How Does God Feel About Israel? | God’s Plan for Israel Now

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: What is the call upon Israel? And what place are they playing in redemptive history today for you and I? And what role will they play in the future? It’s important for us to understand. One of the problems we face as a church today is we have spiritualized God’s call upon Israel. Many in the church think that Israel is no longer relevant. They’ve spiritualized the Bible as it relates to Israel. Consider for example the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6, where the Lord says here to Israel, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." I want to take a step back. Let’s let the language sink in here for a second. First of all, the Lord said to Israel, "You are a holy people to the Lord your God." And the Lord continued there to say that God’s call upon Israel and their destiny was unique out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. Many of us know the word "holy" comes from the root Hebrew word Kadosh, and Kadosh means to be separate, to be unique, to be set apart, to be different—something that’s cut out or carved out. So something that is holy is different than everything else. So the Lord is saying about Israel, "You are a unique people to me, unlike any other people." And if we look back, we can see that Israel has played an incredibly unique, set-apart role. The revelation of monotheism to the world, that there’s only one God, it spread to the planet from Israel. The Ten Commandments, the bedrock of Western civilization, has come into the planet through Israel. The prophetic writings came into the planet through Israel. And the Messiah Himself, Jesus, came into the world through Israel as a Jew. And Jesus still sits in heaven according to the book of Revelation as the Lion from the tribe of Judah, and He’s coming back according to His own words as the offspring of David. So Israel is very unique. And when I say that the church has spiritualized Israel, what I mean by that is that many in the church today are unmoved by the scriptures that pertain to Israel’s destiny. They don’t understand Israel’s relevance. They understand the Bible talks a lot about Israel, but they relegate that to the past. They think that we’re the church now, and because Jews don’t believe in Jesus in the majority sense of the word, they don’t enjoy the same relationship that I do with God, and I have a destiny that they don’t have. But to think like this, beloved, is missing a huge part of the equation because Israel still has a very unique role and destiny to play in the Lord’s plan of redemption. Now, let me start by saying this: there’s always been a remnant of Jewish people that have come to faith. But we saw a mass number of Jewish people come to faith in the late '60s and the early '70s to the mid-'70s in what is oftentimes called the Jesus Revolution. During this time of the late '60s into the '70s, there were many Jewish people that came to faith. And as a result of that, a unique entity was created. It was called the Messianic synagogue or the Messianic movement. What happened was previous to this movement, Jewish people would come to faith here and there, just like the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was looking around and he wasn’t seeing many Jewish people coming to faith during his lifetime. And the Lord said to Paul, "Listen Paul, I’ve got a remnant of Jewish people on the planet that do believe in me." The Lord said to Paul, "It’s just like it was, Paul, in the days of Elijah." God said to Paul, "Paul, remember Elijah? He thought he was the only one in the planet that was faithful to me." But God said back to Elijah, when Elijah said to the Lord, "Lord look, they’ve torn down your altars, they have killed your prophets, and I alone am left," God said back to Elijah, "No, Elijah, I’ve got 7,000 that I’ve reserved for myself that have not bowed to the knee of Baal." Paul said so too at the present time, there’s a remnant of Jewish people that have been chosen and saved in the grace of God. So there’s always been a remnant. From the time of Jesus up until today, there’s always been a remnant. But what happened in the late '60s and '70s was suddenly there was almost an explosion of Jewish people that came to faith. Still a huge minority, but compared to what it was, it was a massive number of Jewish people that had come to faith in a small amount of time during this Jesus Revolution period. As a result of all these Jewish people coming to faith in Yeshua, the Messianic synagogue or the Messianic movement came into being. And the problem that the Messianic synagogue and Messianic movement were endeavoring to solve was this: Jewish people now coming to faith in masses, compared to earlier times, they wanted to still live like Jews. They didn’t want to give up their culture. They didn’t want to stop celebrating Passover. They didn’t want to stop going to synagogue on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. They wanted to remain true to their identity as Jews. And so as a result, the Messianic movement and synagogue was formed where the Messianic movement created this entity called a Messianic synagogue, which allowed Jewish people to come and worship Yeshua in a way that was culturally sensitive. They could believe in Jesus and still live like Jews. They could believe in Jesus and still celebrate Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah at their synagogue. They could still have Passover in their homes and have all the other Jewish believers that were part of their fellowship to come and be involved in each other’s homes for the Passover celebration. And so it was an incredible move of the Lord. And we believe that there’s going to be another mass wave of enlightenment amongst the Jewish people where tens of thousands, more even than that, of Jewish people are going to come to faith around the same time in Yeshua, and that is going to usher in the Lord’s return. If I can take a step back for a second, it’s just important to point this out. What happened in the lives of many Jewish believers before the '60s and '70s, before the Messianic movement was created, was a Jewish person here and there would come to faith in Jesus, and then they would be