To get a Blessing We must Be a Blessing
Do you want to receive the Abrahamic blessing? “I will bless THEM that bless thee and curse HIM that curseth thee” (Genesis12:1-3). More often than not this is misquoted that God will “bless them … or “curse them,” but the text says “curse him.” The curse is to a singular non-Jewish individual who curses Jews. For example, God doesn’t curse an entire nation or church whose leader curses Israel but God blesses THEM a plural group of non-Jews that bless “Thee” the descendants of Abraham. Are you one of “them,” the adopted children of God who through Jesus are now in the Body of Christ, the Church? What other groups of non-Jews are blessing Abraham’s descendants? None. How have we gentiles in the Church been blessed by “thee” – the Jews? You and your family will never be separated for all of eternity because one of “thee” Jews died for your sins. Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Jewish virgin, made under the Law of Moses, gave us that blessing through His Jewish Apostles that brought us the good news. The real question is, how are we, a plural non-Jewish group supposed to bless the descendants of Abraham? One way is to individually express our love and appreciation for the Bible they wrote and preserved. We can express our solidarity with them and our prayers for the nation of Israel. The ultimate way to bless the Jewish people is by introducing them to Jesus the Jewish Messiah through their own scripture that He fulfilled. A Jewish person has no way of knowing about our positive internal thoughts and our private prayers for them and for Israel or about our public church prayers for them and Israel. How would we know that someone is blessing us? We are instructed to love in word and deed. “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (James 2:15,16)
We usually only apply that to a fellow Christian in need, or a person in great financial need or the homeless. We usually don’t think of Jewish people in that category. But they have human spiritual and emotional needs like we all do. How do they know you care? You must intentionally reach out and show them appreciation and love and find a way to be a blessing. Sadly, we want to just do our duty and give them a gospel tract, without any evidence that we care about them. The typical tract with “Church” or a cross on the cover is judged as anti-Jewish literature. Maybe that’s why it is rejected. They assume that we don’t care and just want to make another Christian, which to them means there’ll be one less Jew in the world. No skillful fisherman tries to hit fish on the head with a bare hook and a lead sinker. The affection and the approach are as important as the message.
If people were marching in the streets against Christians like they are against the Jews now, we would appreciate someone at least saying, we are against this hate speech and we on your side and we are praying for you. We have received so much because of them. Paul said, “For as ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy” (Romans 11:30-31). How can our hearts not be moved with compassion considering the fear that the Jewish people are experiencing with the massacre against Israel and the hate filled movement of support toward the Palestinian Hamas terrorists in our colleges and in our cities? Jesus was moved with compassion toward the Jewish multitudes in His day. He blessed them. He loved them. He fed them. He taught the beautiful beatitudes to them and told them all that the Father had prepared for them. He offered them the gift of forgiveness and eternal life.
Ask yourself, do I really believe in the priority of Romans 1:16? “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth, to the Jew and also to the Greek.” The grammar of the Greek text dictates the same tense for the phrase “power of God” as is used for “to the Jew first.” If the Gospel was only meant to be chronologically to the Jew at first, then the grammar dictates that “power of God unto salvation” was only effective at first. The grammar mandates that if the power of the Gospel is still effective today, then the Gospel to the Jew first is still in effect. Tens of thousands of Jewish people got saved as recorded in the Book of Acts without a Gospel of John or Epistle of Romans. Romans was written 25 years after Jesus arose. John was written some 60 years after Jesus arose. What gospel text did the Apostles use? It was the Old Testament plan of salvation that Jesus used, before there was a New Testament. Jesus used it to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:27 “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” As recorded in Acts 2:21 Peter was quoting from the prophet Joel (2:32) when he preached that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Why are most Jewish people resistant to the message of Jesus, making it a challenge to share the Gospel? For 1900 years FALSE CHRISTIANITY blamed Jews as Christ killers and harassed, persecuted, tortured, expelled, and even killed Jewish people. The Spanish inquisition, the Crusades and the Holocaust are only the logical outgrowth of the historically prevalent anti-Semitism within the population of the “Christian” churches of Europe. They are taught that the New Testament is an anti-Semitic book that blames the Jews for killing Jesus. They view Catholicism as the mother of all Christianity and therefore pagan idol worshipers as evidenced by the statues that fill their church buildings. So why wouldn’t they think that you must be one of them? On top of that, Jewish people are taught that Jesus was a traitor who started a pagan religion for Gentiles, in that he claimed to be a son of a god who procreated with a woman. You can see how it sounds like ancient Greek mythology to them. They have never heard the gospel from a loving true believer in Jesus. God has blessed America to assimilate 6 million, comprising 40% of the world Jewish population. With all the bad history of so-called Christianity against the Jews, we need to intentionally develop redemptive relationships based on love and trust. Paul the Apostle spoke of “provoking them to jealousy.” He said, “unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews … that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:20-22). By no means will we save anyone unless we first have Paul’s heart. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Romans 10:1). To receive a tangible Abrahamic blessing, you must be a blessing in a tangible way to them. Jewish awareness of them will create opportunities for Jewish affiliation so that you can express Jewish appreciation and then share the blessings of redemption that you have received from their Jewish Messiah.