Category: Articles and Devotionals

Zechariah 13:1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

In the end, My People will be vindicated by God Himself.  This scene, our final installment in My People/Not My People, is fitting as it remains prophecy until the End times.  God has not forsaken the Jewish people. He’s continually working to purify them prior to the Last Day when the last believing Remnant will have their eyes opened, repent, and be saved.

Zechariah 12:1 A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’

6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. 7 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them. 

9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. 

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.  

To those who want to believe God has abandoned the Jews, you’re simply wrong.  God opens to the “house of David” and to the “inhabitants of Jerusalem” a fountain of salvation in Christ.  In the end, nations (and people) who take a stand against Jerusalem are the ones who will be destroyed.  God said it: “On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.”

Do you believe Him?

God has My People (in every instance we’ve seen, they’re His children of FAITH in Christ). Yes, there are Gentile Christians who have NOT replaced the Jews.  And among the Jewish people there are also those of faith (whether predating Christ, His disciples during His lifetime, and those who repented and believed the good news after His death like the men on the Road to Emmaus).

After the full number of Gentile Christians (the Church which is comprised of both Gentile and “Messianic Jewish” people who have repented and believed) has come in, there will be a different Jewish Remnant awakened from a period of hardening. They too repent and believe. Then the final joining of My People will be accomplished.

Do you want to know who My People are? They are from every nation, tribe and tongue with this one belief that ties them together eternally as My People: They are those who have believed in the promise of Messiah, the One who is identified in Scripture alone as the unique Son of God, Son of Man, the Crucified Redeemer, the Risen Savior, the Forgiver of sins, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and by placing their trust in Him for forgiveness of their sins…they repent and will be saved.

This past week marked 10 years since the attack at the Bataclan Concert Hall in Paris. Many today never heard of it or realized how appalling present chants in that very venue of “Free Palestine” were to those who did remember, or the ones who survived.

It was jihad.  Holy War.  What a misnomer.  Terrorism is anything but holy.

And to be clear, terrorists are Not My People, as we wind down our series of My People/Not My People.

If you want a mental refresher, this individual was still following the developments regarding prosecution and the French government’s role in keeping it out of the headlines; and host and author Jack Posobiec publicly recalled it to international memory. 

A so-called “holy war” is fought by men for the sake of their god. In Islamic jihad, for example, it is a religious duty for a certain faction of Islamists within Islam.  To them, eradication …annihilation … of the Jews is one sign “the Hour” is upon the world: “The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them…” — Sahih Muslim 2922.

Promptly after Bataclan, ISIS released a statement calling the attacks “blessed strikes” on the “crusader nation” of France and viewed it as part of a holy war (jihad) against the West.  In all, 130 innocents were killed, 494+ were injured, many critically, and the genuine barbarism of the killings went widely under-reported. 

There is no moral equivalence of terrorists and victims. 
Not at the Bataclan. 
Not at the World Trade Centers. 
Not on October 7, 2023, at the Nova Music Festival in the southern Negev in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken. 
Innocent civilians all. 

In all three of those cases, innocent third parties
who never knew what was coming were slaughtered.

Jean Bethke Elshtain, a longtime Divinity School professor and theological scholar at the University of Chicago wrote about the Just War.  In the memorial on her life from University of Chicago Magazine, 

As Elshtain wrote in her book (emphasis added),
“although just-war tradition never regards armed conflict as ‘desirable, or as any kind of social ‘good,’ it nevertheless ‘acknowledges that it may be better than the alternative.”’

‘Just War Against Terror‘ enumerated the complex criteria to determine whether force is justified and to keep its use within necessary limits: a war must prevent harm to innocents and be openly declared by a legitimate authority. It must be a response to unjust aggression against one’s own people or an innocent third party. It must be the last resort after all other options are exhausted. It must be embarked upon only with a reasonable chance of success and conducted in a fashion that protects noncombatants.

It’s time that we stop pretending that there is moral equivalence
between terrorists and their victims.  Can we all at least agree on that?

Questions for further thought:

Islamic adherents present a polarity: from “mostly peaceful” to engaging in extremist terrorism—all using the Quran to justify their actions…including those whose mission is to annihilate Jews.  

