Is God Finished With Israel? - Part 02

Liz Ayala: Did God reject the Jewish people when they rejected his son 2,000 years ago? Has he replaced Israel with the church? Stay with us as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses the question, is God finished with Israel today right here on Messianic Perspectives? Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Ayala. On today's edition of Messianic Perspectives, Dr. Gary Hedrick is discussing the question, is God finished with Israel? I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.
Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on the question, is God finished with Israel? And on the last program, I was showing you Israel's relationship to God was not based on the Mosaic covenant of law, but on the Abrahamic covenant of grace. In fact, we're going to get into the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 and when we do, we're going to see that it's basically a restatement of the Abrahamic covenant. You see God knew that his people Israel would become so preoccupied with the keeping of the law, Torah, that they would be in danger of forgetting his grace and his love and the spirit of the law. In fact, that's what Jesus told the Perushim, the Pharisees, in Matthew 23:23. He said, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These ye ought to have done and not to leave the others undone. In other words, it's easy to get caught up in the letter of the law to the point where we forget the spirit of the law. We forget the one who gave that law. So what the new covenant does is it takes Israel back to the original Abrahamic covenant. Basically, what it does is it takes Israel back to her first love, beyond the law, beyond the legal requirements, beyond the legalities of their relationship, back to their first love. Let me show you where the law started. Turn with me to the book of Exodus chapter 19 and we'll look at verse 1. It says, in the third month when the children of Israel had gone forth from the land of Egypt, the same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai, verse 2. For they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness and there Israel camped before the mount, verse 3. And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, verse 4. Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself, verse 5. Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. Now, are you noticing a different tone here? And there's that word if. God says, if ye will obey my voice. And if you were with us last time, you didn't hear anything like that in the Abrahamic covenant, did you? When God was talking to Abraham, he didn't say, if you will do this, then I will do that. He just said, this is what I'm going to do. But here when he's talking to Israel through Moses at Sinai, it's different. He says, if you will obey my voice, if you will keep my covenant, then ye shall be a special treasure to me above all people. You see, it's conditional, not like it was with Abraham. In verse 4, he reminds them that up until now their relationship has been one of grace rather than law. He says, ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now remember, Israel had no law in Egypt. The law had not been given yet, so there was nothing in the world that the children of Israel could do to deserve their deliverance from Egypt. Even today, many of our orthodox Jewish friends are telling each other that they can hasten the coming of the Messiah, Mashiach, by giving to charity and by doing good deeds and keeping Torah. If they're really really good, then God will have mercy on them and send the Messiah. You see, it's that uh legal mindset that says, if you do this, I will do that. It's like a business transaction. But let me ask you something. If you're married, what would you rather have, a contractural type relationship with your husband or wife where he or she agrees to do certain things for you if you will do certain things for him or her? I mean, doesn't it lose something when it 's all spelled out in a legal arrangement? Don't you ever wonder about those people that have those prenuptial agreements? I mean, isn't that romantic? Wouldn't you rather have a relationship of love where you do things for your spouse not because you have to, not because you 're expected to, but because you want to? And where you know that if you have a bad day and you just don't live up to your part of the agreement, there's going to be forgiveness instead of condemnation. And that 's why God reminds his people in Exodus 19:4 that there was no law for them to keep in Egypt. They were helpless. There was nothing they could do to deserve God's favor, nothing they could do to earn his mercy. They had no legal standing with God. He says, you saw what I did to the Egyptians. It wasn't because you deserved it or because you have you had kept some law or because you had earned it, it was because of my love and because of the unconditional promise I made to your father Abraham 430 years ago. Turn back a few pages here in the book of Exodus to chapter 2 and verse 23 and I'll show you something else. It says, and it came to pass in process of time king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry ascended to God by reason of the bondage. Verse 24, and God heard their groaning. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Verse 25, and God looked upon the children of Israel and God acknowledged them. Literally, he knew them, not because they kept some law, not because they were deserving, not because they were better than anyone else, but because they were his people. They were the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And back here in Exodus chapter 19, God reminds them of that grace-based relationship. He says, don't you remember how I carried you on eagles' wings? He's talking there about the female golden eagle who teaches her babies how to fly by stretching out her mighty wings underneath them so that if they fall, they fall on her wings rather than on the jagged rocks below. That's the kind of relationship Israel has had with the Lord up until this point in the book of Exodus. But now in chapter 19, the Lord is proposing a legal relationship, a relationship that represents a departure from the Abrahamic covenant of grace. And he says in verse 6, and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak to the children of Israel. Verse 7, and Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And do you know what I think the Lord wanted them to say in reply? He wanted them to say, oh no, Lord, don't don't change our relationship. We don't want it to change. We don't want a legal arrangement. We're weak people, vessels of clay. And if our relationship with you is based on our ability to be good, then sooner or later we're going to blow it, Lord. Please not another covenant. The promises you made to our father Abraham are good enough for us. And if I know anything about the heart of God, that's the answer that would have pleased him. But that wasn't the answer they gave. Exodus 19:8 says, and all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people to the Lord. They were pretty confident, weren't they? All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. We can do it. You just tell us what to do and we'll do it. But do you know what? They didn't do it. In fact, by the time Moses got down from Mount Sinai with those two stone tablets, the children of Israel were already breaking most of those 10 mitzvot or 10 commandments. And Aaron broke the ninth mitzvah. When Moses asked him what had happened, he lied and he said, gee, Moshe, you know, it was really weird. We were melting this gold and all of a sudden this golden calf just kind of jumped out of the pot. I mean, you should have seen it. Yeah, right. He was lying, breaking commandment number nine. In fact, if you add it all up, everything they were doing, they were breaking most of the commandments and Moses hadn't even been down from the mount for more than 10 minutes. So here's the question we want to answer in this series of studies. Did Israel forfeit her place as the people of God because she failed to keep the law? Almost 3,500 years ago, the people of Israel failed to enter the promised land because of unbelief. They were turned away at Kadesh Barnea because of their lack of faith. They wandered in the desert for 40 years. Later there were two dispersions of Israel that were the direct result of her unbelief, one at the hands of the Babylonians and Assyrians and the other at the hand of the Romans. Even now, Israel is in unbelief except for a small remnant of Messianic believers. And there are people today who say that because Israel rejected God's Messiah, God has rejected Israel. And Israel, they say, has been replaced by the church in God's economy. And in Romans 11:26 where it says that at the end of this age all Israel shall be saved, these people say, that's not really what it means. We'll talk about that in more detail a little later in this study. Well, we were supposed to talk about the Davidic covenant today, but we got sidetracked and ran out of time, so Lord willing we'll take care of that next time. And that's it for today, so I've got to get out of here. Remember, we love you. God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.
Liz Ayala: Thank you Gary and thank you listening friend for tuning in today. Now let me tell you about our special offer. It's Gary Hedrick's booklet entitled, Is God Finished with Israel? It's available for a suggested gift of $7. This booklet is especially helpful because it includes a word-for-word transcript of an internet debate between Gary Hedrick and an amillennialist. This is someone who very definitely believes that God is finished with Israel and of course Gary very definitely believes that he is not, so it made for quite a lively discussion. Then we also have the programs you're hearing here on the broadcast. This series of studies is available on compact disc for a suggested contribution of just $6 to this ministry. The title again is, Is God Finished with Israel? Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Ayala. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on, Is God finished with Israel? Right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas and is made possible on this station by the free will contributions of our listeners in this area.