Compare the Old Testament promises to us with the New Testament. The old leads to a new and inclusive salvation. Israel was set apart then confronted with Jesus. It did not go well. When I think of the state of the world today and the persecution of the Jews, I feel as if we are cousins. Jerusalem is still viewed as a holy city and the land where Jesus walked as special but let’s face it – a follower of the Jewish tradition is as lost as my Hindu friend. God will do what God will do so my comments are limited to how I understand scripture. Followers of Christ are in union with Christ. We are in Christ – in Him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”, Eph 1:3. This closeness we might feel to the Jewish people today is because we struggle with comprehending the Trinity. My Mother led me to an understanding of my hope in Jesus but she also insisted, throughout her life, that God was first. Our mortal view is that a son is begotten of his father. If there is no father, first – there is no son, second. We are in time and it keeps moving along a timeline like a train. God is not in time but over time. The Jewish people missed the train and are lost without belief in Jesus. All of the empathy and help that can be mustered should be applied to our “cousins” but our spiritual relationship is really more distant. The only brothers and sisters I have are in Christ. The directions in the letters to the churches apply to the church and not the world. We do not expect unbelievers to conform to the teachings of Jesus but we do, at every opportunity, extend the love of Christ to all people. I’m catching a flight in a few hours or would compare the promises but do your own study and weep for Israel today but weep for the lost everyday.