How often does the Muslim “peaceful majority” condemn the extremist elements from among their number committing atrocities like October 7th or the Bataclan concert hall attack?  Why is there not widespread, uniform international outcry from “peaceful majority” Muslims?  Are they afraid of their fringe, fearing wider reprisal, are they in secret handshake agreement, etc.?

Violent jihad with rewards for martyrdom undergird Islam’s “holy war.”  As Islamism grows in formerly Christian nations like the UK and France, what is happening regarding violence? 

Islam is not the only religion to have engaged in a “holy war”—history shows that. 

To our shame, a holy war initiated by Pope Urban II and elite military-affiliated Catholics (known as the Crusades–10th to 13th centuries), was similarly condemned–at the time–as unchristian only by a handful within Christianity. Why do people not speak up about atrocities? Did they not know, did they fall prey to propaganda at the time, did they turn a blind eye to the unthinkable, etc.?

Eventually, Catholicism’s conquest was abandoned entirely in favor of evangelistic missions.  What is the end goal of missions versus a “holy war”?   What means are used to justify each’s ends?

Which religion(s) still use the concept of “holy war” to justify adherents’ actions?

According to the Just War theory outlined above, could Israel’s actions post-October 7th be considered Just?

Last time in our study of My People/Not My People, we asked, “What is the difference between the wars to claim the promise of God through conquest, little by little, as opposed to ethnic cleansing or genocide?”  Is there such a thing as a Just War?  For that matter, “Why does God use war?”

Let’s take these one at a time.  In a 2013 post called Just War, I wrote,

“Tough questions abound.  How does not intervening differ from letting evil go unchecked?  Does entrusting oneself to God mean pacifism is the only way?  Is war ever right?  Is there such a thing as a Just War?

• Just War.  For some there is no such thing.  It’s an oxymoron.
• Just War.  For some hawkish types, it’s the answer to every problem.  What’s our solution?  Just War.
• Just War.  But for those who look at the world with Kingdom vision, it’s not an individual or even a national interest that compels the Just War.  The Just War is a moral instrument of God to preserve life and good and truth over against death and evil and falsehood.”

So, why does God use war?  As a moral instrument.  When God made the covenant (regarding all the promises, not just the Land), Scripture says,

13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:13-16)

The Amorites.  Who are they and where were they located?  The Amorites were one of the major Canaanite ethnic groups, according to the Table of Nations (Genesis 10:6-19), descended from Canaan son of Ham and known for their goliath power and size. As such, they controlled important hill-country territories of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan.  They also were big-time sinners and idolaters, enough that God would single them out.  Notice the “full measure” God spoke about wasn’t the number of Amorites, but the sin of the Amorites.

Questions for further thought:

How does God’s use of war as a moral instrument require men to have a deep, prior understanding of God and His definition of morality?

How does God’s “Just War” require that war be done God’s way?  Why did God require circumcision of the Israelites before going to conquer Canaan (See Joshua 5)?

How did the siege of Jericho display conquest as God’s moral instrument, done God’s way (Joshua 6:1-16)?

Is it actually genocide when God spared an Amorite Remnant by faith (see Rahab, Joshua 6:17 and Matthew 1:5)?  How did that make the siege of Jericho a moral victory in a Just War?

Integral to any discussion of the modern state of Israel as My People/Not My People, we must ask, “How do nation-states form?”  There are several ways:

Theologically, the Land of importance to the modern nation-state of Israel is grounded in a forever promise given by God to Abraham many thousands of years ago.  It remains as the only example of Promised Land of God… ever known to be given as an inheritance …or recorded to exist.  The only one.  If you believe in the God of the Bible, this promise endures. There is no expiration date on an eternal God’s forever promises.

No one authoritatively promised (or could!) the US, Germany, Russia, or Venezuela, etc. their lands.  But, when God gave the Land as a promise to Israel, He was specific.  The boundaries were identified, and it was promised as an inheritance forever. (see Genesis 13:15; 15).  The Ottoman conquests from the 1500s did not invalidate that land grant because it was God’s land to give and to promise.

Historically, some other nations like the US, Germany, etc. got (or lost) their lands because wars were fought, and the winner takes all or makes treaties.  Those boundaries are subject to ongoing wars, agreements, invasions, and national defense. National boundaries are subject to these things because wars of man and manmade boundaries are limited by human nature.

