FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear friend in the Messiah,
Shalom from New York City!
We are celebrating Israel’s 70th
birthday this month. The State of Israel
was founded on May 14, 1948,
and President Harry Truman recognized
the creation of the modern
State of Israel that very day! I genuinely
believe that one of the reasons
God has blessed the United States is
because of our support for Israel.
This blessing harkens back to
the day God called Abram out of
the land of the Chaldees. The Lord
promised Abram that one day he
would be the father of multitudes
and that the people God would miraculously
create would be granted a
land and a mission to bring blessings
to the nations of the world.
Now the Lord said
to Abram, “Go forth
from your country,
and from your
relatives and from
your father’s house,
to the land which
I will show you;
and I will make
you a great nation,
and I will bless
you, and make your
name great; and so
you shall be a blessing; and
I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you
I will curse. And in you
all the families of the
earth will be blessed.”
(Genesis 12:1-3)
This passage of Scripture is often
entitled the Abrahamic Covenant.
But, it is also a prophecy, as these
verses span the course of human
history! It is as if the story of Scripture
is embedded in this short passage.
The promise presumes that the
world needs blessing and that God
Himself must take the initiative to
bring these blessings about. Nine chapters earlier in the book of
Genesis, Moses records the fall of humanity, almost immediately
after the creation of Adam and Eve. The perfect existence of this
first couple was destroyed when they responded in disobedience
to God after being tempted by the serpent. God promises in
Genesis 3:15 that this serpent would one day be destroyed by
the “son of the woman.”
The Lord also predicted in this passage that there would be
enmity between the seed of the woman—all humanity—and
the serpent. The Hebrew word evah for enmity, which
may also be translated as “hostility,” is used to describe the ongoing
relationship through the ages between humanity and the
“evil one.” The hostility would end when the promised descendant
of the woman would crush the head of the devil, destroying
his power in the one climatic event that took place at the cross.
THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THE PLAN OF GOD
The story of the Jewish people is the story of redemption.
God chose Abram and his descendants to one day produce
this glorious seed of the woman who would die for the sins of
humanity, rise from the dead, and at the same time
destroy the works of the devil. The remainder of
human history is the unfolding of the results of this
one sacrificial act of redeeming love on God’s part.
MAY 2018 / THE CHOSEN PEOPLE - 2
The Jewish people were called by God to play
a critical role in the working out of this unfolding
story of redemption. God chose the Jewish people
to be His bridge of redemption to a dark world broken
by sin and death.
Mark Yarbrough, the Dean of Students at
Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote a chapter for
our new book, Israel, the Church and the Middle
East: A Biblical Response to the Current Conflict.
He writes,
The major character in the grand story of Scripture is a people,
the nation of Israel. The story of scripture is thoroughly
Jewish. To de-emphasize or omit this part of the story is
to misunderstand the covenants and the manner in which
God blesses all people through his Messiah. He does this by
promises to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Just
think about it. How can the grand story of the Bible be
presented without its Jewish context? The entirety of the Old
Testament is centered around this unfolding story.1
Your Mission to the Jewish People has worked together
again with Kregel Publications to produce this new book in
honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary! This new volume of more
than a dozen essays will enrich your faith, teach you more about
God’s plan for Israel in the Bible, and will equip you to better
evaluate current events in the Middle East.
ISRAEL TURNS 70!
The major character
in the grand story
of Scripture is a
people—the nation
of Israel.