FOREWORD<\/p>\n
Many are the books and booklets telling us why and how we ought to share the life-giving message of the Gospel with our Jewish friends. Once in a while a book comes from the presses by a person who really has something meaningful to say. This latest work is by my friend Barry Rubin, who, from his training as well as experience, has provided us with an excellent book.
\nBelievers everywhere have an intellectual comprehension that the message of the New Covenant must be shared with people of all nations, including our Jewish friends. While there are excellent books on how to share God\u2019s message with people in general, God\u2019s people need to know how best to share the Gospel message of Yeshua with their Jewish friends.
\nBarry Rubin begins first to encourage Gentile believers to talk effectively about their faith with Jewish people. It was a Gentile believer who shared with Barry so that he became a believer. He tries to encourage the people in the churches to actually put into practice being a good witness to a Jewish neighbor.
\nBarry has had excellent training in communications. He can apply those principles in such a way that the average non-Jewish believer can learn and then set out to do the job God has them to do.
\nThe reader will find material on learning about the background and beliefs that might be barriers to a witness. Barry also shows us how we can overcome these barriers to have the best possible opportunity to communicate with our friends.
\nOf the greatest interest is Barry\u2019s analysis of how the master soul-winner, Yeshua, touched the hearts of people. His analysis of how Yeshua related to the Samaritan woman (John 4) is excellent and should give the average believer some expertise in how to relate to the needs of Jewish friends, and people in general.
\nThe value of the book is enhanced by the use of numerous models that very quickly enable the believer to grasp the material and sharpen his understanding of how best to share.
\nUpon reading the book, I had a special blessing. You will be encouraged as you let Barry Rubin speak to your heart and allow him to guide you to be a more effective communicator as you share the Gospel with Jewish people<\/p>\n
Louis Goldberg, Th.D. \u05d5\u05dc\u059e
\nProfessor Emeritus of Theology and Jewish Studies
\nMoody Bible Institute
\nChicago, Illinois<\/p>\n
PREFACE
\nTO THE REVISED EDITION<\/p>\n
It finally happened! Dunkin\u2019 Donuts is selling bagels. Being a bagel maven (connoisseur), I\u2019ve been carefully watching how popular bagels have been getting since the first edition of this book in 1989. If you can\u2019t find a bagel shop in your community, you\u2019re sure to find Lender\u2019s bagels in the frozen food section of your food store. The fact is, bagels are everywhere. In fact, I just learned that bagel shops are the fourth most popular new business in the country, behind computer-type businesses and tattoo parlors.
\nI\u2019ve been doing some unofficial surveying and have come up with a conclusion: although bagels began as a Jewish food, little by little people stopped associating them with Jews. They\u2019ve become goyische (Gentile).
\nWhen I was young, besides plain bagels, maybe we\u2019d have onion bagels, garlic bagels, sesame seed bagels, and poppy seed bagels. Not a whole lot more. But now, Oy vey!
\nBlueberry bagels, banana bagels, strawberry bagels, and even\u2014hold on to your hat\u2014chocolate chip bagels. What was once oh-so-Jewish, is now oh-so-Gentile. Bagels have been assimilated. This is not so different from what happened to the Gospel.
\nWhat began as a thoroughly Jewish movement within Judaism is now so far from its Jewish roots that the Messiah is looked upon as the Gentile god. Jews can\u2019t follow a Gentile god. The Torah records what happened to our ancestors when they played around with paganism. Oy!
\nBut Yeshua\u2014Jesus\u2014is not a Gentile god. He is the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world, who came first to his own people. In fact, his primary service was to bring the chosen people closer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was the ultimate prophet.
\nThe fact that so many Gentiles joined in is great! God told the Jews to be a light to the Gentiles. But what\u2019s happened over the past 2,000 years is that the Good News message, once so Jewish, has come to look non-Jewish.
\nIt\u2019s like bagels. The Jews brought bagels to the Gentiles, but now the Gentiles have taken over and nearly forgotten the source of this delicious, low-fat roll. That\u2019s not so bad with bagels, but it\u2019s disastrous when sharing the bread of life with Jewish people. The Church needs to put the Messiah back in his Jewish context.
\nYour reading of this book will help you get a better perspective on how to reach out to Jewish people with the Good News that Messiah has come to atone for sin. I hope you\u2019ll remember that the Good News message was brought to the world by Jews, spread by Jews, and has a Jew at its core.
\nDon\u2019t let happen to this message what has happened to bagels. Yes, the new bagel is tasty (although I myself have never eaten and probably will never eat a fruit bagel; remember I\u2019m a maven), but it\u2019s not Jewish. Christianity is tasty, but it\u2019s lost its Jewish flavor. Restoring it will help Jewish people be more comfortable biting into Yeshua, the bagel of life, and will help Gentiles receive a great blessing. That\u2019s what this book is all about.
\nSo \u2026 enjoy!<\/p>\n
PREFACE
\nTO THE FIRST EDITION<\/p>\n
A Message for Believers<\/p>\n
You are about to read this book because you care about Jewish people. You have experienced new life in Messiah and you want to share this Good News with a Jewish person you know. Perhaps you have a friend, co-worker, or even a relative who is Jewish. You want to tell him or her the Gospel message\u2014the best news you\u2019ve ever heard, the news that God has provided atonement for sin. Perhaps you have known this person for years but have not been able to discuss the Messiah. This book was written to help you share the love of Yeshua with his own Jewish people.
\nI will be discussing the principles I have taught as both a college teacher of communications and the director of several missionary training programs. My testimony is woven throughout the book to illustrate many of the principles you will learn.
\nKeep in mind, however, that your responsibility is only to present the message of the Messiah as clearly as you possibly can, prayerfully and lovingly. It is not your responsibility to cause your Jewish friend to believe. That work is in the hands of God.
\nAs you read through this book, you will see references to your \u201cJewish neighbor.\u201d This word neighbor is used in the same sense that Yeshua used it in the story of the Good Samaritan. It might mean the friend next door, a distant relative, someone you work with, or anyone you encounter with a need for the Messiah. I picture you sitting down with some bagels, a cup of coffee or tea, and the Bible. What I hear is a neighborly chat about the Gospel.
\nFrom time to time I will use what is called Messianic terminology\u2014\u201cChristian\u201d concepts expressed in a Jewish way. After discussing the benefit of this terminology in your witness in Section II, chapter 7, I use it exclusively throughout the rest of the book. This is to encourage you to become familiar with it, and to incorporate these Messianic terms into your own speech. It will make your message more effective.<\/p>\n
A Message for Jewish People<\/p>\n
You may be wondering why a Jewish person like me would be interested in teaching non-Jewish people how to persuade you to believe in Messiah. At best, you may think that this is a waste of time. At worst, you may consider me a traitor to our people. I have one thing to say to you\u2014truth is truth.
\nIf Jesus\u2014Yeshua, in Hebrew\u2014is the promised Messiah, then it would make sense that Jews should believe in what he says. If he is not, then not only am I wasting time, but it would follow that all Christians are practicing a false religion and should look elsewhere for truth. Yeshua claimed to be our long-awaited Messiah. Either he is or he isn\u2019t.
\nIn this book, although it is written to help non-Jewish followers of his communicate his message more effectively to you, you may discover that Yeshua really is who he said he is\u2014the Messiah. Why not prayerfully ask God to show you the truth?
\nOnce, an agnostic friend and I were having a discussion. It took a while, but he finally admitted that God\u2019s existence had nothing whatsoever to do with his faith or lack of it. Either God exists or he doesn\u2019t. My friend\u2019s belief or disbelief had no effect upon the reality of God. Logic tells us that God exists (or doesn\u2019t exist) regardless of what we believe.
\nSo it is with the question of Yeshua. Either he is the promised one, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world, or he is not. Our belief does not make him the Messiah (Christ, in Greek); our unbelief does not make him fiction. Truth is truth.
\nI believe that Yeshua is exactly who he said he is\u2014the Messiah. I came to this conclusion in 1973 and the longer I study and ponder his claims, the more convinced I am of their truth.
\nTo Jewish people who read this book, I ask you to try to understand that Christians who purchase this book do so out of sincere love. They want to administer the antidote to man\u2019s greatest ailment\u2014sin. The cure is found in Yeshua.<\/p>\n
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS<\/p>\n
A number of people contributed to this book, indirectly or directly, whom I thank.
\nMy professors of communication at Ohio University taught me much about interpersonal communication. They provided a good foundation for organizing this book and analyzing the witnessing process, the ultimate communication transaction.
\nDr. Henry and Mrs. Marie Einspruch, founders of The Lederer Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, who provided literature that had a major impact on my life, and whose shoes I had the privilege of stepping into in 1988.
\nDan and Arlene Rigney, whose love and patience enabled me to see the truth that the Messiah had come. Pat Klein, a terrific publishing consultant and friend, who gave me guidance as I wrote this book. Dr. Louis Goldberg, a friend for many years, and who willingly read and commented on my manuscript.
\nMy wife, Steffi, who not only illustrated this book, capturing the content of each chapter in a cartoon, but also helped me find more effective ways of expressing my thoughts. She has been there for me ever since we married.
\nRebecca and Shira, my lovely daughters, for just being themselves. Also, Rebecca contributed some excellent editing to the revised edition.
\nMy parents, who brought me up with an appreciation of my Jewish heritage and an identification with my people. (All right, I admit it, they would have preferred me writing a different book and going into a different line of work.)
\nAnd, of course, I thank God and his Messiah, through whom I have been given eternal and abundant life.<\/p>\n
INTRODUCTION<\/p>\n
CATCHING FISH
\nFOR THE MESSIAH<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014
\nIt\u2019s the Perfect Time
\nto Drop Your Line<\/p>\n
When I was a young boy, I saw a cartoon (Disney, I think) about fishing. One scene greatly impressed me. Each time the fisherman (Goofy, I think) tossed in his line, he landed a big one. Soon he had a pile of fish on the shore as tall as himself. \u201cWow, that looks like fun,\u201d I thought. Since there was a small lake in my little Maryland town, I decided to try my hand at fishing. It looked so easy!
\nGrabbing a broom handle and tying a string to the end of it, I marched down to the lake with determination and dropped in my line. After what seemed like days\u2014probably an hour or two\u2014I headed home, discouraged, dejected, and definitely finished with fishing \u2026 forever! I hadn\u2019t even gotten one nibble.
\nThat evening my dad came home from work and found me sitting on the porch, head in hands.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d he asked, reading my sad expression. I told him about my totally unproductive fishing expedition. Trying not to look too amused, my father questioned me about my fishing technique.
\n\u201cWhat did you use for bait?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cBait?\u201d I repeated. \u201cWhat\u2019s bait?\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s what you put on the end of the hook to attract the fish.\u201d
\n\u201cOh,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat\u2019s a hook?\u201d
\nApparently I had missed some of the finer fundamentals of fishing. I had seen that cartoon character catching fish, but must have missed what he had done to prepare to catch those fish. (Cartoons do take certain liberties with reality!)
\nDad then explained about hooks and bait. Was I relieved to know that I didn\u2019t have to give up fishing forever!
\nWhen I speak in churches, invariably I\u2019ll hear stories about people\u2019s attempts to witness to Jewish people. These stories often remind me of that first fishing trip. In their zeal to \u201ccatch a fish,\u201d many people overlook the fundamentals. They give it a try but come home discouraged, dejected, definitely finished with \u201cfishing.\u201d
\nI don\u2019t want that to happen to you. I want you to be effective in your witnessing so that you don\u2019t become discouraged. After all, how are my fellow Jews going to hear the Gospel if Gentile believers are too discouraged to share it with them? There aren\u2019t enough of us \u201cprofessionals\u201d to have a personal witness with all Jewish people. You have a very important role.
\nYeshua promised to make his disciples \u201cfishers of men.\u201d Although the fishing techniques of the first century\u2014large nets\u2014are vastly different from the techniques of Goofy and of today, each method requires a basic understanding of the fundamentals of its type of fishing in order to be effective.
\nLikewise, there are certain fundamentals you need to learn in order to effectively share the Gospel with Jewish people. That\u2019s the purpose of this book\u2014to help you learn how to share with your neighbor, your fellow worker, or even a Jewish person who has married into your family.
\nTo help you organize all the material you will be learning, I\u2019ve included what I call a witnessing model. I used models when I taught college communications courses and have found them useful in the Jewish evangelism training programs I\u2019ve taught.<\/p>\n
This book is divided into four sections:
\nI. You: The Gentile Christian
\nII. Your Message: The \u201cJewish Gospel\u201d
\nIII. The Audience: Your Jewish Neighbor
\nIV. The Feedback: Barriers to Belief<\/p>\n
Section I is about you, the Gentile Christian. This section will help you understand your role in Jewish evangelism. God has a very special challenge for you that, sad to say, the Church hasn\u2019t taken up very well over the centuries.<\/p>\n
WITNESSING MODEL
\nFOR JEWISH EVANGELISM<\/p>\n
I share in Section II about the \u201cJewish Gospel.\u201d While it\u2019s true that there is only one Gospel of salvation for Jews and Gentiles, there are many ways of presenting it. Those involved with children\u2019s evangelism communicate the Gospel to little ones in a unique way. Those working with college students have outreach approaches that are effective on campuses. This same principle holds true for Jewish people. Section II will teach you how to share the Good News in a \u201cJewish\u201d way.
\nSection III will help you better understand your Jewish neighbor. It would be foolish to imply that after reading a few pages in this book, you will really know your Jewish neighbor. That would not only be impossible, it would be presumptuous. Getting to know someone takes time. Nevertheless, a look into Jewish history, religion, and culture should offer you a greater understanding of the people to which your Jewish neighbor belongs.
\nThe last section, Section IV, discusses the unique responses your Jewish neighbor might offer as you present the Gospel. Not only will we deal with the more common Jewish objections to the Gos pel, but we will also look at questions that may not really be questions at all. We\u2019ll examine how to apply principles of discernment in your witness.
\nLet me encourage you. You couldn\u2019t have picked a better time to get involved in Jewish evangelism. Not since the first century have so many Jewish people come to believe in Yeshua. No one but God can give exact numbers, but I have seen estimates that there are more than 250,000 Jewish believers in the United States and twice as many worldwide.
\nIn the former Soviet Union, many thousands have responded to the outreach efforts of Jewish ministries. In Israel, too, there are thousands of Jewish believers.
\nOne visible evidence of the existence of these large numbers of Jewish believers is the rise in what has become known as the Messianic congregational movement. Whereas thirty years ago you might have found small pockets of Jewish believers meeting for weekly Bible study, today you can visit any of the hundreds of congregations where Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua worship God in a distinctively Jewish way.
\nThere are Messianic congregations and fellowships all over the world. Messianic conferences attract many thousands interested in the Jewish expression of faith in Yeshua. And this \u201cMessianic movement\u201d is growing!
\nThe impact of God\u2019s Spirit moving among Jewish people is underlined by the recent appearance of several groups who counter the witness of those they call \u201ctricky missionaries.\u201d Misunderstanding the loving purpose of those who spread the Gospel, these groups suspect the motives of missionaries and warn the Jewish people away from their message. They accuse Jewish believers who maintain a Jewish identity of being deceptive, of using Jewish practices to mislead unsuspecting Jews. In fact, lately these groups have been saying that Jews who trust Yeshua are no longer Jews! We know that something is happening because the opposition is busy as well.
\nNow that you understand the structure of this book and see the very real possibilities for success, let me help you become a successful fisherman for the Messiah. Let\u2019s begin by taking a look at you, the Gentile Christian. You may be surprised by much of what I\u2019m about to share with you. My prayer is that you\u2019ll also be challenged to act.<\/p>\n
SECTION I<\/p>\n
You: The Gentile Christian<\/p>\n
As you can see from our witnessing model, you begin the process. Some people think that reaching Jewish people is a job solely for the Jewish missionary. I don\u2019t think so. Non-professional Gentiles have a specific job to do in Jewish evangelism. Apparently you agree, or you wouldn\u2019t be reading this book.
\nSection I is all about you and how you fit into the plan for Israel\u2019s salvation. Chapter 1 discusses what God has said about the need to witness to his chosen people. It can help you appreciate the biblical basis for Jewish evangelism and how it fits into the plan of God.
\nIn case you start to think, \u201cWho, me, a Gentile, witness to a Jew?\u201d I\u2019ve included chapter 2 to encourage you. You\u2019ll see not only why Gentiles are often more effective witnessing to Jews, but also how God planned for you, a non-Jew, to be a part of the process of reaching Jewish people for Yeshua, the Messiah.
\nEveryone witnesses within a context. I\u2019ve already shared with you that this is a very encouraging time to be talking to Jews about Yeshua. But realize, too, that this comes at the end of a 2,000-year drought. Chapter 3 reviews certain events of history that pertain to the \u201cChurch\u201d* and her relationship with the Jewish people. Some of the story is not pretty. I\u2019m not offering this information to instill guilt, but to make you aware, in case you\u2019re not, of some reasons Jewish people may hesitate to learn about Yeshua.
\nThe last chapter of Section I offers some suggestions for becoming more credible in your testimony. It is the Word of God, delivered with much prayer, that wins souls. The truth is, however, that the message is inextricably linked to the messenger. As you will see later, the apostle Paul spoke about this very issue of credibility.
\nLet\u2019s now turn the spotlight on you, a Gentile believer in Yeshua, with a heartfelt desire to share the love of the Messiah with your Jewish neighbor. There are people and forces who will discourage you from your pursuit. The following chapter should help you stand firm in your conviction to witness to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.<\/p>\n
\u20141\u2014<\/p>\n
SHOULD JEWS REALLY
\nBE PERSUADED
\nTO BELIEVE IN JESUS?<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Should I Just Leave My
\nJewish Neighbor Alone?<\/p>\n
Something strange is happening in several mainline Christian denominations. Theologians call it liberalism, getting away from the plain and simple Gospel message that Yeshua died to pay the debt for sin, and that by accepting his atoning work on our behalf we are granted eternal life.
\nConcurrent with this position, many leaders are steering their denominations and churches away from evangelizing Jewish people. They mean well, trying to be sensitive to those who have suffered centuries of prejudice and persecution in the name of \u201cChristianity.\u201d But they do Jewish people eternal harm by withholding from them the Good News of the Messiah,Yeshua. Neglecting to present the message of salvation to the people for whom it was first intended is an unwitting, yet serious, act of anti-Semitism.
