|
Over the years, God has taught me many things authenticating the ‘Jewish heart’, AND…its importance for every believer!!! Here are two examples!
First, I found Dr Blizzard’s declaration(see last tidbit): “You ought to go to Israel, you will never read the Bible the same again!” --to be prophetic!! After my Jewish heart experience, my understanding of the Word of God definitely blossomed! One area in particular that began to open up to me is God’s nature. Incredibly, I found that God revealed Himself, or identified Himself…with Israel! After over 40 years of study and research, this revelation remains one of the greatest God has ‘ever’ given me! Here we go!! The nature of God is defined as Who He is; or how He exists. Understanding the nature of God is the key to ‘ALL’ Bible hermeneutics (interpretation). When God speaks, He speaks from His nature or according to His nature. Psalms 138:2 declares, “…For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.” The greatest way God reveals His nature to us is through His names. When God speaks, He speaks according to His name, or from His nature. In Psalms 138:2, the word “name” refers to His nature. This means through the name(s) of God, we understand His nature, from which He speaks His word! For example, God reveals His name as holy (Qadowsh) in Isaiah 57:15. Through the revelation of His name in this verse, we understand God exists as holy, sanctified, sacred, or ‘separate’ (Lev20:7,8(NLT)). Therefore, God can never say anything, or do anything, apart from His holy nature! Why? Because another aspect of His nature is immutability, i.e.unchanging (Mal3:6), i.e. God cannot change! Therefore, everything God says and does—forever…must be holy!! Regarding God’s names, the Bible also declares: God is righteous(Jer23:5); He is the Shepherd (Ps23:1); He is the banner/flag (Ex17:15); He is eternal(Ps90:2). These are a few of the scriptures that reveal the nature of God by His names. Therefore, because God is eternal and unchanging, nothing can be added to, or subtracted from Him—He has no potential. I repeat…our God is forever the same(Heb13:8)! As God revealed these wonderful truths about His nature through His names, I was completely dumbfounded one day, as I saw in the scripture the term: “the Lord God of Israel”!! Not once…not twice…but over 200 times the King James version describes God as: “the God of Israel”!!! For example, “And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants…” --2Chron6:14* Incredibly, in the context of God’s immutability(Mal3:6); and eternality (Ps90:2); which again means nothing can be added to or subtracted from Him—forever…the Bible declares God is the God of Israel! Why is this so profound? Because this means God has eternally existed as the God of Israel(Gen33:20)!! This certainly adds new and exciting meaning to the ‘why’ of the ‘Jewish heart!’ If you are paying really close attention, you also better understand why Satan hates the Jew! Why Israel is hated by the nations of the world! And, why there is such a thing as anti-semitism! My second example of better understanding of the Bible through a ‘Jewish heart’ is: Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? --Romans 11:11,12 One of the rich revelations in Romans 11:11-12 is that non-Jews are not left out! God has promised to bless the Gentiles too! However, Paul writes the blessing of the Gentile began with the fall of the Jew! Now, what is most intriguing about this is that one would assume that, because the Bible declares we Gentiles are blessed because of the fall of the Jew, when God restores the Jew, the Gentiles will go back to our original places, which obviously was not a place of blessing!! Remember, if we Gentiles are blessed because of the failure/fall of the Jew, either we were not in the place of blessing prior to the fall; or were in a less place of blessing prior the fall!!! But amazingly, God is so good, that when He moves the Jew back in their rightful position, not only will He not send the Gentile back to his old place, but God promises to send a blessing, on both the Jew and Gentile, that has NEVER before been seen!!! Once again, Romans 11:12 declares: “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? I repeat, through God’s marvelous goodness, mankind has been blessed!!! But you ain’t seen nothing yet!!! When God restores the Jews back to their rightful position---we will see an outpouring of God’s blessing on the earth like never before in human history!!! “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” -Is64:4 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. -1Cor2:9 God is the God of Israel(Ps41:13), and the God of more(Eph3:20; Mat8:14,20)!!! Yet…if we want God’s more---Israel is the key!! The key is the Jew! HEY…let’s get to work taking the gospel to the Jew first(Rom1:16)!!! *As a side note, 2Chronicles 6:14 furthermore reveals the God of Israel as the only God!! In other words, God reveals His uniqueness to the world through His association with Israel!! QuoteBit "You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be." - David Viscott
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Derrick JacksonPastor, Author Archives
November 2024
|