April 17, 2024

There are few places I enjoy in the continental United States like Oregon. Montana is at the top of my list but an encounter with a grizzly bear is not... Oregon is an outdoor playground with more trees than people and over 100 waterfalls statewide. I've been blessed to spend a great deal of time in Oregon over the past three years since my best friend and her husband moved there to pastor a church. I've tracked my hikes over the years, and I have surpassed 30 trails and lost count of the miles. My best friend laughs at me because I look like Rambo on the trail, complete with quick-draw bear spray and a rather large blade. She laughs, but she also knows "we're not going down like that", if you know what I mean.

Along these miles of trails I have seen many wonders that declare the glory of God. Mountains, streams, waterfalls, valleys, roaring seas, wildflowers and one of my favorite moments - walking into a pocket of crisp cool mountain air that smelled exactly like my Balsam fir Christmas candle. I'd never smelled something like that in nature; it was nearly unbelievable. Of all the wonders, I find the streams and waterfalls to be the best story tellers. The way they effortlessly weave and wind through the rocks is mesmerizing. One of my favorite trails is a quiet route that teases the hiker with the sound of water at the trailhead. You can smell the water, feel the dampness and hear its bubbling but it does not come into view until about 50 yards up the trail. Once you see it you feel as though you've been plopped onto a movie set. The ferns, the foliage, the rocks, the flow - it's too beautiful. The trail leads you parallel to the stream with unobstructed views of its twisting and turning. I've been in early spring when the snow melt causes the rocky bed to be covered in a rushing white flow, and I've been in summer when the trickle is an invitation to come closer.

This particular trail has multiple waterfalls as smaller streams push their way through the forest to find their way to the main flow. There is a source at the head of the stream that creates the outward flow, and secondary streams are invited in. Once they have met with the main stream they become one and cannot be separated. Though one was first they become equal in unity under the source of the flow. They do not compete, they converge. Do you know where I'm going here?

Israel and the nations, Jew and Gentile - one in Messiah.

I will address the leaven that needs to be emptied from the church regarding Israel, the "no more mixture" as the title suggests. But first, let me say that what we need is perfect mixture - one new man in Messiah. This culmination of two streams into one river, so to speak, is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit afforded by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the desire of His heart that we will truly be one new man, and He will have it. Paul admonishes the church at Ephesus, saying, "So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh - called "the uncircumcised" by those called "the circumcised," which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, He made of no effect the law consisting of commands, and expressed in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which He put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one spirit to the Father" (vs 2:11-18, emphasis added).

The fullness of what Jesus accomplished through the cross will be discovered and revered for eternity. One of its greatest fruits is the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile unto peace in perfect unity, a unity that begins on this side of eternity. The blood of the Lamb has already given us access that we may draw near to receive salvation from Messiah. But we must remember that our Jesus is first and forever Yeshua Hamashiach, the Anointed One, King of the Jews and eternal High Priest who would save and redeem His people Israel. Jesus was Jewish in birth and tradition, fulfilling to the letter every requirement of His Jewish faith. As He said Himself, Jesus did not abolish the Jewish law but rather satisfied its requirements forever. He was the Christ, that is, Messiah, but He was not a Christian. He was the Jew who sprung up from the root of Jesse among the tribe of Judah to reign upon the throne of David forever. Yet somehow the church largely finds itself like a cow at a new gate, dumbfounded at the emphasis on Israel as we await the return of the King of the Jews.

There may be many reasons for our overlooking Jesus's Jewishness, some of ignorance and others of intention. We must rid ourselves of all of them and fully embrace Him and His people. We must love Jesus for who He is, and He is a Jew. Emphasis on exclusively New Testament teaching and doctrines is like building a house without pouring a foundation - it has nowhere to stand, and it will fall. This dangerous practice has happened far too long, and is even sometimes encouraged in the western church. Some avoid the Old Testament because it is too difficult. The cultural differences, geography, people groups and way of life are far removed from the American dream. Yet to our brothers and sisters across the pond it is their history, their people, their current way of life. We can no longer forfeit the fullness of the Word out of ignorance, inconvenience or lack of understanding. Whether we are reading Leviticus or Matthew it is the Holy Spirit who brings understanding of the Word and revelation of the knowledge of Jesus to our hearts. To think we can even approach the Word apart from the Holy Spirit's help is foolishness. Let's get our heads out of the sand and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to us from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, much like He opened the scriptures to them on the road to Emmaus. He is the Word made flesh.

The greater issue facing today's church is not ignorance of Messiah's Jewishness but rather the intentional effort to nullify Messiah's promise to Israel altogether. This delusional teaching of replacement theology, at its root, seeks to  accomplish the plot declared in Psalm 83:1. The psalmist says, "See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more." I say delusional because it is a demonically-inspired deception that suggests a greater thing, a more glorious church for Jesus. The glorious church Jesus desires is the one new man, period. Yet Jesus Himself declared that He was "not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). The foundation of His house is built upon Himself, the Rock, unto the house of Israel. It is the God of Israel's house, and we have graciously been invited in. The church that Jesus is building will not come at the cost of Him forfeiting or forgetting His own people. It is His very faithfulness to His people Israel that secures my belief in His covenant unto me. 

Paul, an observant Jew as he described himself in his letter to the Philippians, was appointed to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. He says this in his letter to the Roman Gentiles: "I ask, then, have they (Israel) stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if I might somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them. For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Now if the first fruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast - you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, because if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. Therefore, consider God's kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God's kindness toward you - if you remain in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these - the natural branches - be grafted into their own olive tree?" (vs 11:11-24, clarification added).

Beloved, this cannot be any more clear. Do not boast that you are better than the branches. Do not be arrogant, but beware. How much more will these - the natural branches - be grafted into their own olive tree? Replacement theology does not heed this warning and chooses arrogance over God's kindness and power. Paul clearly states we Gentiles, the wild olive branch, are blessed to share in the rich root of the Jewish Messiah, and we ought not boast that we are better than the natural branches that, for a time, have been broken off. Just as the secondary branch cannot boast over the first, the secondary stream does not try to usurp the primary stream. It does not fight its way upstream to the source and carve a new path or dictate the flow. It is invited in and simply joins and adds to the fullness of the stream.

PS - Hold on to this for my next post: "Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous" (Romans 11:11)