One day I was watching
TV, and a religious program came on. The Host had a guy on his program to talk
about how God reveals miraculous things to him. The young man talked about
himself, and his visions from God. He also made reference that he and his
religious group of people were God special people from Isaac. Then he referred
to another religious group as not being special to God, and came from Ishmael.
Both the host and the guest were professing God to be their heavenly Father,
who loves them and their religious group over all others.
Jesus was telling a
parable to his disciples in which he told them that a blind person cannot lead
a blind person, because they both will fall into a pit (Luke 6:39). Religion and religious people cannot accept Jesus Christ as
Lord. If they do, they would have to accept the fact that God is no respecter
of persons or religious groups, and that all people are equal in God’s sight
and equally special to God. Religious groups claiming superiority would have to
accept the fact that Jesus Christ died for the whole world – for all people,
nations and languages, regardless of who you are. This would remove any partiality and superiority of any
people over the other. And the Bible said, “For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life John 3:16. The Law, OT, Torah or Pentateuch tells us “The
LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and
awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. Deuteronomy
10:17.
There is a notion that some people are special or partial to God because
they are Abraham’s children or Abraham’s descendants. This is not a truthful
notion for any modern day people or religious groups to harbor in their
hearts. So many Christians and other religious groups
promote such lack of Biblical knowledge. Promoting the idea that one religious
group of people belongs to Abraham and is more special to God than another is a way for that group to
make itself superior to all the rest of God's people. It is clear that this is not the nature or
character of God our heavenly Father to be partial.
The Law, Old Testament Bible, the Pentateuch, or Torah, opens to us the
knowledge of the first people on earth beginning with Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis. Genesis also tells about the wickedness of
humanity and how God had to cleanse the earth with water from a flood leaving
Noah and his family a total of eight people in the world. Some people believe
that there were other people in the world at that time; however, I would like
to believe what the scriptures have to say about the subject. Perhaps there
were others, but I cannot stipulate on my own recognizance. The Old Testament
tells us that from Noah’s descendants came Abraham who hailed from Mesopotamia,
which is now called modern Iraq. Well, this Abraham married Sarai who had a
name change from God. Her name was changed to Sarah. So God called Abraham who
also had a name changed from Abram to Abraham. Both Abraham and Sarah were
called to become a prototype people for God. And through their faithfulness and
obedience they would become the father and mother of the whole people of the
earth. They did indeed bring forth many families. Abraham and Sarah died and
their family line continued to be God’s prototype. They were to be sort of
ambassadors for God. However, just like Adam and Eve sin continued to plague
them. Abraham had many children. However, his Son Isaac was the one God called
to continue Abraham’s work as a prototype people or ambassador for God. Isaac died and Jacob was the son called by
God to continue to carry on as a prototype people or ambassador for God. Jacob had
twelve sons and like Adam and Eve, and the others, they were also plagued with sin. Jacob sons had a brother named Joseph whom they sold
into slavery in Egypt.
While Joseph was in captivity, he became second in authority to Pharaoh
in Egypt. A famine made way for Joseph’s whole family to come to Egypt on the
request of Joseph. Later on, when they had a new Pharaoh they were held captive
and enslaved by the new Pharaoh. God’s prototype group of people was taken
captive in Egypt, but God would still work God’s purpose.
These people were a tribal group from Jacob and his twelve sons. I am
sure he had daughters also. Although these people were called Hebrews, they did
not belong to any religious group. They were simply called ‘Israelites’ or ‘the
children of Israel.’ The Israelites were never called Jews, Christians or
Catholics. Hebrew was the original language of the ancient Israelites. Hebrew
is also the original language of the Old Testament. They were called the
children of Israel or Israelites, because the God of Heaven had changed Jacob,
their father’s name from Jacob to ‘Israel.’ Jacob got his name when he was
hiding from his brother Esau. Jacob was camping out alone one night. Perhaps it
was in a dream, and he found himself wrestling with a man or angel until
daybreak. The man could not overpower Jacob so he touched Jacob in his hip and
weakened him. Jacob would not let the man go even at the man’s request. It was
then that the man blessed Jacob and changed his name by telling him that his
name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because Jacob struggled with God and
with men and have overcome.
The ancient Israelites or Hebrews were neither Jews, Christians, Catholics nor any other religious groups. The Hebrew language of the Israelites was called the "language of Canaan." (Isaiah 19:18). Ancient Hebrew is a member of the Canaanite family of languages. Canaanite is known from the second millennium B.C. in transcriptions into Egyptian or in the cuneiform of the el-Amarna Tablets. Other Canaanite dialects from the first millennium are Phoenician and Moabite and probably Edomite and Ammonite. The Canaanite language are part of the Semitic language called after SHEM.
