Well, the Jewish scriptures certainly are, while the New Testament was until gentiles started to get invited.
Whilst the Hebrew scriptures were initially written to Jews for Jews, its wider application in relating to the coming Messiah made its knowledge beneficial for Christ's followers. Its hard to understand Christianity without understanding the Jewish faith and the environment in which the human child, Jesus was raised, and how they deteriorated into a corrupted shadow of their former selves.
Jesus was pretty clear, though, at least at first, that he's a-comin' just for his homies.
That is not entirely true. Jesus had a mission that included adhering to the Abrahamic Covenant. God's promise to Abraham was that a seed in his family line would come at the appointed time and that through this one "all the families on earth would be blessed". Jesus gave his life to fulfill that promise.
This Messiah would seek to find from among Abraham's offspring, a suitable priesthood to rule with him in his kingdom. Sadly, the Jews rejected him as their king and Messiah, with only a relative "few" responding to his message. Interestingly, Jesus said he was sent only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel". He was not sent to those who loved the corrupt system of worship that Judaism became. Only a "remnant" of the Jews were foretold to come back to God in the final outcome.....so the majority of those who benefited from the promise were going to have to come from the nations.....that includes us.
We were irrelevant. I think the Good Samaritan parable was invented after he experienced the faiths of the centurion and the gentile woman. He learned a lesson: gentiles aren't as bad as he thought. However, he died before he could truly flesh out that part of his ministry and it was (mostly)Paul and (kinda)Peter who developed it.
If you read the Bible, you will see that we were always in God's plans. But he needed a people who were his exclusive nation, to give them his laws and to form a relationship with them on the basis of trust so that he could write a record of his dealings with them and their conduct in relation to him as his covenant people, bound by his laws.
God was always trustworthy, but unfortunately humans can not be trusted to keep their word. Israel were no different or better than anyone else....they were simply the people who descended from God's faithful servant Abraham and they form a written record of God's relationship with humans who agreed by their own choice to abide by his laws. Despite their many failures and corrections, God finally delivered on his promise to produce the Messiah.....sadly his own people did not see him that way, so as a final gesture, God made it clear through his son, that these covenant breakers no longer qualified to be his people (Matt 23:37-39)...he would choose a new nation upon which to place his name. (Acts 15:14) Spiritual Israel came into existence and God adopted these as his sons. (Matt 3:9)
^_- Are you able to trace yourself to this family line? You DO realize there were other people on the planet, yes? The majority of the people on the planet have NOTHING to do with Abe's line.
It was only the Messiah who needed to trace his lineage to Abraham...it was part of his credentials. All who accept Jesus as Messiah, no matter what nation they live in, if they live according to God's laws through the teachings of his son, will be in line for salvation. Jesus is the judge of who is a sheep and who is a goat...not us. (Matt 7:21-23)
Don't get me wrong: I think the Way is for everyone too (though I don't think it matters who is the cheerleader for it at the time). But the bible most certainly wasn't written for us, but for the contemporary audiences. I think it was a mistake for the church to finalize a canon, as it "kills" the Word of God. It would be ridiculously huge, of course, but at least by letting the bible live on, you could help modern audiences see that God is speaking to them too.
I disagree. The Bible is not a book just for the ancients. It is a living book of human history and human nature, which never changes. Humans have the same problems and emotions that they have always had, the only thing that changes is the cause. The Bible speaks to a global audience because its words transcend language and culture and aim right at the hearts of individuals.We are all the same under the skin...God's children.
It has relevant counsel on marriage, divorce, child rearing, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, how to deal with hateful speech, a cheating mate, disobedient children...the list is endless. It all still works because it is a message from the one who made us. He speaks to the heart, not the era.