\nI know you don\u2019t agree with these church leaders. You picked up this book to learn more about sharing the Messiah with his people. But, because of the commitment of some not to share the Messiah with Jews, it\u2019s all the more important that you know why you should. In addition to the fact that Yeshua died to atone for the sins of all people, Jews as well as Gentiles, I\u2019m now going to share with you four persuasive reasons to share the Messiah with Jewish people.<\/p>\n
It Identifies Us With Our Spiritual Heroes<\/p>\n
Growing up in Maryland, I looked forward to that first chill of autumn. It meant just one thing: football season! And, like other young boys, I had a hero. His name was Johnny Unitas, a quarter back for the then Baltimore Colts. \u201cJohnny U,\u201d as we called him, was perhaps the finest quarterback ever to play the game. Since I too, played that position, it was natural for me to identify with him. I wore his number\u2014number 19. I tried to throw the ball the way he did. I even got a flat-top haircut to look like him. As much as I could, I tried to duplicate the details of my hero\u2019s life.
\nWhen winter thawed into spring, football drifted from my memory and baseball occupied my young mind. Now Mickey Mantle stood tall upon my hero\u2019s pedestal. Having spent my first and formative month of life in the Bronx, I naturally pledged my allegiance to the New York Yankees, the \u201cBronx Bombers.\u201d And back in the 1950s,\u201cthe Mick\u201d was the man to emulate. Whatever the Mick did, that\u2019s what I longed to do.
\nModeling ourselves after successful people is a way to grow into a successful life. Business people who want to get ahead read magazines like Forbes or Fortune. Individuals who want a more successful life go to self-improvement seminars and learn how the \u201cwinners\u201d do it. Who would want an aerobics teacher who is fat and lumpy? If Richard Simmons gained weight, no one would be \u201csweatin\u2019 to the oldies\u201d (or any music) with him. He\u2019d stop being a good role model.
\nAs we look through the Scriptures, we find something interesting about those who should be our spiritual role models. They had great concern for the salvation of the Jewish people.
\nMoses is a spiritual hero to many. Though he fell short of his ultimate goal of leading Israel into the promised land, he did lead them to it. And even though his people gave him plenty of tsuris (a Yiddish, or Jewish, word for \u201ctrouble\u201d), he never lost the burden to rescue his people.
\nAfter the Israelites built a golden calf, directly disobeying the first of the Ten Commandments, Moses interceded with God on their behalf:<\/p>\n
Now, if you will just forgive their sin! But if you won\u2019t, then, I beg you, blot me out of your book which you have written!
\nExodus 32:32<\/p>\n
Moses was willing to give up his life for this wayward, rebellious people.
\nThe apostle Paul is also a well-known role model. While he states that he was the \u201capostle to the Gentiles,\u201d he, like Moses, had deep concern for his own people. In the midst of his doctrinal letter to the largely Gentile church at Rome, Paul was inspired to insert his feelings on this subject:<\/p>\n
My grief is so great, the pain in my heart so constant, that I could wish myself actually under God\u2019s curse and separated from the Messiah, if it would help my brothers, my own flesh and blood, the people of Israel!
\nRomans 9:2\u20134<\/p>\n
Believers in Yeshua have accepted him as the ultimate role model for spiritual growth. Paul taught that \u201cthose whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son\u201d (Romans 8:29). This pattern included a deep concern for his people, the Jews. Weeping over Jerusalem, Yeshua cried,<\/p>\n
Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim! You kill the prophets! You stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused!
\nMatthew 23:37<\/p>\n
This is only one of the many statements that reveals the Messiah\u2019s heart for his people. Even while dying on the cross, he extended his compassion to his confused, misdirected brethren and to the Romans who actually crucified him, saying, \u201cFather, forgive them; they don\u2019t understand what they are doing\u201d (Luke 23:34).
\nThese examples show that Moses, Paul, and even Messiah Yeshua shared a common burden for the salvation of the Jewish people. All were willing to sacrifice themselves to accomplish that goal. If you want to be more like the heroes of Scripture, it means assuming their burden that many of the nation of Israel might receive God\u2019s forgiveness and love.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a Good Investment<\/p>\n
Former New York Times reporter McCandlish Phillips, in his fascinating book The Bible, The Supernatural, and The Jews states boldly:<\/p>\n
Jews are socially and culturally influential. They cannot avoid being influential as a people. In any society in which they are found, jews are influential out of proportion to their numbers. They affect the history of the nation they are in and they affect its culture. To a significant extent the history and culture of the nation will turn on what some Jews do. It is written into the very nature of the Jews, by the finger of God, to be influential (p. 279).<\/p>\n
A second reason for sharing the Gospel with Jewish people is that it is a sound investment of time and love. Why? Because of the God-given zeal of the Jewish people.
\nConsider the enormous impact individual Jews have had on history. For a people of such small numbers, the impact is disproportionate. Phillips reminds us of Moses, Yeshua, Marx, Freud and Einstein. He states that \u201csuch Jews have had a vast impact and influence on the affairs of mankind.\u201d According to M. Hirsch Goldberg, in his entertaining and enlightening book The Jewish Connection, explains that,<\/p>\n
Mark Twain, surveying the wide-ranging activity of Jews in his day, once cracked that there must be at least 25 million Jews living in America. Of course, at no time during Twain\u2019s life were there more than 2 million Jews in the country. Twain, generally friendly to Jews, was simply expressing a feeling shared by friend and foe alike\u2014Jews just seem to be all over (p. 107).<\/p>\n
(Twain also pointed out that the mere existence of the Jews as an intact people is convincing proof of the existence of God!)
\nHave things changed much since Mark Twain penned his remarks? Not really. Jews still influence the world around them. In politics\u2014Henry Kissinger to Madeline Albright (who recently discovered she was Jewish). In music\u2014Leonard Bernstein to Josh Groban. In sports\u2014Howard Cosell to baseball commissioner David Stern. In TV\u2014George Burns to Jerry Seinfeld. In film\u2014Paul Newman to Adam Sandler.
\nThis disproportionate influence, which is not limited to the above examples or categories, is something that the apostle Paul described in Romans 10:1\u20132:<\/p>\n
Brothers, my heart\u2019s deepest desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation; for I can testify to their zeal for God. But it is not based on correct understanding.\u2026<\/p>\n
This zeal, this influence, was given to the Jewish people by God to bring blessing to the entire world. That\u2019s what he promised to Abram: \u201cby you all the families of the earth will be blessed\u201d (Genesis 12:3).
\nIt was a blessing to the world that two Jews, Jonah Salk and Albert Sabin, conquered polio. It\u2019s been a blessing to enjoy the comedic and dramatic talents of Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, and Dustin Hoffman. And who wouldn\u2019t agree that, after a hard day\u2019s work, it\u2019s a blessing to come home and slip into your most comfortable pair of Levis (as in Levi Strauss) or Calvins (as in Calvin Klein)?
\nThink of all the constructive, helpful, and charitable contributions that Jews have made\u2014in medicine, in music, in movies, in science, in literature, in art, in scholarship. God-given talent combined with God-given zeal have indeed worked together for the good of all mankind. Imagine what a blessing it will be to the Kingdom of God when this talent becomes devoted directly to God and the Messiah!
\nThe Jews of Yeshua\u2019s day, much like Orthodox Jews today, had a tremendous zeal for God, but their zeal was not according to complete biblical revelation. Most Jewish people, then as now, have unfortunately missed the Messiah. Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
For, since they are unaware of God\u2019s way of making people righteous and instead seek to set up their own, they have not submitted themselves to God\u2019s way of making people righteous.
\nRomans 10:3<\/p>\n
This attempt to attain righteousness through good works can be seen more clearly on the Jewish High Holy Days than at any other time of the year. Jewish people flock to synagogues, hoping, through their attendance and recited prayers, to achieve atonement for their sins, though the Temple has been destroyed, and with it, the sacrificial system. Even though these holy days do cause my people to consider their ways, that\u2019s not enough. It may clear the conscience, but it does not cleanse the soul. Only Yeshua\u2019s sacrifice can do that.
\nThe intensity of the holiday season is what might be called \u201cmisdirected zeal.\u201d Focused on the needs of the world, this fervor brings blessing to the world. When this God given-passion is turned against God, it causes problems. Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto, was a Jew promoting an atheistic way of life as part of Communism. However, when zeal is directed toward God, it brings blessing to the people of God.
\nThe enthusiasm that was built into the Jews by God often finds expression in some very non-Jewish and not particularly biblical activities. My own \u201cmisdirected zeal\u201d led me down a confusing and dangerous path before God set my feet on solid ground.
\nSince I was not a very religious Jew, I was not particularly concerned with keeping the laws and traditions of my people; I leveled my sights toward the lofty pursuit of \u201cTruth.\u201d I spent my young adult life engrossed in psychology, philosophy, and the study of the religions of the world. Finally, I was initiated into the newly packaged, ancient art of Transcendental Meditation, or T.M., a disguised form of Hinduism.
\nT.M. is a movement which was popularized by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a man who gained renown when the Beatles subscribed to his teachings. This \u201cguru\u201d brought T.M. to the Western world. Packaged as a technique for relaxation, T.M. promised to enable people to achieve their highest human potential.
\nIt was the late 1960s. Tensions in the United States ran high. Students actively protested a war in Vietnam. Drugs and divorce were epidemic. Blacks and whites struggled with the issue of racial equality and civil rights.
\nLiving in Washington, D.C., I felt a unique kind of tension all around me. The racial conflict found expression on the campus where I was teaching, Howard University, a predominantly black university; my parents and the parents of many of my friends were getting divorced; regular \u201cpeace\u201d marches took place not far from where I lived. A \u201csimple technique to relieve stress and strain\u201d (another pitch of T.M.) sounded like just what the doctor ordered.
\nFurthermore, the prospect of achieving my full human potential also appealed to me. This had become a personal goal, something I believed everyone should strive for.
\nSo with customary Jewish zeal, I dove into the practice of Transcendental Meditation, becoming convinced early on that the salvation of the world depended upon everyone meditating according to the tenets of T.M. So convinced was I that I enrolled in the teacher-training program so I could \u201csave\u201d the world.
\nI should have noticed what I was getting into from the beginning. The initiation ceremony included presenting an offering of fruit, flowers, and incense to the gods of Hinduism. There was also the fee of $75, the price of finding \u201cgod\u201d at that time. (Inflation has driven the price substantially higher now, I am told.)
\nI should have become wary when, in the teacher-training program, the Maharishi expounded the Hindu scriptures. I should have noticed that my supposedly \u201cunique\u201d mantra (the sound I repeated over and over to help me meditate) was the same sound received by many others.
\nMy eyes should have been opened when I heard of meditators having mental breakdowns during long meditation courses And when I began to become more and more self-absorbed, I should have recognized that T.M. was antithetical to the Bible\u2019s message of love. But, as I will explain later, it wasn\u2019t until God himself broke through that I discovered that my misdirected zeal was dangerous to me and others.
\nI discovered that the second-in-command to the Maharishi was a Jewish man, like Joseph in Pharaoh\u2019s court and Mordecai in the government of Ahasuerus.
\nIt is also rather amazing that thousands of other Jewish people\u2014\u201cseekers of truth,\u201d as we were called\u2014joined me as we headed toward a religion totally foreign and diametrically opposed to the faith of our fathers.
\nThe apostle Paul, discussing Jewish unbelief, said,<\/p>\n
Moreover, if their [the Jews\u2019] stumbling is bringing riches to the world\u2014that is, if Israel\u2019s being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles is bringing riches to the latter\u2014how much greater riches will Israel in its fullness bring them!
\nRomans 11:12<\/p>\n
What I think he meant is just what I\u2019ve been discussing here. Redirecting this God-given zeal, focusing it toward the work of God\u2014especially the proclamation of the Gospel\u2014is a potentially powerful tool for blessing! This, after all, was the task for which the Jews were originally created and to which we were initially called. And according to Revelation 7:4, it\u2019s exactly what 144,000 Jewish people will be doing sometime in the not-too-distant future!
\nGod gave the Jews zeal, a supernaturally bestowed drive and enthusiasm, to bless the entire world. In many aspects of our lives, Jewish people have indeed been a blessing. But how much greater the blessing will be when this zeal, this drive, this intensity, is given to the purposes for which God initially intended it\u2014to bring light to the nations, to declare the testimony of a faithful living God, to share with the world the love of the Messiah.
\nReaching out to Jewish people can be a great investment. Think of how redirecting that Jewish zeal might change the world for God.<\/p>\n
It Will Get Results<\/p>\n
A theme runs through Scripture that is often untaught\u2014the remnant. The remnant concept explains why some people seek God and choose to follow his ways, and why others do not. Because this remnant exists today among the Jews, we have God\u2019s guarantee that our witnessing will produce results.
\nYou could say that the remnant began back in the Garden of Eden. Abel was part of the remnant; Cain was not. Later, Isaac was part of the remnant; Ishmael was not. Jacob was; Esau was not. The list goes on.
\nIn Romans 11, Paul introduced the remnant theme in his argument for Jewish evangelism. He asked rhetorically,<\/p>\n
In that case, I say, isn\u2019t it that God has repudiated his people [because Gentiles believe]? Heaven forbid! For I myself am a son of Israel, from the seed of Avraham [Abraham], of the tribe of Binyamin [Benjamin]. God has not repudiated his people, whom he chose in advance. Or don\u2019t you know what the Tanakh [Old Testament] says about Eliyahu [Elijah]? He pleads with God against Israel, \u201cAdonai, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I\u2019m the only one left, and now they want to kill me too!\u201d But what is God\u2019s answer to him? \u201cI have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt down to Ba\u2019al.\u201d It\u2019s the same way in the present age: there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
\nRomans 11:1\u20135<\/p>\n
Paul referred to 7,000 faithful believers in the days of Elijah who stood for God, and he went on to say that there was a remnant in his day, too.
\nThere is still a remnant!
\nNot since the first century have so many Jews come to believe that Yeshua is the promised Messiah. In addition to the hundreds of Messianic congregations in this country that I have already mentioned, there are also thousands of Jewish people who attend traditional churches. As I said earlier, estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000. This number may not seem to be a large percentage of the total current U.S. Jewish population of about six million. But a remnant is just that\u2014a remnant. And the remnant is growing.
\nOnly a few decades ago, those who worked in the field of Jewish evangelism harvested little fruit. Undaunted by the slow response, they believed what they could not see\u2014that there was a remnant waiting to respond. Today, in part because of their faithfulness, the work of witnessing to Jewish people is being blessed with abundant reward. Seed sown in the past is producing ripe fruit and much of it is ready for harvesting.
\nThere are times when I have shared the message of the Messiah with Jewish people and received immediate results. Recently it was with a seventy-six-year-old Jewish lady who just needed a little nudge in order to profess her faith. Another time it was with a young man who came to our congregation. Like the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, he asked, \u201cWhat must I do to be saved?\u201d
\nThis means it is entirely possible that your neighbor, co-worker, or friend might be part of the remnant, waiting to respond to the Good News. If you learn to communicate the message of the Messiah effectively, you can be the one to bring God\u2019s blessing to one of his chosen people.<\/p>\n
It Will Reap a Reward from God<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know why he does it, but the Bible makes it clear that God blesses those who bless the Jews. There is an unusual promise in Genesis, first given to Abram, the father of the Jewish people: \u201cI will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you\u201d (Genesis 12:3). Scripture has proved the truth of this unique promise many times. And it\u2019s true for our times as well.
\nAbraham\u2019s son Isaac settled in Gerar, the land of Abimelech, king of the Philistines. There was no love lost between Abimelech\u2019s people and the family of Abraham. Yet, when Abimelech saw how God made Isaac prosper, in spite of the Philistines\u2019 hostility toward him, Abimelech went to Isaac and said:<\/p>\n
We saw very clearly that ADONAI has been with you; so we said,<\/p>\n
\u201cLet there be an oath between us: let\u2019s make a pact between ourselves and you that you will not harm us, just as we have not caused you any offense but have done you nothing but good and sent you on your way in peace. Now you are blessed by ADONAI.\u201d
\nGenesis 26:28\u201329, emphasis mine<\/p>\n
Bad blood or no, Abimelech did not want to be on the wrong side of God.<\/p>\n
As he was dying, Isaac repeated God\u2019s promise to his son Jacob: \u201cCursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!\u201d (Genesis 27:29) Even though Isaac did not know which son he was blessing, it is clear that he wanted to reiterate God\u2019s promise that it is better to bless the Jewish people than to curse them.
\nThis warning held true throughout the Bible. The Egyptian Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites was a classic case of someone who \u201cpassed over\u201d getting blessed and got cursed instead. He would not allow the Israelites to take a three-day journey into the wilderness to worship God, and what did he get? A bloody Nile, frogs galore, lice, insects, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of all the firstborn of Egypt. Finally, he lost all his good workers when the exodus of the Israelites took place and, to make matters worse, his own army was destroyed. It would have been better for him to get God\u2019s message about blessing the Jews in the first place.
\nRahab the harlot was a lot smarter than Pharaoh when it came to blessing and cursing. She told the Israelites who had come to spy on her city of Jericho,<\/p>\n
I know that ADONAI has given you the land.\u2026 We\u2019ve heard how ADONAI dried up the water in the Sea of Suf [Red Sea] ahead of you \u2026 For ADONAI your God\u2014he is God in heaven above and on earth below. So, please, swear to me by ADONAI that, since I have been kind to you, you will also be kind to my father\u2019s family.
\nJoshua 2:9\u201312<\/p>\n
Unlike Pharaoh, this prostitute was not too proud to pay attention to God.
\nBy far the best example of blessing for blessing and cursing for cursing is found in the book of Esther. It is set in the Medo-Persian Empire while the Jews were in captivity and Haman was prime minister under King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Incensed when Mordecai, a Jew, would not bow down to him, Haman had a 75-foot gallows built for the sheer pleasure of watching this \u201crebel\u201d hang. And to top it off, he got the king to sign into law a decree ordering the death of all Jews. As the book of Esther records, because of Haman\u2019s desire to punish the Jews, God reversed the curse (Esther 7:10). It was Haman who swung from the end of his own rope.
\nWhere are the mighty peoples who mistreated the Jewish people through the ages? The Roman Empire? The Ottomans? The Nazis? A country-by-country tally would show the rise and fall of those who dared touch the apple of God\u2019s eye. But, since ancient times, the existence and blessing of the Jewish people remain a testimony to the faithfulness of God.
\nMatthew 25:31\u201340 reports Yeshua\u2019s message about the final blessing at the end of this age. When the Son of Man returns, he will gather all nations before him and separate them the way a herdsman separates sheep from goats. The basis for this separation will be the treatment the nations gave Yeshua. Did they feed him when he was hungry? Did they clothe him when he was naked? Did they visit him in prison?
\nThe righteous ones will be confused:<\/p>\n
Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them? When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?