In the mid-sixth century and later the first religion called the Jewish Religion used Aramaic, a family of the Hebrew language in their contacts with the society around them since it was the international language of the Persian Empire. However, they had to use the Hebrew language, to discuss religious matters, even through the Greco-Roman period. (Bible Dictionary by Paul J. Achetemeier)
All these Israelites have died off. Hebrews 11:9
says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not
receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a
distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth . . . they were longing for a better country, a
heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has
prepared a city for them. By faith
Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received
the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son. Abraham
considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead, and
figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back.”
The Hebrew language of the Israelites was called the "language of Canaan." (Isaiah 19:18).
(HarperCollins Bible Dictionary by Paul J. Achetemeier)
How profound it is. God had given prototypes not for people to use to
make themselves, religiously superior, or to make one nation feel superior over another. God gave prototypes to be examples for us to pattern our lives after.
They were given so that we could also learn from their mistakes and not repeat
them. However, some religious groups not only pattern their religious lives
after people of the Old Testament, but they try to become the people of the Old
Testament (OT). Worst of all, instead of learning to follow the good and avoid
the bad they carry out even the very mistakes that led the Israelite prototype
into bondage, and on to becoming a lost people, a ‘lost sheep of the house of Jacob.’ The ancient Israelites people had no religious
affiliation. They were just a tribal group of people. They were God’s example to
humanity.
Later on Moses, a Hebrew or Israelite boy who was raised in the house of the
Egyptian Pharaoh came to be the ‘deliverer’ of God’s prototype people. God’s
plan was not yet finished. God wanted to get Jacob or Israel's tribes to a place called Canaan, which
was their promised land. This was God’s prototype plan for humanity to learn
from. They were going to a earthly promised land. God was showing the human example of a natural journey to a promised
land. God showed the sinfulness of humanity on the journey in the earthly life,
the disobedience and a way to repent and be forgiven, thus bringing salvation
by entering the promise land called Canaan. Canaan was their earthly land of promise, not some special reserve or settlement to which they were to be confined. Did
they reach the promise land? A whole generation of people died on the journey due to disobedience and unbelief. Some of their children made it to the promise land
of Canaan. However, these wondering disobedient people became a lost generation
or lost tribes of people. The Bible
named a handful of people from a couple of tribes. Please let me know the ones you fine in the
Scriptures - please shear them with me.
Does their journey resembles the life's journey of humanity today? Yes, without Jesus
Christ, like the ancient Israelites, God’s prototype people, we will wonder
about in the wilderness of our sin without getting to the promise land, without laying
hold of God’s promise of salvation for us.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their families were unable to continue to be
God’s prototype, God’s ambassadors. They were just like the ancient priests who
were unable to continue offering sacrifices because of sin and death. Thank God, we still have their example in the Old Testament; to follow the right and avoid
the wrong. But thank God for the New Covenant, the New Testament. The ancient Israelites were just
mere sinful men and women whom God used for God’s purpose. Thank God! The
example did not just stop with Jacob of old, but it ended with Jesus Christ the
Son of the living God. Jesus is the past, present and future. He is the second Adam. He is Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end and He lives forevermore.
When Jesus came to the whole world our promised land was fixed once for
all times through the blood that He shed on the cross at Calvary. Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob knew of this promise land. They knew that they themselves were all just a
prototype people of God, going to a temperoral promised land of Canaan. However,
as children of God they knew that:
By faith they were not looking for confined settlements, but they were looking forward to a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Abraham new that he became father of the world because he considered God to be
faithful. It was God who made the promise. The Bible tells us that Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob lived by faith until their deaths and yet they did not receive
what was promised to them. If they are the fathers of the earthly promised land and they did not receive it, how then will anyone receive a earthly promised land? And a temporary confined settlement is not Canaan. Our earthly Canaan is the whole world sheared freely by every nations, languages and tongues. How awesome!
God provided a lamb in place of Isaac. Had Isaac been offered up for
a sacrifice for sin, the sacrifices would still continue to be offered. Isaac’s
blood would not do. It needed the Holy Lamb of God who would go to Calvary’s
cross and die for the sins of the whole world once for all. There was a complete work that
had to be done to eradicate sin in sinful humanity.
If you believe that God asked Abraham to offer up his only promised son.
I said promised son because Abraham had more than one son. If you believe this,
why then do you not believe that God offered up His only begotten promised Son Jesus
Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world? Abraham is the father of
the people of the earth, the whole world! So the offering of Isaac would have
been on behalf of the people of the whole world. But this offering of Isaac would not do for a sin offering. A sin offering must be free from sin. Only Jesus Christ is
free from sin. Jesus Christ is and was the only sin offering that would do and will do.
