• " God's dealings with and purposes for the nation of Israel, their dispersal and restoration to both the Land and the Lord in the last days. (Ezekiel 36& 37; Deut 30:1-6; Isaiah 11 & 12) "
  
  
• The two comings of the Messiah and His Kingship based in Jerusalem in the last days. (Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Zechariah 12 to 14; Psalm 2) "
  
  
• The grafting in of a people from all the nations to JOIN, not REPLACE God's first chosen people as channels of His redemptive purposes. (Zechariah 8:23; Isaiah 2:2-3; Isaiah 56 c.f Romans 11; Eph 2 & 3) "
  
  
• His plan to use the believing remnant among the Nations to help restore the Jewish people to the Land and the Lord. (Isaiah 40:1-11; Jeremiah 16:16) "
  
  
• How to live as a redeemed people. (Deut 4:1-14; 5:1-21; 6:4-8)

The Hebrew Roots/Israel message is important because …

• " It gives us the basis we need to understand where we are in God's purposes and how He views things that are happening in our world today. Our nations and the Church worldwide need to come into an understanding of these issues for their wellbeing and maturing. (Zechariah 12 & 13; Joel 3:1-2) "
  
  
• It provides us with an understanding of our spiritual heritage. (Romans 9:4-5)

In his excellent book 'Our Father Abraham', Dr Marvin Wilson has written, "You have to be cognizant about your past if you are to be confident about your future." The Prophet Isaiah says, "Listen to me you pursuers of justice, you who seek the Lord: Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug - consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth." (Isaiah 51:1-2)

• " We are disciples of a Hebrew Lord. Matthew 1 gives the genealogy of our Messiah, beginning with Abraham, the first Hebrew, and following His lineage through King David and the Tribe of Judah. "
  
  
• Through Him we have been joined to a Hebrew family. (Eph 2:1-3; 5; Romans 11) We need to ask ourselves whether we, in the words of the Apostle Paul, 'who were once not a people', have nothing to learn from the family of our Messiah. Galatians 3:29 reminds us that, if we belong to the Messiah, we are the seed of Abraham according to the promise. "
  
  
• We cannot understand our family's book in all of its richness if we do not approach it with an understanding of the people, the culture and the language that birthed it. The great theologian Karl Bath once said, 'The Bible is a Jewish book. It cannot be understood or expounded unless we are prepared to become Jews with the Jews'.
  
  This does not mean that we should al become Jewish 'wannabe's' running around in tallit and kippot, trying to be Jewish. Some Jewish friends have said to me that they find the attempts by some Christians to take on Jewish cultural symbols as the worst anti-Semitism of all. They see it as yet another form of Christian triumphalism.
  
  We are heirs to the BIBLICAL roots of our faith, but NOT to Jewish CULTURAL symbols that have evolved over time, just like some of our Christian symbols.
  
  What Bath means is that, if we are truly to understand the Bible, we have to remove the Greek worldview that pervades much of our understanding and thinking and put on a Hebraic worldview through which to understand God's Word.

In their brilliant book, 'The Shaping of Things to Come', Australian writers Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch put it this way, 'This spiritual resonance should not surprise us, as the Jewish heritage is the primordial matrix out of which Christianity was birthed, and which we would argue is the only matrix out of which it could be organically understood in its fullness. Except for Luke's writings (he was most likely a Jewish proselyte), the New Testament is a document written by Jews. Therefore biblical Christianity's genetic code, its kinship, its plausibility structures, its genius, are all Hebraic to the core and back … Even if early Christianity reshaped Judaism, it worked with basic Hebraic ideas and elements and retained its essentially Jewish structure and religious patterning.. it was a redefinition 'within the family' so to speak…

As it (Christianity) moved further away from Israel geographically, and Judaism politically and socially, the gospel began to define itself over against Judaism, and even began to become shamefully anti-Semitic. This was a tragic historical blunder because it was only out of the Hebraic matrix that a true understanding of the faith of the Scriptures, including the New Testament, could be maintained over the long haul. As a result the elemental biblical worldview was replaced by, at best, a syncretistic blend of the Hebraic and Hellenistic, and at its worst, an outright rejection of the Hebraic in favour of the Hellenistic. This move away from the matrix that gave New Testament Christianity its inner meaning and vigour has deeply infected the Church's understanding of God, Jesus, His people, the mission of the people of God, our ethics and our way of living with unbiblical and sometimes outright pagan understandings and assumptions."

A Gospel that excludes God's purposes for Israel and the Jewish people is an incomplete Gospel. A theology that does not view the Christian faith through the cultural lens of Hebraic Biblical understanding is like offering an honoured guest a McDonalds Cheese burger when reservations have been made at a fine restaurant next door. It 'does the job' but leaves a sense of incompleteness and lack of satisfaction.