\nMatthew 25:37\u201339<\/p>\n
Yeshua will explain that his identification with his people is so total that behavior toward them is experienced in a very personal way.<\/p>\n
The King will say to them, \u201cYes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!\u201d
\nMatthew 25:40<\/p>\n
Some interpret the expression \u201cthese brothers of mine\u201d to be referring exclusively to Christians. I\u2019ve even heard that it refers to children, because the phrase \u201cleast important\u201d is used to describe these \u201cbrothers.\u201d But given the \u201cblessing\/cursing\u201d concept so well established in Scripture, and the context of the passage, it seems to me that it is the Jews that the Messiah is specifically referring to. Remember, although Messiah did die for all people, he had a particular burden for his own flesh-and-blood brothers. Surely, he would not suddenly change his father\u2019s policy on how to treat the chosen people.
\nIn 1980 I had the privilege of preaching in one of those California mega-churches. As is my general custom, I asked the pastor how things were going in his congregation. I was particularly interested in knowing what he believed was responsible for such incredible growth!
\n\u201cBarry,\u201d he confessed, \u201cwe were always operating in the red, spending more than we took in. It wasn\u2019t until I made a commitment to follow the scriptural admonition to care for Yeshua\u2019s brethren that the Lord began to bless us. Ever since we began to invite a Jewish missionary to address us at the beginning of each year and to support Jewish missions, we have been operating in the black, never once showing a deficit. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve got you here on this first Sunday in January!\u201d This is more evidence that God keeps his promise to bless those who bless the Jews.
\nGod, whatever his purposes were, chose to use the Jews as a test. My people were not chosen because we were better than anyone else. Rather, we were chosen to exhibit to the world the grace and faithfulness of God. As it is written,<\/p>\n
For you are a people set apart as holy for ADONAI your God. ADONAI your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his own unique treasure.
\nDeuteronomy 7:6<\/p>\n
God cares greatly for his chosen people, so much so that he was willing to sacrifice the best Jew who ever lived to make atonement. If God would do this much for his people, it follows that he would shower great blessings on those who love and care for them as well. That is his will.
\nRemember the margarine commercial that said, \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Mother Nature\u201d? An even truer statement is \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Father God, or with his chosen children.\u201d
\nAs I said earlier, there is much opposition to telling Jewish people about the Messiah. At times when you encounter resistance, when your best intentions meet with rebuff, that\u2019s when you\u2019ll want to recall all that God has promised to those who bring blessings to Jews, especially the greatest blessing of all\u2014salvation.
\nYou\u2019ll want to keep in mind that caring for the Jewish people was a hallmark of the heroes of our faith. Remember that bringing Jewish people into the Kingdom is a good investment for eternity. Remember that your neighbor might be part of the remnant. And, finally, keep in mind that God promised to bless you if you will bless your Jewish friend by introducing him or her to the Messiah.
\nNow that this is clear in your mind, let me anticipate a question you may have. I hear it often when I speak in churches:
\n\u201cO.K. I want to see Jewish people saved, but isn\u2019t that the work of other Jews and professional missionaries to the Jews? Can I, an untrained Gentile, really play a role in telling Jewish people about Yeshua?\u201d
\nMy unequivocal answer to you is YES!<\/p>\n
\u20142\u2014<\/p>\n
GENTILES CAN
\nPLAY A PART IN
\nJEWISH EVANGELISM!<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Provoke\u2019em to Jealousy!<\/p>\n
During the late 1960s I was faced with a tough decision. The Vietnam War was raging. The draft lottery was operating. My number was low. So I decided to fulfill my military obligation by joining the United States Coast Guard Reserves. After six months of active duty, I was assigned to a Reserve Unit in Washington, D.C., committing me to serve one weekend a month.
\nOne of the most distasteful tasks I had to perform was \u201cswabbing the deck.\u201d It wasn\u2019t that the work was so hard, but the floor had just been cleaned by the \u201cregulars\u201d before their weekend leave. I felt indignant that I had to clean a perfectly clean floor. Clearly, this was just busywork.
\nOne of my buddies shared this boring job with me, but it was obvious that he did not share my bad attitude toward it. While I mumbled and grumbled, moaned and groaned, my buddy Loren had the chutzpah (Yiddish for \u201cnerve\u201d) to whistle and sing! It drove me crazy. After all, wasn\u2019t I the one who, through Transcendental Meditation, was supposedly learning to achieve inner peace and relaxation?
\nOne day I had had enough.
\n\u201cLoren,\u201d I said, \u201cwhat is it about you that makes you so blankety-blank happy?\u201d My language had become somewhat salty in my six months of active duty.
\nLoren\u2019s response was simple, but it changed my life. Smiling, he said, \u201cYour Messiah lives in my heart!\u201d
\n\u201cMy Messiah? What\u2019s my Messiah doing in your heart?\u201d I yelled in a not-too-peaceful manner. Then I thought a moment. \u201cAnd besides,\u201d I added, \u201cwho is my Messiah?\u201d
\nLoren explained to me that Yeshua was the Messiah, sent first to my people, the Jews. If I accepted him into my life, I would find peace. Real peace!
\nI was jealous. He seemed to have something real, something worthwhile. Whatever it was, I certainly was not getting it through T.M. And although I wasn\u2019t about to make a decision about Jesus without some serious study, Loren had planted a seed of desire within my soul. That desire eventually found fulfillment in Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah.
\nIn Romans, Paul asks rhetorically,<\/p>\n
In that case, I say, isn\u2019t it that they [the Jews] stumbled with the result that they have permanently fallen away? Heaven forbid! Quite the contrary, it is by means of their stumbling that the deliverance has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy.
\nRomans 11:11, emphasis mine<\/p>\n
In the Torah, the five books of Moses, the Lord told Israel that he would \u201carouse their jealousy with a non-people\u201d (Deuteronomy 32:21). Paul quoted this verse in Romans 10:19 to explain God\u2019s approach for reaching his people. He would accomplish this through the nations, the Gentiles.
\nIt came true in my life as it has in the lives of many Jewish people who have received the Messiah through the testimony of a non-Jewish believer. Many have been \u201cprovoked to jealousy\u201d by a people who are not even a people.
\nYou\u2019re familiar with Matthew 28:19, commonly called the Great Commission: \u201cTherefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim [Hebrew for students or disciples], immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit].\u201d This verse is appropriate and motivational to quote when missionaries are sent on the mission field. But remember, this Commission was not spoken to Gentiles. It was given by Jesus to a handful of Jews.
\nThey were told to fulfill their calling as Jews. Beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47) they were to share the message first with the Jews, and then with all the nations of the world, that is, the Gentiles, and make disciples out of them. And since you are most likely reading this book somewhere outside of Jerusalem, we can safely assume that the work those Jewish sh\u2019lichim (Hebrew for apostles) began nearly 2,000 years ago has indeed been effective.
\nThe Great Commission was given directly to Jews, but I believe God has a commission for Gentiles as well, one that many Gentiles who witness to Jewish people have used effectively. I call it \u201cthe Gentile Great Commission.\u201d You\u2019ve just been reading about it: \u201cprovoke the Jews to jealousy!\u201d
\nAbout this time you might be asking yourself, \u201cIsn\u2019t making people jealous a pretty nasty way for a believer to behave?\u201d Perhaps it just doesn\u2019t sound right to you. But Paul wasn\u2019t suggesting that you adopt a \u201cholier-than-thou,\u201d or condescending attitude. He wasn\u2019t advising Gentiles to put on airs or act superior toward Jews. In fact, he spoke to the congregation at Rome about the importance of having a proper perspective toward Jews:<\/p>\n
Moreover, if their stumbling is bringing riches to the world\u2014that is, if Israel\u2019s being placed temporarily in a condition less favored than that of the Gentiles is bringing riches to the latter\u2014how much greater riches will Israel in its fullness bring them!
\nRomans 11:12<\/p>\n
Paul is commenting on the fact that the transgression, or turning away, of the Jewish people from the Gospel hastened the arrival of the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul told his Jewish hearers, for instance, \u201cIt was necessary that God\u2019s word be spoken first to you [the Jews]. But since you are rejecting it \u2026 we\u2019re turning to the Goyim [Gentiles]!\u201d (Acts 13:46) If this transgression by the Jews, therefore, meant life for the Gentiles, how much more the world will be blessed in the fulfillment, when Jews do come to believe.
\nIn other words, believers should look forward to the day when the Jewish people will experience fulfillment in the Messiah. What a blessing it will be when Messiah\u2019s body is once again brimming with Jews like it was at the start!
\nIn his discussion of the olive tree in Romans 11, Paul further cautioned the congregation at Rome to regard the unbelieving Jewish people with a proper attitude. He described all Jewish people as the natural branches of an olive tree and the Gentiles as wild branches.
\nRemember that \u201cin the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God\u201d (Romans 3:2); the Gentiles were pagans for the most part, worshiping idols, sacrificing children, practicing ungodly rituals, and believing a host of superstitions. Then, at their acceptance of the Messiah, Gentiles were \u201cgrafted in\u201d among the natural branches of the olive tree.
\nPaul warned the Gentile believers that even though they were now part of the tree, and even though some natural branches had been broken off because of unbelief (Romans 11:20), the Gentiles in the \u201cbody\u201d were not to consider themselves superior to Jews who did not yet believe. Those Jews still represented the \u201croot\u201d of the tree which God had cultivated for almost 2,000 years. Paul told them:<\/p>\n
then don\u2019t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you.\u2026 For if you were cut out of what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree!
\nRomans 11:18, 24<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s purpose was to teach Gentiles the proper attitude. God never \u201cunchose\u201d his chosen people. Even when they disobeyed him\u2014as they often did\u2014he still cherished them as his own, amid the chastisement, and sought to lead them to repent. \u201cFor God\u2019s free gifts and his calling are irrevocable\u201d (Romans 11:29).
\nElsewhere Paul wrote of the Jewish people:<\/p>\n
\u2026 They were made God\u2019s children, the Sh\u2019khinah [manifest presence of God] has been with them, the covenants are theirs, likewise the giving of the Torah, the Temple service and the promises; the Patriarchs are theirs; and from them, as far as his physical descent is concerned, came the Messiah, who is over all.
\nRomans 9:4\u20135<\/p>\n
The blessing of Jewish heritage and the calling to carry out God\u2019s purpose has never changed. The gifts with which God has equipped his people for his purpose have contributed to the good of the whole world.
\nWith an attitude of humility and gratitude in order to provoke godly jealousy, you, a Gentile, may have an even more effective witness to Jewish people than many Jewish believers. You can cause your Jewish neighbor to long for the peace and inner happiness you have. I know it worked to draw me to Messiah. It will work with others, too.<\/p>\n
\u20143\u2014<\/p>\n
ANTI-SEMITISM
\nAND THE CHURCH<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cChristians\u201d Are Not Always Friendly Neighbors<\/p>\n
Jewish people almost expect believers to try to evangelize them. Jews know about Billy Graham, having occasionally bumped into one of his crusades while watching TV. Evangelism is seen as expected behavior for a Christian, so offense is not always taken.
\nHowever, you must keep in mind the horrendous history of \u201cChristian\u201d-Jewish relations. It is difficult for Jewish people to distinguish the real Jesus through a filter of nearly 2,000 years of persecution against Jews in his name.
\nThis chapter will review, briefly, some of the horrors which have happened to God\u2019s chosen people \u201cin the name\u201d of Jesus. It is not my intention to place a \u201cguilt trip\u201d on the Church. Nor am I implying that the twentieth-century Christian is responsible for the atrocities perpetrated on Jews by those who may not have been practicing Christian love. Rather, I want you to become familiar with the poor track record of \u201cChristian\u201d-Jewish relations in order to help you appreciate the defensive posture your Jewish friend might assume as you attempt to assure him or her of the love of Yeshua the Messiah.
\nThe small town in Maryland where I grew up was a microcosm of the entire United States. We had a Little League for us youthful baseball players. There was a community pool. Everyone attended the dazzling Fourth of July celebrations. While some cities tend to form natural boundaries dividing the black neighborhood from the Italian section, or the Irish block from the Jewish area, our town was a spicy potpourri, a mixture of all kinds of people co-existing peacefully.
\nBecause of this unusual blend, many of my friends were non-Jews. Some were Protestants, some were Catholics. It never seemed to matter much. What was really important was who hit the baseball the farthest!
\nUntil my Bar Mitzvah.
\nJewish boys, at the age of thirteen, go through a ceremony known as Bar Mitzvah, literally \u201cSon of the Commandment.\u201d We stand before our synagogues, read from the Scripture, give speeches, and assume our positions as \u201cadults\u201d in the Jewish community. A Bar Mitzvah is no small thing; it requires years of preparation.
\nSeveral days a week, prior to the date of my Bar Mitzvah, I had to leave baseball practice early in order to spend time with the rabbi\u2014to study Hebrew, to compose and rehearse my speech, to prepare to chant my assigned portion of the Scripture. My friends didn\u2019t appreciate the significance of this important rite and they let their resentment show. It gave me my first taste of anti-Semitism.
\nIt was hard for me to believe, but one June afternoon, my best friend, Kenny, began to taunt me in front of the other guys, \u201cBarry\u2019s going to \u2018Heeb-Jew\u2019 lessons.\u201d His words stung. There was derision in his voice. Other boys began to murmur that their dads had told them we Jews had killed Christ. It was the most unpleasant moment in my life.
\nThat kind of prejudice is the residue of two millennia of \u201cChristian\u201d anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism that would make any true believer in Jesus sick! Sadly, you, as a Christian, stand in the shadow of those ugly events.
\nLater we will discuss what you can do to defuse some of the tension that has arisen between Jews and \u201cChristians.\u201d Remember, I bring up this history now to help you understand what is often in the back of the mind of your Jewish friend when he or she starts to hear about the love of Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah.<\/p>\n
The Jews and the Roman Empire<\/p>\n
How would you feel if you were informed that you could no longer salute the American flag? If you were forbidden to have a Christmas tree? If the opinions expressed in your Bible commen taries were publicly denigrated and those books burned? If you were no longer allowed to worship God as you chose?
\nAnd how would you feel about those who enforced these restrictions?
\nThis is not a make-believe scenario. These were the kinds of laws enacted and enforced against the Jews by the Roman government and later the Roman Catholic Church.
\nWhen the true Church began, nearly all of its members were Jews. They didn\u2019t see themselves as starting a new religion. In fact, they could hardly figure out what to do with the Gentiles who wanted to join in the worship of the Messiah.
\nThe Acts of the Apostles (15:2) records \u201cno small measure of discord and dispute\u201d concerning those who were turning to Yeshua from among the Gentiles. Known as the Jerusalem Council, the leaders of the early Church hotly debated whether or not Gentiles who believed in Jesus had to follow the Law of Moses and be circumcised. This concern certainly underscores the Jewishness of the early Church.
\nBut as time passed, Jewish believers became more and more separated from the Jewish community. When the believers fled Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple, heeding the prophetic warnings of Yeshua, the split was emphasized. At the Council of Yavneh, which met near the end of the first century, a malediction concerning the \u201csectarians,\u201d including the Jewish believers in Jesus, was written. It was a prayer for the disappearance of these Jews from the synagogue. Then, in 134 C.E.,* Jewish believers opposed their Jewish leaders by refusing to participate in the Bar Kokhba revolt because this military leader was hailed as the Messiah.
\nThe split became a chasm. Jewish believers in Yeshua, seen as traitors, were further separated from the fellowship of the Jewish community.
\nAs this separation between the believers and the Jewish community widened, Rome began to restrict Jewish forms of worship and identity. Those in the Jewish community were called \u201csuperstitious\u201d because they believed in a God they could not see. They were also labeled as haters of humanity when they would not participate in pagan practices which were so prevalent in the Roman Empire. Since much of the public celebration in Rome was imbued with religious significance, Jews were also called unpatriotic because they would not join in. For example, in Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire, the story of God\u2019s judgment upon Pharaoh was changed. It was said that Jews were lepers who had been expelled from Egypt, not chosen people who had been delivered by God.
\nA tremendous struggle ensued between Judaism, that is, the way of life of the Jews, and Hellenism, the way of life of the Romans (and their predecessors, the Greeks). In order to do away with the Jewish people as a distinct entity, the emperor, Hadrian, forbade circumcision, Sabbath observance, Jewish holidays, rabbinical academies, study of Torah (the five books of Moses), and more.
\nEven though the Romans discouraged the practice of Judaism, somehow the Jews remained intact as a people.
\nYou will hear that it was the study of Torah and Talmud (the codified writings of the rabbis) that kept the Jewish people together. Perhaps God used this, for in an almost miraculous way, the Roman emperor Vespasian permitted Yochanan ben Zakkai, a famous Pharisee of the first century, to start a seminary in Yavneh, which later became the center of Jewish learning. That education did indeed help the Jews stay a people.
\nDuring the early rule of the Roman Empire, there was a separation between the Jewish believers and the Jewish community, and pressure on all Jews to adopt the Roman way of life. This laid the foundation for the anti-Jewish attitudes seen in the next centuries.
\nIt should be noted that there were many Jewish believers living in the Roman Empire, as well as many Jewish unbelievers, during this period. Many of the Jewish believers were prominent church leaders.<\/p>\n
The Jews and Later Roman Rule<\/p>\n
Many Gentiles living in the Roman Empire adopted \u201cChristianity\u201d when the Emperor Constantine (306\u2013337) declared it to be the state religion. Few in the Church objected to the new anti-Semitic traditions Constantine instituted. By the 400s Jews could no longer seek converts. Jews could not have non-Jewish slaves. The \u201cChurch\u201d forbade intermarriage and in fact discouraged any contact between Christians and Jews. Some of the Church leaders, ostensibly followers of the Jew, Jesus, began to preach against the Jewish people.
\nThese actions met with little Church resistance since one of the second-century Church fathers, Justin Martyr, had already laid the foundation for anti-Semitism. He had accused the Jews of inciting Romans to kill Christians. Origen, who died in 251 C.E., accused the Jews of plotting to murder Christians. Even John Chrysostom (344\u2013407 C.E.), known as \u201cthe bishop with the golden tongue,\u201d called the Jews worthless, greedy, assassins of Christ, and worshipers of the devil. He stated from the pulpit that there could never be forgiveness for the Jews and that it was \u201cincumbent\u201d on Christians to hate them. Jerome, a contemporary of Chrysostom and translator of the Latin Vulgate, devoted one of his celebrated essays entirely to the Jews. Ironic that he had learned Hebrew from a rabbi.
\nWith that kind of ecclesiastical support, other anti-Jewish changes were made. Sunday, the day that commemorated the Resurrection, became the Sabbath day. Passover became Easter, taking the name of a pagan goddess, Ishtar. Fertility rites soon clouded the truth of the Resurrection. In general, what was then known as Christianity ignored the Jewish people, except to persecute them.
