Chapter 9

 

At the end of Romans 10, Paul tells us that Israel would be provoked to jealousy by a “no-people” in order to bring them out of their blindness. On the national level we see a rather bizarre manner of fulfillment of this principle. In the Old Testament times, Israel knew who they were, but they rejected their God. Hence, God sent them into captivity and made them a “no-people” by making them forget who they were.

While they were “no-people,” Jesus came and died to redeem them (and the world with them), and consequently these lost Israelites received the gospel first as they were migrating slowly into Europe from the land of Assyria. This fulfilled the statement of Hosea, who prophesied in Hosea 1:10,

¹⁰ in the place where it was said unto them, ‘Ye are NOT My people,' there it shall be said unto them, ‘Ye ARE the sons of the living God'.

It is interesting to see how God uses the principle of jealousy in different ways throughout history. In Paul's day the apostle was concerned about the Israelites of the dispersion who had been carried into Assyria 800 years earlier. He foresaw the acceptance of Christianity by the non-Israelite world in general (which, of course, included those cast-off, ex-Israelites of the dispersion). This was the foolish nation and the no-people (i.e., Not My People) who would provoke Israel to jealousy.

The Judah Remnant of Jesus' Day

After 70 AD the Judah remnant was cast off and dispersed as well, joining the rest of the world as a “no-people.” The difference, however, is that prophecy is against them, giving them no hope of reconciliation with God in this present age. The kingdom was to be taken from them and given to another nation who would bring forth the fruits of the kingdom (Matthew 21:43). Isaiah 27:6 identifies that fruit-bearing nation as Israel.

⁶ He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and fill the face of the world with fruit.

The use of the two names, Jacob and Israel, are also prophetic here. Recall that Jacob's name was changed to Israel at the end of his captivity under Laban in Syria. Israel was the name the angel gave to Jacob. So also in the above prophecy. So long as the dispersed Israelites are in captivity, they are yet fleshly Jacobites in their blindness. Nonetheless, this is the stage whereby they begin to “take root,” because God had scattered them in the field to bring forth a harvest. The fruit does not come until the end of the age at the time of harvest. And so we see above that Israel brings forth the fruit, not Jacob, and it comes at the end of the age (Matthew 13:39).

We must also take note that the kingdom was to be taken from the Judah remnant of Jesus' day and would be given to Israel, who would bear fruit unto God. Matthew 21:43 says,

⁴³ Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

In the twentieth century we have seen the rise in popularity of the idea that the Jews are God's chosen people, Israel. We have already shown some of the reasons why God has allowed the Jews to lay claim to the birthright name that had been given to Joseph. It was because the Jews also represent the remnant of Esau-Edom, who they conquered and absorbed in 126 BC, and they were to receive the dominion during the time of Isaac's blindness (Genesis 27:40). Hence, the Jews have appropriated the name of Israel, and the Church has reverenced them and paid them tribute at every opportunity, especially since 1948. (Over half of America's entire foreign aid is given to the Israeli state, over $2,000 for every Jewish man, woman, and child living there. This does not include all the private donations they receive from other sources.)

Nonetheless, they have continued to reject Jesus Christ. While they have brought forth many fig leaves in accordance with Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24:32, they have not brought forth the fruits of the kingdom that God requires. This, too, Jesus prophesied in Matthew 21:19 when He cursed the fig tree.

In biblical symbolism, fig leaves represent man's covering for sin—the attempt to hide sin, rather than confess it and put it under the blood of the Cross. See Genesis 3:7. In John's first epistle, which is his commentary on Genesis 1-4, he tells us that the only true covering for sin is the blood of Jesus (1 John 2:2). If we say that we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and make God a liar (1 John 1:7-10). This is the apostle's interpretation of the fig leaves by which Adam and Eve attempted to cover themselves and hide their sin.

