CREATED TO PROCLAIM
By Avi Snyder
Dedicated to Three of the Chosen
© Jews for Jesus 2007
Chosen
Mordecai and I had agreed to meet in order to “exchange our points of view.” But both of us knew what we really meant by that phrase. I wanted to tell him about my faith in Yeshua, and I hoped that he might come to believe in Him as well. Mordecai wanted to tell me about the joys of living an orthodox Jewish life, and he hoped that I might come back “into the fold” of rabbinic Judaism. So there we were. Two young men in their early thirties (this was some time ago, mind you); each one intent on changing the other one’s mind. Now, it was Mordecai’s turn to speak.
“Avi, Avi, Avi,” he moaned. His voice carried a sorrow that you’d expect to hear from a patriarch three times his actual age. “I look at you, and I see such a tragedy. You’re like a man who went searching for treasure. But instead of looking in your own backyard, you decided to dig in the gentiles’ yards. Whatever you think you’ve found, it can’t compare with the beauty of what you’ve left behind.” He drew in a mournful breath, then let out a sigh. “Come back, Avi. You’re one of God’s chosen. Come back.”
Now it was my turn. “Mordecai,” I began without trying to match his gravity. “You’re right. We’re chosen. By why are we chosen?”
It seemed like Mordecai’s profound sorrow suddenly evaporated into indifference, tinged perhaps with a little bit of annoyance at what I’d asked. “Who knows why we’re chosen,” he shrugged. “That’s Ha-Shem’s business. It’s enough to know we’re chosen. So come back.”
I leaned a bit closer. “Mordecai,” I said, grinning like a conspirator, “I know why we’re chosen…”
There’s a good deal of talk these days, especially among Christians in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, about blessing Israel, and praying for Israel, and acknowledging that we Jews are still God’s chosen people. The only problem is, too many believers have no real understanding of how to bless Israel, how to pray for Israel, and what it means when the Hebrew Scriptures call us chosen.
When the scriptures speak of the nation of Israel as “chosen,” the word “chosen” does not mean that we Jews are individually and automatically “saved” from our sins.* When God in the Hebrew Scriptures refers to us Jews as chosen, He’s referring to the fact that He selected us to serve a specific purpose and to carry out a particular task. Throughout our history, our track record for fulfilling that task has been less than stellar. But because of God’s grace and mercy, He has neither rejected the people He chose, nor has He reassigned the national task to somebody else. We’re still chosen, and God is still waiting for us to do what He called us to do. But what’s the task? Why did God choose us? What’s the call – in fact, the only call – that the people of Israel has ever received? To put it a little more mundanely, what’s the job that God is waiting for us to do? And how can the church – God’s “people” of individually saved persons from every nation, both Jews and gentiles – how can the church bless the chosen nation and pray so that the task is picked up and performed?
Let me begin to answer these questions by taking you back to one of the most important moments in our national history as Jews – the moment when God clearly stated our call and revealed in a single phrase our entire reason for existing as a people. Let me take you back to Sinai.
The Summation of our history in a single phrase
You may know the context already, but let me “set the stage” a little bit, all the same. In Exodus 19, we find my ancestors gathered at Mount Sinai, about to receive the Law. A few weeks before, God had brought us out of our bondage to Pharaoh with “a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” He had poured out His plagues upon Egypt. He had brought us through the Red Sea on dry ground while burying our pursuers in the waves. Now, we camped before Mt. Sinai while Moses ascended the mountain to receive further instructions from the Lord. It was there that God told Moses...
“Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. 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. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exodus 19:4-6)
With the phrase, “kingdom of priests,” God communicated nothing less than the specific reason for our national existence. But in order to understand what God was telling us, we need to understand what that central phrase means. So, who were the priests, and what did they do?
In the ancient world, priests essentially performed two types of tasks. They instructed people about God, and they interceded for people before God. To put it another way, the priests talked to the people about God, and they talked to God about the people. Now, if the entire nation of Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests, then we have to ask ourselves a question: What other people were we supposed to instruct, and for what other people were we supposed to intercede? Well, who’s left? The rest of the nations of the earth. Simply put, the call to be a kingdom of priests amounted to nothing less than a call to missionary service. God so loved the world, that He called a particular people to inform the nations about the Lord, and to intercede before the Lord on the nations’ behalf. At Sinai, we received more than the Law of Moses; we received a missionary mandate, rooted in God’s passion for the nations and grounded in His desire to see His revelation go out to all the families of the earth.
God planned to establish a kingdom of priests -- a nation of instructors and intercessors, messengers and mediators -- so that the rest of the nations might learn Who He is and come to worship at His feet. He created us to proclaim His love to the nations. He called us to be witnesses to the world. This mandate to be a community of witnesses runs through our entire history, beginning as far back as the call of Abram. For…
(stay tuned....MUCH more to come tomorrow)
No comments:
Post a Comment