The Promised Land was promised by God, dependent upon His eternal nature and His forever promise and yet, wars had to be fought. In our study of My People/Not My People as history proclaims them, this is where we are. 

Moses has died and Joshua (one of two faithful spies) takes over leadership.  Joshua 1:10 “So Joshua ordered the officers of the people:  11 ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.'”

There’s going to be war…conquest…to secure the Promised Land from Canaanite inhabitance and transfer possession to the tribes of Israel by God’s mandate of war.  Importantly, God was not going to drive out the Canaanites in one quick act.  Exodus 23:29  

There were two and a half tribes which weren’t inheriting west of the Jordan.  Those east of the Jordan were still bound under the command of Moses.

Joshua 1:12 “But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, 13 ‘Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you after he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ 14 Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, ready for battle, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites. You are to help them 15 until the LORD gives them rest, as He has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.’”

 16 Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as He was with Moses.”

Questions for further thought:

Do you think the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, might have wanted to avoid helping since they were already living in their own land east of the Jordan?

What is it about God’s mandate made them obey the command of Moses which originated with God?  What does their obedience say about their being My People?

Today the land east of the Jordan River that had belonged to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh is under the sovereign ownership of Jordan and Syria.

In fact, the full land outlined in Genesis 15:18-21 includes areas currently part of Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq.  In Joshua chapters 15-19, there are allotments by tribe, the My People of Scripture.  They largely correspond to the area of the modern nation-state of Israel.

What is the difference between the wars to claim the promise of God through My People’s conquest of land inhabited by Canaanites (Not My People), little by little, as opposed to ethnic cleansing or genocide? We will address this subject more in the next installment.

After the Passover, God gave the faithful Israelites safe passage out of Egypt …  through the Red Sea.  You’d think this “miracle beyond all miracles” they’d ever witnessed would have stuck with the travelers, but humanity is an ungrateful lot with short memories.

Israel is no exception.
It’s why they were commanded to observe the Passover every year.

The pack of grumbling ingrates complained non-stop and even wished to go back under slavery.  So, God used 40 years to sift them in the wilderness.

Numbers 14: 26 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall– every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

 34 For forty years– one year for each of the forty days you explored the land– you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’

Questions for further thought:

These were all Israelites. Every last one of them. All of them survived the Passover of the destroying angel. All walked safely on dry land through the Red Sea and arrived on the far shore, then witnessing (with their own eyes!) the complete annihilation of the Egyptian oppressors who pursued them. These Israelites had it all! They’d seen it all! How on earth did they forget within the first 2 years, enough that God would sift them?

The forgetters’ children plus Joshua’s and Caleb’s families would be the only My People from among all those hundreds of thousands from the Exodus from Egypt.  All the other Israelites, the grumbling grown-ups, were Not My People. 

Does that seem like Chosen People to you when the faithless so outnumbered the faithful? After all that grumbling, did God still consider the Remnant entering the Promised Land to be His Chosen People?

Does that numerical proportion negate the existence of My People or the Chosen People? What does Jesus say about that principle? (Matthew 7:13-14) 

Are you beginning to see the pattern that it’s obedience to God which forms the distinction between My People and Not My People?  That it’s not a simple matter of heritage or majority rule? And that numerically speaking, Not My People will always far outnumber My People?

What is the distinction between obedient Chosen People and obedient My People from other nations? What did Jesus mean when He said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16, emphasis added)?

There are a few instances in the Bible where God makes a powerful statement about My People as distinct from Not My People by personally permitting “the destroyer” (an angel whose job is killing) to do his thing.  The Passover is one.

Exodus 12: 21 “Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.  22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.  23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.’”

The Lord and His destroyer went through Egypt at midnight.  Only My People (who obeyed the Word of the Lord and stayed inside) were spared.  They were not spared by half measures, location changes, or philanthropic good works, but only by trusting and obeying the full Word of God.

Questions for further thought:

There’s a pattern.  Read Ezekiel 9.  Who were those whom the six destroyers/executioners permitted to strike? Who were those sealed to be spared? Who did the sealing?

Ezekiel 9:1 Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, “Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his shattering weapon in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen with a writing case at his loins. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case.  4 And the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

5 But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity, and do not spare. 6 “Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple.

7 And He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” Thus they went out and struck down the people in the city.