\nThe Roman Catholic Church saw itself as the new Israel and, therefore, the new \u201cchosen people.\u201d Presumably to rid itself of potential \u201ccompetition,\u201d it prohibited many Jewish customs. Observance of Passover was forbidden. The reading of the Talmud was outlawed, and priceless, hand-copied works were burned. Invoking the new laws of the Roman government, the state church did all it could to destroy the identity of the Jews, driving God\u2019s people further and further away from the Messiah.<\/p>\n
The Jews and the Second Millennium<\/p>\n
Everyone has heard of the Crusades.
\nIn the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a new program was carried out, begun under orders of Pope Urban II. He promised forgiveness and guaranteed entrance to Paradise to those \u201cChristians\u201d who participated in his plan. Under it, thousands of Crusaders, children included, marched to the Holy Land to deliver it from the infidels, the Muslims who lived there.
\nThe intention of the Crusaders was to drive the Mohammedans from the sacred soil of Yeshua\u2019s homeland. In their religious zeal, they enlisted many not-so-religious people, fortune-hunters, people of low standing looking for some adventure, serfs looking for freedom.
\nPicture a long parade of soldiers, faces set with determination, prepared for \u201choly battle.\u201d And what do they carry for their standard? The cross, symbol of loyalty to their Lord.
\nTragically for the Jews, the Crusaders decided they could start defending \u201cChristianity\u201d right at home. They didn\u2019t have to go all the way to Israel to get rid of infidels. Jews, people who opposed what they understood to be \u201cChristianity,\u201d lived right there among them. Soon, \u201cKill a Jew and save your soul!\u201d became the battle cry of the zealous Crusaders.
\nLater, when the Crusaders arrived in Israel, armed with indignation leveled sharply at Jewish unbelief, the Crusaders rounded up the Jews in Jerusalem, herded them into a synagogue, and burned the building to the ground. Marching triumphantly around the inferno, they sang a hymn of praise to God\u2014\u201cChrist, We adore Thee.\u201d Inside the burning synagogue, Jews heard these strains of \u201cChristian\u201d worship as they perished.
\nIt didn\u2019t get much better in the Roman Catholic Middle Ages. As frequently happened to the Jews, they were not allowed certain privileges, particularly the privilege of owning land or pursuing certain professions. Because of this, Jews often held unpopular professions, such as tax-collecting. The stereotype of the money-grabbing Jew was being etched into history.
\nFurther, Jews were accused of causing many of the ills that befell the people of this age. They were held responsible for the Black Death, or Black Plague, of 1348, which killed a huge portion of Europe\u2019s population. It was rumored that Jews poisoned the wells. The Jews were also accused of causing many natural disasters, like the Lisbon earthquake. They were even charged with killing \u201cChristian\u201d children to get blood for matzah, the unleavened bread of Passover. The Roman Catholic Church laid the death of Messiah upon Jews for all time, eternally charging them with deicide. That accusation has only recently been renounced.
\nIn the 1400s, the Catholic Church tried another approach in dealing with the Jews. The Jewish population of Spain was offered a choice: convert to Catholicism or die. Many chose to die rather than follow those they held as responsible for the deaths and destruction of so many other Jews.
\nThe Spanish Inquisition remains another indelible black mark on the history of the Church and an enormous roadblock between the Jewish people and the person of Yeshua. To this day, during the holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews chant a special prayer dating back to that time. It is a lament called Kol Nidrey, \u201cAll Vows.\u201d It was inserted in the liturgy of Yom Kippur because of the Spanish Inquisition. Kol Nidrey became a cry to nullify the confessions of \u201cChristian\u201d faith uttered by those who had claimed conversion to Catholicism under duress.
\nI wish I could say that in the Protestant Reformation anti-Semitism disappeared, but that is not the case.
\nMartin Luther, the great reformer, although first expressing great respect for the Jews, turned against them in his later years. Frustrated by the lack of Jewish conversions, he wrote that the root of their resistance to the Gospel was their evil nature. He accused the Jews of being ritual murderers, incapable of being saved. He urged the destruction of all Jewish synagogues as well as religious books such as the Talmud. Toward the end of his life, he said that since Jews would not convert, \u201cWe ought not to suffer them or bear with them any longer.\u201d It is true that he later repented of many of his statements against the Jews, but once before the public, those words were used against the nation of Israel again and again.
\nThe Russian Orthodox Church, too, like so many other \u201cfollowers\u201d of Jesus, contributed to the campaign against Jewish people. Many Jews died in the pogroms at the hands of Russian soldiers called \u201cCossacks\u201d in the early part of the twentieth century. Why were they killed? For one reason only: because they were Jews.
\nYou may have seen the movie Fiddler on the Roof. Do you remember the violent raid that ruined the joy of the Jewish wedding celebration? And later, the orders given to the Jewish people to leave their little village and the only way of life they had ever known? Destruction and deportation were both common policies toward Jews in Czarist Russia. Many American Jews today are children or grandchildren of those who were beaten and expelled from Russia while the \u201cChurch\u201d stood idly by. I\u2019m one of them.
\nThe Germany of World War II was mostly Catholic and Lutheran. In the writings of these \u201cchurch fathers\u201d and leaders of \u201cChristianity,\u201d the Nazis found much justification for their atrocities.
\nI hesitate even to utter Jesus\u2019 name in the same sentence with the name Adolf Hitler, the one who ordered the torturous destruction of 6,000,000 Jews. Their teachings, after all, were diametrically opposed. Jesus taught love and compassion. Hitler taught hate. But I use the two together to make a point: Jewish people often confuse Christianity with the anti-Semitism of Nazism.
\nTo illustrate this confusion let me share a personal story.
\nIn 1975 my wife and I started an outreach in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, to share the Good News with the many Jewish people living there. During that same period, a local neo-Nazi group planned a demonstration in Skokie, the home of many concentration camp survivors. You may remember Skokie, a made-for-TV movie, portraying the events and the conflict that ensued because of this demonstration.
\nNext door to our storefront office was a kosher butcher. My wife would often buy meat from him. We had developed a casual, pleasant relationship. During this time of tension in Skokie, I remember going into his shop, looking for an opportunity to talk about the Messiah. After awhile, when we were all alone, the butcher called me aside. I became excited thinking that perhaps we had gotten somewhere in our witness to him.
\nRolling up his shirtsleeve, he pointed to a number tattooed across his forearm, the number he had received in a concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War. Then he whispered in a voice seething with bitterness and pain, \u201cThis is why I cannot believe in your Jesus!\u201d He blindly confused Nazism with Christianity.
\nIt was apparent that we had to do something for our people as the time for the Nazi march approached. We had to let them know that true Christianity and Nazi anti-Semitism were totally opposed beliefs.
\nI gathered together our small staff, a few volunteers, and some Christian friends and asked if they would join us in a demonstration in front of the Nazi headquarters on the south side of Chicago. Our purpose was to make a clear statement to the Jewish people that true Christians abhor Nazism. After much prayer, we set out to plan the demonstration. Although I, for one, usually shy away from this kind of risky confrontation, we all felt compelled to make a statement.
\nWe created colorful placards bearing slogans like \u201cNazism is anti-Christian,\u201d \u201cJesus was not a Nazi,\u201d and \u201cJesus is the Messiah.\u201d Alerting both the media (in order to make the statement) and the police department (in order to protect us), we drove down to the Nazi headquarters and held an orderly, legal demonstration in front of their building.
\nNotifying the police had been a smart thing to do. Right in the middle of our demonstration, the Nazis dramatically threw open their heavy garage doors and stood menacingly in closed ranks, brandishing large guns across their chests. I could feel my heart pound as the sweat began to pour. But we kept praying and standing our ground.
\nTV cameras came to film the event, but the police quickly whisked us away to protect us. In fact, I and two or three of my lieutenants were taken away in a paddy wagon to reduce the tension. Ironically, the other person with us in the paddy wagon was the leader of the Nazi group, Frank Collin, whom I discovered later was a self-hating Jew, whose given last name was Cohen OY!
\nBut our goal had been accomplished. Our statement was made. That evening, the media reported on the demonstration; articles were published that told our story. After that, many Jewish people living in Skokie came by our office to thank us for taking a public stand against the Nazis. Even the kosher butcher seemed friendlier.
\nThose of us in Jewish ministry are sometimes told that our motives are worse than those of Hitler. \u201cThe Nazis destroyed Jewish bodies, but you destroy Jewish souls,\u201d we are told. Jewish parents are often crushed when their children accept Yeshua. Spouses, too, go through their share of grief over a loved one who professes belief in the Messiah.
\nNaturally, to be misunderstood hurts. But we cannot deny the Messiahship of Yeshua even if it does hurt. We knew we couldn\u2019t erase the pain of those who had been through the concentration camps. But the eyes of many in Skokie saw that true believers would stand up against Nazism. Testimonies such as this one go a long way toward overcoming 2000 years of poor \u201cChristian\u201d-Jewish relations.
\nThere are thousands of testimonies of true believers who stood with the Jews in Nazi Germany, risking and sometimes losing their lives to protect and hide them. Corrie ten Boom\u2019s The Hiding Place is a wonderful story of how a true Christian feels about the Jewish people. It\u2019s worth reading and even sharing with your Jewish neighbor.
\nYou might be asking yourself why there is such confusion about this in the first place. Why should Jewish people make a connection between Christianity and Nazism?
\nTo begin with, Adolf Hitler was born into a Catholic family. Since Jewish people are born Jewish, they automatically assume that Hitler was born Christian.
\nFurthermore, many in the Nazi party faithfully attended church. Observing the Nazis on the weekend, and then watching what they did during the week, many Jewish people raised the logical question, \u201cIf their church preached love, how could these church-going people practice hate? \u201cThe false conclusion they reached was that anti-Semitism was somehow part of Christian teaching. Unfortunately, sometimes it was true.
\nGranted, churches nowadays don\u2019t teach persecution of Jews, but I have sat in large evangelical churches and heard comments and remarks that revealed latent anti-Semitic attitudes. One time I heard a preacher lambaste \u201cthose self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees! \u201cHe neglected to state that the unrighteous behavior he spoke of was possibly the exception, not the rule. He also forgot to mention those Pharisees who became followers of Jesus\u2014Paul, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and thousands more.
\nIf you\u2019re going to be effective in your witness, you\u2019ll need to recognize the perceptions and misperceptions of your Jewish neighbor. As kind as you are, as honest and decent and neighborly as you have been, you must also understand that the memory of these unforgettable atrocities will be ever present in your neighbor\u2019s mind. Although you don\u2019t carry the sword of the Crusader, although you are not offering the ultimatum of the Inquisitor, although you do not spout the anti-Jewish diatribe of a Nazi, you are still identified as one of \u201cthem\u201d\u2014a non-Jew. A potential anti-Semite.
\nJewish people often classify the world into \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem.\u201d Jews have learned that, given the right degree of pressure, the right amount of propaganda, almost anyone is capable of persecuting a Jewish scapegoat. Jews have been warned by those who have lived through the Holocaust,\u201cRemember, it can happen again!\u201d
\nAs a word of encouragement to you, know that you really can overcome \u201cChurch\u201d history through an honest, open, loving friendship with your Jewish neighbor. But first, you need to understand how you, a Gentile believer, may be seen.
\nIn the next chapter you will learn how to make yourself more credible to your Jewish neighbors so that you might be more effective in your witness. You can become more an \u201cus,\u201d and less a \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u20144\u2014<\/p>\n
HOW TO
\nHAVE A MORE
\nCREDIBLE WITNESS<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Being a Little Jewish
\nWouldn\u2019t Hurt<\/p>\n
Remember the old TV show Dragnet? When Joe Friday would question someone, he\u2019d insist on \u201cThe facts, ma\u2019am, just the facts.\u201d
\nWe\u2019d all like to believe we make our decisions based solely on the facts. But it\u2019s not true. If it were, car dealers wouldn\u2019t promote automobiles by using sexy women or handsome men. Politicians wouldn\u2019t spend millions on marketing to improve their images. Preachers wouldn\u2019t worry about their delivery; they\u2019d just teach the words of Scripture.
\nPersuasion rarely occurs just because of facts. Often, what reaches us is a salesman\u2019s looks, a candidate\u2019s \u201ccharisma,\u201d or a preacher\u2019s presentation. Facts are sometimes secondary.
\nThis ability to influence another is often called \u201ccredibility.\u201d We might hear two speakers saying precisely the same thing, but one will have greater impact on us than the other. If the scripts are the same, the difference in impact can be attributed to the speaker\u2019s credibility. Somehow we perceive him as more believable, more trustworthy, more reliable. In a word, more persuasive.
\nCredibility is sometimes viewed as a God-given gift. Either you\u2019re born with it or you\u2019re not. Social scientists who have studied credibility have drawn different conclusions They say it can be attained. A person who is perceived as having greater credibility will bring about more attitude change and persuasion in a listener than one who is not. We know this is true!
\nHow do certain teachers get more out of their students? What makes some bosses successful in motivating their employees? Why do certain pastors or rabbis achieve substantially greater impact on their congregations than others? If the content of the messages is basically the same\u2014learn, work, or grow\u2014to what can we attribute the difference in impact? The difference is credibility.
\nPeople have pondered this for centuries. Credibility was discussed as far back as Plato and Aristotle. In more recent years, experts in communication have delved into the study of credibility, emerging with some valuable insights.
\nIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, I taught communications at Howard University in Washington, D.C. One of the most important topics in my class on persuasion was credibility. Even then, when credibility research was in its first few years, dozens of books and hundreds of articles had already been written on the subject.
\nI\u2019ll mention a few of the conclusions reached in credibility research in order to prepare you to be more persuasive communicating the Gospel to Jewish people.
\nSocial scientists and communications experts reported that credibility is based primarily on four character traits: trustworthiness, expertness, identification, and dynamism. Each of these traits was identified and measured. Those having a high degree of each of these characteristics were usually more effective in persuading others. Now let\u2019s examine each characteristic.<\/p>\n
Trustworthiness<\/p>\n
Trustworthiness is the trait that encourages a person to feel safe with another. It is related to warmth, friendliness, and openness. A trustworthy person \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a mean bone in his body.\u201d
\nDan Rigney is just such a person. I first met Dan at a special Hebrew-Christian Rosh HaShanah service. Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year, the first of the High Holy Days. At the time we first met, Dan was a missionary with the American Board of Missions to the Jews, now known as Chosen People Ministries. I was not a believer, but I was curious about what a Hebrew-Christian service was. At the time I was engaged to a \u201cChristian\u201d woman and thought this kind of \u201ccompromise\u201d service might be good for us. After all, I was a Hebrew (although Jews don\u2019t call themselves that), and she was a \u201cChristian\u201d (although I don\u2019t think she was \u201cborn again\u201d).
\nThere was Dan, sporting a nice, long, rabbi-like beard and wearing white rabbinical robes and a miter, a white head covering. This garb is worn to remind the congregation of the priests\u2019 clothes in ancient Israel. But sticking out from under his robe was something I\u2019d never seen a rabbi wear\u2014cowboy boots!
\nDuring the service I heard many traditional Hebrew prayers. I also heard many Jewish people giving their testimonies. It didn\u2019t take me long to realize that this was not just a Jewish service that was open to Christians, or a congregation for interfaith marriages (my original assumption); this was a service where both Jews and Gentiles believed in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.
\nAfter the service, I went up to Dan, and in a rather accusatory manner said, \u201cYou\u2019re no Jew! You\u2019re just pretending to be a Jew.\u201d The cowboy boots, coupled with his poor Hebrew pronunciations, were dead giveaways.
\nBut his warm smile and honest words disarmed me. \u201cNo, I\u2019m not Jewish, but I love the Jewish people because of Jesus. I\u2019m a grafted-in Gentile.\u201d
\nI no longer felt combative. Dan\u2019s sincerity was so real it was tangible. Immediately, I found him to be safe, and therefore trustworthy and credible. I wanted to know more. I began attending Dan\u2019s weekly Bible study, where I later met the Messiah.
\nTrustworthiness is not something that can be trumped up. As we walk in the Messiah\u2019s light and become more like him, we grow toward being totally trustworthy. Growth and maturity naturally yield credibility. The fruits of the Spirit\u2014love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control (Galatians 5:22\u201323)\u2014contribute toward making us trustworthy people, more credible and more persuasive.
\n(A word of caution: Some individuals buy the lie that no one should be involved in service for the Lord until he or she is perfect. They say, \u201cI\u2019m too big a sinner for anyone to listen to me!\u201d Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul struggled with the flesh continually, but that didn\u2019t stop him from preaching. There is not a preacher, pastor, missionary, or Bible school teacher who is perfect. Yet all trust the Lord to enable them to fulfill God\u2019s calling for them. Don\u2019t allow your imperfection to be an excuse not to share the Good News.)
\nYou are called to bring the Good News back to God\u2019s people, the Jews. Everyone could be more trustworthy, but God uses the imperfect, fallible sinner every day. The important thing to remember is to be honest in your testimony.
\nLife on this earth has its share of problems and pain. To act like nothing is wrong is to deny reality. That would be disingenuous, even in the interest of a testimony. The Lord blesses his people with a variety of growth experiences, including painful ones.
\nTo deny what is obvious is misleading to those to whom we are witnessing. They are often more aware of our problems than we\u2019d like to admit. It\u2019s all right to tell your Jewish friend about the problems you face. He or she may be able to help you. This will actually make you more trustworthy, since your Jewish friend deserves to know you as a person.
\nI was conducting a seminar on sharing the Messiah with Jewish people. One of the participants was experiencing tremendous personal suffering in her life. Divorce, death, depression. When we came to this section on trustworthiness and credibility she said she felt inadequate to share the Messiah. She decided to wait until all was well in her life. I felt that, to the contrary, it was just then that she should have shared.
\nHer Jewish friend would have related to her suffering and might have offered to help her. Admitting trouble would have made her real and would have shown her that to be a believer doesn\u2019t mean you have to have it all together.
\nAlso, she could have been a Job-like testimony. Job, in the midst of his severe suffering, affirmed his faith in God and the Messiah, and said, \u201cBut I know that my Redeemer lives, that in the end he will rise on the dust\u201d (Job 19:25). Her Jewish friend would have been impressed with her trust in God.
\nTrustworthiness is an important factor in credibility and credibility is important to good communication and persuasion. God is molding his people into the image of the trustworthy savior to make them more credible and persuasive in their witness.<\/p>\n
Expertness<\/p>\n
This is the area in which most well-meaning believers give up. I\u2019ve heard things like, \u201cHow can I talk about the Bible to the people to whom this book was first given?\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019d love to witness to my Jewish neighbor, but he\u2019s too smart for me.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s true that Jewish people were the ones chosen by God to first receive his holy Word. It is also true that Jewish people highly prize a good education. But surprisingly, today Jewish people are relatively illiterate when it comes to the Bible, and I don\u2019t mean just the New Testament. Most Jews, the vast majority, have never read the Old Testament.
