon regeneration, which was the original requirement for Abraham, the first Jew, and that the regenerate Jew is the only true Jew in God’s sight.
Skillfully he presented his case. Before Abraham became a Jew, he was already born again, Gen 15:6 cf Rom 4:3, because Abraham had believed in the promised Messiah. God made him the founder of the Jewish race.
The racial aspect is irrelevant without the spiritual aspect, which is personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, John 3:16.
To prove his point that God differentiates between racial and regenerate Israel, Paul traced the two lineages which sprang from one man, Abraham.
Of Abraham’s first two sons, one was a Gentile and the other was a Jew. Both had the genes of Abraham, yet there was a remarkable contrast between them. Was it that one was born of Abraham’s legal wife and the other of the mistress?
No. What differentiated between Abraham’s two sons was that one of them was “born again,” John 3:3, while the other was not. Ishmael, the unbelieving Gentile, was blessed for Abraham’s sake, and became the progenitor of one-third of the Arab people. He is representative of Abraham’s “children of the flesh,” Rom 9:8, cf with Rom 9:7; Gen 16:1-4.
Isaac, the regenerate Jew perpetuated the race in fulfillment of God’s Promise. Rom 9:8 cf Rom 9:7, 9; Gen 17:18-19.
The same principle is even more dramatically exhibited in the next generation.
One Jewish father and one Jewish mother, Isaac and Rebekah, produced the first recorded set of twins, Rom 9:10.
Puzzled by her condition, Rebekah consulted the Lord. “And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples (Jew and Gentile) shall be separated from your body, and one people shall be stronger than the other, and the other (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob),” Gen 25:23.
Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed in God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.”
God the Holy Spirit could have used one of five or six Hebrew verbs for the word “believed.” But this is the one He chose, “AMAN,” which means to use God as a prop, to use God as a foundation, to lean on Him.
This will give you an idea of the original languages of Scripture, which are more precise and accurate and dependable.
One Jewish father and one Jewish mother, Isaac and Rebecca, produced the first recorded set of twins, Rom 9:10. Puzzled by her condition, Rebecca consulted the Lord, “And the Lord said unto her, 'Two nations are in thy womb. And two peoples (Jew and Gentile) shall be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the other (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob)',” Gen 25:23.
Before the twins were even born or had performed any good or evil, God foretold the divergent paths they would choose.
Omniscience saw that Jacob would express faith, and Esau would reject salvation. Therefore God declared, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” Rom 9:13.
Divine approval is never based on human works (Rom 9:11, Eph 2:8-9, Titus 3:5), but on man’s response to the Grace of God which brings salvation to all mankind, Titus 2:11.
| “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel,” Romans 9:6. |
Old Testament documentation supports Paul’s claim, “Though the number of the sons of Israel (racial Israel) be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved,” Rom 9:27, cf Isa 10:22, 23, (regenerate Israel).
The great apostle Paul laments the tragedy of his people whose zeal for religion blinded them to the Truth, Rom 11:8, 25.
They readily accept the law, which demonstrates the sinfulness of man and his need of a Saviour, Rom 3:20.
But they reject the only One who fulfilled the Law perfectly (Matt 5:17, cf Rom 8:3, 4) and thereby met God’s standards for them.
They bypass God’s requirement of perfect righteousness which can only be obtained by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and they attempt to establish their own relative righteousness, a righteousness which is totally unacceptable to God. Rom 9:31, 10:3, cf Isa 64:6, filthy rags.
God’s Grace gift of Jesus Christ and the decision to believe in Him divide regenerate Israel from racial and religious Israel.
With this in mind, Paul exclaims, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them (Israel) is for their salvation,” Rom 10:1.
But Israel’s rejection of the Saviour is neither total (Rom 11:1-10) nor is it final (Rom 11:32). Only to the regenerate Jew is Jewishness an advantage.
The Greek word of “advantage,” PERISSOS, which means “over and above,” which indicates the extraordinary and the remarkable. The exact meaning this passage conveys is one of preeminence.
The answer to Paul’s rhetorical question deals with Israel’s past and defines the advantages of the Jew in the age of Israel as one of privilege and responsibility, which was the custodianship and the dissemination of the Word of God.
They failed and were set aside. Then the body of Christ was grafted in and now the body of Christ is failing in the same way.
| Paragraph one: The Abrahamic covenant. Gen 12:1-3, which establishes the Jewish race and the future nation Israel and anathematizes anti-semitism. Gen 13:14-17, Gen 15:1-7, 18, Gen 17:1-8. |
| Paragraph two: The Palestinian covenant. Gen 13:14, 15, which promises the Jews a specific territory in the Middle East and secures the final restoration of Israel in the land after the Second Advent of Christ, Isa 11:11, 12. |
They are not back in the land now biblically.
| Paragraph three: The Davidic covenant. 2 Sam 7:8-16, 22:51, which perpetuates the Davidic dynasty through the eternal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 1:32, Acts 2:29-30. |
| Paragraph four: The New covenant. Jer 31:31-34, which contains the future of Israel in spite of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to both the northern and southern kingdoms. And relates the future of Israel to the First Advent and victory of the Lord Jesus Christ, which includes the cross, and the resurrection, ascension, and session. |
All four of these unconditional covenants have an “eternal life clause” connected with them, which means the Jew has to have eternal life to be included in an eternal life clause.
