WRITINGS
The Apostle Paul had much to say to the gentiles about their relationship with the Jewish people, even warning them to not boast or become arrogant against them. Paul made these critical points in his message to the church at Rome, specifically Chapters nine through eleven. I have paraphrased and emphasized these below, and I believe scripture speaks plainly for itself.
Arguments between early Jewish and gentile believers often resolved around a theological disagreement over the Law of Moses. The word law is translated from the Hebrew word Torah, and literally means instruction. This instruction was intricately woven into the Mosaic Covenant, encompassing 613 positive and negative obligations (does and don’ts).
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21, NKJV). There is much to understand from these three verses. We are going to focus on the last part, where it reads, “until the times of restoration of all things…”
Yeshua’s disciples came to him one day and asked: “What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). Yeshua then began to tell His disciples about all the difficult things that would happen at the end of the age, especially to the nation of Israel—deception, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and more. Then He said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8), but the end would not come immediately.
As a civil engineer, I was never interested in ministry but only in pursuing my career goals. However, the Lord had other plans for my life. If I have learned anything in my relatively short walk with the Lord, it is that His ways are not only different than ours but are most often opposite ours.
I remember the day so clearly, sitting on my living room couch and holding an Old King James Bible in my hand. I was determined to discover the truth contained within. I very much believed in the one true God of Israel. So I said to Him, “I need to know the truth.” I had no concept of the Holy Spirit speaking to me, but somehow asking God to show me His truth made sense. As I started to read the book of Matthew, there was clarity and focus to the narrative. The story came to life, and remarkably the old English language was perfectly decipherable.
“For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Romans 11:24-27).
I am often asked: “How do I pray for Israel and the Jewish people?” The other question often asked is: “How do I provoke Israel to jealousy?” These are great questions, and the answers are in fact rather simple.
A number of years ago I was asked to prepare a teaching on the Tabernacle of Moses—the Mishkan. I had read the endless narratives in the Torah many times where each part of the Tabernacle, meticulously detailed by the Lord, commanded the Israelites to only build a copy of the heavenly image. I had visited several life-size displays, one recently in Pennsylvania, but none revealed anything of particular magnificence. Even its size looked rather underwhelming—a small tent perched in the desert surrounded by miles of barren wilderness. From a near distance the structure would have been hardly noticeable.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is considered to be the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is a solemn day to afflict our souls, but it is also a joyful day in knowing that God will forgive our sins. It commemorates the day when God forgave the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf.
It is impossible to understand God’s festivals (His feasts) and the Lord’s high holy days without knowing God’s Hebrew calendar and prophecies. We must have the heart to understand God’s Kingdom’s purposes for the nation of Israel. Many Christians have asked me: “Why should I celebrate the feasts in the Old Testament? Are we not under a New Covenant?” Yes, we are. However, our understanding of these feasts is essential to the church.
Ever since we returned from Israel a few weeks ago, everyone has been curiously asking how was our trip? As I have been processing all that transpired, I have decided to write down my personal and spiritual reflections of the journey.
