Journal,
Some time back I subscribed to the Jerusalem Post. It was there that I came across an ad placed by Rabbi Tovia Singer. It read –
“What Are We Doing Wrong, and What are They doing right? Why Have more Jews Converted to Christianity in the Last 19 Years than in the Last 1,900 Years?”
Rabbi Singer is probably the number one anti-Christian rabbi in Jerusalem. In this ad he was coming against Christianity, against Jesus Christ as Messiah of Israel, and especially against missionaries. He was seeking to promote his anti-Christian audio tapes.
About 1900 years –
That ad was placed several years back. Rabbi Singer’s ad has long since disappeared. But no wonder. If I were a Jewish person reading the ad, I would not be concerned about purchasing Tovia’s audio tapes. I would want to know why so many Jews were converting to Christianity.
The Strange Mix in Israel –
We know that Israel fulfilled certain prophecies by becoming a nation among nations in 1948. After all, Moses and the prophets foretold of the ingathering of the Jewish people in the latter days. And yet a great part of the citizenry of Israel is secular and not religious. How can that be?
Does that surprise you that many Jews are atheists? According to statistics, a full 37% of the people of Israel are either atheists or agnostics. This makes the Israel fourth in a list of nations with the highest percentage of atheists.
Yes, Israel is a strange mix. Out of this mix is a continued hatred between the secular Jews and the Orthodox Jews. It got so bad in years gone by that you would often read about a civil war in the making.
According to the Scriptures –
It is not as if the Bible leaves all of this unsaid. The Bible is the only book in existence that records history before it happens. But where did it all begin for Israel as a nation?
It began with the Rejection of Jesus. The Lord said that His coming would affect Israel so deeply that it would be like a sword.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
“For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.” (See fuller context – Mat 10:32-39)
Point at hand –
Keep in mind that Israel was split by the sword of God. The early Christian Church was entirely made up of Jews. But when Israel through her officials rejected Jesus, as a nation Israel lost citizen rights to being the people of God.
Jesus said,
“Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?
“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.” (Mat 21:42-43)
Israel was given 40 years –
From the ascension of Jesus Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d., the Lord was reaching out to her through the prophets and apostles. She was in the vortex of a spiritual struggle similar in some regards to Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years.
What Josephus called, ‘the tribe of Christians’ were gaining ground, yet under intense persecution. Then came 70 a.d. when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Israel regained nationhood in 1948 –
Israel becoming a nation again is crucial to understanding how God’s plan of redemption is in place. Israel’s rejection of Jesus did not mean that the people of Israel would no longer figured into God’s plan for the ages. Quite the contrary.
God spoke through Isaiah,
“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.” – Isaiah 66:8
It is also noted in Scripture is that Israel will come to know Jesus as her Messiah.
It goes back to the first books of the very the writings of Moses. When Moses was about to leave the earthly scene, he sang a prophetic song over Israel. In this song Moses spoke of the falling away of Israel, of Israel’s wandering through the nations, of their peril of life, and of Israel’s return. The song of Moses actually lays out the history of Israel. (Found in Deu32),
In his song, Moses says,
“They have acted corrupted toward Him, they are not his children, because of their defect; but are a perverse and crooked generation.” (v5) (Peter quotes from this verse of the song of Moses on the day of Pentecost.)
Moses goes on to call them a foolish and an unwise people from whom He will hide His face. He says that God will make Israel jealous with a people who were not a people. He also says,
“Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future.”
When God Hid His Face –
The theme of God hiding His face from Israel trances its way through the Bible and consummates with the rejection of Jesus.
“I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” (Hosea 5:15)
Jesus lamented –
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!
“Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'” (Luk 13:34-35)
The Rediscovery of Jesus – (Israel today.)
Paul said, “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Rom11:15)
Does any of this tell us why Israel is so secular with so many atheists and agnostics among her citizenry? Yes, there is a lot to be said.
For the most part most Jews never really knew that Jesus was Jewish or that He and the apostles were ‘sabras.’ (Of the land.) They were left by their Talmudic rabbis with impressions that Jesus was some kind of Roman or Greek God, or at best a heretic.
Their rabbis had misled the Jews for so long that many became turned off by the Jewish religion. The Bible told us this would happen. God spoke through Isaiah, saying,
“Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men [rabbis] will perish, and the discernment of their discernment men will be concealed.” (Isa 29:14)
Talk of the Town –
Israel is becoming intrigued with Jesus. One Jewish writer said that the number one topic of discussion on the streets of Jerusalem today, has to do with Jesus.
It all comes back to the vacant heart –
In the heart of the Jew is a vacancy that can only be filled by God Himself. They have tired of being called the people of God, while so many of their hearts are filled with yearnings. This vacancy has become the turning point of so many Jewish people finding Jesus.
But the major turning is quite near.
The prophet Zechariah told us how this rediscovery of Jesus would happen. Israel and Jerusalem are going to face a war in the not too distant future that will bring about this cry for Jesus. I would encourage my readers to read the whole of Zechariah 12.
It is in the time of this war that we read this one verse:
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” (Zech 12:10)
It isn’t merely Israel –
Jesus said that this gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the world and then the end would come. While the Jews have their place, it should also be noted that Muslims are turning to the Lord Jesus in unprecedented numbers.
It is without question and all of redemption history is centering in the Middle East. Keep a close eye on the nations surrounding Israel.
And especially keep your eyes on Jerusalem. It began there. It ends there.
In Christ alone,
Buddy
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