Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Today marks Holocaust Memorial day here in Israel. At ten o’clock in the morning on this day, war sirens sound calling the entire Land to remembrance of the 6,000,000 Jews who died and many more who suffered under the Nazi regime during WW2. People in their homes and workplaces rise in silence; cars come to a halt, even on the highways; pedestrians stop where they are and pause… for one minute as the sirens wail, we remember.
You may know that these atrocities and many more through the centuries were done in the name of Christianity. Hitler claimed to be a Christian while his actions demonstrated he was hardly a believer. However, he deeply sympathized with Martin Luther’s antisemitism, as he murdered millions of Jews. Systematic torture, abuse, and murder have taken a toll on the Jewish people. The few remaining survivors of the Holocaust carry the scars of history’s most recent attempt to annihilate them. The “DNA” of hatred and persecution has passed to children and grandchildren, such that the nation of Israel, partly restored to the Land, partly yet in dispersion, is deeply traumatized and constantly recovering. Yet the Lord’s love and His faithfulness to Israel remains sure, as Paul said, “for the sake of the Fathers”; and their suffering also, in some way, points to the suffering Messiah of Isaiah 53.
We need to be praying for the Jewish people. We need to be pouring out much love upon them as we await the complete restoration which God has foreordained. As the Scriptures say, salvation is of the Jews [John 4:22]. They were set aside because of unbelief, bringing God’s grace to the Gentiles. But…”if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” [Romans 11:15].
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]As we continue to probe the lessons from the salt covenant, we now inquire into our part in the covenant.
Yeshua (Jesus) said He is the “bread of life”. It was His body that was broken on our behalf as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Notice that He never once called us to be the “bread of life”! He is the ONLY “Bread of Life” – the true bread who came down from Heaven which anyone may eat and not die. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is His flesh, given for the life of the world.
For years, when I visited my father-in-law’s home in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, we would break bread and bless the bread with the traditional blessing – “Baruch Ata Adonai Eleheynu Melech HaOlam Ha-Motzi Lechem Min Ha’aretz” – which translated means,”Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has given us bread from the earth”. After the blessing, my father-in-law would take salt and sprinkle the challah bread as he broke and passed it to everyone at the table.
One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said “God bless you, my friend”.
“I thank God,” said the homeless man, “I am never unhappy.”
Here in Israel we have an interesting geographical phenomenon – there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is…….you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley…. into the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not empty its water at all. Instead, the Dead Sea is continually shrinking, because the intense heat at this lowest place on Earth actually evaporates more water than is flowing in. Do you see a parable here?
One of my passions is studying history, especially the American Civil War. Here is an amusing story about General Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. During the war, Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other.
We tend to focus on the part of that scripture where God does the blessing — but why did He bless Him? The answer lies in the passage! The Lord told Abraham: “I will bless you — and you shall be a blessing.” Abraham was blessed so that he could be a blessing!