When God sent Jesus to earth, Jesus stated his position. He stated why he
was sent to earth. Jesus told his
disciples that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matthew
15:24. The Matthew Gospel tells us about a woman from Canaan who came to Jesus
crying and begging Jesus to heal her daughter who was tormented by demon. The
disciples felt disdain for the woman and wanted Jesus to drive her away. Jesus
on the other hand, was overcome with compassion for the woman. It was at that
moment that Jesus responded to his disciples, "I was sent only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." The woman then came over and knelt at
Jesus’ feet begging for help for her daughter. It was at that moment Jesus
said, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the
dogs." The woman responded, Lord,
yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters'
table." Jesus was overjoyed to see
the great faith of the woman and healed her daughter instantly.
In this story, many scholars and historians branded the woman as the
Canaanite woman, the ancestral enemies of the people of the first religion,
Jesus calling the woman dog, a gentile dog, a Greek, and the lists goes on.
What they had missed is that when the disciples disdained the woman, and asked
Jesus to drive her away, Jesus reminded them that he came to the lost sheep of
the house of ‘Israel.’ The house of Israel were the lost beggars, the
oppressed, the downtrodden, the bowed down and the scorned. They were the lost sheep whose bread was the
bread of healing. They were the sick ones who needed a physician, the great
physician Jesus Christ the healer.
However, Jesus was engaged first with the
religious group to whom he preached the Gospel, with the hope of opening their spiritually
blinded eyes. They were not the sick, they did not need the bread of healing,
nor did they need Jesus. They were above the bread
of healing. They were a self-righteous religious group of people. It was to
this religious group that Jesus told that it is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. He told them to go and learn what it means when He said,
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have not come to call the righteous, but I
have come to call sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13. Jesus made it crystal clear
for whom and why he came. He came to the lost sheep of the house of Jacob or Israel.
Ancient Hebrew is a member of the Canaanite family of languages.
Canaanite is known from the second millennium B.C. in transcriptions into Egyptian or in the cuneiform of the el-Amarna Tablets. Other Canaanite dialects from the first millennium are Phoenician and Moabite and probably Edomite and Ammonite. The Canaanite language are part of the Semitic language named after SHEM. (HarperCollins Bible Dictionary by Paul J. Achetemeier)
So, when the disciples who were once of the Jewish Religion with a Jewish mentality disdained the woman, Jesus reminded them that he came for her, the lost sheep of the house of Jacob. She was a Hebrew woman from Canaan. And when Jesus said, “It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it
to the dogs.” It was not meant for the woman. It was sort of like when Jesus was teaching his disciples about the
hypocrisy of judging others, and he told them to not give what is holy to dogs;
and do not throw their pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot
and turn and maul them.” Matthew 7:6. Indeed
the religious group did trample under foot the gospel Jesus preached to them and they did maul
him all the way to the cross.
Jesus knew that the woman from Canaan needed the
bread of healing and that she was a lost sheep of the house of Jacob and it was for her that he
came. But Jesus had a religious group of people whom he was trying to teach the truth about Word of God, the Old Testament Law or Torah, so that they could take the Good News of the gospel to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But they thought they knew the Law better then Jesus did. They were the righteous group, who thought that Abraham was their father and that made them righteous; too righteous to listen to anything Jesus had to say to them. They
did not need Jesus and neither did they need his bread of healing. Thus Jesus was moved with compassion for the Hebrew Canaanite woman and saddened by the wasting of his bread of healing to a group who was self-righteous. While the lost sheep of Jacob from Canaan was begging for what he came to give her. The time for leaving the religious group and go to the lost sheep of Jacob had not yet come.
Remember when Jesus went to a wedding in Cana in Galilee? The wine at the wedding was finished and Jesus' mother Mary, mentioned it to Jesus. Well, Jesus told his mother that his time has not yet come. Jesus always say something to stir-up faith. His mother responded "Do whatever he tells you." Jesus is moved by someone's faith.
When Jesus mentioned that it is a shame to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs instead of giving it to the Hebrew woman from Canaan, it stirred faith in the woman to give her response. "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Matthew 15:27.
After the death of John the Baptist Jesus was released to go to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel and they welcomed him. He sheared the bread of
healing freely with them. He cleansed the lepers freely, he opened blind eyes, and
set the captives free, healed the crippled and raised up the dead from their
graves.
The ancient prototypes have failed. And Jesus is the new prototype. He is
the door through whom all must enter to the Father (John 10:7), whether
you are Jews, or gentiles, Greek or Hebrew, bond or free, Christians, non-Christian or Mormons, or whatever
religion you are. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and
there is no difference.
Romans 3:23-31 tells us, “All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through
faith in his blood. God did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his
forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to
demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who
justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is
excluded. On what principle? On that of
observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a person is
justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only?
Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only
one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through that same faith. Do we, then,
nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”
Dear ones, sinful humanity can only uphold the law through Christ. Sinful humanity can only uphold the law when the peace of God,
the shalom of God comes to them. And peace, shalom is in the Son of God, Jesus
Christ your Messiah, Savior and Lord. He is our peace, accept Him, receive Him into your heart as your Messiah, Lord and Savior.
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