Top Ten Things I Wish Every Jew Knew

Going Deeper Still–Explaining why I don’t blame you for the crucifixion of Jesus.

I don’t blame you for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Scripture tells me that vindication and the Kingdom are possible for the righteous. Consider these verses from the JPS Tanakh.

Isaiah 26: 1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; walls and bulwarks doth He appoint for salvation. 2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation that keepeth faithfulness may enter in.

But we’re all sinners.

Lamentations 5: 1 Remember, O HaShem, what is come upon us; behold, and see our reproach. 2 Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, our houses unto aliens. 3 We are become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. 4 We have drunk our water for money; our wood cometh to us for price. 5 To our very necks we are pursued; we labour, and have no rest. 6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to have bread enough; 7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

Isaiah 59:1 Behold, HaShem’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your G-d, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue muttereth wickedness. 4 None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies, they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch basilisks’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. 6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall men cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their paths. 8 The way of peace they know not, and there is no right in their goings; they have made them crooked paths, whosoever goeth therein doth not know peace. 9 Therefore is justice far from us, neither doth righteousness overtake us; we look for light, but behold darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind, yea, as they that have no eyes do we grope; we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; we are in dark places like the dead. 11 We all growl like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for right, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

12 For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are present to us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

13 Transgressing and denying HaShem, and turning away from following our G-d, speaking oppression and perverseness, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth hath stumbled in the broad place, and uprightness cannot enter.

15 And truth is lacking, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And HaShem saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice;

16 And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him;

Somehow God had to deliver us all from sin (i.e. make us righteous) before He could send Messiah to claim the righteous. Apart from deliverance from sin, there would be no deliverance because there would be no one righteous to vindicate.

Isaiah 53:1 ‘Who would have believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of HaShem been revealed? 2 For he shot up right forth as a sapling, and as a root out of a dry ground; he had no form nor comeliness, that we should look upon him, nor beauty that we should delight in him. 3 He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, and as one from whom men hide their face: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of G-d, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed. 6 All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way; and HaShem hath made to light on him the iniquity of us all.

Malachi 3:16 Then they that feared HaShem spoke one with another; and HaShem hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared HaShem, and that thought upon His name.

17 And they shall be Mine, saith HaShem of hosts, in the day that I do make, even Mine own treasure; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18 Then shall ye again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth G-d and him that serveth Him not.

19 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 20 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

21 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. 22 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

23 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 24 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Deliverance is on its way for those who have been made righteous.

Just as the Passover was an act of faith; just as crossing the Red Sea was an act of faith; just as entering the Promised Land was an act of faith–and those who did not believe perished in the LORD’s Passover; perished in the Red Sea; and perished in the wilderness–deliverance is always an act of faith. Because it is our belief–our faith–that is credited to us as righteousness.