Newness: Don't you discern it?

I’m not an expert but I am an observer. I created a video on this opinion piece and felt a written version may server a better purpose. While in a place of quiet, closed doors and uncertainty, that eventually led to clarity and opportunity, the following was brought to my attention and observed. There are 11 points or puzzle pieces that come together that point to two questions. Who is chosen and what does that mean for us politically? 

Growing up, TBN that is Trinity Broadcasting Network is a channel that was periodically on in my home. I would often hear how we need to assist and aid Israel. The infomercials and PSAs would layout the hardship and difficulty the people of Israel were in mainly due to how much war they were suffered from. Then I would hear these next few words that would have me bewildered as a young child not even knowing what bewildered meant or how to identify my confusion. “They are God’s chosen people.” The financial plead to assist a nation in need, not just because they are need but because they are God’s chosen people, would strike my attention. Now, I’ve learned some good things from TBN, like biblical principles, encouraging testimonies and the like, but I didn’t realize it then as a child, but this notion that “they are the chosen ones” didn’t seems to sit well with me. I mean I believe in Jesus too, so what does that make me?  My young brain would ponder. This isn’t even point one. 

As I was reading in the gospels last year mainly Matthew, I noticed a reoccurring theme that takes us through points two through five, something new is happening. But before we approach the New Testament, let’s look at the Old one and as the pastor says, I won’t be before you long.  In Isaiah 43:18 we

read what I see as a command and promise before sending the Israelites to Babylon in exile, ‘Forget the former thing; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”. This is point one. 

Now going back into the New Testament, we see Jesus saying things like hypocrite, blind guides and brood of vipers but who is he talking to? Jesus says these things responding to the leaders of the people. Not just any leaders the religious ones. When questioning Jesus’ actions and his words Jesus responds with these harsh words and rebukes to religious leaders known as Pharisees, see Matthew 12, 16 and 23. But in Matthew 16 in particular, he gives his disciples and the people a warning. He says in verse 5 it reads, “When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. ‘Be careful’ , Jesus said to them. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisee and the Sadducees’. ” The disciples didn’t understand initially but later realized he was not talking about bread but rather about the teachings of the pharisees and sadducees. Point two.

Jesus was later sought after by a group of leaders. Yup those same group of religious leaders who at this point are trying to figure out how he’s been able to draw so many people, keep their attention and speak with the authority that he speaks in. They are jealous and worried about their own self gain, status and popularity and how Jesus’ following may affect all of that. So, those same people Jesus warns against, are the same people trying to kill him. They go out of their way to find reasons to kill Jesus because they don’t SEE the new thing in front of them. Jealously seems to blind them.  In Matthew 12:9 the Pharisees look for a reason to charge Jesus and question him if it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath? They were so consumed with THE LAW not realizing the miracle that is Jesus Christ in front of them. But Jesus responds in verse 11 saying, “ ‘If any of you has a sheep  and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a persona than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Phases went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. “  Even with a whole miracle infant of them, they refused to be believe and rather stay fixated on how to kill Jesus. Point three. 

These Jewish leaders are more focused on laws and traditions rather than the humanity of people and the needs of the people, which Jesus not only speaks to be provides in real time to the people. Now Jesus himself is also a Jew but I find it so interesting and so initial that when the time came for him to reveal who he was, Christ the Messiah, he spoke to a Samaritan women. For brief context, remember Jews have laws and traditions that must upheld and speaking or even associating with Samaritans is not one of them. They were considered unclean. So speak to a Samaritan and a Samaritan women at that is significant. To make this even more interesting she had multiple husbands which could possible suggest that she was a divorcee. I’ll leave that there and selah. What an honor for her. A Samaritan, a women, a divorcee to be the first that Jesus truly reveals himself to. Now why would Jesus do such a thing? To reveal himself to someone who is not deemed as worthy by societies standards at the time? He was doing something different. He was doing something new. 

Jesus speaking to the women says in John 4:23, “ ‘ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipped will worship the father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks.’ “ Point four. 

The Samaritan women in that moment believed and went on to tell the people. But the Pharasee just don’t seem to get it. Jesus tells the Phraisees they are blind, that their hearts are hardened, they don’t even see that Christ the messiah is here. The coming of their messiah that they had learned about and been waited for and memorized scriptures about in the Torah their whole lives, was right in front of him! In John 9 after healing a blind man the Pharasees question him and don’t believe Jesus healed him. He later tells the blind man that he is the Son of Man and the man believed. And Jesus says that he has come to make the blind see and those who see to be blind. But the Pharasees ask if they blind too. But Jesus responds in saying to be blind is to not be guilt of sin and to be see is to have your guilt remain. In other works, if you are healthy and whole without Jesus, or so you think. So, if you are not sick what do you need a coming messiah for? Point five. 

Let’s back up again, to the old testimate. Remember God’s chosen people, the Jews. Well, they get it wrong over and over and over agin all through the old testimate. Much like the Phraisees of the new testimate, getting it wrong. Again, Pharasees are Jews. Specifically leaders and teachers of the scroll, the prophesies the scriptures. But in the old testimate, they get it wrong so bad that they God calls then all kinds of names, like Prostitutes. So we have a record of old and new chosen people not quiet getting it right and being called out of their name by God the father and Jesus the son of God. Check out Jeremiah for context. Point six. 

We’re almost done here and I believe once you put these puzzle pieces together you’ll arrive at the same place I did or possibly with more revelation. So lets journey back in the new testimate.  Let’s look at another Jew, Peter.  A disciple of Jesus who after being set free from jail by Angeles, no big deal, says the following in Acts 12:11, “And when Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angle, and has delivered me for the hand of Herod and from all the expectations of the Jewish people.” These are his words not mine. Point seven. 

Still forcing on Peter, in Acts 10, he has a dream or a vision which God tells him to kill and eat the animals before him. Now this was not the custom of Jews, which Petes is. They is process for eating and really all things to go through a proper cleansing process. But Peter being the jewish man that he is told the God no because its custom for Jews to never do, well just about anything, unclean. But then the Lord says don’t you eva, eva-eva-eva-eva say something for the father is unclean. Are you starting to see the patter of ‘something new’ happening? Going from everything must be cleaned to kill and eat? Peter then gets clarity on his assignment to preach the gospel to  not only Jews but to all people. Point eight.

Now if we look at Romans, it states in chapter 1 that the Jews will be first and then the gentiles. As in, the jews will be saved or chosen first and then the gentiles because God wants to save everyone who trusts in him.  Point nine. 

I’m sure most church goers have heard this before, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. You can read more about this in Matthew 19. Point 10

Hebrews 8, 9 and 10 goes deep about why the old covenant in the old testament was provided and why the new covenant in the new testimate came to be. The verse at the end of chapter 8 brings all these points home, reading in verse 13, “By calling this covenant “ new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.  Last and final point. 

So with these 11 points or puzzle pieces in mind it got me to thinking about how we view Israel today and how our politics play a role in that perception. How world leadership including the U.S. plays a role in how we view who is chosen and who is not. Whose is whose land and whose it’s not. Safeguarding an old way of thinking of things instead of a new way. I can’t help but to see that same parallel in a smaller way. Not just globally but nationally, right here in the United States. “We are the ancestries or Moses, Isaac and Jacob.” Vs. “Our forefathers fought for this land.” There’s a a lot more comparison to layout however, how we see ourselves and others, clean or unclean, chosen not chosen determines who has access to God’s goodness his newness and who’s safeguarding it. 

The view on Israel and who is chosen seems to be at the center of if we receive God’s newness or stay stuck in his old revelations.