told, "Well, you need to go to church." And then the Jewish person would go to church, and unfortunately, too often what would happen is they would go to a church and the church would tell them, "Listen, now that you’re a believer in Jesus, you need to stop living like a Jew." If they were keeping kosher, they were told they should stop eating kosher. You don’t have to celebrate Passover anymore, you should celebrate Easter. And they tried to basically strip them of their Jewish identity. That was such an error in the mind of the church to think that Jews should no longer live like Jews. Paul said that each man should remain in the state that he was called. If you’re called as a Jew, still walk like a Jew. Not as one that’s under the law, one that has liberty in the spirit, but you don’t stop being Jewish. So I’m simply saying that this is a huge mystery. It’s the mystery of the church and Israel. We’re going to dwell deeper into this mystery in this series because I want you to understand that Israel is not just important to us because of what God did through Israel in the past. There is still a modern prophetic call upon Israel. And what happens to Israel will directly affect you. Because when Israel comes to faith in mass, Paul tells us that’s going to result in life from the dead for the entire church. Let’s move now into the book of Romans as we get a greater understanding of this by looking at the heart of the Apostle Paul. I’m looking in the book of Romans now, I’m going to chapter 9, I’m going to be reading there verses number 1 through 4. Paul says this: "I’m telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit." I want you to see here that Paul’s about to share his burden. He’s about to share his heart. Notice that he says that his conscience is testifying with him, get this now, in the Holy Spirit. That tells me that the burden of Paul here is also the burden of the Holy Spirit. This is not just Paul’s unique burden as an individual; Paul is sharing with us the burden of the Holy Spirit as well. "I’m telling the truth in Christ, I’m not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Ruach, the breath of God, the Ruach HaKodesh, in the Holy Spirit." And here he continues verse 2: "That I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites." Paul is just breaking in his heart because the majority of his people are not believing. He continues on, "To whom belongs the adoptions as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple, and the promises." So Romans 9 begins and continues with the unveiling of Paul’s desire to see Israel saved. Now there’s probably not anybody that’s listening to me right now that considers themselves a believer in Yeshua, probably not one of you would say, "I don’t want to be like Paul." We all want to be like Paul. He wrote most of the New Testament. He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." So we all want to be like Paul. We should consider, if we want to be like Paul, we should want to have Paul’s heart for Israel. And I right now speak over you a spirit of revelation and release an impartation of God’s love for Israel into your soul and into your mind. Father, we ask you to give us your heart’s desire and passion for your first covenant people, and that you’ll give us revelation to understand their role in your plan. Let’s continue on, Romans chapter 10. All of Romans 9 is really about God’s plan for Israel, the whole chapter. Now we go to chapter 10, the first couple of verses. Paul speaking: "Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation." So get this now: Paul is not like many in the church today that could care less about Israel’s salvation. Many in the church today are not concerned about Israel. In fact, many in the church today don’t even want to hear about Israel’s unique role in the plan of God. They don’t want to understand that Israel has a forefront place to play in the future because many in the church feel like we’re the important ones, we’re the special ones. Many leaders feel like Israel lost their place, so they don’t want to see Israel take their place. They don’t want to see Israel as the head of the nations anymore because they feel like that’s going to take away from their place. What I’m describing for you is a very real dilemma. Many leaders in the church push Israel off to the side. They don’t want to hear that Israel has an important role in God’s heart right now because they think that if Israel has an important role, that somehow that takes away from their role as the leaders. But we need to understand Israel does have a forerunner role. They are still unique in the earth. They will be in the Millennial period, they will be in the new Kingdom. But Israel’s unique role as a head of the nations does not take anything away from anybody because in heaven, everyone’s going to feel like they’re God’s favorite. And any role that Israel plays will be played as a servant, a servant to the nations. So there’ll be no glorying in ourselves, neither individually or nationally because everyone’s going to be a servant. Each one of you will all feel like we’re God’s favorite, we’re all going to feel perfectly loved and affirmed. No one’s going to resent anybody. No one’s going to be jealous of the neighbor. And so we should not be threatened by Israel’s role as the chief of the nations in the age to come. We know that God is going to reign from Israel. We’re going to go to the city whose gates are inscribed with the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Jewish apostles, and Jesus is going to reign from that place as the Lion from the tribe of Judah and the offspring of David. It’s going to be a very Jewish place. Paul once again says, "My heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation." Then he says this: "For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge." What is Paul doing? He’s affirming the passion and the zeal that the Jewish people of his time had for God. They were sincere, they were serious. But he said it wasn’t in accordance with knowledge. I know that when I go to Israel and I go to the Western Wall and there’s a little room off the Western Wall where Jewish men go to pray, there’s a reverence in that place. And you could see that they carry the fear of the Lord. Because the anointing