In the case of the fig tree that Jesus cursed, we see here a deeper meaning. The Jewish nation had sinned and had beaten and killed the prophets, finally crucifying the Messiah Himself—but the nation was covering itself with fig leaves. They denied all responsibility. In fact, most of them blame God for unjustly allowing them to be cast out by the Romans in 70 AD. A favorite saying among them is, “The Messiah is coming soon; and boy does he have some explaining to do!” Furthermore, they are greatly offended when anyone lays the responsibility upon them for crucifying the Messiah. In fact, this accusation offended them right from the very beginning, for we read in Acts 5:28 that the chief priests accused Peter and the other apostles as follows: “Behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood upon us.”

Peter's answer in Acts 5:30 was, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom YE slew and hanged on a tree.”

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 22:1-14 about how the Jews had refused to come to the wedding, and how they had killed the prophets. Verse 7 gives the verdict:

⁷ And when the King [God] heard thereof, he was wroth [angry]; and He sent forth His armies [the Romans] and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city [Jerusalem, 70 AD].

To this day they still have not repented. And, in fact, we find the Pope and the heads of many other churches apologizing to the Jews for putting upon them the verdict that Jesus Himself and His apostles gave. Many blame the Romans, but Jesus said the Roman armies were HIS armies, sent to destroy “those murderers.” In other words, many churches would rather apologize for Jesus than offend the Jews.

Neither the Jews nor anyone else can be saved without putting off the fig leaves and confessing their sins before God. We do them a disservice if we leave them in their sins and give them a false sense of security in God. The only way they can prevent another disaster in Jerusalem is if they acknowledge their sins and recognize Jesus Christ as the one true Sacrifice for sin.

The church—by their rejection of Jesus' words and in trying too hard not to offend the Jews—has left them with their fig leaves, ensuring that Jerusalem will indeed be destroyed shortly and never rebuilt again, according to the word of the prophet (Jeremiah 19:10-15).

Some may think that I hate Jews because I quote these Scriptures and actually believe them and take them seriously. But I have never hated Jews, nor ever will I hate anyone. Hatred is not a Christian virtue. My motive in revealing these things is twofold:

1) to warn the Jews that they are on the path to destruction and to show them the way of salvation; and

2) to enlighten the eyes of those Christians and true Israelites who have eyes to see.

The Jealousy Principle in Operation Today

God's IQ is off the chart, so His plan is quite complex and often difficult to comprehend. He does so many things at the same time that it is hard to envision all the different things He is doing in our present twentieth century. But one thing He is doing is to restore His true people, Israel, and make them a blessing to all families of the earth, as He promised Abraham.

He is doing this one both the physical and the spiritual level. On the physical level, He has used the Caucasian people to spread the Gospel throughout the world. But this has often been a mixed blessing, because in our blindness and carnality, we have also exported our corrupt practices. Many unscrupulous businessmen have exploited and often enslaved other people, instead of working in their best interests to set them free in Christ. On this level we see God working through His blind and deaf servant (Isaiah 43:8-12) to bring the gospel to the nations.

⁸ Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

⁹ Let all the nations be gathered together . . . Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they have be justified; or let them hear and say, “It is Truth.”

¹⁰ Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen.

In other words, God gave Israel the primary revelation about the true God, and it is recorded in the Bible. In time past the other nations were not given such a revelation, and so they were not God's witnesses. A witness speaks what he has seen or heard. Hence, God says, “Let them hear and say, It is Truth!” The nations are called to hear God's witnesses testify of Him, and they are called to come into agreement with this testimony, so that they too can know the truth and be justified.

Yet because God's Israel witnesses are so blind and deaf, and because their blessing is so mixed with the curse of fleshly things, It is necessary that God provoke even them to jealousy in order to open their eyes and bring them into a fuller knowledge of God and His truth. And so we see during the twentieth century that God is provoking true Israel to jealousy by means of a no-people called the Jews.