8 Then it came about as they were striking and I alone was left, that I fell on my face and cried out saying, “Alas, Lord God! Art Thou destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Thy wrath on Jerusalem?”

9 Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’ 10 “But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor shall I spare, but I shall bring their conduct upon their heads.”

11 Then behold, the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case reported, saying, “I have done just as Thou hast commanded me.” (Ezekiel 9:1-11)

We will revisit this passage again in our study. For now, look: Jerusalem. The house of Israel and Judah.  Are these not all Jews? 

Who is the man clothed in linen with the writing case?

In the Passover, if God’s instructions were not followed completely regarding the blood or staying inside, what was the destroyer permitted to do?  Would their heritage have mattered?

Within a family line, there are My People and Not My People.  This understanding will help us as we answer the issue of who are the “real Jews” especially as it relates to the nation-state of Israel and the Israel of the Bible. There is much debate in Christian circles about how to reconcile this.  This series is working toward illuminating that question.

For now, and for continuity’s sake, God also distinguishes between My People and people of other nations who are Not My People.  This is helpful for addressing why God has been the historical deliverer of His Chosen People over and again in history.

Perhaps you remember the story of the plagues in Egypt (that land we saw last time where the Israelites would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years).  When it was time to go, it was time to go.  To get Pharaoh to release them, God sent ten plagues, with the fourth one being the start of God declaring that He’s making a distinction between My People and Not My People.

The fourth plague: “If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them. But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.” (Exodus 8:21-23)

And it was so.
By the seventh plague, it becomes clear:
it’s about who believes God (My People) and who doesn’t (“your people”).

Some of the Egyptians are getting the hint after 6th time’s a charm.  
“‘Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’ Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside. But those who ignored the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the field” (Exodus 9:19-21).

The officials of Pharaoh who heeded God’s order might be called “God-fearers” and the others learned a valuable lesson.

Questions for further thought:

Why was it important to distinguish My People before the Plague of the Firstborn (the tenth plague)?  To whom did it reinforce God’s commands?

Was four hundred years long enough for My People living amongst other religions to forget God’s promises?  Why didn’t they?  How were the plagues of distinction a good reminder?

What is God’s ultimate interest in preserving the Jewish people as it relates to Jesus?

Last time, we looked at Genesis 22 where God ended up preserving the line of Isaac by supplying a ram for the sacrifice instead of Abraham’s beloved son.  As we keep investigating My People/Not My People as portrayed in the Bible, we’d think all should be going well! Passed that test! Promised Land, here we come for My People! 

Wait.  Let’s go back to Genesis 15 and take another look at what happens before the Promised Land.  There’s a significant detour, planned by God.

“The LORD said to [Abraham], “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions… In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:13-14,16).

That “country not their own” would be the nation of Egypt.  Why would God plan such a delay, such a detour?

Four hundred years is a long time to wait, an even longer time to be enslaved and mistreated, and that means that Abraham’s immediate descendants, even among the Chosen People, would never in their lifetimes see the land that their future generations would inherit someday. Only enslavement and misery. Does that look like Chosen to you?

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

Questions for further thought:

The fourth generation would mean that only those alive (who had been enslaved for 400 years) would begin to know the journey back.  It would happen after the time of Joseph (Jacob/Israel’s son and Abraham’s great-grandson) whose bones were brought back by Moses.  Do you think their national identity as descendants of Abraham and their faith in God were integral to their successfully remembering after 400 years of suffering?

For context, America is about to celebrate 250 years. What risk does America run in forgetting our founding principles and documents, including the part of our rights coming from God? Did our God-given rights play any part in ending America’s slavery issue? How does growing biblical illiteracy (unknown to our founders) jeopardize America’s future? About the Judeo-Christian religious underpinnings, Josh Hammer writes,

Why does it take faith in and believing God (credited as righteousness) to accept that the promise given you would begin to find fruition well after you died? That you’d never live to see it?

How do you think Abraham might have felt about knowing that his descendants, the My People of the Covenant, would be slaves?  Would it be reassuring enough to know that after that, God promised to bring them out to the Promised Land?

Jesus told the men on the Road to Emmaus, “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:26-27). How does the pattern of suffering before glory show itself in the Covenant to Abraham? How might it express itself in the Chosen People today?