| Chapter 1:
You are His Chosen and Holy People
As we approach the end times, we approach that moment in history wherein God has promised
his chosen people, the Jews, that the Messiah will come and restore the Kingdom. Focus first on God's word. He repeatedly teaches how important
the Jew is in His eyes and how He has chosen to intervene in the affairs of the nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6-9
6
"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your
God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above
all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7
"The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you
were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of
all peoples;
8
"but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the
oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with
a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9
"Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful
God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those
who love Him and keep His commandments; (NKJ)
Exodus
19:5-6
5
'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant,
then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all
the earth is Mine.
6
'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These
are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." (NKJ)
Deuteronomy
14:2
2
For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen
you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples
who are on the face of the earth. (NKJ)
Deuteronomy
28:9
9
The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He
has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God
and walk in His ways. (NKJ)
Psalms
33:12
12
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen
as His own inheritance. (NKJ)
Psalms
50:5
5
"Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant
with Me by sacrifice." (NKJ)
Psalms
105:6-10
6
O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7
He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
8
He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for
a thousand generations,
9
The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac,
10
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting
covenant, (NKJ)
Psalms
105:43-45
43
He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.
44
He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor
of the nations,
45
That they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise the LORD! (NKJ)
Psalms
132:13-16
13
For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place:
14
"This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have
desired it.
15
I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with
bread.
16
I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall
shout aloud for joy. (NKJ)
Psalms
135:4
4
For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure. (NKJ)
Isaiah
41:8-10
8
"But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the
descendants of Abraham My friend.
9
You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its
farthest regions, and said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen
you and have not cast you away:
10
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous
right hand.' (NKJ)
Isaiah 43:1-13
1
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed
you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called
you by your name; you are Mine.
2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
3
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave
Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4
Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have
loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.
5
Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the
east, and gather you from the west;
6
I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep
them back!' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends
of the earth--
7
Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him."
8
Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.
9
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled.
Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them
bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear
and say, "It is truth."
10
"You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant
whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand
that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be
after Me.
11
I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior.
12
I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign
god among you; therefore you are My witnesses," says the LORD,
"that I am God.
13
Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver
out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?" (NKJ)
Jeremiah
2:3
3
Israel was holiness to the LORD, the firstfruits of His increase. All
that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them," says
the LORD.' " (NKJ)
Malachi 3:17
17
"They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the
day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares
his own son who serves him." (NKJ)
There are many more references in the Scriptures that make the same point over and over
again. God has chosen Israel as His special people, the firstfruits
of His increase. Every non-Jew is a Gentile. I am a Gentile. One of
the leaders of the Jews who persecuted Jesus Christ and all of His followers
was Saul of Tarsus, a student of Gamaliel, the great Jewish teacher
of the time. Saul's heart was changed as God taught Him the truth regarding
His Son. Saul became known as Paul. The Holy Spirit witnessed to his
spirit and he, a Jew of renown, became God's messenger to the Gentiles,
after his Jewish counterparts rejected him. As a Jew, he knew that the
Jews were God's chosen people but he also knew, because the Holy Spirit
revealed it to him, that the Gentiles too, were called to love, honor
and obey God.
Listen carefully
to Paul's instruction to the Gentiles concerning their relationship
to the Jews. Remember, you, a Jew, are the root and Paul was a Jew.
We Gentiles are the branches, grafted in, by the Grace of God.
Romans 11:16-36
16
For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root
is holy, so are the branches.
17
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive
tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of
the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18
do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that
you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19
You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted
in."
20
Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by
faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21
For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you
either.
22
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell,
severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.
Otherwise you also will be cut off.
23
And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted
in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24
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?
25
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part
has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
(see chapter 6, Has Israel been "on hold" 2000 years?)
26
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer
will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27
For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
28
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning
the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
30
For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy
through their disobedience,
31
even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy
shown you they also may obtain mercy.
32
For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy
on all.
33
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34
"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His
counselor?"
35
"Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?"
36
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory
forever. Amen. (NKJ)
To fully appreciate
Paul's teachings, go to chapter 46, "A Jew speaking to Jews as
only a Jew could." Your personal position with the Lord is "in
process." Until the moment that we die, we make choices. God's
forgiveness for our bad choices exceeds our understanding. We deserve
retribution yet we are offered mercy instead. God truly has chosen you.
Have you sought Him with all of your heart, mind, strength and soul?
The Word is a treasure, full of instruction, love and wisdom and a gift
directly from God.
Matthew 7:7-8
7
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock,
and it will be opened to you.
8
"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to
him who knocks it will be opened. (NKJ)
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