Pandering to the Jews has become so rampant among some churches that we now have more Christians converting to Judaism than Jews converting to Christianity. These Christians do not realize what is happening to them. God has been provoking them to jealousy. Christians are so jealous of the Jews and of “chosen status” that they are converting to Judaism in order to be closer to God. Yet they only succeed in falling into the same trap of which Paul warned people in His epistles. When such Christians convert to Judaism, and especially symbolized by their physical circumcision to become Jews, they place themselves under the old covenant and are fallen from grace.

How ironic it is that most of these converts to Judaism are the physical descendants of the lost tribes of the House of Israel. If they only knew that they were already physical Israelites, they would not be attempting to do so by allying themselves with Jewish Edomites whom God placed under the curse (Mark 11:21; Isaiah 34:5). It is only a matter of time before Christians see that joining with Judaism is not God's answer, but is a Jewish fable.

The Remnant of Grace

The “remnant of grace” is a smaller group of people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. This remnant is not based upon physical descent, for even in Elijah's day there were only 7,000 out of all Israel who qualified (Romans 11:4). The remnant of grace is therefore spiritual in nature, as it involved a proper relationship with God over and beyond their Israelitish heritage.

Paul tells us that “the rest were blinded” (Romans 11:7), implying that the remnant is NOT blinded, for God has given them eyes to see and ears to hear. There is a spiritual remnant of Grace within physical Israel, as well as in every nation. These may not be fully informed on all biblical or prophetic matters, but at least they have eyes to see and ears to hear—so that when the truth comes their way, they recognize it and do not fight it. Hence, they are able to move more and more into the truth as God reveals it to His people.

This brings us to the point where we left off in our last chapter, where we promised to show that the remnant of grace is also a no-people, called to provoke Israel to jealousy in a different way.

In the Old Testament the entire nation of Israel was called the Church (Acts 7:38). The word Church means “called out ones.” Israel was called out of Egypt. The pattern of the Pentecostal Church of the New Testament era (33 - 1993 AD) follows the same basic patterns as found in the days of Moses, who led “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38). The Scriptures tell us that after Moses had led Israel 40 years in the wilderness, he preached ten sermons to the people. These were written down in a book which we call Deuteronomy.

In Moses' sixth sermon (Deuteronomy 29:2 to 30:20), we read that even at that late date God had not given Israel eyes to see! Deuteronomy 29:2-4 reads,

² And Moses called unto all Israel and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;

³ The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles;

⁴ Yet the Lord hath NOT given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day.

In other words, their eyes had seen the miracles, but they were still blind and deaf to the real purposes of God. They were what we would call Christians, followers of God, but they were still spiritually blind, or blind in part. This is the pattern also of the New Testament Church. In the Pentecostal Church's 40 Jubilees of wilderness wandering, they too have been blind in the same manner as was ancient Israel. The Church has seen and continues to see great miracles performed, but nonetheless, they are as blind as ancient Israel ever was.

But there is a remnant of grace within the blind Church. They have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. They are therefore qualified in a court of law to be God's witnesses in the earth—people who hear the voice of God and see Him for who He is. These people testify to the truth of who God is and what His plan is. It is not that they know everything about God and His plan, of course, but they do testify of the things which they have seen and heard.

In this sense the Church as a whole is testifying as a blind and deaf witness. In other words, they testify from secondhand knowledge of God. They repeat what they have heard by reading the Bible or what the preachers said about God. They have no direct experience or relationship with God Himself. We should certainly read the Bible to learn what God spoke through others in the past. However, if we do not hear the voice of God for ourselves, we can hardly be a true and faithful w itness (Revelation 3:14) or a credible witness in a court of law. Hearsay is acceptable in private conversation, but it will not ultimately stand up in court.

The remnant of grace is thus different from the Church in general. But we must recognize that throughout the 40 Jubilees of the Church's wilderness wandering, they were not given eyes to see or ears to hear. Instead, the remnant of grace—a bunch of no-people in the eyes of the Church—were given eyes and ears in order to provoke the rest of the Church to jealousy.

