WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A JEW?

 

Jill Soto

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Revelation 3:9-21 …

There is a world of difference between what God defines as a Jew and what human beings define as a Jew. Jesus is the King of the Jews, but this term and this phrase does not mean He is the King of a race of people. It means that He is the King of those, He is the leader of those, He is the perfect example of those who choose to serve God with a servant heart, who love God and who want to do His will in all things.

The term Jew originated during the Babylonian captivity. For a thousand years prior to that time, the descendants of Abraham were called Gypsies or Hebrews. When the Hebrews were taken to Babylon, they let their captors know that they were God’s chosen people, and this claim amused the Babylonian’s because to them these Gypsies were nothing but exiles and slaves. So, instead of calling them Gypsies, the Babylonian’s took the word Judea and took the first two letters from it and created the slang expression Jew “J-u” to represent the self-asserting chosen race. History clearly teaches this is how the term came to be.

You might be surprised to know that this derision and scorn was a fulfillment of prophecy. In Jeremiah 29, God said that because His people had rejected Him and had refused to listen to His servants, the prophets, that He was going to pursue them with sword, famine, plague, and He would make them an abhorrent, a stench to the kingdoms of the earth, an object of cursing, horror, scorn, and reproach. The Lord, Himself did this. The scorn and reproach directed toward the Jews was motivated by God’s spirit. Why? I will give you a Bible text to show you why. Ezekiel 36:20, “God brought these judgments upon His own people and wherever they went among the nations they profaned my Holy name for it was said of them, these are the Lord’s people and yet they had to leave His land.”

God took a nation of slaves, and He did everything possible to elevate them to the stature of a great nation, only to have His own people turn against Him. And before you get too critical of what the Jews did, I must remind you that every nation has done the same thing. Israel’s experience is but a mirror of humanity. What God did for Israel, He has done for the United States of America, and look what we have done. We have profaned God’s name by the way we live, by the things we do, and by the abominable things that take place in our country. God evicted Israel out of the land He had given them, and He made their name a matter of scorn and reproach among the nations. The same thing, if time were to last long enough, would happen to the United States.

Our nation at the present time is imploding, our nation is falling apart, and our borders are porous, and a whole other people are coming in to take what once belonged to this country. Understand, the Old Testament is not just the story of Israel. It is a mirror of all nations, it is a mirror of humanity, it is a mirror showing us the nature of our hearts.

Jesus came to earth as a Jew. He came at a time when the Jews were despised by the Romans. Jesus came to earth to share in their shame and suffering, only to be put to death by both, His own people, and the Romans, working in concert together. Wow. Think about that.

When Jesus was crucified, Pilate put the title of Jesus on the cross in three languages. It was the time of the Passover and so Jews from every part of the world had come to Jerusalem to observe one of the required feasts at Jerusalem. So, in John 19:19-2

19“Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read JESUS OF NAZARETH. THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 20“Many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.” 21”The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write the King of the Jews but that this man claimed to be the King of the Jews.” Ahh. Look at verse 22, Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

By this time, Pilate was convinced that the man crucified was in fact Jesus, the Son of God. And as tradition has it, Pilate was expelled from his service as Governor of Judea a few years after this. He moved to Ethiopia and legend says that Pilate became a wonderful and powerful influence within Christianity. He became a believer in Christ, and in fact, he was regarded as a saint, and is regarded as a saint, I believe in the country of Ethiopia. The story of Pilate is really a wonderful story, about how he met Jesus and at the time, was powerless to save Him. But in the end, I believe Jesus ends up saving Pilate. I really treasure the study that I did on Pilate.

Let’s continue… The pagan Governor Pilate recognized who Jesus was and he declared His title in three languages, so that everyone might know the identity of Jesus. In fact, Jesus is still King of the Jews, but as I have pointed out already, the term Jew is not a race as far as God is concerned, it is an attitude. This is why Jesus condemned the Synagogue of Satan in Philadelphia. This is why Jesus declared those claiming to be Jew, were liars because they weren’t. The point here is that God is not perplexed about the church we attend. God is not concerned about our biological heritage. God does not respect our ethnicity. He is no respecter of persons. God is not impressed with our education or possessions. He owns everything. To God, the human race is one race. There is no distinction as far as He is concerned between Jew and Gentile. There was at one time, but He abandoned the distinction.

But there remains a sharp distinction between the children of Abraham and the children of the devil. We have the Church of Philadelphia, and we have the Synagogue of Satan.

Look at John 8:39-44. 39The Jews told Jesus, “Abraham is our father.” “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.” Jesus goes on to say to the Jewish leaders, 41“You are doing the works of your own father.” They retorted, “We are not illegitimate children like you are.” [That was the implication. Mary was known to be pregnant before she married Joseph, and so Jesus went through His whole lifetime bearing the stigma of being an illegitimate child.] And so, Jesus is saying to the Jewish leaders, you are doing the things your own father does and they respond, “We are not illegitimate children, [as you are] they protested. The only Father we have is God himself.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you? Then Jesus said, because [of your self-righteousness] you are unable to hear what I say.” And Jesus says to the Pharisees and Sadducees, 44“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, [not accepting, not remaining true to the truth] for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Salvation boils down to an attitude. Those who love truth keep searching for more truth. God’s children have an attitude of, tell me more, I want to know everything about God that I can absorb. And Jesus confirms this in John 3:19-21,

19“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Don’t be fooled. The Synagogue of Satan controversy is not over. It has not ended. The conflict with self-righteousness continues in most Christian churches, and in fact, all churches of all religions today. The conflict is ongoing.

Shortly before God destroyed Israel, He sent Jesus to Earth with a new covenant. Then, God sent the apostle Paul to the Gentiles telling them that God had abolished the Levitical law and any Gentile could become a trustee of the gospel of God IF he were willing to live by faith like Abraham. If so, God would consider him an heir of Abraham.

Paul wrote to the Gentiles in Ephesus,

“Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:2-6)

This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “All Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:26) Being grafted into the new Israel is the only way possible to be an heir of Abraham. This explains why Jews and Gentiles cannot be saved unless they are born again.

There are born-again people in every nation, religion, language, and culture. Through Jesus, all of them have been grafted into the promises made to Abraham. This explains why salvation is limited to the spiritual heirs of Abraham. God will surely save all Israel because He said,

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

Reader, may God bless you in every possible way, and let’s plan to meet around the throne of God. (Revelation study on the churches)