Some thought’s on Judaism, Christianity and the Kingdom of God as the Holy Spirit leads…
"But if we would turn to the Father’s grace, We would never be the same, This is an unseen land of a devastated soul, That’s prepared in contemplative silence, For the mighty working hand of an unseen Lord, To come restore this land from its violence, I said walk another mile, Stare across the fields of grain, This is how the prophets train, Learn this lesson well my friend, There’s a time to rejoice and lament, Every season will find an end"
I was gathered together with some friends recently and we were talking scripture when a question came up about the Kingdom of God (Heaven)…how would you explain it to someone? Everyone had some idea, but had never thought to articulate it. Now, this was the primary message of Jesus, this is the Messiah’s Gospel. So I went away from the convo figuring I would spend some time…praying about it, studying and in the name of discipleship share some thoughts…God is always faithful!
The day after I had this convo, a friend of mine returned a book I had lent to him and his wife. The book is titled ‘To Heal A Fractured World’ written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. It had been a while since I read the book and when I opened it I found myself face to face with a verse we had discussed the previous night. It comes from the prophet Isaiah:
They will neither harm nor destroy On all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of YHVH As the waters cover the sea. - Isaiah 11v9
Now this conversation, to place things in context, stems from our study of ‘Last Days’ and ‘Eternal Life’ also known as ‘The Age to Come’ (Luke 18v30). So let’s look and see what the Lord delivered to me concerning this…
From ‘To Heal A Fractured World’ pg 77.
‘The prophets and sages, virtually without exception, shared a vision of ‘the end of days’ (the messianic age, the world to come) in which restoration would be far-reaching and macrocosmic. At one level, the political-historical, it would return the Jews to their land and the renewal of the covenant between God and Israel. At a deeper, spiritual-metaphysical level it would mean the end of war and strife and the dawn of a universal sense of the presence of God, as in Isaiah’s great vision: They will neither harm nor destroy On all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of LORD As the waters cover the sea. - Isaiah 11v9 The question is, how do we get from here to there, from historical to messianic time? That was always a difficult question in Judaism.’
R. Sacks goes on to state …
‘On one hand, redemption comes from God; on the other, without human initiative, there is nothing through which God can act.’
Though, in regards to the lack of human initiative, Jesus did say, “Let me tell you,” replied Jesus, “if they stayed silent, the stones would be shouting out!” Implying of course, to get out of the way of those who are willing to engage and celebrate with God for His glory. Those whose human initiative comes from a place of faith.
This brings us to the perceived Jewish / Christian divide, then and now. It can be seen as the result of human error that there ever was a divide, but Paul tells us in Romans that God, in His sovereignty, sent a partial hardening on the hearts of national Israel so that they don’t accept Jesus as Messiah, why? So that salvation, that is, the renewal of the covenant and the inheritance (all things), would extend beyond national Israel to all peoples by faith and so that He can have mercy on National Israel at the appropriate time. That is, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus, Messiah, is Lord to the glory of God the father. In the Sacred Scriptures we are told that ‘Christian’s’ were at first seen as a sect of Judaism. Of course, early Christian’s saw their Messiah, Jesus, and those in him as the answer to the aforementioned question Judaism continues to struggle with to date. So, I insist on seeing Christianity as the answer to which Judaism is the preceding question. In fact, Paul and certainly John via Jesus himself, see’s Christian’s as the true Jews, ref Revelation 2v9, 3v9. This does and should not lead to any form of anti-Semitism, because Paul says he would give up his salvation and be cut off from Messiah for the sake of national Israel if that were possible. That’s what love looks like, not hate. Who would you give up eternal life for?
As I stated, Christianity, also known as ‘The Way’, was seen early on by those who rejected it as one among many sects of Judaism since there were significant divisions between the likes of the Pharisees, the Saducees, the Essenes, different Zealot sects and even other messianic movements...which usually ended up with dead would-be messiahs. None of which resulted in its followers claiming that their Messiah had risen from the dead. It quite simply was not expected, even amongst those who believed in the Resurrection, even those who followed Jesus…it was supposed to all happen at once, not that the Messiah would lead the way as the firstborn from the dead, and that he would ascend to the highest throne (heaven) and would rule from the right hand of God, sharing His throne. (note: ascension is not the same as resurrection) Though it would stand to reason that that is exactly what God would do when He was ready to launch the renewal of His Kingdom on Earth as in Heaven. Besides reason, it is what David prophesied in Psalm 110.
So what is ‘the Kingdom of God (Heaven)’? In its simplest terms, it is the reign of God. His will, done on Earth as in Heaven. This is mediated through Jesus as King and High Priest. Jesus of course expounds on the Kingdom of God (Heaven)…what it looks like, how it arrives, where it is at…all in his parables. And he teaches these truths in parable for a reason. Jesus also shows us when he casts demons out by the finger of God (the Holy Spirit), and he says the Kingdom of God has come upon you. You see, God has taken charge; His rule/authority has manifested itself because it met with faith. You see Love never insists on its own way. But when met with faith amazing things that some see as supernatural start to happen, but in God’s world, the Messianic world, they are perfectly at home and exactly what you ought to expect to see as the Kingdom comes. (Matthew 13v58, 17v20)
According to God’s wisdom, the King of this Kingdom, God’s anointed, in leading the way and himself being the Way, Jesus is the place where Heaven and Earth come together. In pre-Messianic times this was the temple in Jerusalem, but Jesus re-established the people of God around himself as both Messiah and High Priest (according to the order of Melchezidek). This is why there was so much conflict between him and the temple (which was a type of Christ – temporary until the real thing came), which like the fig tree had ceased to produce fruit. Now, Jesus is the place…or rather the person… where Heaven and Earth come together, the ‘place’ where you come to meet with God, to confess your sins and find forgiveness, to find healing and restoration, justice, mercy and faith. He was able to do this because it pleased the Father to have the fullness dwell in him.
So, if we have washed ourselves in the blood of the Lamb, what does this mean to be a living stone in the temple of God, that is, in Messiah until that Day when all things are brought into subjection to Him who will even transform our present body, this shabby old thing, so that it’s just like his glorious body, by the power which makes him able to bring everything into line under his authority, how then ought we to live now?
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven,” he said, “which a woman took and hid inside three measures of flour, until the whole thing was leavened.”
“God’s Kingdom,” replied Jesus, “Isn’t the sort of thing you can watch for and see coming. People won’t say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘Look, over there!’ No: God’s kingdom is within your grasp.”
May we take hold of the Life that is truly Life. AMEN