\nEven those Jewish people who go to synagogue regularly read only certain parts of Scripture. You see, on each Sabbath day only a portion of Scripture is read\u2014something from the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and something from the Prophets or Writings. A Jewish person who has done his Bible reading in synagogue every Saturday still will not have read the entire Old Testament in the course of a year.
\nWhat\u2019s more incredible, much of the prophetic writing is completely ignored in the synagogues, especially those portions known as Messianic prophecies (to be discussed in Chapter 6). The average believer who has gone to church and attended Sunday school is better versed in the Hebrew Scriptures than his Jewish friend. You, relatively speaking, are the expert.
\nEven if you are confronted with a question you are not prepared to answer, be honest. I would prefer that a doctor tell me he needed to study or confer with a colleague about my symptoms than fake a diagnosis. Don\u2019t be afraid to admit, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll look it up and get back to you.\u201d
\nThe words of the apostle Peter aptly conclude the subject of expertness. He admonished believers to be \u201calways ready to give a reasoned answer to anyone \u2018who asks you to explain the hope you have in you\u2014yet with humility and fear\u201d (1 Peter 3:15). This was Peter\u2019s way of saying we should increase our expertness, tempering it with trustworthiness, so that we can become more credible witnesses. We are to be witnesses to everyone, including our Jewish neighbors.<\/p>\n
Identification<\/p>\n
It meant a lot to me that Dan Rigney had taken the trouble to identify with my people by wearing the rabbi\u2019s robes and speaking Hebrew. Though I was surprised and perhaps somewhat offended at first, his efforts triggered my curiosity. Then, when I sensed his genuine love for the Jewish people, I was glad he had chosen to make the identification. He desired, as much as possible, to become one of \u201cus.\u201d
\nLikewise, when I\u2019ve met Christians who enjoy Jewish culture, humor, or literature, it has always made me feel closer to them. Identification is a key ingredient of credibility.
\nPaul, apostle to the Gentiles, said, \u201cwith Jews, what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews.\u201d (1 Corinthians 9:20). Paul was, of course, already Jewish, but he emphasized this Jewishness to identify with the Jewish people. He was willing to submit to the traditions of his people. Furthermore, he was willing to take a Nazirite vow (Acts 18:18), something only a religious Jew would do. He followed the Torah. He summarized his religious life when addressing King Agrippa: \u201cI have followed the strictest party in our religion\u201d (Acts 26:5). He didn\u2019t do this for show; he was a sincere Pharisee. But there is a message here, too. If you want to win your Jewish friend to the Messiah, it helps to understand his frame of mind\u2014to become more like him\u2014to appreciate the things he regards as special, significant, even sacred. Paul\u2019s life demonstrated that.
\nIdentifying with someone increases credibility and persuasiveness. We are drawn to the political candidate who speaks for us and seems to understand our needs. We relate to the salesman who makes an effort to understand our wants. We even respond to the TV commercial that shows people whose lifestyles mirror our own.
\nIn witnessing to Jewish people, it is indeed possible for a Gentile to identify. In Section III, I\u2019ll be discussing some of the characteristics of Jewish people, in generalities, of course. But here, let me say that if you \u2018want to be more credible in your witness, become an \u201cus.\u201d
\nLearn what issues concern Jewish people most. Subscribe to the Jerusalem Post or your local Jewish newspaper. Attend lectures or celebrations sponsored by the local Jewish community. If you can, take a tour to Israel. In short, learn about the Jewish people.
\nExperience and enjoy the rich culture of God\u2019s chosen people. Understanding Jewish humor is a fun way to get started. Books such as The Joys of Yiddish and A Treasury of Jewish Humor are enjoyable and will help you get a feeling for the humor of Jewish people. You may even learn some new jokes. Of course, some of the current TV programs and movies give you a taste of Jewish humor\u2014Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, etc.
\nJewish music can be fun, worshipful, and soul-stirring. You already hear strains of it hidden within the melodies of Barry Manilow, Paul Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, Kenny G. and others. But it\u2019s much more. You might enjoy going to a concert of Jewish music with your Jewish neighbor.
\nLiterature is terribly important to God\u2019s chosen people. Books by Chaim Potok\u2014for example, The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev\u2014offer keen insight into the New York Orthodox Jewish community, a community that has impacted Jews everywhere. Other writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem will teach you about Jewish backgrounds and traditions. Herman Wouk is another important Jewish author, as is Leon Uris.
\nGastronomics is also part of the Jewish life. You might already enjoy bagels. As I wrote in the preface to the second edition, since I first wrote this book, bagels have lost their strictly Jewish identity. Now you can buy a bagel at the supermarket, in some fast-food restaurants, and just about everywhere. Bagels have caught on.
\nIn the 1960s, bagels were still viewed exclusively as a \u201cJewish\u201d food. Since I considered them a necessary staple in my diet, I would always bring a few dozen bagels back to college after going home for the holidays. Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, didn\u2019t know about these odd-looking doughnut-shaped rolls. It wasn\u2019t long before I\u2019d acquired the nickname \u201cBagels.\u201d My friends at college learned to love bagels.
\nOne of my fraternity brothers accompanied me home during a vacation. To the honored guest, my mother served lox for breakfast, along with the bagels. Lox\u2014smoked salmon\u2014is a little like sushi, the Japanese raw fish delicacy. Somehow, my Midwestern friend couldn\u2019t get into it.
\nIf you really want to identify with Jews, though, try some lox\u2014but right after payday. A steady diet of it could put a dent in your budget! It\u2019s expensive and therefore eaten infrequently. However, just as bagels have made it into mainstream American gastronomic life, lox is now available in places other than a Jewish deli. My family buys lox at one of the popular warehouse-type supermarkets. It\u2019s less expensive than it used to be.
\nEating lox will help you identify, and give you a real taste treat. But don\u2019t forget to put a schmear of cream cheese on the bagel before you add the lox.
\nMissionaries in foreign cultures have finally understood the message of identification. The traditional missionary approach had been to try to get those whom they sought to reach to become just like the folks back home. It became a goal to persuade the tribal native to succumb to the Western custom of wearing a tie. It wasn\u2019t just the Gospel the missionaries brought; it was Western culture.
\nBut in recent years, missionaries have become sensitive to and appreciative of the culture of the people they seek to reach. Learning the native language and customs, today\u2019s missionaries encourage the development of indigenous churches. This practice is sometimes called cross-cultural communication; missiologists refer to it as contextualization, putting the Gospel into the context of the people with whom they are working. Identification helps persuasion.<\/p>\n
Dynamism<\/p>\n
The final trait that makes someone credible is dynamism, enthusiams for the message. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the TV sales pitches for used cars, weight-loss programs, or hair regrowth products. Marketing experts have discovered that a person who communicates with energy is going to be more effective than someone who speaks in a monotone. This has been proven by communication research.
\nIf we\u2019re going to be credible, thus persuasive in our witness, we need to demonstrate dynamism. Yes, this mus be tempered by common sense, but it\u2019s an essential aspect of credibility. And aren\u2019t Yeshua and his message something to get excited about!
\nTrustworthiness, expertness, identification, and dynamism are the four foundation blocks upon which credibility is built. And remember, increased credibility generally leads to more effective communication and persuasion. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to grow in these four areas for your own personal enrichment as well as for the sake of your witness. Remember, yours is not a mission impossible.<\/p>\n
Here in Section I, you\u2019ve learned some of the reasons for bringing the Gospel to Jewish people and have been challenged to fulfill \u201cthe Gentile Great Commission\u201d\u2014provoke them to jealousy! You\u2019ve learned the background of the \u201cus\/them\u201d syndrome and the tragedies of \u201cChristian\u201d-Jewish history, both of which affect the way believers are perceived when they witness. And you\u2019ve learned how to be more credible in your witness.
\nIn the next section, the \u201cJewish Gospel,\u201d we will look at ways to present the Messiah that are both understandable and acceptable to Jewish people. It is critical not only to understand who you are and how you are perceived, but also that you learn to communicate in a Jewish way. That\u2019s what we\u2019ll look at next.<\/p>\n
SECTION II<\/p>\n
Your Message: The Jewish Gospel<\/p>\n
Back to our witnessing model. With increased comprehension about your role in Jewish evangelism gleaned from Section I, we can now focus our discussion on the message, namely, the \u201cJewish Gospel.\u201d
\nYou might be thinking, \u201cI thought there was only one Gospel. What\u2019s all this about a \u201cJewish Gospel?\u201d Good question!
\nThere is only one Gospel, just as there is only \u201cone body and one Spirit \u2026 one Lord, one trust, one immersion, and one God, the Father of all\u201d (Ephesians 4:4\u20136). But in this same passage, Paul explains that there is a variety of gifts in ministering the Gospel\u2014emissaries, prophets, evangelists, proclaimers of the Good News, and shepherds and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). Likewise, there is a variety of approaches in communicating the message of the Messiah.
\nThis is shown in the effective work done by campus outreaches. InterVarsity, Campus Crusade, Navigators, and others have a particular approach to working with college students. They minister a unique \u201ccollege student\u201d Gospel. Sometimes, churches are planted near campuses in order to minister specifically to the needs of college students. I saw this ministry in action when I spoke in just such a church planted next to a well-known southern California college.
\nWhereas most pastors tend to dress rather conservatively\u2014dark suits, ties, wing tip shoes\u2014the pastors of this church wore sport shirts, penny loafers, and Levis. The music in this campus church was played on guitar and had a contemporary sound, quite different from traditional church hymns played on piano or organ.
\nAnd unlike many church buildings, architecturally designed to inspire worship and induce awe, this church met in a cozy carpeted room where some sat on folding chairs and others on the floor.
\nI learned from this very successful campus church that college students can best be reached within their own cultural context. Comfortably cross-legged on that carpet, those young adults were more likely to listen to the Gospel than if they were sitting stiffly in a wooden pew.
\nThe same principle holds true in witnessing to Jewish people. I suppose if those campus pastors were writing a book to help others reach out on the local campus, they might have entitled this section the \u201cCampus Gospel,\u201d hoping to alert the reader to approach college students in a unique and more effective way.
\nThat\u2019s why I call this section, the \u201cJewish Gospel.\u201d Not that Jewish people are saved in a different way from Gentiles, but that the Good News ought to be presented in a fashion that makes it easily understood by Jewish people. Remember, the Church has not always approached the people of Israel in a positive, loving way. It\u2019s time to try something different, something that just might work\u2014the \u201cJewish Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u20145\u2014<\/p>\n
THE GOOD NEWS
\nIN THE
\nOLD TESTAMENT<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
The \u201cJewish Gospel\u201d
\nin the \u201cJewish Bible\u201d<\/p>\n
Because I was preparing to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, I set out to devour as much of the teaching of the Maharishi as I could. A one-month teacher-training course in northern California fit right into my plans, and the plans of 1,400 other \u201cseekers of truth.\u201d After this first month of training, I made plans to go to Majorca, Spain, for the second and third months to complete the course. God, however, had other plans for me.
\nLeaving California and returning home to Washington, D.C., I enrolled in a weekend T.M. retreat in the beautiful mountains of Virginia. The retreat included eight, nine and ten daily meditation sessions instead of the usual two. I was expecting to break through to \u201cgod-consciousness.\u201d But something else broke through, instead.
\nWhile deep in one of my meditations, I experienced \u201castral projection,\u201d also called \u201csoul travel.\u201d I sensed that my soul was rising from my body, hovering near the ceiling, looking down upon my body sitting on the bed. It felt just as strange as it sounds! I was terrified! I had never before experienced such a supernatural event.
\nThis bizarre experience was unsettling, so I looked around the room for something to read, to take my mind off what had just happened. I couldn\u2019t find anything other than T.M. pamphlets, T.M. booklets, and other T.M. materials. And a Gideon-placed Bible.
\n\u201cThis will be a nice change of pace,\u201d I thought, as I opened the book. Jewish Bibles and prayer books open from what you might call the back. Hebrew reads from right to left. So I turned to the \u201cback\u201d of the Bible, figuring I\u2019d open to Genesis and read about the beginning of the world. Instead, I found myself in the midst of something mysterious. It was called \u201cThe Revelation to John,\u201d an unusual place to begin reading the Bible!
\nWhen I realized that I was in the New Testament, an uneasiness swept over me. This was the book, or so I had been taught, that spoke about the Gentile god, Jesus. It had nothing to do with Jews. We Jews were taught to stay away from this \u201cdangerous\u201d document. In fact, a Jewish tradition held that a Jew who holds a New Testament will see his hands rot!
\nThe rabbis gave this warning to their people to keep them from being seduced into following Jesus, the one they held accountable for all the anti-Semitic acts throughout history. This fear was so deep that I was not even permitted to utter the name of Jesus in my home.
\nI wanted to avoid the New Testament at all costs. It was the Bible for the Gentiles. I didn\u2019t want to violate some ancient Jewish law that maybe I didn\u2019t know about. (That\u2019s why I use and promote the Complete Jewish Bible, a version that restores the original Jewishness to the entire bible. Because of centuries of latent\u2014and not so latent\u2014anti-Semitism among translators, most New Testaments feel like books written by Gentiles. The Complete Jewish Bible feels Jewish and is enjoyed by believers wishing to recapture the Jewish roots of their faith.)
\nAs I innocently turned to the Revelation, a verse caught my eye: one hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish believers in Jesus saying \u201cVictory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb\u201d (7:10).
\nAfter getting over the shock that I was in the New Testament, and after seeing that nothing bad had happened to me, I laughed, \u201cHa! Jews who follow Jesus. I\u2019ll believe that when I see it! Jews don\u2019t believe in Jesus.\u201d Vindicated by my declaration, I tossed that Bible across the room. I felt the subject was closed. (Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ve had many opportunities to apologize to and thank the Gideons for their ministry since becoming a believer!)
\nMost Jews consider the New Testament irrelevant at best and blasphemous at worst. Although it\u2019s possible to lead a Jew to the Messiah by quoting exclusively from the New Testament, it is wiser to begin with what is already familiar, or at least accepted as Jewish, that is, the Old Testament, or Tanakh.
\nIn this chapter, then, I will outline some premises from the Tanakh that you can share with your Jewish neighbor once you have established yourself as a credible friend.<\/p>\n
Premise 1: God Loves the Jewish People<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all familiar with the carrot-or-stick approach to motivation\u2014reward or punishment. Sometimes both are necessary to get a mule to move, but it certainly seems more humane to try the carrot before resorting to the stick. The same holds true when dealing with people.
\nA boss can motivate his employees to produce quality work through threats and punishment, but the inducement of reward is more inspiring. A teacher can lambaste his students into learning, but in the long run, positive reinforcement is more successful. A parent can harass his or her children into obedience and submission, but loving them into the proper relationship promotes better behavior.
\nWhen witnessing to the truth of Messiah Yeshua, love will go a lot farther than fear. It is true that fear can motivate, but it also promotes a relationship fraught with mistrust and anxiety. On top of this, Jewish people already struggle with a rather generalized guilt.
\nNo one knows exactly where this guilt comes from. Perhaps from a deep awareness of failing to keep God\u2019s Law. Maybe from millennia of rejection by the rest of the world. Whatever the source, this guilt is a real component of the Jewish psyche today.
\nThe first step, then, in presenting the Gospel in the Old Testament is to let Jewish people know that God indeed loves them. My favorite verse to communicate this truth with is,<\/p>\n
ADONAI didn\u2019t set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people\u2014on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples. Rather, it was because ADONAI loved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors\u2026
\nDeuteronomy 7:7\u20138<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a cost to being chosen. Sometimes it has an expensive price tag. But Jews have learned at least to have a sense of humor about it.
\nIn Fiddler on the Roof, an enjoyable movie and play that gives an inside look at life in the \u201cold\u201d country, Tevye, the papa, takes stock of his life. He has five unmarried daughters, a dry milk cow, a lame horse, plenty of poverty, and to top it off, a more-than-occasional attack from his neighbors, the Cossacks.
\nConsidering his situation, Tevye raises his eyes and looks to heaven. \u201cI know we\u2019re the chosen people, but once in a while can\u2019t you choose someone else for a change?\u201d
\nNearly all Jews have felt like this at one time or another. It\u2019s hard to reconcile the reality of the Holocaust with a loving God who chose us. We\u2019ll deal with that question later, but in spite of all the pain, it\u2019s necessary for your Jewish neighbor to know that God uniquely chose and especially loves the Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Premise 2: Sin Has Broken the Love Relationship Between God and Israel<\/p>\n
\u201cO.K., O.K.,\u201d your Jewish neighbor relents, \u201cGod chose me and loves me. So kindly explain all the suffering the Jewish people have had to endure. And what about my problems, while you\u2019re at it?\u201d
\nToday, most Jewish people\u2014most people, for that matter\u2014have done their best to ignore the question of sin. Psychologists use terms like aberrant conduct or socially unacceptable behavior. Some groups, like the T.M. people, blame stress and strain. Others avoid the subject of sin by promoting the relativism of morality. Many have abandoned traditional moral values, and replaced them with new ideas.
\nA Bible believer knows that sin is the source of humankind\u2019s problems and that there is a need to return to the biblical explanation of man\u2019s bad behavior. The prophet Isaiah recognized sin to be the problem in Israel\u2019s relationship to God:<\/p>\n
It is your own crimes that separate you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he doesn\u2019t hear.
\nIsaiah 59:2<\/p>\n
Without a relationship with God, one cannot experience peace and fulfillment. Because of sin, Israel in general and your Jewish neighbor in particular experience broken relationships with a loving God. But in his mercy, God has made provision.<\/p>\n
Premise 3: God\u2019s Solution to the Sin Problem is Messiah\u2019s Sacrifice<\/p>\n
In the Garden of Eden, or as Jewish people say, Gan Eden, Adam and Eve sinned. Previous to their sin, the Lord God had said,<\/p>\n
You may freely eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.
\nGenesis 2:16\u201317<\/p>\n
Here, at the beginning of human history, God made it plain that it was essential that his people heed his Word. Humankind, however, failed to listen. Sin exacted a price; that price had to be paid. But God had anticipated that failure and provided a system of substitutionary atonement to cover the penalty for human sin.
\nIn the Garden of Eden, an animal provided \u201cgarments of skin for Adam and his wife\u201d after they sinned (Genesis 3:21). The animal\u2019s skin covered their shame. A substitutionary death was needed.
