Hi Sushannah,
I’d like to say in advance, that God has not rejected the jewish people, but has an everlasting love for the them. ”I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). But as you know from the Tanakh, the Jewish people often, and continually, would not turn to God. The history of the Jewish people is indeed a painful one. God chose to send many prophets and, by his choosing, righteous men to warn Israel of coming judgments. Many of these were treated as outlaws and criminals, or they were put to death – just think about the righteous Abel, or the weeping prophet Jeremiah. Yet, they were in fact chosen by God. But God, in his mercy, then chose to send his only Son. ”In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (New Testament, the letter to the Hebrews 1:1-2).
God chose to save the best for last, and Jesus Christ was – and still is – the best that God has to offer to sinful mankind. ”For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (New Testament, the gospel of John 3:16).
So why did God have to send his only Son to die for us? It is much like the story of Abraham and Isaac, where Abraham had to sacrifice his only beloved son. In Genesis 22:7-8 it says: ”Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, ”but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, ”God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Now I take it that you know the rest of the story (Abraham almost kills his own son, but the angel of the Lord intervenes, and gives a good promise to Abraham). Afterwards, Abraham sees a ram caught in a bush of thorns, and he sacrifices it. But notice here, that Isaac had asked his father about a lamb – yet it was a ram that was slain. My point is, that the words of Abraham, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” was a prophetic statement. The whole story is essentially about how God the Father would one day sacrifice the one thing he loved the most – his only Son. As John the Baptist exclaims in the New Testament when he sees Jesus, ”Look, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (New Testament, the gospel of John 1:29).
Jesus was firstly sent to the Jewish people, and wanted to show them that all throughout the Tanakh it speaks of him, the coming Messiah. You see, the New Testament explains, that the end reason for introducing the Torah to the Israelites was not so that they could live righteous lives by obeying the law. It was to show them, when Christ came, that they could in fact in no way live up to the law, or standards, of God, which they had sought to do. The law is holy and righteous and perfect, but sinful man is nothing like that. That goes for all men, both Jew and gentile. However, God is still holy, and he cannot even look at sin. That is why Jesus came. He was the righteous Son of God, and only he could live up to the requirements and precepts of the law. The heart of the law, like he stated, was mercy, not sacrifice. The law spoke of goodness, holiness and righteousness, and he embodied all of these things. He loved us even unto death. The blood of animals once brought temporary atonement for the house of Israel, but today, the shed blood of the Son of the living God has brought eternal atonement for all mankind.
He took our sin, and by turning away from our sin, and towards Christ in faith, we are both forgiven for our sin, and receive His righteousness as a free gift. Now God looks at us, like he looks at his beloved Son, and he sends the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) to dwell within us, tabernacles and temples of human flesh. Remember what God promised in the book of Jeremiah, when he spoke of a new covenant: ”The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Tanakh, the book of Jeremiah 31:31-33). That is how much God loves us, and that is how much God loves the Jewish people!
Yes, Israel did reject their Messiah, but no, God has not rejected them. He patiently waits on them to return to Him, even as Hosea was always willing to forgive his wife, Gomer, and desired for her to return to him. Hosea paid a large amount of silver to redeem his wife, but God has paid an even greater price to redeem both Jew and gentile, by letting his Sons blood wash away our sins. He proved his amazing love on the cross. And when the Jewish people, his brethren, will turn to Jesus Messiah, it will be as when the brethren of Joseph came to him in Egypt, turned to him by finally admitting their sin, where after he revealed his true identity to them, and embraced them. One day, as it says in the book of Zechariah, the Jewish people will return to their God. ”They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn child” (Tanakh, the book of Zechariah 12:10).
No, Israel has not been replaced by the church. But now, as it is explained in the New Testament, there is a spiritual Israel, which consists of all who believe in Jesus Messiah. That Israel, church, assembly, or body of believers, consists of all who believe In the Lord Jesus – both Jew and gentile.
God bless!
”Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Tanakh, the book of Isaiah 53:4-5).