When Paul wrote to the Roman believers he reminded them that the Gentile believers were like wild olive shoots that had been grafted in among the true shoots to receive of the richness of the root. He then goes on to admonish them with these words, "Don't boast as if you are better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root. The root is supporting you!" (Romans 11:18, 19)

The Greek word translated 'support' means 'to lift up', 'to bear', 'to carry.' In other places in the New Testament it is used for 'womb'. It implies life giving nourishment. If a baby in its mother's womb is cut off from her life source even briefly, the baby may die, or suffer retardation in its development.

So it is that the Church, the faith community scattered throughout the world, cannot reach its full potential apart from its older brother, the Jewish people. It cannot hope to have a full understanding of its Biblical heritage and of God's great plan of redemption through the Messiah, if it cuts itself off from the richness of its Hebraic Biblical heritage.

Sadly, there has been throughout much of Christendom, at best, an ignorance of the importance of Israel in God's purposes, resulting in a total disinterest in what is happening in the Land, and at worst, an antagonism which has resulted in anti - Semitic statements and actions. Most churches do not pray regularly for Israel and few take a stand against a lack of justice in International circles and an anti Israel bias in much of the media. In Romans 11 and in Ephesians chapters 2 and 3, Paul reminds us that one of the great mysteries of God, is that, through the good news, non Jews have joined God's family, along with the Jews, and are now able to be equal sharers in what god has promised.

The Jewish people are our older brothers in the faith. Their heritage has become ours through the work of Yeshua. Their history has become our 'faith' history (Galatians 3:26-29). But, as so often happens in families, when a young child is starting to mature and spread its wings, it can pass through a time when it may choose to reject its family heritage, believing it knows more than the older family members, sometimes even feeling ashamed of the rest of the family. The young person is cut off from its roots, experiencing a sense of 'not belonging', and becomes defensive and insecure.

A few years down the track, however, usually when they become parents themselves, family and heritage suddenly becomes very precious and they find themselves emulating the older family members they briefly rejected. This process of reconciliation with the family needs to take place if they are to mature into the person they were meant to be.

So it is with the church, we cannot mature into all God the Father wants us to be, until we have a clear sense of belonging and place in God's plan of redemption.

In his book, "Your People Shall be My People", Don Finto reminds us that the early believers were 'one in heart and mind'. Yeshua prayed that all of His followers would be one so that the world would believe He had sent them. "But we are not one, with over 160 different ecclesiastical and over 23,000 denominations!"

Finto suggests that, in following the law inherent in all of God's creation, we have reproduced after our own kind. By breaking with those who have birthed us, we have produced one division after another.

"The gaping wound of the schism between Jews and Gentiles represents 'grand daddy' of all wounds in the Body of Messiah. All other wounds of division stem from this original wound. Because the Church has grown to believe it superseded Israel and Messianic Judaism, the spirit of super-sessionism has plagued Christianity through the ages … It was Moses who first heard God say, "Israel is My firstborn son." (Exodus 4:22) A firstborn son has an irreplaceable position in the family. Paul was specifically speaking of Israel when he said' "God's gifts and calling are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29)

And finally, unless we enter into an understanding of God's heart for His still chosen people, and an appreciation of the Biblical Hebraic roots of our faith, we miss a special part of the Father heart of God, Who said, "Zion says, "The LORD has forsaken me, My LORD has forgotten me." Can a woman forget her baby or disown the child of her womb? Though she might forget, I could never forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands. Your walls are ever before Me." (Isaiah 49:14-16)

Our Father Abraham, by Dr Marvin Wilson, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1989 The Shaping of Things to Come, Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church, Michael frost & Alan Hirsch, Hendrickson, Peabody 2003 Your People Shall be My People, Don Finto,

Introducing John & Jesma O'Hara John, a businessman & Jesma have five children, and two grandchildren, Isabella and Asher. Both serve on the Eldership of Hesed Fellowship and are board members of International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, Australian Branch and Jesma has also been the Editor of their magazine for the past 12 years. Hesed Ministries is involved in supporting a number of projects : Field workers in Israel, Orr Shalom Children's Homes, Kesher Friends of WIZO and Mercy International in Thailand. They also support orphanages and schools for AIDS affected children in Malawi and Kenya. Jesma is Chairman of the Board of Nambour Christian College, co-educational inter-denominational college of over 1200 students, from preschool to year 12. They are also the Australian Representatives of Orr Shalom Children’s Homes. Jesma's Qualifications Masters in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. B A major in Religious Studies Studied in Jerusalem at AMI Jerusalem Centre For Biblical Studies and Research and Educator’s From Abroad Study Course at Yad VaShem.