A few days ago, I met a Jew from Israel. I actually ended up talking to him again a couple of days later because I saw him again in the mall randomly. I’m not going to hide it, I am totally fascinated by Jews. And not because of a weird race thing, because I really don’t believe that much in race. Of course their are different nations and languages, but race is a term created for categorizing humans, but science has proved that our DNA is all connected and that their are no “races”. But Jews in the Old Testament are THE CHOSEN people, and so in that there is a draw for me.Anyways, Jewish history is fascinating, and obviously so for a Christian, for in it contains the inheritance for God’s chosen people. Me, I am considered the Gentile, the adopted child into the plan of God. There are Old Testament instances where Gentiles were incorporated into the family of The Creator as in the Exodus. There were Egyptians that fled with the Jews after God plagued Pharoah to release the Jews from captivity (Exodus 1-12). I would totally recommend reading this story, for it contains so much about Jesus in comparison.

Though I have an extreme fascination for the Jews and how God has brought them through every hardship in history as He has promised, I tend to forget that I, too, am included in the promises that God made to the Jews, for I have been grafted into the family by Jesus blood. A good friend let me listen to a sermon by John Piper which I will outline some very poignant points, seven to be exact.

1. First, God chose Israel out of all people of he world to be His poeple.

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the poeples who are on the face of the earth.”

-Deuteronomy 7:6

2. The land was part of the inhertance that He promised Abraham and his descendents…..The Promised Land.“On the day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…”

-Genesis 15:18

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

-Genesis 17:7

“And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of ABraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.”

-Genesis 28:13

3. The promises made to Abraham and promises of the land will be inherited as an everlasting gift to ONLY the true believing Israel, not disobedient Israel. Keep in mind that Paul, a Jew, says these things in Romans. Ethnicity is no currency for God, for He disciplines a disobedient Israel like He disciplines any disobedient nation.

“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”

-Romans 9:6

“This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

-Romans 9:8

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

-Romans 10:1

And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.”

-Deuteronomy 28:63

4. Jesus has come into the world as the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish people broke covenant with God. If you look at Romans 11, Paul explains the inheritance, broken covenant, and the Gentiles being grafted in. You can also look at the parable of the tenants as told by Jesus.

“And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing,and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

-Mark 12:1-11

5. Therefore, the secular state of Israel today may not claim a divine right to the land but they and we should seek peaceful settelment not based on divine rights but on international concepts of justice, mercy, etc…

6. By faith in Jesus, Gentiles become heirs of the promise of Abraham, including the promse of land. Only the followers of Christ inherit all.

“For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”

-Romans 4:13

“remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

-Ephesians 2:12

7. This inheritance of Christ’s people will happen at the second coming of Christ and NOT before, therefore, Christians must not take up arms to claim inheritance, but we must lay down our lives to missions and sharing the gospel. Right now, our focuse should not be on material possession, but on the awesome name of God being spread among the nations so that God will receive the praise He’s due, and that the nations can take part in this inheritance as well!

What is exciting about this for both Jews and Gentiles alike, is the the Almighty God is true to His promise to those who believe Him who are found in righteousness by faith. This is not something of our own work, but by the cleansing blood of Jesus that we can enter into God’s promises. Jews and Gentiles can be God’s children, but only through Jesus. Christmas is the celebration of God’s gift to the world, and we could not fathom a better gift than the one offered to us by the perfect sacrifice of The Lamb without defect, the firstborn of God. Because of His blood, we never have to make sacrifice again!

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