A Seed for ever, a land for ever, a King for ever, and the Word for ever.
Old Testament prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ prove that the incarnate Word was in the prophetic Word, which is a perpetual witness to His Divine origin and character.
Prophecies are actually Promises. Any Divine prophecy is a Promise that God will perform all that the prophecy presents.
Generally speaking, these Messianic Promises set forth these aspects of the Promised Person.
| His royal and human pedigree. |
| His Deity and uniqueness. |
| His redemption and governmental program. |
| Promise: “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee,” Psa 2:7. |
| Performance: “He shall be called the Son of the Highest.” “He
shall be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:32, 35. “Thou art My Son,” Acts 13:30-39. |
| Promise: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel,” Gen 3:15. |
| Performance: “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son “made of a woman,” Gal 4:4. |
“Mary was found with Child of the Holy Spirit,” Matt 1:18.
Promise: “I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy
seed after thee,” Gen 17:7.
“In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,” Gen 22:18.
Performance: “Now in Abraham and his seed were the Promise made,”
Gal 3:16.
“Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham,” Matt 1:1.
Promise: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” Gen 21:12, 13.
Performance: “Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called,” Heb 11:16-19.
Promise: “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David He will not turn from it, of the Fruit of thy body will I set upon the throne,” Psa 132:11.
Performance: “Jesus Christ, the Son of David,” Matt 1:1.
| “I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch,” Jer 23:5. |
| “David...of this man’s Seed hath God according to His Promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus,” Acts 13:23. |
| “Jesus Christ...of the Seed of David,” Rom 1:3. |
Promise: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until Shiloh come,” Gen 49:10.
“After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for
Himself,” Dan 9:24-26
Performance: “It came to pass in those days,” Luke 2:1.
“When the fullness of times was come, God sent forth His Son made of a
woman,” Gal 4:4.
Promise: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” Isa 7:14.
Performance: “When, as His mother was espoused to Joseph, before
they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Spirit,” Matt 1:18.
“Behold a virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son, and they
shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us,” Matt 1:21.
Promise: “Call His name Immanuel,” Isa 7:14.
Performance: “They shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us,” Matt 1:22, 23.
Promise: “Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” Psa 118:26.
Performance: “Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest,” Matt 21:9.
Promise: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel,” Micah 5:2.
Performance: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the
days of Herod, the king,” Matt 21:1, Luke 2:4-6.
Promise: “The kings of Tarshish and out of the isles shall bring their presents…offer gifts,” Psa 72:10.
Performance: “The wise men...presented unto Him gifts,” Matt 2:1-11.
Promise: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping...for her children,” Jer 31:15.
Performance: “Then Herod...slew all the children, Rachel weeping for
her children,” Matt 2:16-18.
Promise: “I loved Him and called My Son out of Egypt,” Hosea 11:1.
Performance: “Out of Egypt have I called My Son,” Matt 2:15.
Promise: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the
desert a highway for our God,” Isa 40:3.
“My Messenger, He shall prepare the way before Me,” Malachi 3:1.
Performance: John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” Matt 3:1, 3, Luke 1:17.
Promise: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the
desert a highway for our God,” Isa 40:3.
“My messenger, he shall prepare the way before Me,” Mal 3:1.
Performance: “John the baptist...the voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” Matt 3:1, 3, Luke 1:17.
Promise: “Anointed with the oil of gladness before Thy fellows,”
Psa 45:7.
“The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,” Isa 11:2.
Performance: “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him,” John
3:34.
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,” Acts 10:35.
The word “anointed” is Messiah.
Promise: “The Lord, thy God, will raise up unto thee a prophet...like unto me,” Deut 18:15.
Performance: “A prophet like unto me...Him shall ye hear,” Acts 3:20-23.
Promise: “To preach good tidings unto the meek; to bind up the broken hearted; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” Isa 61:1, 2.
Performance: “Jesus came to Nazareth, opened the Book, and found the place where it was written, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also,” Luke 4:16-21, 43.
Promise: “As a Root out of dry ground, He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him,” Isa 53:2.
Performance: “Jesus said the Son of man hath nowhere to lay His
head,” Luke 9:58.
Promise: “He will not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street,” Isa 42:2.
Performance: “Jesus charged them that they should not make Him known. He shall not strive,” Matt 12:15-21.
Promise: “Because He hath done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth,” Isaiah 53:9.
Performance: “Who did no sin, neither was guilt found in His
mouth,” 1 Pet 2:22.
Promise: “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up,” Psa 69:9.
Performance: “His disciples remembered that it was written “the zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up,” John 2:17.
Promise: “I will open My mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,” Psa 78:2.
Performance: “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things
that have been kept secret,” Matt 13:35.
Promise: “God will come. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,” Isa 35:4-6.
Performance: “Jesus answered, the blind receive their sight,” Matt 11:4-6, John 11:47.
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Page updated 01/02/13 03:17 AM.