ken,
1. The reason Yeshua called the lost sheep of Israel was because they were backslidden and out of covenant with God and they were under the law which had a specific blessing and curses attached to it. The Sermon on the Mount was all about getting Israel to perform the commandments of the law perfectly like the Father in heaven was perfect which coincides with being perfect in love. It was about repentance so they could make entrance into the earthly kingdom and rule as the head of the nations. This is why the meek would inherit the earth. Sadly, they were not being meek or peacemakers etc. Matthew 5, the Beautitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. They rejected Christ because they wanted a conquering Savior and refused to repent. Matthew 23:37-39. Christ also was to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant concerning the land and the kingdom concerning the Davidic covenant. Genesis 15 and Matthew 1 and Luke 1-3.
You just made the same mistake many make, you assume that the Jews are all of Israel. The nation of Israel divided into two nations, a Southern Kingdom Judah (the Jews) and the Northern Kingdom, Israel... who went into Assyria in 722BC (Judah did NOT) and never came back. There are records of 20,000+ coming back but over a million went in. They assimilated into that culture, God gave them up to their idols... and thus they "lost" their identity. With their minds and hearts on the lusts of the world, and with God giving them up, they ceased to retain God in their knowledge. So they became known throughout Jewish history as "the lost sheep of Israel." Yeshua said, "I have not been sent BUT to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Not Judah, salvation is certainly for them, too... but the weight was on going into the nations where Israel was scattered and calling them back. This is first prophesied in Deut. 30:1-6 and repeated often throughout the Prophets to include the first chapter of Hosea. A people driven into the nations and called, "Not my people," would have God call to them where they were scattered (nations) and called back and called "Sons of the Living God." Romans 9 covers this, Romans 11, and more. And incidentally, the Jews didn't reject him as a nation... over 20,000 of the 80,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem in that day accepted Yeshua as Messiah and continued to keep Torah... or so says Acts 21:20.
2. Christ taught the law of Moses and was raised in Judaism according the gospels including his role as the Messiah as seen in his age of going into God's service in Luke and the baptism in the book of John to be manifested to Israel and to fulfill the righteousness of the law.
The word "righteous" means "to conform to divine law." In means that in Hebrew, Greek, in the 1828 Websters, and in the modern online Websters. We are to seek righteousness, walk in righteousness... not unto salvation, but those that are His are to do this. And... "fulfill" does NOT mean "bring an end to," because if it did then Matt 5:17 would be contradicting itself like this:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to abolish them."
A better and more balanced and reasonable definition as weighed against the rest of Scripture comes from Thayer:
2c3) to fulfil, i.e. to cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfilment.
In other words, his walk, his actions, his words... were to be the model we follow. His walk and our faith in it (and God's grace) release us from sin, from death, from decay... but not from the commandments which are eternal.
3. So the historical context was all about repenting and doing the commandments of the law and belief in the Messiah and that he would save them from their sins and to receive the Kingdom to rule and reign the nations. Historically, this is not a message to the church today in the same context.
When Calvary happened everything changed and the new covenant came into being but Jeremiah 31 of the new covenant with Israel has not been made yet as far as them ruling the kingdom.
You see change, I see a God that does not change. I also see a Hebrew word, teshuvah, that we translate as repent and treat as if it means "to turn from" when it has a deeper meaning in the Hebraic culture of the day. It is RETURN, as in to the Torah you forsook for idols to get sent into the nations to begin with. To the land that is your inheritance. To Israel, the community to which we belong. And to God as Lord, one who rules with authority over our lives. Teshuvah, repent... means to turn away from sin and worldly things that stand in contrast to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and TO those things I mentioned. Teshuvah cries for a destination to turn TO, repent does not.
4. So much changed before the great commission came for the world had a wider door to receive the Lord and it wasn't about proselyting the gentiles into Judaism.
In Paul's day the jews were in the body of Christ as after Calvary. Paul said there is no jew, gentile, male or female, no bond, etc. for we are all one in Christ. At the same time Paul recognized that God had not forgotten Israel and their election for their covenant as the head of the nations found in Isaiah 2:2-4. It would and will happen when the fulness of the gentiles happens.
I do not advocate joining Judaism at all. The Torah belongs to God... He called the Feasts, "My Feasts" and in the same verse it says, "The feasts of the LORD." That doesn't make them for only the Jews, that makes them for all who are His. A gentile, Jerry, is a pagan. You go back and you look at how that word is defined in early English dictionaries and you will see it meant "pagan, heathen, one who is neither Jew nor Christian." We retained that word in our bibles over time but the meaning changed. Not a gentile is a believer who is not Jewish. But the Hebrew is clear, while a Israelite can be in the goyim, the nations, he is not goyim he is Israel. That is why Paul said, "you WERE gentiles in the flesh" and "WERE aliens of the Commonwealth of Israel" and "NOW you are fellow citizens." A "gentile believer" or a "gentile Christian" is an oxy-moron.
5. This is one reason that there is a rift in judaism with some as well as the whole essence of the law and what jews can do or not do. This need not be if the contexts are understood properly. Jews can be jews and in the body of Christ and many are and yet they still can be jews culturally. They shouldn't have to proselyte gentiles and the gentiles should not make jewish believers feel they are less than a gentile believer.
