Sit
209. ROOTS
People try to find their “ROOTS” to discover
their identity or to get their inheritance. Israel is special to God – they are
our ROOTS in a spiritual way.
If we know about our forefathers, then we can
have our identity. People are
driven to find out about whom their ancestors were. They spend billions every year to go to family
reunions. The problem is that no
matter how good our forefathers were they cannot transfer to us our SPIRITUAL
ROOTS. Every ancestor has some sin
that we do not want to inherit, every ancestor except for Jesus. That is why He needed to be born of a VIRGIN.
God wanted a family!
Isaiah 51:16 says that God did three important
things. First, He created the
heavens. Then, He created the
earth. Third, God told Israel and
us, “You are My People.”
Romans 11 says that
Israel is God’s original family starting with Abraham. It says that they are the original
olive plant, and we Christians are the wild olive branches that have been
grafted in through Jesus in a spiritual way. The original branches, Israel, have been temporarily
cut off, but they are going to be put back on the vine. Romans 11:17-24 says that we should not
be puffed up with pride about having favor with God that Israel does not have
right now because we got ours by God’s mercy. It also says that we could lose
it just like they did. But by
God’s mercy, Israel will be restored.
In a way, we Christians are spiritual Jews grafted in by Jesus, but we
need to know that the natural Jews are still special to God.
Jesus came down through
Jewish history just as it was prophesied by many prophets. He was and still is a Jew. Galatians 3 says that Jesus is the seed
of Abraham. If we belong to Jesus, then we are also the heirs of Abraham and
therefore we are Jews as well.
The
tiny country of Israel is the center of the earth.
The Israelites supernaturally survived wars in
the 20th century, during my lifetime, the wars that should have wiped them
out. Israel does not have oil like
her Arab neighbors. The Arab neighbors outnumber them by the thousands and they
have been trying, without success, to destroy Israel. There have been several
accounts of angels defending Israel during the wars of the 1970s.
During our lifetime, the
prophecies of Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 4 have been fulfilled, at least in
part. Israel is the time clock for
God dealing with this earth.
Our job is to bless the
Jews and understand that they are special; not because of them, but because of
God. Romans 11 says that they have
been blinded to the Gospel but in the last days they will come back and be
saved. We do not understand
everything that will happen, but in our lifetime many very important events
with eternal nature have and will continue to happen.
A little history and prophecy:
God did not choose the Jews; He made them
for Himself!
Long ago Abraham was
chosen by God (Genesis 12-15) to be the first Hebrew or Jew. HE DID THIS
THROUGH A BLOOD COVENANT.
God
told Abraham that his family would be a blessing to all other families and that
God would take care of and defeat Abraham’s enemies. God said that whoever would bless his people would be
blessed and whoever would curse his people would be cursed. This has proven to be true in
history. England, Spain, Germany
and Egypt have all experienced failures due to the way they treated the Jews.
America has been blessed due (partially) because it has blessed and defended
Israel. Abraham had a deal that
God would be on his side if he stayed on God’s team.
God told Abraham that
sometime in the future his people would become slaves for 430 years. Exodus 12:41 says that on the very day
430 years after Egypt took them captive, they were released by Pharaoh under
Moses. God was on time. They did nothing to deserve this. The
nation of Israel was enslaved with no connection at all to God, from their
point of view anyway.
After they broke out of
Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and settled in Canaan (later renamed Israel), they
became disobedient time and time again. Years later, Babylon came and took them
into captivity. Jeremiah gave a
prophecy that they would be released from Babylon in 70 years. They were released, but just a few of
them returned home.
In Ezekiel chapter
36:24-28, sometime around 590 BC, God caused Ezekiel to predict that Israel
will again return to their own land after they were scattered. He said it was not because they were
good or righteous, but to fulfill what God was trying to do in starting up a
new family.
One of the most amazing prophecies given by Ezekiel was the
foretelling of the very month (maybe even to the day) of Israel’s return to the
Promised Land after being away for over 2,000 years. The year was 1948!
In 70 AD, a little more than 30 years after
Jesus was resurrected, the Roman General Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem. The Jews dispersed all over the world.
Over 2,000 years later, in the 1940s, Hitler tried to destroy the last traces
of Jews from the face of the earth.
The Jews are the only race of people to
survive thousands of years without a country!