that came upon Israel at Mount Sinai—when God appeared in glory and fire and smoke, when the mountain quaked and the Jewish people were terrified and they asked Moses to talk to God himself because they were so afraid to hear God’s voice—that fear of the Lord, beloved one, that came upon Israel 3,500 years ago, it’s still upon the Jewish people today. It’s real. But Paul said despite their zeal, they miss something. They miss the fact that God has come to dwell inside us. And this can only happen when we receive Him through the person of Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach. There’s an anointing on Israel, but it’s the difference between what Jesus said when Jesus said, "I am with you, my spirit is with you," He said, "but will be in you." The anointing is on the Jewish people, but when we receive Messiah, the anointing comes from the outside to the inside. So Paul says, "I bear them witness, they’ve got a zeal." There’s something there, it’s a holy passion. But if we miss Yeshua, beloved, we miss the fulfillment of what all the scriptures point to. So Paul’s heart is breaking because he sees the sincerity of his people. He sees their zeal, he sees their intention. But unfortunately, without Yeshua, it’s unable to bring us into the type of relationship with God that is craved deep inside the human heart. Despite Israel’s national rejection of Messiah, what does God say about them? Paul continues in Romans 11. Hear what he says in Romans 11:1: "God has not rejected His people." God has not rejected His people, beloved. God’s call upon Israel is irrevocable. If God’s role upon Israel is irrevocable, what does that mean? What is the call upon Israel? And what place are they playing in redemptive history today for you and I? And what role will they play in the future? It’s important for us to understand because we want to get into agreement with the Holy Spirit. Paul had a burden for Israel that was in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And I pray beloved one for you and I that God will give us that same burden for Israel’s salvation. Because the scripture tells us when Israel comes to faith, when there's a massive Jewish people that come to faith in Yeshua, it’s going to be like life from the dead for the entire church. You know what that means? We’re going to be blessed. There’s going to be revival on the planet. The glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea at Yeshua’s return. And Yeshua will return when there’s a critical mass of Jewish people that are calling out Baruch haba b'shem Adonai, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."
Dustin Roberts: You’re listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus and Rabbi Schneider will be right back, but first, I’d love for you to stay connected with us by signing up for Rabbi’s Seeds of Revelation newsletter. Each week, you’ll receive a powerful devotional direct from Rabbi, along with other ministry updates including when Rabbi will be live. It’s a simple way to stay uplifted and informed. Go to DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com and click Stay Connected today. Deception is rising and many messages today are not the full gospel, but Rabbi’s teachings come directly from scripture declaring truth with boldness. He’s uncompromising, and if this ministry has blessed you, would you consider becoming a monthly partner today? To continue reaching the world with God’s word, we need committed supporters just like you. So to become a monthly partner call us at 800-777-7835. And now, back to Rabbi Schneider.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: There’s no breakthrough into life without a breakthrough in our relationship with the Lord. Listen what Father said to us in the book of Malachi chapter 3, verse number 7: "Return to me and I will return to you," says the Lord. And then they hear, "Well, how are we going to return?" And then the Lord said in the next verse, "In tithes and offerings." You see, when we surrender our hearts to Father, we open up in a way that His power and light and life can be poured into us. But if we don’t trust Him and honor Him, then we close ourselves off from receiving the power that leads to breakthrough. This is one of the reasons honoring the Lord with our tithes and offerings is so important. Beloved, let’s not short-circuit our relationship with Hashem by refusing to trust Him and honor Him with our tithes and offerings. It’s important. Let’s be obedient, we’ll be blessed for it.
Dustin Roberts: If the Lord is calling you to give Discovering The Jewish Jesus a gift of any amount today, would you please visit us online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com or give us a call? Our number is 800-777-7835. You can also text your donation to the phone number 88777. Just text the keyword GIVE. All you have to do is type in the message box G-I-V-E to the phone number 88777. Your gift helps to bring salvation and deliverance to the whole world and also to Israel where right now, we’re using digital ad campaigns to reach people with the truth that Jesus is the promised Messiah. We’re actually seeing a 200% increase in results in just the last month. People are downloading a PDF, learning about Messianic prophecy and how it points to Jesus right there on their own phone in the land of Israel. It’s personable, it’s accessible, and God is using this doorway to reach and touch people’s hearts with the message of Jesus. And if you would like to join with us in encouraging Jewish men and women to take that step of faith and receive salvation, give online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com, call our phone number to give at 800-777-7835. We appreciate you, thank you, and now here’s Rabbi with the Aaronic blessing.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over His people. And the Lord said, "When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them." Receive the impartations of the Lord’s blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. (Speaks in Hebrew). God bless you and Shalom.
Dustin Roberts: I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. Join us again when Rabbi Schneider explains what the power of Israel’s salvation means for us. That’s Friday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.