They were all christians in Antioch first and though it took a while for gradual revelation to come around Peter began to get a better picture 8-10 years later with Cornelius. Acts 10.
The jews were to have the law forever but not under the guise of Moses for it was temporary till the seed should come. Jeremiah talked about the new covenant not like the one Moses made and God would put it in their hearts.
There is not one rule from some and another rule for others. The Law, my friend... ON STONE was temporary until the seed should come AND THEN it would begin the process of being moved "from stone to the heart." Same God, same Torah, just a different location for the text of the covenant. This is mentioned in placed like Ezk. 11:19 and of course in Jer. 31:34/Heb. 8:8-11. The law (on stone) testified of Messiah so we would recognize him when he came and it led us to him as a Schoolmaster AND THEN through him it moves to the heart. By the way, the Acts 15 letter also contains this line... often ignored by most who hold your position:
Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
The letter was to act as a starting point, not the finish line. "Do these few things and that will set you apart from your pagan ex-brethren and you will learn the rest as you go." And that is the point of verse 21.... do the things in 20 and then follow the prescription in 21 to learn the rest.
What you also lack here Jerry, is the historical context of what is even going on in relation to this letter. I will post something I wrote on it, should you care to investigate it and weigh it out.
6. The mechanics of the covenants and weakness of the commandments is why the new covenant was built on better promises and it involves more than just the blood of bulls and goats and the priesthood. The ethics of the Mosaic covenant are found in Romans where the man that doeth them shall live in them. The law had was taken advantaged by the law of sin and death and made them live to self effort and result in the frailty of man in sin more than overcoming sin. Romans 7.
I want you to think about something. God... the perfect all knowing Creator of the Universe... that God.... He is the author of each and every command you just called weak. I can explain the "better promises" to you but I think you need to focus on your paradigm a little first. I am not trying to sound condescending in anything I am writing here... I just know exactly where you are based on the things you have said. And one of them had a perfect God making mistakes with a weak series of commands that could never really do anything. That says you don't understand what He was doing and should probably, and I say this respectfully, remain silent on the issue until HE shows you His intent here.
Proverbs 10:19 Too much talking leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.
7. The essence of the Great Commission was the message of the death, burial, and resurrection and not the law and there is a vast difference between the mechanics of the covenant of Moses and the new covenant of Christ in his blood and christian living for both the jew and the gentile. Law and grace are at opposite polars and yet they are very close at the same time in proximity because of the morality aspect. The whole law was connected with the moral aspect and to show man how sinful he was and the knowledge of sin, etc.
No it wasn't... it is included in it but I repeat His mission...
1. Matt 4:17 From that time Yeshua began to preach, and to say, Repent*: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
* Repent - teshuvah.. a turning from one thing but TO ANOTHER. See my answer for #3 above
2. Matt 15:24 But he answered and said,
I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
3. Matt 10:5b Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not
6)
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So he preached teshuvah, RETURN (to all that was forsaken to get driven into the nations to begin with as per the Prophets) and he said he was only sent to the lost sheep and only sent his disciples to the lost sheep. And brother... go look at Paul's commission in Greek:
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,
and kings,
and the children of Israel:
Two times we see "and" and they are two different words. One is kai which is the word for "and" and the other is te, the word for "both" or "also." And, since ethnos is more often translated as NATIONS and not GENTILES, let's re-translate:
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me,
to bear my name before the Nations, and kings, BOTH the children of Israel:
Look familiar? How about Jacob's/Israel's blessing?
Gen 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply;
a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
So Paul is sent to bear his name before the nations and kings who were the children of Israel. He was going for the same lost sheep as Yeshua, as the other disciples... and since we are told to GO (by the way, it is a participle so it is "going") then the Great Commission is a continuation of the same mission... not something new.
8. The letter of the law keeps Israel blinded according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:1-16 and this is why much has changed and it is important to understand the historical context of Jesus teachings under the Mosaic law before we can understand what it means to the church. Jesus was calling the lost sheep back to their covenant and to believe in him for he was the reality of the redemption plan for saving them. When they believe wholly as a nation God would take away their stony heart and give them a new heart and this will happen in the tribulation before they receive the new covenant of the death, burial, and resurrection and when he comes back when their nation is almost ready to be annihilated they will look on him who they have pierced Revelation 1 and they will become a nation born in one day for Zion who is travailing will deliver her children. Isaiah 66:6-7 and a little further on down. Sorry, I got a little long but, I am concerned about the rift between many christian believers and jewish believers and vice versa. God bless! Jerry kelso
Yes, and that is why we follow the spirit behind the letter. That doesn't abrogate the letter, it means we find the spirit behind it. The letter says not to commit adultery, the spirit says to even look in lust at another is adultery. That is HARDER, it RAISES THE BAR... but doesn't abrogate the letter... we still don't have sex with somebody who is married or otherwise would count as adultery.
I appreciate the information you shared... I pray you take the time to read through my answers as I did yours.
Peace.
Ken