HF109 - Struggles in Israel (Part 2)
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004
Subject: Bible Study HF109 - Struggles in Israel (Part 2)
Hebraics,
In these studies we are looking both at modern Israel, and also at what is called the third period of Judaism. The third period takes up from the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. to our present time. We will also be placing these studies within their Biblical perimeters.
This is Bible Study HF109 - Struggles in Israel (Part 2).
In part one of this series, we took a general look at the problems in Israel concerning the animosity between secular and religious Jews. The next thing we need to consider is the issue of religion itself. Most folk, including Christians, are not aware that there is no such thing as a right religion. Unless we understand this basic issue, we will never understand what the struggles in Israel are all about.
As humans we are constantly reaching for the divine. This is what gives birth to our religions, and the struggle cannot be limited to Israel. It is the struggle of every human on this planet. Yet in all our struggles, we generally identify in one way or another with religion.
Think for a moment. Which war in the history of this planet has not had in one form religion as its purpose or base? All religions can be accused of blood letting for their cause. Judaism is no exception. But who has shed more blood of the innocent than the Roman Church? I'll leave this line of thinking with you. Just consider for yourself all the past wars and then think about present wars. See what conclusion you come up with.
But why is religion the culprit in all this? It is because there is something in man that gives birth to religion. We are spiritual beings. We were created in the very image and likeness of God. For this reason we cannot be satisfied with external things for our happiness. Solomon said it well; "He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart..." (Eccl 3:11)
As humans we are instinctively aware of a spiritual sphere of life. Even when the atheist wishes to deny God, he does this as a fool. He knows better. The desire for spirituality is an acute part of our make-up. By nature we are religious. (Rubbing a rabbits foot is a religious thing - of course it wasn't such good luck for the rabbit.)
The term for religion in the Greek is "threskeia."
This word speaks of a service of worship that is especially expressed in a system of
external observances. Many languages do not have a term that best translates "threskeia." This is why folk simply speak of
"how to act toward God," or "what one does do placate spirits," or
"how one
worships."
The original Greek word spoke of "the fear of the gods." So
again we come to a root cause of religion. Fear is a driving force. We are
afraid of displeasing the "gods." Out of this fear comes
elaborate rituals and laws and demigods and heroes and thus, our
religions. And woe to the one who disagrees with us. Anyone not of our
religion is the enemy. Of course religion has been Satan's field of entertainment from the get go. Satan provides continuous stimuli to
keep religion itself in the forefront.
Hence we have religions that contain angelic appearances such as Mormonism and Islam, but it was also true in the Judaism that
rejected Jesus. This is why Paul warned the Colossian believers not to be taken in by those who are "delighting in self-abasement and the
worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without
cause by his fleshly mind."
The apostle went on to say that all these things have the "appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." (Col 3:16-23: In context Paul is dealing both with Judaism and Gnosticism.)
Where does all this leave Jesus Christ? Every true believer knows the answer to that question. Remember how Jesus responded to Pilate about whether He was a king? The Lord answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." (John 18:37)
The Lord didn't come to give us a religion. He came to give us the very reality of God. He came to put God's love in our hearts. He came to deliver us from our fears, to take the need for religion out of us, and to fill our hearts with righteousness, peace and joy. It can all be summed up in the statement, 'Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'
Let me share a brief story. It has to do with a lady in Islam who deeply desired to know the truth. (1990s) Nurjan became cynical about the teachings handed down by her elders, but she didn't know anything else. She was cut off from any expression of religion other than that of Islam. In desperation she began to cry out, asking God to show her the truth. Her heart was empty.
It went on for two years. During this time Nurjan began to have dreams in which she saw white, Russian looking people, speaking her Kazak language and relating to her in her culture. The Lord was preparing her heart for the gospel. Then it happened. A lady missionary came to that region, and Nurjan for the first time heard God's wonderful news of a Savior who loved her. You know the rest. Nurjan came to know the Lord for herself.
How often is this story repeated? I've heard story after story of peoples just like Nurjan of whom the Lord sent both messages and messengers. Why is it that there is such a move today among Jews to rediscover Jesus Christ. It is a cry for truth. Recall what Jesus said, "Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Truth is not a religion. Truth is Jesus Christ.
In another place Jesus said to his Hebrew disciples, "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd." (John 10:16) Just as Nurjan heard the voice of the Shepherd, every person who is to partake of His kingdom also hears Him calling them. Jesus said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
Once again, Jesus did not come to give us a religion. He came to give us the reality of an eternal relationship with Himself. He came to place heaven in our hearts and to seal our hearts with the divine assurance that we belong to Him.
But what does this have to do with Israel? It has everything to do with Israel. More and more Jews are coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is also happening in Islam, and it is also happening in this vast arena called Christianity. How many people called Christian today are simply cultural Christians? A cultural Christian has never met the Lord personally.
The Shepherd is calling. The Shepherd is calling. Can you hear Him? Listen with your heart.
Back to the struggle in Israel - as I shared earlier, the struggle in Israel is the religious Jew against the secular Jew, and that in turn is Judaism against Islam, and Islam against Judaism. Once again it is all about religion. The strange thing in all this is that Talmudic Judaism is almost a twin brother to the faith of Islam. If you had the chance to study both religions as I have, you would be amazed at how very much they are one and the same.
Where did it begin? No, it didn't began with Isaac and Ishmael, as Muhammad would have you believe. It began and ends with Jesus Himself. When the Jewish leadership turned away from Jesus as Messiah, they lost what light they had. Out of this darkness came Talmudic Judaism with its twists and turns.
But what of Islam? Islam is a near repeat, except Muhammad did it with a different twist. He decided that Jesus was one of the five great prophets of Islam, but that He was not the Son of God, nor did He die on the cross, nor had his death anything to do with the salvation of humanity.
So now you have two opposing religions, both of whom had denied the one, true Lord. They have no room for compromise, so you have terror, blood letting, assassinations, and a major conflict over a piece of territory that each claims as its own. I am speaking of the Jerusalem below. It is interesting how the prophet spoke of Jerusalem as the "bloody city."
What then of those who have truly found the Lord, that is, folk from all ethnic groups who have come to know Jesus for themselves? What about them? These are the people who make up a holy race, whose citizenship is in heaven, and of whom there is a heavenly Jerusalem prepared just for them. That Jerusalem is called our mother. It is the same city of which Abraham was looking.
In our next study, I hope to share how Judaism and Islam and even various forms of Christianity offer similar bondages. But in each case the only hope of freedom will be found in Jesus.
Since I've already shared some prophetic Scripture concerning Israel's turning to Jesus, I'll leave that off for now. Consider what I have shared and feel free to offer insights or ask questions.
Blessings,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)