Why Study Our Hebrew
Roots
& The Nation of Israel
One
of the more contentious issues to divide the Body
of Messiah throughout the world in recent times
is the issue of Christian support for the nation
of Israel and an increased interest by Christians
in the Hebraic or Jewish Roots of our Faith.
The
question needs to be addressed concerning whether
these issues are just yet another slight aberration
in the long history of Christianity disseminated
by a group of well meaning but slightly weird 'Judaizers'
or do they embody some of the most important truths
to be restored to the body of Messiah in recent
years?
In Acts 3:19-21 the Apostle Peter tells the assembled
people in Jerusalem,
"Therefore repent and return to God so that your
sins may be erased; so that times of refreshing
may come from the Lord's Presence; and He may send
you the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that
is Yeshua. He has to remain in heaven until the
time comes for restoring everything, as God said
long ago when He spoke through the holy prophets."
At
that time the only Bible this still entirely Jewish
movement had was the Tenach/Old Testament. The prophets
Peter mentioned were Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and
the minor prophets like Joel, Amos and Zechariah.
Their
main topics were…
- "
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)
Bibliography:
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
