(#22 5983) Day 4 - History of Israel (Part 1 - Israel & the Church)

FIRST POSTED ON 15 JUNE 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

Over the next few blog posts, we will conclude Session 3 by looking at the history of Israel and what it means for the Church as God’s royal priesthood and holy nation today. By Church, I want to clarify that we are speaking here about the Church in its visible form - as an institution, denomination or local body of believers that we belong to - just as by Israel, we are referring to the visible Jewish nation. This is because God has chosen to work through these earthly communities (Ekklesia) to bring about His spiritual plans and purposes.

In 1 Cor 10:1-11, Paul pointed out how Israel served as an example for the Church. He used the Greek term tupos, which means, in the technical sense, a pattern in conformity to which something must be made; in an ethical sense, a warning; and in a doctrinal or Biblical sense, a person or thing prefiguring or foretelling a future person or thing as it relates to Jesus. In other words, what happened to Israel is not only instructive but PROPHETIC of what will come upon the Church even as Jesus’ return draws near. In fact, as we will see later, Israel’s history would virtually repeat itself in the growth and development of the Church.

That the Church should behave like Israel, as though they were both from the same tree, should come as no surprise. In Rom 11:11-32, Paul warned Gentile believers not to be proud, thinking that they were superior to the Jews. This was because they were in actual fact ingrafted into God’s Kingdom in place of the Jews, who were the natural branches as it were but who had been cut off for now due to their rejection of Jesus. As I had briefly mentioned in our last session, the entire nation of Israel would be removed from the face of the Earth for almost 2,000 years following the Roman Exile in 70 AD. In its place, the largely Gentile Church was ingrafted in as it were to bear the fruits of the Kingdom of God among the nations during this “time of the Gentiles”. However, when the fullness of the Gentiles have come in - by this, Paul was referring to Jacob’s prophecy regarding Ephraim that we learnt about earlier on - Israel will be revived to prepare for Jesus’ return, even as the ingrafted branches of the Church begin to wither - something I hinted at in my last session and that we will go into in greater detail in my future podcasts. And we know that Israel has indeed been reborn since 1948.

So we see then that the Church is not separate from Israel - not distinct from, let alone replace Israel as the final or perfected Kingdom of God. The Church is here for a season and a purpose. To phrase it another way, both Israel and the Church are the same Kingdom of God but revealed in different ways at different times. While Israel was, historically, how God chose to reveal His Kingdom through whom Jesus first came, and eschatologically or in the end times, for whom Jesus will return, prophetically, the Church - which was a “mystery” (Eph 3:6, 10) until then - was how God chose to reveal His Kingdom in whom the Body of Christ reaches its full maturity - the fullness of the Gentiles - before Jesus returns.

This correct understanding of how Israel and the Church are related is important because it determines the Church’s true identity and mission - especially in this Kairos when - as we saw in our last session - Jesus will return soon to establish His millennial kingdom and rule.

Link to presentation.

Click here to study more about the relationship between Israel and the Church as the Kingdom of God.

Read the e-Book.

(#21 5983) Day 4 - Sacred Times

FIRST POSTED ON 1 JUNE 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

In our opening session, we learnt about God’s concept of time - how earthly time is temporal and is in continual linear motion. We then learnt how God gave us a series of weekly, monthly/annual and sabbatical/jubilee cycles in patterns of 7s as a way for us, who live in earthly time, to understand His eternal will. These were given in the form of religious practices and festivals, as well as national laws and regulations, that Israel was to observe on specific dates. In so doing, Israel was to mark and draw the world’s attention to the sacred or appointed times symbolised by these occasions whereby God would bring about His plan of redemption in His Kairos through the coming and return of Jesus.

Weekly cycle - Sabbath first seen in the 7 Days of Creation points to the 7 millennia (7,000 years) of world history, revolving around the coming of Jesus the Greater Light and His return on the Day of the Lord to inaugurate the Sabbath rest, which is the period of the Millennium. If we understand time as being measured according to the chronology of events and people in the Bible, then we are reaching the end of the sixth millennium in our day. Looking back at the narrative of the 7 Days of Creation, God is telling us that the world is now living under the rule of man - more specifically, one man - the Antichrist. In fact, the Apostle John tells us that the spirit of the Antichrist was already at work in our midst since his time (1 Jn 4:3), but as we approach the end of this Sixth Day of Creation the Antichrist will soon be revealed in the flesh.