\nLater, in the Torah, God provided an elaborate sacrificial system for his people Israel, anticipating their failure to obey the Mosaic Law. Again, blood was to be shed for the sins of his people:<\/p>\n
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves \u2026
\nLeviticus 17:11<\/p>\n
In his infinite wisdom, God realized that his people would not live up to his standards for them. But in his infinite mercy, he made provision for his people\u2019s sins through substitutionary, or vicarious, atonement. This is an example of the \u201clife for a life\u201d principle. Because of sin, something had to die.
\nGod repeatedly provided atonement. Yet the final provision for the sin of Israel and for the world would entail a more costly, more dramatic display of love. This is what \u201cJesus died for our sins \u201cmeans. He provided atonement\u2014at-one-ment\u2014a restored relationship with God. His death is the provision for sin.
\nThese three premises provide the basis for presenting the Gospel to your Jewish neighbor from the Old Testament.<\/p>\n
Premise 1 God loves the Jewish people
\nPremise 2 Sin has broken the relationship between God and Israel.
\nPremise 3 God\u2019s solution to the sin problem is Messiah\u2019s sacrifice.<\/p>\n
All you need to do now is to show how Yeshua became the ultimate sacrifice offered by God to provide atonement, reconciliation, and restoration between God and his people, Israel. For this, we need to look at the subject known as Messianic prophecy.<\/p>\n
\u20146\u2014<\/p>\n
MESSIANIC
\nPROPHECY<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says that in my Bible?\u201d<\/p>\n
People love prophecy! Tabloids flank the supermarket checkout lines announcing the predictions of men and women who claim to have the gift of prophecy. A new Christian book appears every month, or so it seems, with the latest on the future. Whether these forecasts turn out to be right or wrong, readers are still drawn to them and remain titillated by the possibility of supernatural foreknowledge.
\nIn the Bible, God used prophecy to admonish his people about their present sinful behavior and warn them of the consequences. At times, prophecy foretold the future usually in connection with these warnings. Other times it was a message of hope focusing on the coming Messiah.
\nCould there have been any information more significant for the Israelites than the details of the one yet to come, the one who would rescue Israel from an often desperate situation? Nothing captured the imagination and longing of the Jews more powerfully than the hope of the coming Messiah.
\nGod presented his people with a portrait of the Anointed One, the Messiah. This portrait was painted in the brushstrokes of what we call Messianic prophecy\u2014predictions about the coming Messiah.
\nI saw a book once that claimed to have discovered as many as 333 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Those who offer Messianic prophecy when witnessing to Jewish people, however, don\u2019t usually deal with more than a dozen selections of Scripture. This chapter will highlight the most effective and most commonly used Messianic prophecies so that you may better understand how to incorporate these portions of Scripture when sharing with your Jewish neighbor.
\nWhen I conduct seminars for churches and groups, I\u2019m asked many of the same questions. One that invariably crops up is, \u201cIf these Messianic prophecies are so clear, why don\u2019t the Jewish people believe them and recognize their Messiah? \u201cThe answer may surprise you.
\nMost Jewish people have never seen Messianic prophecies!
\n\u201cHow can this be,\u201d I\u2019m asked, \u201cwhen they\u2019re right there in the Old Testament? \u201cWhile it is true that the prophecies that point to Jesus\/Yeshua can be found in the Tanakh, it is also true, as I said before, that most Jews have never read the Old Testament.
\nIn the past, rabbis, in their desire to protect their people from straying, would prohibit the reading of Christian literature. Due to the tremendous persecution against Jews in the name of Jesus, the leaders of the Jewish people didn\u2019t want their flocks to be seduced by what appeared to be an anti-Jewish religion. To ensure loyalty and to prevent curiosity, Messianic prophecies were deliberately eliminated from the traditional weekly Bible readings.
\nOne can appreciate the intentions of the rabbis. Considering their wish to hold their people together, this protective approach is understandable. They were using the limited light they had. Unfortunately, this approach denied the full Word of God to the people of Israel, much the same way Catholics were kept from reading the Bible for many centuries.
\nMessianic prophecy is something with which few Jews are familiar. Furthermore, since the doctrine of the Messiah has fallen from prominence in Judaism, mention of Messianic prophecy is omitted from most Jewish religious schools. Ninety-nine percent of Jewish people have never heard the expression,\u201d Messianic prophecy.\u201d It\u2019s usually a Christian who brings up the issue of Messianic prophecy.
\nThe fact is, however, that Messianic prophecy was given by God so that his people might know about the coming Messiah, that they would await the arrival of their king, and that they would recognize him at his birth.
\nProphecy is part of God\u2019s Word and can accomplish the purposes for which it was given, namely, to point Jewish people to Yeshua, the Messiah.
\nIt\u2019s good to know, also, that it\u2019s not just Christians who considered these portions of Scripture to be Messianic and predictive in nature. They were considered Messianic by the rabbis of old. This information is compiled and available in books, both from Jewish and Christian writers.
\nThe writings of the rabbis often refer to these very same prophecies as Messianic. But only observant Jews, a small part of the Jewish population, read these writings. \u201cChristian\u201d anti-Semitism has persuaded Jewish scholars to attribute other interpretations to many of these Messianic passages.
\nTrue believers in Yeshua can break through the walls built up because of the horrendous history of Church\/synagogue relations. With love, armed with Messianic prophecies, it can be done.<\/p>\n
Establish the Role of the Prophet<\/p>\n
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses\u2014these are some of the biblical names with which the Jewish community is comfortable. But Haggai, Zephaniah, Amos, and Micah are not so familiar. Jewish people don\u2019t think much about the prophets of Israel and rarely read what they had to say.
\nWhen prophets are discussed, they are usually seen in the role of social reformers. But the prophets of ancient Israel performed another important role, as stated earlier. Their prophecies often pointed to the Messiah. These men were chosen not just to call the people of Israel back to God; they were selected to predict some very important future events.
\nThe Lord created the office of prophet and gave the job description in the Torah:<\/p>\n
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I order him. Whoever doesn\u2019t listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, will have to account for himself to me.
\nDeuteronomy 18:18\u201319<\/p>\n
The office of prophet was established because the children of Israel could not bear to hear the voice of God directly. God understood this and accommodated them, but the accommodation had some rules.
\nIf a person spoke in the name of God, but was not really a prophet, he was to die:<\/p>\n
But if a prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name which I didn\u2019t order him to say, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet must die.
\nDeuteronomy 18:20<\/p>\n
The test for authenticity hinged upon the accuracy of the prediction:<\/p>\n
When a prophet speaks in the name of ADONAI, and the prediction does not come true\u2014that is, the word is not fulfilled\u2014then ADONAI did not speak that word. The prophet who said it spoke presumptuously; you have nothing to fear from him.
\nDeuteronomy 18:22<\/p>\n
True prophets foretold future events because God wanted his people to know about them. For Israel, nothing was more important than the coming Messiah. Who would he be? How would he come? Where would he be born? When would he arrive? Finally, what would he do?<\/p>\n
Some Useful Messianic Prophecies<\/p>\n
The Suffering Servant, Isaiah 53<\/p>\n
Without question, the Messianic prophecy that has had the greatest impact on Jewish people has been Isaiah 53. I remember vividly the day I was first shown the portrait of the sinless suffering servant of God.
\nI had been attending a Bible study conducted by Dan Rigney the missionary with the cowboy boots. Dan was now teaching from the book of Isaiah. The first chapter mentions sin and cleansing:<\/p>\n
Even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; even if they are red as crimson, they will be like wool.
\nIsaiah 1:18<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat sins?!\u201d I challenged. Espousing the teachings of T.M., I continued. \u201cMy problems aren\u2019t caused by sin; they\u2019re caused by stress and strain.\u201d
\nI was ignorant about sin; remember, it\u2019s not a hot topic for rabbinic sermons, so I hadn\u2019t heard much about it. But I had begun to feel more convinced about sin in my life, even though I didn\u2019t knowingly accept the standards of God\u2019s Law. The Word of God was having its way on my heart.
\nOne night at the Bible study, Dan opened his Bible and asked us to turn to Isaiah 53. There, right before me, was a vivid description of someone who gave his life to atone for the sins of his people. Following the lesson, Dan asked me for my comments. \u201cThat was nice\u201d, I remarked coolly, \u201cand I\u2019d love to believe it, but you\u2019ve obviously taken some New Testament portion and stuck it in the Old Testament. Anyone can see that those verses are talking about Jesus!\u201d I felt tricked.
\nI turned to the front of the Bible and pointed to where it indicated that he had been reading from the King James Version of Scripture. Definitely, this was not a Jewish version.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll have to check out those verses in my own Jewish Bible,\u201d I argued. But where was my Bible? I hadn\u2019t seen it since the day of my Bar Mitzvah, when I stopped observing many of the practices of Judaism.
\nI drove over to my parents\u2019 home, trotted down the steps to the recreation room, and found my old Bible on top of the bookshelf. Reaching up, I removed it, blew off the dust, and hunted for Isaiah 53. There, to my shock, I found the very same words I had read in the \u201cChristian\u201d Bible. I felt as if a bolt of lightning were shooting through me as I realized Jesus\/Yeshua was the one of whom Isaiah had spoken.
\nMy parents and their friends were upstairs playing bridge. Taking the steps two at a time, I waved my open Bible and cried, \u201cI\u2019ve found the Messiah!\u201d Strange, I thought, no one seemed to appreciate the significance of my discovery. In fact, from the look on everyone\u2019s face, I think I may have ruined their evening.
\nBut I was now convinced that Yeshua was the Messiah. Isaiah 53 got to me.
\nWhen you read the Scripture\u2019s description of the suffering servant, you see a man going quietly to his death in order to pay for the sins of his people. You watch a man die with criminals, yet get buried with the rich. You learn about one who would be sinless, yet bear the sins of many, performing an intercessory role. You discover that the Lord was pleased to sacrifice this person as a guilt offering\u2014one who would see his seed after his death. It is a picture of the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.
\nIn ancient times, the rabbis taught that this portion of Scripture spoke of the Messiah. In order to reconcile a Messiah who would die and then reign as king, they offered a two-Messiah theory to explain the dual role the Messiah would have. Mashiach Ben-Yosef (Messiah Son of Joseph) and Mashiach Ben-David (Messiah Son of David) were the names given to these \u201ctwo\u201d Messiahs.
\nThe first, in the likeness of Joseph, Jacob\u2019s beloved son who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, would bear the sins of his people. The second, in the spirit of King David, would reign over Israel. Isaiah 53 was the portion used to explain the sacrificial role of the Messiah. And, as we will see in a moment, the prophet Zechariah foretold his rule as king.
\nIsaiah 53 does not require a great deal of interpretation. The portrait is painted clearly enough for those with eyes to see:<\/p>\n
People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt of all of us.\u2026 Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners, while actually bearing the sin of many and interceding for the offenders.
\nIsaiah 53:3\u20136, 12<\/p>\n
The present-day rabbinic interpretation of this passage is that it describes Israel, not the Messiah. This interpretation was first suggested around 1100 C.E. by Rashi, the great rabbi. At that time, there was severe persecution of Jews by \u201cChristians.\u201d These \u201cChristians\u201d held that Isaiah 53 pertained to Messiah. Therefore, Rashi interpreted this passage so it was no longer considered Messianic, lest some of his people \u201cmistakenly\u201d end up following the \u201cenemy.\u201d By the 1500s, a non-Messianic interpretation had been established.
\nIt is true that Jewish people have suffered greater atrocities than perhaps any other single group on the face of the earth; nevertheless, Isaiah 53 is clearly not talking about Israel. It can\u2019t be. Try substituting Israel each time the prophet speaks of the \u201cservant\u201d or \u201che\u201d or \u201chim.\u201d It simply won\u2019t work. The plain sense of the text does not support the modern Jewish interpretation of the passage. It has to be talking about a person.
\nWhen Philip (the evangelist) was traveling from Jerusalem to Gaza along an old desert road, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, most likely a proselyte to Judaism (Acts 8:26\u201340).
\nThe eunuch \u201chad been to Yerushalayim [Jerusalem] to worship\u201d and was sitting in his carriage, reading the prophet Isaiah. God told Philip,\u201cGo over to this chariot\u2026\u201d The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53. Puzzled, he said to Philip, a Jewish believer in Messiah, \u201cHere\u2019s my question to you\u2014is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?\u201d (Acts 8:34)
\nPhilip got a chance to share about Yeshua with his \u201cneighbor.\u201d The eunuch was so excited to find the Messiah that he showed his commitment by immediately getting immersed.
\nRecently I shared Isaiah 53 with a member of my family. I didn\u2019t reveal to whom I thought it referred. After reading the portion, my Jewish relative said, \u201cBut this doesn\u2019t say the Jews killed Jesus, does it?\u201d She knew it referred to Messiah\u2019s death. She was struggling with the anti-Semitic lie that the Jews killed the Messiah.
\nWhen I told her it certainly did not say that the Jews killed Jesus, but instead indicated that God was pleased with the sacrifice of the suffering servant, she felt better. Imagine her surprise when I pointed out that it had been written 700 years before Messiah was born. Before we departed she asked, \u201cWhere was that portion of Scripture, again?\u201d
\nWithout a doubt, Isaiah 53 is the most compelling of all the Messianic prophecies, describing the mission of the coming Messiah. Isaiah is not the only prophet to describe the work of the Messiah. While he does give the clearest account of the substitutionary role\u2014that of \u201cMessiah Son of Joseph\u201d\u2014the role of the reigning King, \u201cMessiah Son of David\u201d is vividly presented to us by the prophet Zechariah.<\/p>\n
The Conquering King, Zechariah 12\u201314<\/p>\n
Never before in the history of the world has the prophecy of Zechariah been more timely. Today we find Israel gathered in her own land, surrounded by hostile nations, outnumbered 100 to 1, unpopular with much of the rest of the world. One can almost see Zechariah\u2019s prophecy coming to pass, as if we were \u201cin that day.\u201d
\nThe setting for the prophecy is a day of danger for Israel. The beginnings of both chapter 12 and chapter 14 describe a time of enormous peril, with all the nations of the world gathered together to destroy Jerusalem. But in that day, God promised to save his people.
\nThe Lord warns that anyone who attacks Jerusalem will be severely hurt, for she will be a heavy stone to lift. Imagine the strain felt by a man who attempts to lift a weight heavier than he is able to bear. You can hear the anguish and see the grimace etched upon his face. You can feel the muscles of his back strain to the limit as the burden proves to be too much. Picturing this, we can under stand the pain the hostile nations will suffer as they try in vain to budge God\u2019s fortress, Jersualem.
\nThen, when the attack against Israel is at its worst, and it is apparent that no other nations can or will help her, Israel will call upon God for help. He will then pour out his Spirit upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, giving \u201ca spirit of grace and prayer.\u201d This outpouring will cause the Jewish people to \u201clook to me, whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son\u201d (Zechariah 12:10). No one can recognize the truth of the Messiah unless it is revealed by the Spirit of God. Here, \u201cin that day,\u201d when the Spirit is poured out, all of Israel will have open eyes, eyes to know the Messiah.
\nIn that day, when all the nations gather themselves against Jerusalem, God himself will go forth and fight on behalf of his people. His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:3) and he will rebuff those who have dared to attack God\u2019s chosen people. The Mount of Olives is the site where Messiah wept over Jerusalem, lamenting the suffering his people would undergo because of their refusal to trust him (Matthew 23:37). It is the place from which he ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50). It is also the place where he will return (Zechariah 14:4).
\nZechariah 13:1 promises, \u201ca spring will be opened up for the house of David and the people living in Yerushalayim to cleanse them from sin and impurity.\u201d In that day, cleansing for Israel will be found in the sacrifice of the Messiah.
\nIn that day, living water will flow from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:8). The promise of spiritual life will issue from the heart of God. Yeshua, talking to the woman at the well, informed her that he was the source of that living water (John 4:14).
\nFinally, those nations that remain following the attack on Israel (these will be individuals who have sided with God) will go up to Jerusalem year after year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts. Complete now will be the Messiah\u2019s final mission; accomplished will be his ultimate goal\u2014to reign as king over all the earth.
\nThese prophecies in Zechariah have not yet been fulfilled. All the nations of the world have not yet turned against Israel. The Spirit has not yet been poured out upon the Jewish people. The Messiah has not yet returned to the Mount of Olives.
\nThus, the two roles of the Messiah are clearly seen in these two Messianic prophecies. The first, that of suffering servant\u2014Messiah Son of Joseph\u2014is depicted in Isaiah 53. The second role, that of conquering king\u2014Messiah Son of David\u2014is described in Zechariah 12\u201314. These two powerful passages of Messianic prophecy can persuade Jewish people that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. And there are many more that support this conclusion.<\/p>\n
The Entering King, Zechariah 9:9<\/p>\n
Zechariah 9:9 tells us by what means of transportation the Messiah would come to Jerusalem. He would ride on a young donkey. This paints a curious picture. One might think the Messiah would enter the city where he would one day reign on different transportation.
\nOrdinarily, a king would enter a city sitting grandly astride a war horse, both horse and rider armored for battle. This exhibit of strength and power was designed to intimidate his foes. We see this done today when nations participate in military exercises to show others their might.
\nThe Messiah would come on a young donkey because his was a mission of peace, not conquest. Matthew 21:2\u20136 describes the fulfillment of this prophecy as Messiah rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in \u201ctriumphal entry.\u201d His was a display of meekness, not of might.<\/p>\n
The Everlasting King, 2 Samuel 7:12\u201317<\/p>\n
This portion of Scripture accomplishes two things at once. It prophesies that a son of King David would reign over Israel and that the Kingdom under David\u2019s rule would endure forever.
\nDavid\u2019s life was drawing to its close. God had sent Nathan the prophet to the king to offer him a promise of hope in his declining years. Speaking of Solomon, Nathan said:<\/p>\n
When your days come to an end and you sleep with your ancestors, I will establish one of your descendants to succeed you, one of your own flesh and blood; and I will set up his rulership. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever.
\n2 Samuel 7:12\u201313<\/p>\n
Solomon did indeed \u201cbuild a house for [God\u2019s] name,\u201d but Solomon did not live or rule forever. How, then, was the throne of his kingdom to continue eternally, especially given the fact that Solomon\u2019s Temple was eventually destroyed and that Israel no longer crowns kings? The answer is through the Messiah. This son, this descendant of David, would ultimately establish an everlasting kingdom.
\nThe genealogies of Messiah show that he was, in fact, a descendant of David. The first chapter of Matthew traces his heritage from Abraham, to David, to Joseph, his adoptive father, proving that he was legal heir to the promises given Abraham and David. Luke 3 gives Mary\u2019s (Miryam\u2019s) genealogy, again showing Messiah\u2019s descent from David.