Of course, jealousy only brings anger as a response, so long as God does not give the people eyes to see the truth. Hence, king Saul's jealousy of David made him angry and motivated him to try to kill David. So also the prophets who had the Word of God only provoked the priests and false prophets to anger by their jealousy, which eventually brought about the murder of the prophets.

Because King Saul was a pentecostal, crowned king on the day of Pentecost, or “wheat harvest” (1 Samuel 12:17), Saul is a type of the Church under Pentecost in the New Testament era. This is why we see during the Church Age, the murder of millions of people who dared to “think differently.” Not all were of the remnant of grace, but certainly the remnant of grace was among the persecuted. (See our book, The Seven Churches.)

So the question is, What is it that will mark the end of the blindness upon Israel and upon the Church in general? The answer, I believe, is found in Isaiah 34 and 35.

Blindness Healed

The book of Isaiah is written in two main sections, which the higher critics call first and second Isaiah as if written by different men. (I disagree with their analysis, but the book is certainly in two parts.) The first section is chapters 1 through 35. Then chapters 36-39 are historical and form an interim section before the second main section from chapters 40-66.

Chapters 34 and 35 form the climax of the first section of Isaiah. In the first few chapters we are introduced to the sinful nation and the remnant of grace. Isaiah 1:9 says,

⁹ Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

This is one of the verses Paul quotes (in Romans 9:29) in commenting on the remnant of grace. It shows that the purpose of the remnant of grace is to protect the entire nation, even as righteous Lot's presence and witness protected Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Isaiah's call in chapter 6 God told the prophet that he was to preach to those who did not have ears to hear or eyes to see. In chapter 7 we are introduced to Isaiah's oldest son, Shear-jashub, which means the remnant shall return. His sons were named as prophetic signs (Isaiah 8:18) of what God was doing in His people. The nation of Israel was to go into captivity into Assyria, because they were already captives to the desires of the flesh. But the remnant would “return,” obviously not in a physical return to the land, but a return to God.

Like Jacob, who went into a captivity into Syria (later part of Assyria), the remnant would return to their inheritance. On his way home, Jacob wrestled with the angel and received the new name: Israel. Then he entered the promised land and settled in Succoth (Booths, or the feast of Tabernacles). Jacob is the classic type of the overcomer, who goes into captivity as a fleshly Jacob, but returns as an overcoming Israel. In this he is the pattern for the remnant of grace. And so, when we come to the climax of the first section of Isaiah, we read in 35:5,

⁵ THEN the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

When will this event occur? It occurs at a time called “the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8 with 35:4).

The controversy of Zion is based on the historic conflict between Jacob and Esau-Edom as to who will inherit the kingdom of God and the birthright. One cannot understand this passage in Isaiah without knowing the story of this age-long conflict. Hence, in Isaiah 34, the prophet tells us in verse 5:

⁵ For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea [Edom], and upon the people of My curse to judgment.

⁶ . . . for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah [the capital of Edom], and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea [Edom].

Years ago the Jews applied these Edom passages to the Romans and later to the Christians. Yet even in their own writings they freely acknowledge that “Edom is in modern Jewry” (The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 ed., Vol. 5, p. 41). This is consistent with the writings of Josephus, who wrote in the first century about the conquest of Edom: “they were hereafter no other than Jews” (Antiquities, XIII, ix, 1).

Edom always felt he had been cheated out of the land of Canaan and out of the birthright. He always wanted to be “chosen” and to assume the right to the name of Israel. Now his descendants have achieved these goals, due to the blindness in part of the true Israelites. God allowed this only because Jacob had originally tricked his blind father into giving him the birthright. Hence, Isaac's children, the blind Israelites, had to give it back to Esau for a time in order to repair the breach, as Isaac prophesied (Genesis 27:40). But now shortly, God intends to settle this controversy. When He does, “THEN the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”