Israel

New Testament History

It is an opinion, that while the healing of lepers is not specifically prophesied of the ministry of Christ, and since contracting the disease in the ancient world was so horrible a sentence of death, that Yahshua's having cleansed lepers was symbolic of His mercy upon the children of Israel: that no matter how horrible the sentence of death, His promise uttered through the prophets was to cleanse them of all of their sins, and as Isaiah 45:25 says, He promises to justify all of the offspring of Israel, without exception and no matter how grievously they have sinned.

Salt of the Earth

See also Covenant of Salt

Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? It avails for nothing more than it is cast outside to be trampled by men!

Salt had a place in the ritual sacrifices, and a “covenant of salt” seems to represent exactly what salt was used for by our ancestors in the ancient world: preservation. “You are the preservation of the earth” would not be out of context. If it were not for the Children of Israel, Yahweh would have long ago destroyed the earth on account of its depravity.

Leviticus 2:13: And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Numbers 18:19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

2 Chronicles 13:5 Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

Prophecy

Inheritance of Earth

Old Testament References:

Isaiah 60: “16 Thou shalt also suck the milk of the nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.... 21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. 22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time."

Psalm 25: “11 For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. 12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. 13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. 14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”  

The Biblical context is that those who are meek of the people of Israel – those who have the covenants – they shall inherit the earth, and not just anyone pretending to be meek.

Covenants

Matthew 7:21 Not all who say to Me ‘Prince, Prince!’ shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he doing the will of My Father who is in the heavens. 22 Many shall say to Me in that day ‘Prince, Prince, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and have done many works of power in Your name?’ 23 And then shall I profess to them that ‘Never have I known you! Depart from Me, those who are working at lawlessness!’

No matter what men do or say, the covenants were made only with the children of Israel. Yahweh's words at Amos, where it was spoken to Israel that “you only have I known of all the families of the earth”, have never changed. Even if they seem to do well, the aliens cannot do well, since they can never honestly admit to Yahweh's exclusive relationship with Israel, and with His exclusive promises to preserve Israel. False teachers want to offer preservation to the aliens after the Second Advent, but the Bible makes it clear that only the children of Israel shall inherit the earth.

New Covenant

See New Covenant

The purpose of Christ's ministry is recorded in Luke chapter 4, where He Himself quotes from the later chapters of Isaiah:

Luke 4: “16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives [the Israelites, who were described as prisoners and captives by Isaiah], and recovering of sight to the blind [we should know that we are Israel!], to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

Note that He stopped before proclaiming the Day of Vengeance, which has to do only with His second advent, and not His first.

There are clear connections between Christ's word in the New Testament, and the promises to Israel recorded by Isaiah in the Old Testament. Christ had come for those who sit in darkness, for the prisoners, for the captives, for those very people of the children of Israel divorced from their God centuries beforehand, in the very days of Isaiah! So it is evident that an honest study of scripture reveals precisely what Jeremiah prophesied to be: that the New Covenant was made by God with those very same people with whom He made the Old Covenant: the literal, physical, children of Israel.

The Light

From John 1:4-7 and 8:12 and elsewhere we learn that Yahshua is the Light come into the society. In His absence, those who carry His Word become that light also (Mat 5:14). This is the light of Isaiah, the light of Isaiah 9:1 and 42:8, by which the nations of Israel were to be illuminated.

Mirrored Life with Christ

Matthew 2:13 And upon their withdrawing, behold! A messenger of Yahweh appeared in a dream to Ioseph, saying: “Arising, take the child and His mother and flee into Egypt, and you must be there until when I should speak to you. For Herodas is about to seek the child and to destroy it!” 14 And arising he took the child and His mother at night and withdrew into Egypt, 15 and was there until the death of Herodas, in order that that which had been spoken by Yahweh through the prophet should be fulfilled, saying: “Out of Egypt I have called My Son.”

The words are found at Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” Matthew interpreted Hosea 11:1 as a dual prophecy, applying to Christ as well as the people of Israel. The things which Israel suffered during her national history, Christ also was to suffer. Going to Egypt to flee death was symbolic of the children of Israel who did likewise many centuries before. This further solidifies the bond between the Christ and His people Israel.

It says in Amos 3: “1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

In this respect, Paul wrote at Hebrews 2:

“14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.”

The Children of Israel escaped the slaughter of the first-born and the bondage of Egypt by the blood of a lamb. Now we need to escape the judgement of this world and our present state of bondage by the blood of The Lamb.

Geographic Sense

Matthew 8:10 And hearing Yahshua marveled and said to those following: “Truly I say to you, from no one in Israel have I found such faith!

Christ seems to have meant Israel in the geographic sense here, or possibly in a sense referring to those of Judaea who had kept the law and the prophets. While we know that many Greeks, Romans, Kelts, etc. were indeed descended from Israelites dispersed long beforetime, who had for the most part already forgotten their identity in their blindness, as Paul said in his epistle to the Ephesians, they were alienated from the civic life of Israel, and therefore being divorced from Yahweh they truly were not counted as Israel. As Hosea says, they were His people, but they were called “Not His people” until the time when they would accept Christ and be reconciled to God.