Prophecy in the New
Testament
The Gospel of the
Circumcision
In lesson # 5 we should have learned:
1.
That all the books of the Old Testament, Matthew-John, Acts and Hebrew
through Revelation primarily concern the nation of Israel.
2.
Israel was taught to disassociate themselves from Gentiles, as they were
inferior.
3.
That prophets foretold of a day when Israel would be set aside, become
Lo-ammi
4.
That Lo-ammi means not my people.
5.
Israel is Lo-ammi today.
“Its hard to believe that that the Jews are Lo-ammi,”
many Christians have told me. “I do not believe that God would consider any
group of people as being lower than another,” others have said.
I told them what I am about to tell you, again.
It is not important what you think. It is not important what I think.
What is important is what the word of God says.
Let see what it says.
Let’s begin in the book of Matthew and the words of
Jesus. Let me set the scene for
you. Jesus has just called out the twelve disciples and He is addressing them,
giving them instructions and so on. Look
at Matthew 10: 5-10.
”These twelve
Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, GO NOT INTO THE WAY OF THE
GENTILES, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; But go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go preach the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.”
Question, Did Jesus say don’t go to Gentiles? Yes he did!
He also told them to not go into any city in Samaria. Why? Because
Samaritans were a mixture of Gentiles and the Jews from the 10 tribes of Israel
who had rebelled against God. God wanted his disciples to spread the good news
that the Messiah had come, He felt the two faithful tribes had earned the right
to receive the news first. (We’ll see the order of their “marching orders”
in a moment.)
Still not convinced? Look
at Matthew 15:21-28
”Then Jesus went
thence, and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold a woman of
Canaan came out of the same coast, and cried unto Him, saying, have mercy on me,
O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. BUT HE
ANSWERED HET NOT A WORD. And His disciples came and besought Him saying,
Send her away; for she crieth after us. But He answered and said, I AM NOT SENT BUT
UNTO THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. Then came she and worshipped Him,
saying Lord, help me. BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID, IT IS NOT MEET TO TAKE THE
CHILDREN’S BREAD (Israel) AND TO CAST IT TO DOGS (Gentiles). And she said, truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their master’s table. Then
Jesus answered and said unto her, O
woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter
was made whole from that day.”
What do you think now? There are quite a few things in
these passages that are hard to understand, right? Not so, if you rightly
divide.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth as a man to be offered
as a sacrifice for sin. He came as Israel’s Messiah. It was God’s purpose
that Israel would be a nation of evangelists, but Israel had to repent and turn
back to God. If she did God would
bless her and restore her into the land of promise.
So Jesus gathered together 12 men whose job was to go into
the entire known world, where Jews were, and tell them Messiah had come.
The twelve’s ministry was a Jewish ministry. After their
training Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, but asked His disciple to
wait for His return and further instructions.
In Acts 1 that is exactly what they are doing, waiting for the Lord’s
return. Waiting for instructions? Waiting
for the power they would need to evangelize the world. Look at Acts 1:8-9.
”But ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost
part of the earth.”
Judea was the southernmost part of the nation of Israel and
Samaria was the northernmost part. The disciples were to begin in the most
important city of the realm, Jerusalem, and then go into the outlying areas of
the two faithful tribes before moving into Samaria. After they had won those regions over to the truth of
Messiah’s return, they were to pack up and go to the other countries where the
Jews that had been scattered lived. Look at Acts 2: 5, 9-11.
“5: And there were
dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men. Out of every nation under
heaven. 9-11 Parthians, and
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and
Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the
parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes
and Arabians…”
There is no doubt the ministry of the twelve was Jewish, or
to the circumcision, as is seen in Galatians 2: 7, 9.
“But contrariwise,
when they saw that the gospel of the Uncircumcision was committed unto me, as
the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter…And when James, Cephas, and
John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they
gave me and Barnabus the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the
heathen, and they unto the circumcision.”
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