Monthly/Annual cycle - 7 High Sabbaths that Israel was to celebrate in the form of 7 Feasts of God over 7 months every year. These High Sabbaths, which can be grouped into the Spring and Fall Feasts according to Israel’s agricultural calendar, point to 7 Kairos events during these 7 millennia of world history. Now, we know that the Spring Feasts have already been fulfilled in God’s Kairos 2,000 years ago with the coming of Jesus. Here, the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits to commemorate the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt pointed to Jesus' death and resurrection as our Passover Lamb opening the way for our salvation and escape from the bondage of sin. Meanwhile, the birth of Israel as a nation at Mt Sinai, which took place on the day of Pentecost with the giving of the Law, pointed to the birth of the Church at Mt Zion with the giving of the Holy Spirit. Today, we are reaching the end of the Summer interval - this age of grace and year of the Lord’s favour (Isa 61:1-2a, Lk 4:18-19) more commonly known as the Church Age - before the Fall Feasts arrive in God’s Kairos to mark Jesus’ return and another great exodus - that of the final and complete deliverance of God’s people from His enemies, and ultimately from the judgment of sin which is eternal death.

Sabbatical/Jubilee cycle - God commanded Israel to let the land rest every seventh or Sabbatical year and to further proclaim freedom for the people during the year of Jubilee, which takes place every 50th year - that is, after 7 by 7 or 49 years. This cycle was to start after Israel entered the Promised Land, and points to the spiritual rest and freedom that the world and mankind would ultimately experience during the Millennial Sabbath after 6,000 years of human sin and struggle. We know that, historically, the Promised Land only got its rest after 70 Sabbatical cycles and this during Israel’s exile in Babylon because of her disobedience and unfaithfulness to God (Lev 26:34-35, 2 Chron 36:20-21). Today, we are in the 70th Jubilee cycle from the time Israel first entered the Promised Land. In 2018, Israel celebrated 70 years since its rebirth as a nation. The Israel we know today is far from God and the Church is not doing that much better. All these indicators point to us as being the last generation in God’s Kairos who will witness Jesus’ return to usher in this Millennial rest during a similar end-time Babylonian exile as prophesied in the book of Revelations.

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.

(#20 5983) Day 4 - Reflections (Do This in Remembrance of Me)

FIRST POSTED ON 15 MAY 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

Why do we celebrate the Holy Communion?

For most of us, it is to remember and proclaim the Lord’s death (1 Cor 11:26a). Here, the bread and wine represent His body and blood which was given to save us. Now, in order to fully appreciate this, we need to realise that Jesus gave us this command during His Last Supper with His disciples. This meal took place on the eve of the annual Jewish Festival of the Passover, which was to commemorate how God’s judgment passed over the Israelites the night before their exodus from Egypt 1,500 years earlier. As part of the Passover celebration, the Jews were to sacrifice and eat the Passover lamb like how their original ancestors did. This was so as to ultimately point to Jesus, our true Passover Lamb, who was sacrificed on this appointed day so that God’s eternal judgment would pass over us. He is the perfect Lamb of God who died for our sins as we saw in our last session. Jesus is also the True Bread that came down from heaven to give us eternal life, like the Manna that God sent to sustain the Israelites during their subsequent wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. In Jesus’ death, God revealed His love for us (Jn 3:16), adopting us as His children at the price of His one and only Son.

However, Jesus’ death is also the dowry and bride price to make us His Bride. As we see here, the cup of wine symbolises His blood of the New Covenant - which is essentially a marriage contract. You see, when Israel failed to keep the Law - her old marriage contract with God - the punishment was supposed to be divorce or death. We can read about this in Lev 20:10 and Deut 24:1-4. But God in His love and mercy did neither - He chose instead to die in our place to pay the price of our spiritual adultery. He then rewrote the marriage contract, this time not on tablets of stone but on our hearts, paying the bride price again with His own blood and sealing it with the Holy Spirit, so as to guarantee our eternal union with Him.

We could say that Jesus performed two miracles at two weddings, one at the start and the other at the end of His ministry - turning water into wine in Cana (His first miracle), and turning wine into blood (His last miracle, spiritually speaking); in these acts, we see why He is our Living Water that wells up to eternal life.

The Bible speaks of at least two weddings and a funeral as we see here, but of only one marriage made in Heaven - that of the Lamb and His Bride. Until that Day, until He comes (1 Cor 11:26b), we are called celebrate the Holy Communion, to share in common the bread and wine representing Jesus’ body and blood. When we do so, let us remember that salvation is not about us, our exodus from bondage to sin and journey to the Promised Land; it is about God and His sacrificial love to restore our broken relationship with Him. We are no longer slaves to sin, but children of God and Jesus’ redeemed bride.

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.