\nFurthermore, after Yeshua\u2019s death and ascension into heaven he took his seat \u201cat the right hand of HaG\u2019dulah [the majesty] in heaven\u201d (Hebrews 8:1). Relevation 1:5 records John\u2019s declaration that Yeshua is \u201cruler of the kings of the earth.\u201d
\nYeshua\/Jesus was the son of David, the everlasting king.<\/p>\n
The Miraculous Birth of the Messiah, Isaiah 7:14<\/p>\n
Most Christians are familiar with the often-quoted Christmas prophecy:<\/p>\n
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:23, KJV<\/p>\n
Matthew, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, considers this prophecy, given to Isaiah, to have found its fulfillment in the miraculous birth of the Messiah. You need to be aware, however, that you may get some argument from your Jewish friend about the use of the word translated as \u201cthe virgin,\u201d ha\u2019alma. Technically, alma means \u201cyoung woman\u201d; there is another Hebrew word, betulah, that specifically means \u201cvirgin.\u201d
\nIsaiah 7:14 is a valid and usable Messianic prophecy, but unless you engage in detailed study of the nature of this verse, it might be best to avoid it until you do. Scholars still disagree as to how Messiah\u2019s birth was a fulfillment of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy.
\nHowever, it might help your Jewish neighbor if you point out that God used miraculous births in the creation of the Jewish people. The \u201cbirths\u201d of Adam and Eve were miracles. The wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all barren until God opened their wombs to bring forth the children of Israel.
\nIt should come as no surprise that he used a miraculous birth to save his people, too. Bringing the Messiah through a virgin is perfectly consistent with the way the Almighty worked in times past. After all, as one eminent Jewish scholar said to me, \u201cA virgin birth is a garden-variety miracle for God. After all, didn\u2019t he create the entire world?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Messiah\u2019s Incredible Name, Isaiah 9:6<\/p>\n
The verse we just discussed, Isaiah 7:14, is found in a section that has been referred to as the \u201cBook of Emmanuel. This rich portion of the book of Isaiah includes another great Messianic prophecy, Isaiah 9:6 (9:5 in Jewish bibles):<\/p>\n
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Pele-Yo\u2018etz El Gibbor Avi-\u2018Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace].<\/p>\n
This phenomenal prophecy describes the Messianic reign and attributes of the little baby who was later born in Bethlehem. No Jew in history could be described with these names, no Jew except Yeshua, the Messiah.<\/p>\n
The Time of Messiah\u2019s Coming, Daniel 9:24\u201327<\/p>\n
Soon after I was first confronted with the message of the Messiah, I struggled with a dilemma. I found myself beginning to believe the Gospel. This frightened me, because I knew if I professed belief in Jesus, it would change the course of he rest of my life.
\nI was still studying and practicing Transcendental Meditation, still expecting to become a teacher of this technique. Suddenly Yeshua entered the picture. If he was really the Messiah, I\u2019d have to regroup, retrain, and redirect my life. It was a terrifying thought.
\nOn top of this, I already suspected that although my parents and friends might not disown me, they certainly would disassociate from me. To some extent this happened. (This is not unusual for Jewish believers, but you should know that relationships with my family, after going through some upheaval, have become better than ever. I tell you this so you might help your Jewish neighbour deal with his or her possible fears.)
\nIt was Thursday, the night of Dan Rigney\u2019s Bible study. Instead of continuing in Isaiah, we turned to Daniel. I felt a bit relieved, thinking that I was finally on familiar ground. Daniel, after all, was the one from the lion\u2019s den and the fiery furnace, the Daniel I had learned about when I was a child. I didn\u2019t know anything about Isaiah.
\nWhat I didn\u2019t know was that God had revealed to Daniel the precise timing of the coming of his Messiah. Wow! I thought as we entered into a study of Daniel 9. This will really clinch it for me. Verse 24 talked about a certain amount of time, after which the Messiah would come, transgression would be finished, iniquity would be atoned for, everlasting righteousness would be brought in, and an anointing (that\u2019s like saying a \u201cMessiah-ing\u201d) of the most holy place would occur.
\nVerse 26 knocked me over. It said that in connection with this period the Messiah would be cut off\u2014killed. Then, after the Messiah\u2019s death, the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Temple) would be destroyed. Both Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 C.E.! That meant the Messiah had to have died before 70 C.E
\nDaniel 9 immediately brought me one step closer in making a decision to believe. But something else hit me at exactly the same time. If all this was as clear as it seemed to me, then why didn\u2019t the rabbis see it? I figured that I\u2019d better get myself over to a rabbi before I fell for something that wasn\u2019t true. I realized that either my fellow Jews had, for the most part, missed the Messiah, or all my Christian friends were following a lie. I had to know.
\nSince I didn\u2019t really know any rabbis personally, I trekked over to my folks\u2019 house to find out if they did. My dad referred me to a rabbi in downtown Washington, D.C. I set up an appointment to talk with him. Bringing a Bible into his office I asked, \u201cRabbi, would you please explain to me the \u2018Jewish\u2019 interpretation of Daniel chapter 9?\u201d
\nHis response jolted me. \u201cI advise you,\u201d he said, \u201cnot to study the Bible. When you do you get all confused.\u201d
\n\u201cBut Rabbi,\u201d I protested, \u201cdon\u2019t you believe in God?\u201d
\nI will always remember his response. \u201cGod,\u201d he mused, \u201cis a good hypothesis!\u201d
\nI was shocked. When I left his office, I was so disoriented I couldn\u2019t find my car. I knew what I needed\u2014a rabbi who truly believed in God and accepted the Bible as his Word. But I didn\u2019t know any Orthodox rabbis whom I could contact.
\nWhen I went to work the next day, a strange \u201ccoincidence\u201d occurred. The front door opened and in walked a man I had never seen before. He had a long white beard and the dark clothing that identified him as an Orthodox rabbi. I just about jumped on him.
\n\u201cRabbi, I must study with you!\u201d I cried out.
\n\u201cDo you want to be a rabbi?\u201d he asked.
\nI shook my head. \u201cI don\u2019t know, I just want to know the truth.\u201d
\nThe kind rabbi invited me to his home to study with him, and I did so for several months. When I asked him about Daniel 9 he simply said that he was not allowed to study that portion of Scripture, for it calculated the time of the coming of Messiah.
\n\u201cSo,\u201d I said, \u201cwhy can\u2019t you study that?\u201d
\nHe looked solemn. \u201cThe Talmud forbids us to calculate the coming of the Messiah.\u201d This, he explained, was to prevent speculation and possible loss of faith should the Messiah not come at the calculated time.
\nNow I was convinced. If the old rabbi was right\u2014that the verses in Daniel foretold the coming of the Messiah\u2014and if the calculations I had already made were correct, Yeshua had to be the Messiah.
\nIn sharing with your Jewish neighbor, it is not always necessary to go into great detail concerning these calculations. Often it is enough to show that there is a time period that concludes with the death of the Messiah (for the purpose of putting an end to iniquity) and that this time period is to be completed before the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E
\nDaniel 9, like Isaiah 53, is one of the most powerful of the Messianic prophecies.<\/p>\n
The Messiah\u2019s Birthplace, Micah 5:2<\/p>\n
Not only did God reveal why, how and when the Messiah would come, he also was specific about where he would be born. Micah 5:2 (5:1 in Jewish Bibles) reads:<\/p>\n
But you, Beit-Lechem near Efrat, so small among the clans of Y\u2019hudah, out of you will come forth to me the future ruler of Isra\u2019el, whose origins are far in the past, back in ancient times.<\/p>\n
God chose a humble town for Messiah\u2019s birth\u2014Bethlehem, the city of David.
\nMatthew refers to this verse in chapter 2 of his Gospel. When Herod gathered the chief priests and Scribes together and asked them where the Messiah was to be born, they quoted Micah 5:2. This prophecy was clearly considered Messianic in the days of Yeshua.<\/p>\n
The Messiah\u2019s New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31\u201333<\/p>\n
Jewish people might challenge you about the New Testament: \u201cWhere were we told that we needed another Testament? Isn\u2019t one enough?\u201d The answer to this question can be found in Jeremiah 31:31\u201333.
\nThrough Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant to his people, different from the former covenant, the Mosaic covenant. Under the new covenant God promised to write his Law on the hearts of his people instead of just writing it on tablets of stone.
\nDuring his final Passover with his disciples, Messiah referred to the cup of wine he handed them to drink as the \u201cnew covenant\u201d in his blood (Luke 22:20). When a person trusts the Messiah, the Law is written on his heart\u2014a Law that also includes forgiveness for sin because of his perfect sacrifice.
\nThis is not to imply that it\u2019s wrong to keep the commandments, even the very letter of the Law. The Law that God gave, extolled at great length in Psalm 119, is holy, just, and good, as Paul said (Romans 6:12). If, however, the Law is kept only externally, with a heart far from God, then observing the Law is less beneficial.
\nHaving a trust relationship with God is the most important aspect of the spiritual life. Because of that relationship, a person will be committed to performing godly deeds. Following God\u2019s ways is a consequence of salvation, not a condition for salvation. I like to say that we strive to follow the law, not for salvation, but from salvation.
\nJeremiah promised that a new covenant would someday shift the observance of God\u2019s Law from an external exercise to an internal instinct. And of course, this is a great blessing, for to follow the ways of God always meant receiving the blessings of God.<\/p>\n
Presenting Messianic Prophecy<\/p>\n
Now that you are armed with prophecies for presenting the Messiah to your Jewish neighbor, let me caution you. It\u2019s very important to be humble, yet firm, in your discussion of these prophetic passages. It\u2019s new and unfamiliar ground for most Jewish people. Further, there has been some valid criticism concerning the way these verses are sometimes used and interpreted.
\nBelievers are accused of lifting verses of Scripture out of their historical context. To some extent that is true. It isn\u2019t that those portions are not Messianic prophecies. They are. But how they are Messianic is not so easily understood.
\nNevertheless, do not hesitate to present Messianic prophecy in your effort to share the Gospel. Messianic prophecies are part of the Word of God and were given to help his people find the Messiah. Many testimonies of Jewish believers include reference to the passages we have examined here. These types of testimonies and more in-depth material on Messianic prophesies are available.<\/p>\n
\u20147\u2014<\/p>\n
SEMANTICS &
\nSENSITIVITIES<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Building Bridges,
\nNot Walls<\/p>\n
I stood in front of a sea of blank faces. It was taking me a while to get the point across to my general semantics class at Howard University.
\n\u201cThe word is not the thing,\u201d I repeated once again. But somehow this basic principle of semantics was not hitting home. \u201cFor instance,\u201d I continued, \u201cthe word dog is not the dog itself. It is only a sound that stands for the animal\u2014a \u2018symbol\u2019; the dog itself is called the referent.\u201d
\nI then asked everyone in the class to draw a picture of a dog. Soon there were pictures of huge dogs and tiny dogs. Black dogs and white dogs. Mean-looking dogs and wimpy little dogs. Someone even drew a hot dog. The exercise finally got the point across. Words can sometimes be a poor form of communication, but they are the tools that we have to work with.
\nIt\u2019s important to understand that, whereas a word may mean one thing to you, it will often convey a different meaning to someone else. In talking to your Jewish neighbor about Jesus, this principle is especially true. The issue is really a matter of \u201cdenotative\u201d and \u201cconnotative\u201d meanings.
\nThe denotative meaning of a word is its original technical meaning. For example, the word water, denotatively, is \u201cH2O.\u201d Water is composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. That\u2019s its denotative meaning.
\nConnotatively, however, water means so much more. It might connote a summer\u2019s vacation at the beach. It might call forth the frustration of bailing out a flooded basement. It might evoke the pleasant memory of guzzling a big glass of it after mowing the lawn.
\nThe word water carries both denotative and connotative meanings. The word water is not the thing itself. This is the nature of semantics. The word is not the thing, it is a symbol that stands for the thing.
\nNowhere is this seen more clearly than in sharing the message of the Messiah with your Jewish neighbor.
\nThe fellow in my Coast Guard Reserve unit witnessed to me using semantically sensitive language. His choice of words arrested my attention and got me to consider what he was saying. As I mentioned earlier, in answer to my question about that elusive peace he seemed to have captured, he smiled and said, \u201cYour Messiah lives in my heart.\u201d
\nHe used the term Messiah, derived from the Hebrew Mashiach, meaning \u201canointed one.\u201d In Greek, the word for anointed is Christos, commonly \u201cChrist.\u201d Messiah and Christ mean exactly the same thing technically, or denotatively. They can both be defined by the single English word anointed. But, connotatively, they convey two entirely different meanings. Here is a classic case where the word is definitely not the thing.
\nTo a Jewish person, Christ is the last name of the Gentile deity. I was surprised at how many non-Jewish Christians think that, too. To a Jewish person, Christ conducted the Crusades, invoked the Inquisition, and prompted the persecution of Jews over the last twenty centuries. To a Jewish person, Christ is the first part of the term used by those who accuse Jews of deicide \u201cChrist-killers!\u201d
\nIf that fellow in the Coast Guard had told me that \u201cChrist lived in his heart,\u201dit would have meant something entirely different to me. I would have thought to myself, \u201cWell, that\u2019s nice for you. You\u2019re supposed to believe that stuff. But it\u2019s got nothing to do with me. Maybe I should consider how to have more of Moses in my heart.\u201d
\nHis whole point would have been lost because he did not use semantically sensitive language. Connotatively, in the mind of a Jewish person, Christ does not equal Messiah. Jewish people are more comfortable with the term Messiah, even though most Jews don\u2019t embrace a Messianic hope. (More on that in Section III.)
\nSo, if you\u2019re talking about the anointed one, the Christ, why not say it the Jewish way\u2014Messiah! It makes for more effective communication.
\nChristians use other semantically \u201cloaded\u201d terms in witnessing. Some terminology can be replaced with language that is less offensive, less ambiguous, and still makes the same point \u2026 only better.
\nThe apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers, \u201cDo not be an obstacle to anyone\u2014not to the Jews, not to Gentiles, and not to God\u2019s Messianic Community [Church]\u201d (1 Corinthians 10:32) and \u201c\u2026what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews\u201d (1 Corinthians 9:20). Even though he was writing to a Gentile church, he was quick to advise them about effective communication.
\nAll groups develop a jargon, a unique way of saying something. Those who conform to the ways the group uses the jargon are considered the \u201cin group.\u201d Those who don\u2019t are considered \u201cout.\u201d It is certainly not your goal to shut the door on your Jewish neighbor, making him or her feel excluded from the family of God. Instead, you want to use language to draw the person in, to truly communicate all that God has offered in Yeshua.
\nWords are the tools God has given us for communication. How much more effective we can be with skilled use of this precious tool!
\nI urge you to consider learning and using those words that are less offensive to Jews and that, at the same time, may more clearly communicate biblical truth. You will not just become a better communicator; you will also gain a new perspective on many of the doctrines of the faith.
\nThe following list contains words that can be either confusing or objectionable to Jewish people. I have also attempted to explain the reason for suggesting the change.<\/p>\n
Semantic Substitutes for a Sensitive Witness<\/p>\n
1. Instead of using the description Christian, say Messianic, biblical or scriptural.
\nTo a Jewish person, the adjective Christian does not describe a follower of the Messiah of Israel. It means someone who is a non-Jewish church-goer, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. It makes little difference if the person is \u201cborn again\u201d or is even practicing the Christian faith. Being Jewish is a matter of birth, not choice. Therefore, being Christian is also seen as a matter of birth, not choice.
\nMessianic or biblical has the same meaning and communicates something Jewish.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cThat was not a very biblical thing to do,\u201d instead of, \u201cThat was not a Christian thing to do.\u201d Or, \u201cWe follow the Messianic faith,\u201d rather than, \u201cWe are Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Instead of calling someone a Christian try the term believer.
\nChristian means \u201cone who follows Christ.\u201d To a Jew, Christian is equated with Gentile and has little to do with the Messiah or anything Jewish. That\u2019s why believer or believer in Yeshua is more communicative.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cI am a believer in the Messiah,\u201d instead of, \u201cI am a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Instead of using the word Christ, use the term Messiah.
\nAs explained already, Christ is not understood to mean \u201canointed one\u201d; it is presumed, instead, to be the last name of the Gentile deity. Messiah is a more familiar word to represent the same person.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cI follow Yeshua, the Messiah.\u201d instead of \u201cJesus Christ is my Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Instead of referring to your place of worship as a church, call it a congregation.
\nAlthough Church means \u201ccalled-out body of believers\u201d\u2014Jews and Gentiles\u2014to a Jew, a church is the place Gentiles gather to worship on Sunday. It is not something with which Jews are traditionally involved. A word that can be substituted is congregation since that is what most Jewish people call their place of worship.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cI just came back from services in my congregation,\u201d instead of, \u201cI just came back from church.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. Instead of using the Greek name Jesus, try calling the Messiah by the name he was called by his family and disciples: Yeshua (short for Yehoshua, or Joshua).
\nMany Jewish people have a hard time saying the name Jesus. Many were taught never to utter that name in their homes. Since his followers called him Yeshua, his Hebrew name, rather than Jesus, the Greek rendering of his name, it is acceptable to use his Hebrew name. Both names, one Greek, one Hebrew, denote the same thing\u2014Savior. But connotatively one is Jewish while the other is quite Gentile.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cJoseph and Miryam (you probably know her as Mary) had a son named Yeshua.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. Instead of saying that Jesus died for my sins, try using the phrase atoned for my sins.
\nThe word atonement is more familiar to Jewish people since the Day of Atonement is an annual observance. Yeshua\u2019s sacrifice was the fulfillment of this holy day. The message is clearer if you relate that fact in your witness.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cMessiah Yeshua atoned for my sins,\u201d instead of, \u201cChrist died for my sins.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Instead of referring to the Comforter as the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, use the term Spirit of God.
\nAlthough the title Holy Spirit does appear in the Old Testament (Holy Ghost in the King James Version), to a Jewish ear it rings of Roman Catholicism. It also emphasizes the concept of the Trinity, a difficult idea even for Christians, but especially for Jews, to comprehend. Spirit of God is a term found in Genesis 1:2.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cHe is filled with the Spirit of God,\u201d instead of, \u201cHe is filled with the Holy Ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n
8. Instead of using the word Trinity, use the term composite unity or tri-unity of God.
\nThe term Trinity is not found in Scripture. Coined at the Council of Nicea, it is a man-made attempt to describe the mysterious and unique nature of God; instead, the use of the term Trinity confuses the issue. (See Section IV.)