In 1948 (during my own lifetime) after World War
II and Hitler’s failure, the Jews came back and formed a new country called
Israel. I watched it on TV! I saw the United Nations vote to ordain
this.
Ezekiel gave this most
amazing prophecy that is recorded in Ezekiel 4:3-6. He said this would be a sign to Israel. Lie on your left side 390 days
(representing 390 years), and then lie on your right side 40 days (representing
40 years), or a total of 430 years.
This would be a sign to Israel that their punishment would be for 430
years. In the spring of 536 BC
they were released from Babylon.
If you count the 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they still had 360
years left (430- 70 = 360).
However, nothing happened at the end of this 360-year
period. The majority of the Jews
were still in Babylon, now known as Iraq and Iran, and they were still
backslidden people. They had
failed to repent of their disobedience.
The solution to this
mystery is in Leviticus 26 where it states that the punishments for Israel are
based on her obedience and disobedience to His commands. God said here that if Israel did not
repent, the punishments would be multiplied by 7 [1]. This means that the 360 years of
further punishment prophesied by Ezekiel were multiplied by 7 (360 X 7 = 2,520 Biblical
years). A Biblical year consisted
of 360 days. Converting this to
our calendar years that would total 2,483.8 years (2,520 X 360 = 907,200 days)
/ 365.25 = 2,483.8 years)
Ending of Babylonian Captivity |
536 BC |
Plus |
2,483.8 calendar years |
Equals |
1,947.4 |
|
|
Adjust for no zero year between 1 BC and AD 1 |
1 |
|
|
Therefore the captivity of Israel would end in Which was the date Israel became a nation. |
1948 May 15 |
This great day marked the first time since the
days of Solomon that a united Israel took its place as a sovereign and
independent state among the nations of the world.
It’s one more proof that God is the Author of
the Bible.
Such prophecies being fulfilled in this way are
beyond human manipulation.
It also shows that Israel is part of God’s plan and that we are living
in very special days; some call it end times. We do not know when things on this earth will change, when
Jesus will come back, when anything will happen, but we do know that just a
little over 50 years ago a MAJOR historical event of the Bible took
place!
Let’s
trace your ROOTS.
Galatians 3:29 says that if you are Christ’s,
then you are Abraham’s heir and offspring. How did that happen if your family never had Jewish
roots?
It goes like this:
Abraham > Isaac
> Jacob became > Israel > several generations including King David (see Matthew chapter
1) > down to Mary mother of Jesus.
But God intervened here
and used His own birthing process to put Jesus inside of Mary through the Word
of God. Then you and I were grafted
into the family through the New Birth.
So, if we trace
our roots, they go right to Jesus.
On His mom’s side they go back to Abraham but on His Dad’s side they go
directly to God.
What
do these roots give us? It is our
choice!
1. The potential to receive from God. This requires your obedience to the Lordship of
Jesus and the Word. This gives you an inheritance from God and every time you
get into the Word you receive more inheritance.
2. The potential to receive from the
world, by being rebellious and unbelieving like many of the Jews. This does not require
anything but being lazy and not working on your relationship with Jesus and the
Word.
If you choose your heritage and inheritance in
the Word of God, then you will:
·
Be righteous and in right relationship with God;
·
Have forgiveness of sins, even the ones you have not done yet.
·
Have God’s very nature, His Holy Spirit living inside of you.
·
Have the right to walk into God’s throne room and fellowship with
the Creator as Dad.
·
Have victory over every enemy that ever tries to defeat you,
including sickness, poverty, loneliness, low self-esteem, etc.
·
Have God supply all of your needs during your lifetime as your
Father.
·
Have the right to be a special servant of the Most High God and
work for Him on earth during the short time here.
·
Have a permanent home in Heaven with God for eternity, escaping
Hell and its torture.
Romans 11 warns us that
we can be cut off from our inheritance and our roots through unbelief and
rebellion toward God’s Word.
We need to take this
very seriously. We have been given
a brand new family inheritance, however, it is our choice to receive it and
live it out.
Satan always tries to
stop you from receiving your inheritance. Mark 4 says that he steals the Word
out of your heart.
Our natural family
inheritance will take us over and make a slave out of us.
God is a gentleman;
He will not force you to do or receive anything you do not want.
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[1]
Grant Jeffreys, The Signature of God Page (Toronto, Ontario:
Frontier Research Publications, Inc. 1996) 167.