.png)
On October 16, 1944 a woman named Elsa Koppel died in Auschwitz*. She had the same name I do. It's sobering seeing a holocaust victim database and finding your full name listed, belonging to a murdered woman you never knew.
It doesn't just give the numbers faces, it makes them feel personal. But truly, if you're a lover of the prophesied and promised Jewish Messiah, it already is.
Think of it. The death of 6 million people bearing a yellow star of David? The same David from whose line came our Savior? That's personal.
The loss of people who were the first to give us the good news of a light dawning in our shadow of death? That's personal.
If we follow Jesus, the loudest voices against antisemitism should be our voices. But saying of the holocaust "never again" and then preaching in ignorance or arrogance the like of "The Jews Killed Jesus and the Church is the new Israel" is hypocrisy: antisemitism in a new (or, revisited) location. The same complicity and false teaching that created the mostly silent churches of that time.
The God of Israel, the Holy, Holy, Holy One, commands us to take Him seriously. Seriously in everything but especially in His identity. Who is our beautiful Jesus? He is fully God and fully Jewish in His humanity. He is not done with His Jewishness nor the Jewish people. How in the world could we ever think He would be? To think so is to be utterly robbed.
Paul the apostle reminds the in-grafted non-Jewish believers that God did not reject His people.
"I ask then: did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew" (Romans 11:1-2) Paul continued in verses 25-27,
"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The deliverer will come from Zion, He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.'"
The return of Jewish people accepting Jesus (Yeshua) as the fulfillment of prophecy is already well underway. What Paul said would happen in Romans 11 (and is prophesied all throughout the Bible) is happening right now.
So in the midst of this holy, complex homecoming (Paul himself refers to it as a "mystery"), may we not be a hindrance. May we not hold them back, making it muddier with lazy language, perverted doctrine and apathy for where we came from.
There is more to Jesus. Don't you long for it? And in an age of anti-christs isn't it vital that we know His true identity?
If we want Him as He is, then we love Him. We love His divinity, His genealogy, His personality and we see that His Jewishness matters. Because, in His own words, He is Who He is.
We say "never again" as a statement against hate and mass genocide and thank God for that. But for those who know Jesus, never again gets even more specific. Never again means an end to the diabolical doctrine that mocks our Messiah. Never again means wake up to all Christians who fell asleep to the sound of antisemitism.
"And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever,
and this is My memorial to all generations." - Exodus 3:14-15
___
Note: This is a topic warranting more length and depth than given here. If some of the thoughts above are new to you and you would like to learn more, these are a few resources (out of many) that have been helpful for me:
1) Mottel Baleston Messianic Jewish faith testimony (video).
2) Why Care about Israel? and Why Still Care about Israel? by Sandra Teplinsky
3) Awakening the One New Man by Robert F. Wolff, et al. Print.
4) I AM Hidden Behind A Veil of Stars by Christine Koppel, Print.
___
Comments