Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Trying to be Jewish: Dt 5:1-3

"Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: 'Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.'" (Deuteronomy 5:1-3)

From time-to-time, I have meet Christians who are infatuated with Jewish culture, tradition, and law. For some, this infatuation borders on an obsession. They study and celebrate the Jewish feasts and festivals, they hold to Jewish customs, and some even abide by kosher dietary laws. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, by trying to be Jewish, we can miss a simple truth. The covenant God made at Mount Horeb was not with all of mankind but rather with the decedents of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This covenant was not made with Abraham, Issac, or Jacob but rather with their decedents. This covenant was in force as long as the nation of Israel observed the conditions of the covenant. For about two thousand years God related to the nation of Israel based on the covenant instituted on Mount Horeb but after centuries of rebellion and sin, God declared an end to the covenant. In essences, God divorced the people of Israel and rendered null and void the covenant He once established with them. "They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers." (Jeremiah 11:10)

God made a covenant with the people who stood that day at the foot of Mount Horeb and who heard His voice speaking to them. However, our covenant with God does not descend from that covenant but rather than from a promise made to Abraham, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (Genesis 22:18) God has not called us to become Jewish but to become children of Abraham by living the same lifestyle of faith that our father Abraham lived. God does not want us to become "hung up" on the rules and regulations of the "Old Covenant" but rather to live in the freedom of the "New Covenant". Instead of becoming Jewish, let us become Christians, or "Christ-like".

David Robison

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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:46 AM

    PRAY for Israel's ancient race...

    The Jew

    Scattered by God's avenging hand,
    Afflicted and forlorn,
    Sad wanderers from their pleasant land,
    Do Judah's children mourn;
    And e'en in Christian countries, few
    Breathe thoughts of pity for the Jew.

    Yet, listen Gentile, do you love
    The Bible's precious page?
    Then let your heart with kindness move
    To Israel's heritage;
    Who traced those lines of love for you?
    Each sacred writer was a Jew.

    And then as years and Ages passed,
    And nations rose and fell,
    Though clouds and darkness oft were cast
    O'er captive Israel,
    The oracles of God for you
    Were kept in safety by the Jew.

    And when the great Messiah came
    For guilty man to bleed,
    He did not take an angel's name,
    No - born of Abraham's seed -
    Y'shua Jesus, who gave His life for you,
    The gentle Savior was a Jew.

    And though His own received Him not,
    And turned in pride away,
    Whence is the Gentile's happier lot?
    Are you more just than they?
    No; God in pity turned to you -
    Have you no pity for the Jew?

    Go, then, and bend your knee to pray
    For Israel's ancient race;
    Ask the dear Savior every day
    To call them by His grace;
    Go, for a debt of love is due
    From Christian Gentiles to the Jew.

    - Author Unknown

    shalom pray selah always...

    Daniel 9:25-26 KJV

    + + +

    vincit veritas
    semper fidelis

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