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cWe believe in the composite unity or tri-unity of God,\u201d instead of, \u201cWe believe in the Trinity.\u201d<\/p>\n
9. Instead of calling the salvation message the Gospel, speak of it as the Good News.
\nTo a Jew, the message of the Gospel has seemed like bad news, not good news. Those bearing the message have often persecuted Jews. It\u2019s good to define the word, since the term Gospel has only negative connotations.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cI am sharing the Good News that the Messiah came to atone for sin,\u201d instead of, \u201cI am a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
10. Instead of celebrating Easter, emphasize the fact that it\u2019s Resurrection Day.
\nEaster connotes eggs, bonnets, parades, and anti-Semitism. As we have already mentioned, the name is derived from that of the pagan goddess Ishtar, and was picked up by the Church centuries ago. It has little to do with the concept of resurrection, which, as we will see in Section IV, is very Jewish.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cWe are attending our Resurrection Day services,\u201d instead of, \u201cWe are going to Easter services.\u201d<\/p>\n
11. Instead of using the word Christmas, why not call it Messiah\u2019s birthday?
\nAgain, the word Christmas is associated with more than just the birth of the Messiah. It connotes tinsel, trees, Santa Claus. These are all pleasant traditions for Gentiles. They do not have much relevance for Jews. But the birth of Messiah is of critical importance to Jewish people.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cHappy Messiah\u2019s birthday,\u201d instead of \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
12. Instead of Pentecost, refer to the holiday as Shavu\u2018ot.
\nThe holyday discussed in Acts 2 was known as Shavu\u2018ot (pronounced Sha-voo-ote). Pentecost is the Greek way of saying it. To Jewish people, when they hear about Pentecost, all they can think about is Pentecostalism and the extremes associated with that movement\u2014snake handling and rolling in the aisles\u2014something to which most Jews can\u2019t relate. But Pentecost was the Jewish holyday Shavu\u2018ot.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cThe believers were gathered for Shavu\u2018ot,\u201d instead of, \u201cThe Christians were gathered for Pentecost.\u201d<\/p>\n
13. Instead of looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ, how about anticipating the return of the Messiah?
\nThink how much more is communicated to Jewish people when you speak of the Messiah\u2019s return in a Jewish way. It puts his return to the Mount of Olives in its proper Jewish context.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cI look forward to the return of the Messiah,\u201d rather than, \u201cI am awaiting the Second Coming of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
14. Instead of calling the second portion of the Holy Scriptures the New Testament, another way to refer to it is the New Covenant or in Hebrew, B\u2019rit Chadashah.
\nAs you learned from the section on Messianic prophecy, God promised the Jewish people that he would make a \u201cnew covenant\u201d with them. This term, in either English or Hebrew, will feel more relevant to your Jewish neighbor. The New Testament is seen as the Gentile portion of the Bible.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cThis is found in the New Covenant,\u201d instead of \u201cthe New Testament.\u201d<\/p>\n
15. Instead of calling the first part of the Bible the Old Testament, say Tanakh or Hebrew Scripture.
\nTo a Jew, the portion of the Bible with which he is familiar is not old (as in decrepit). It is not much older than the Newer Testament. It can be condescending and offensive to call someone\u2019s holy book \u201cold.\u201d
\nTanakh includes Torah (the Five Books of Moses), N\u2019vi\u2019im (the prophets), and K\u2019tuvim (the writings). This T-N-K acronym is how Jewish people refer to the \u201colder\u201d portion of the Bible. However, sometimes, it\u2019s called Torah, expanding the term beyond the five books of Moses.
\nEXAMPLE: \u201cWe are studying the Tanakh,\u201d rather than, \u201cWe are studying the Old Testament.\u201d<\/p>\n
16. Instead of saying baptism, say immersion or mikveh\u2014the ritual purification through bathing.
\nThere are, of course, widely varying opinions among believers as to the prescribed mode of baptism. Nevertheless, for the sake of your Jewish friend or neighbor who cares little for the controversy but for whom the word baptize carries unpleasant connotations, why not substitute the word immerse? Regardless of your personal feelings about the preferred mode of baptism, it will identification with him.
\nIf you will recall what I shared with you about the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, you will understand why \u201cbaptism\u201d is a sensitive word today. In Spain, Jews were forced to be baptized. It wasn\u2019t in response to true faith; it was the result of forced compliance.
\nThe true origin of the act of baptizing goes back to the Jewish traditions associated with symbolic cleansing, today called mikveh. John the \u201cImmerser\u201d put his followers through this ceremony so they could symbolize their identification with his message and show their internal conviction to turn from sin. In like manner, being immersed in the name of Yeshua means identifying with his message.
\nEXAMPLE: Instead of saying, \u201cI\u2019ve just been baptized,\u201d say, \u201cI\u2019ve been immersed to show my identification with the Messiah.\u201d<\/p>\n
17. Instead of saying cross, say tree or altar or even execution stake.
\nAlthough the cross represents the culmination of Yeshua\u2019s earthly ministry, people have ruined the real meaning of love that was demonstrated there. Instead of seeing the cross as the site of salvation, Jews now view it as a place of persecution. As we saw earlier, the cross is regarded with fear by Jewish people.
\nEXAMPLE: Instead of saying, \u201cJesus died on the cross for sin,\u201d say, \u201cYeshua atoned for sin on the execution stake.\u201d<\/p>\n
18. Instead of saying conversion, say completion or repentance.
\nThe Bible uses the term conversion to mean turning away from sin and toward God. But in our society, conversion has come to mean changing religions. When a Jew accepts Yeshua, he does not change religions, but he does turn from sin and toward God.
\nEXAMPLE: Instead of saying \u201cconverted Jew\u201d, say \u201ccompleted Jew\u201d, \u201crepentant Jew\u201d or even \u201cMessianic Jew\u201d\u2014a term used by Jewish believers.<\/p>\n
This list is by no means exhaustive. But it offers you the prime examples of words and phrases that can be modified to bring the Good News of Salvation closer to the heart of your Jewish neighbor. By making these small adjustments in speech, you will not only be taking into account the connotative meanings of these emotionally charged words, but you will also gain further insight into the Jewish roots of your own faith.
\nNow that you\u2019re familiar with Messianic terminology, why don\u2019t we put into practice what you\u2019ve just learned? We will use Messianic terminology exclusively throughout the rest of the book. It will give you an opportunity to feel more comfortable using this sensitized language.<\/p>\n
SECTION III<\/p>\n
The Audience: Your Jewish Neighbor<\/p>\n
A friend of mine used to sell jewelry. Once, when we were discussing ways to communicate the message of the Messiah more effectively, she said that in sales the words she lived by were \u201cKnow your customer!\u201d I can affirm that this is true because of a transaction I had with a car salesman.
\nIt was time for us to buy a new car. Steffi was still driving the Volvo we had purchased right after getting married in 1975. Although we finally contributed the car to an organization that repaired older vehicles and gave them to Russian Jewish immigrants, she needed something more suited to her life as a suburbanite with two children who have lots of friends and places to go.
\nWe decided to check out the new mini-vans and headed for our nearest dealer. Four years earlier, I had purchased a car at that very place; it was the car we were now trading in on the van. I still remembered the salesman who had persuaded me to spend thousands of dollars on that little car. He was an m.o.t., a member of the tribe. In other words, he was Jewish.
\nAn unusual thing about this particular dealership is that it is owned and run predominantly by Arabs. But they have a few Jewish salesmen and it was one of these who had helped me purchase the car. This same salesman approached us now as we returned to buy the van.
\nI was impressed that he remembered my name. \u201cMr. and Mrs. Rubin, how nice to see you again! How are your two lovely daughters?\u201d
\nI liked him! Right away, I was ready to buy! I still can\u2019t figure out how he remembered our names. Do they keep photos of customers and spend each morning memorizing faces? How do they do it?
\nAnyway, the man had taken pains to \u201cknow his customer.\u201d
\nThis is a basic principle of all good communication. In classes on public speaking and persuasion, the importance of \u201caudience analysis\u201d is always stressed.
\nFew examples of this stand out more than John F. Kennedy\u2019s Ich bin ein Berliner speech. Sensing the need to identify with his German audience, Kennedy spoke in German, referring to himself as their fellow countryman. As a result, he brought the house down. He knew his audience and identified with them. They loved him.
\nThis section will introduce you to your Jewish neighbors. You may know their names. You may know the names of their children. You may even have established a comfortable relationship, sharing some of the intimate details of your lives. But there\u2019s always room to learn more, right?
\nI hope these chapters will dispel some common misconceptions you might have about Jewish people and help you better understand Jewish history, religion, culture, and values.
\nSo here goes. Let me introduce you to your Jewish neighbor!<\/p>\n
\u20148\u2014<\/p>\n
MISCONCEPTIONS
\nABOUT
\nJEWISH PEOPLE<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
All Jews
\nAren\u2019t Created Equal<\/p>\n
Stereotypes can be easily etched in one\u2019s mind and can be quite damaging. Stereotypes about blacks, about women, about the elderly, and even about children have caused serious problems in our society.
\nStereotypes about Jews present another unique problem. They have precipitated a situation that has seriously hampered the spread of the Good News among God\u2019s chosen people.
\nIn this chapter I hope to dispel some of these stereotypes, these misconceptions, in an attempt to enhance your understanding of your Jewish neighbor. To make it easier, these misconceptions will be divided into two sections\u2014personal and spiritual.<\/p>\n
Personal Misconceptions<\/p>\n
If someone were asked to describe the physical characteristics of a Jew, it would not be surprising to hear references to a large nose, short stature, and curly black hair. Where these stereotypes originated, I do not know. The truth is that not all Jews have big noses. Not all Jews are short. Not all Jews have curly black hair. Stereotypes are just not always true.
\nIf someone were asked to describe the behavioral characteristics of the Jewish people, the words stingy and bookish might come to mind. Perhaps it was Shakespeare\u2019s Shylock or Dickens\u2019 Fagin that gave rise to the \u201cstingy\u201d myth. It is true that one Jew, Jack Benny, deliberately exaggerated this stereotype. (Jack Benny was really not a tightwad; he was one of the most generous men in Hollywood.)
\nJews are not stingier than other people. In fact, Jewish people are downright philanthropic, giving more to charities, per capita, than most other people.
\nThe stereotype of the Jewish intellectual may stem from the many Jews who have made contributions to the academic fields. As a general rule, education is emphasized in the homes of Jewish families, but the same can be said of other groups. In addition, of course, not all Jews are highly educated.
\nThe source of these stereotypes is not really important for our purposes. What remains for us is to understand that stereotypes and misconceptions will not help you know your Jewish neighbor, and may actually hinder your ability to communicate the Good News to him or her.
\nThis is probably not a revelation to you. Anyone interested enough in Jewish people to get this book would likely add a resounding \u201camen\u201d to these thoughts. And though you may not indulge in \u201cJewish\u201d jokes or revert to habits of personal stereotyping, there often remain, even among believers, certain misconceptions about the Jewish people. These usually surface when it comes to the discussion of spiritual issues.<\/p>\n
Spiritual Stereotypes<\/p>\n
Not long ago, while I was conducting a seminar on sharing the Messiah with Jewish people, I was asked a question by one of the church members: \u201cWhat do Jews think the Messiah will be like?\u201d It seemed a logical question raised by a believer who wanted to better understand his Jewish neighbor. My answer shocked the audience.
\nI explained that most Jews don\u2019t believe in the coming of a personal Messiah. The participants could hardly believe their ears. Certainly, they supposed, the people to whom the Messiah was promised would be awaiting his appearance.
\nSadly, today\u2019s Jews have little or no concern for the coming of a personal Messiah. After the Holocaust, many Jews lost hope. Certainly there are some who still do believe, but for those Jews who deny a personal Messiah, but still want to hold some hope, a \u201cMessianic age\u201d concept has developed. This is the belief that humankind will \u201cevolve\u201d into a higher state of consciousness. That was the view I held when I jumped into Transcendental Meditation.
\nThe misconception that Jews believe in the coming Messiah has led to some real problems in the witness of many believers. Believing that all one has to do is share a few rightly applied Messianic prophecies, a believer may find himself up against an unexpected shrug of apathy. The fact is, your Jewish neighbor is not sitting around waiting for the Messiah\u2014wondering where he will be born, who his ancestors will be, or what his ministry will accomplish.
\nMany believers, therefore, find themselves answering questions their Jewish neighbors have never even thought of, much less asked. It takes a while to earn enough trust to talk about personal things like a relationship with God. You can\u2019t just jump into Messianic prophecy. The conclusion of this book\u2014\u201cPutting It All Together\u201d\u2014will talk about this in greater detail. For now, though, you need to understand that although you may be absolutely clear on how to present Messiah in the Tanakh, your Jewish friend might simply say, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t believe in the Messiah, anyway.\u201d In fact, you might hear something like this: \u201cAnd I don\u2019t believe the Bible is God\u2019s Word, either.\u201d
\nPerhaps you\u2019ve always assumed that all Jewish people share the same theology. Nothing could be further from the truth. Along with varying degrees of Bible knowledge and differing Messianic expectations, you will find that Jewish people hold extremely diverse opinions about God, the afterlife, Israel, and most other subjects.
\nThese next chapters should help you get to know your Jewish neighbor in the areas of history, religion, and culture. They are designed to provide you with an overview and will, therefore, be general. Certainly not all of the information will apply to your Jewish neighbor. Remember all we said about stereotyping and misconceptions. So, forewarned and forearmed, let\u2019s take a look at the history of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n
\u20149\u2014<\/p>\n
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
The Wanderings of the
\nWandering Jews<\/p>\n
To condense 4,000 years of history into a few pages is an impossible task. This would be true even if the people under consideration led routine lives. But Jews! A community that has heard the voice of God, a nation that has been in nearly every country, a people from whom the Messiah came\u2014no, condensing the history of the Jews is not easy. But some history is necessary to help you in your witness.
\nWe\u2019ll begin with the assumption that you are somewhat familiar with biblical Jewish history from years of sermons and Sunday school lessons. So we will focus primarily on post-biblical times. A few key biblical events, however, should be laid out as a foundation for the rest.<\/p>\n
From Abraham to the Babylonian Captivity:
\nThe Beginnings of the Jewish Nation and
\nthe First Commonwealth<\/p>\n
The Jewish people began when God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. His willingness to respond to God\u2019s call was indicative of his great faith. God chose to bless Abram, changing his name to Abraham, \u201cThe father of a multitude\u201d promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heaven and the dust of the earth.
\nThis people continued through Abraham\u2019s son Isaac, and Isaac\u2019s son Jacob The nation grew in number when the Jews lived in Egypt, where they became slaves. God, however, remembering his covenant, planned to bring them to the land he had promised to the patriarchs. With Moses as deliverer, the people were led out of bondage and into freedom.
\nMoses is affectionately called Moshe Rabbeynu, \u201cMoses our teacher.\u201d He is held in the highest esteem, not only as a great teacher of truth, as evidenced in the Torah, but as the one who led the Jewish people out of bondage. On Passover, an annual celebration that even the most secular Jews generally observe, Moses is mentioned many times. Referring to the patriarchs or Moses will place your Jewish neighbor on familiar territory, and the two of you on common ground.
\nAfter Moses died joshua led the people into the Promised Land. They entered with the Torah\u2014the Law, the set of rules and regulations for life in the land God had given them. The people, having heard all that God required, had ratified the covenant, promising to do what the Lord had demanded.
\nUpon entering the Promised Land, Israel had to conquer the many nations living there. Joshua led the conquest and, following his death, Israel was ruled by the Judges. All the while, the Jewish people encountered tremendous opposition to their right to live in the Promised Land.
\nSoon, the temptation to mix with the surrounding nations and to adopt some of their practices caused the Jews further problems. An example of this is the way in which Israel was to be governed. Although it was clear that God wanted to remain the unique king of Israel, the Jewish people, surrounded by earthly monarchies, demanded that God provide for them a human king.
\nThe first king, Saul, turned out to be a disaster for the Jewish people. God had warned them this would happen. In his grace, as a replacement for Saul, he provided a decent\u2014although not perfect\u2014king for his people. That king was David.
\nThrough David, God revealed many truths to his people, some concerning David\u2019s future descendant, Yeshua. It was David whom the Lord used to bring forth many psalms that point to the Messiah\u2014among them Psalm 2, Psalm 22, and Psalm 110. These can be used as Messianic prophecies, but because David is known as a poet, not a prophet, they might be subject to question.
\nAfter the reign of David and his son Solomon came the period of the Kings. The Jewish nation had become divided into the northern kingdom, known as Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah. Both kingdoms wandered into pagan ways, in spite of the prophetic messages God sent them. Although the primary purpose of the prophets was to realign the people of Israel with God\u2019s original plan and purpose, the prophets also shared predictions from God, prophetic messages concerning the coming Messiah.
\nIn 721 B.C.E., the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by Assyria as a punishment for walking in ways of ungodliness. In 586 B.C.E. the southern kingdom, too, was taken captive by the Babylonians. The Jews were no longer in the Promised Land. It was during this period of captivity that God raised up prophets to give the people hope and guidance. Daniel, the one through whom God revealed the time of Messiah\u2019s coming, prophesied during this period.<\/p>\n
From the Babylonian Captivity to the
\nGreat Dispersion:
\nThe Second Commonwealth<\/p>\n
The soferim, the scribes, occupied high governmental positions during the monarchical period. Later, without kings to assist, they were free to delve more deeply into the study of the Law of Moses and the writings of the Jewish people. Ezra was described as \u201cscribe of the Law of the God of heaven,\u201d equivalent to our Secretary of Education. The office of scribe replaced the office of prophet in religion. The influence of the scribes grew during the post-exilic period and through the first century of the Common Era.
\nThe authority of the rabbi also began to develop following the Babylonian exile. Even after Ezra led in the construction of the second Temple in 517\u2013516 B.C.E. (Solomon\u2019s Temple had been destroyed 70 years earlier), when the Jews were allowed to return to Israel and resume Temple worship, many chose to remain in exile, in the galut. Some Jewish men devoted themselves to the study of the Torah, and by the first century B.C.E., the rabbinic office had become well-established. The rabbis were not merely teachers, but spiritual authorities for their own disciples.
\nDuring these exilic and post-exilic periods, the oral traditions of the rabbis began to gain influence over the life of the ordinary Jew. Although these traditions were not officially compiled until several hundred years later (in a codification called the Talmud, or \u201coral law\u201d) they were recognized as authoritative for guiding the behavior of Jews well before the days of Yeshua.
\nRemembering that the oral law had been around for a while is essential to understanding the B\u2019rit Chadashah, as well as sharing Yeshua with your Jewish neighbor. Many of the questions asked of Yeshua had to do with this oral tradition.
\nWith the rise to power of the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, and later the Syrians, the Jews became dominated by other Gentile rulers. In 171 B.C.E., Antiochus IV, the leader of the Syrian-Greeks, began a direct assault on the Jewish way of life. He forbade circumcision and Torah study, and required obeisance to himself by giving himself the title Epiphanes, meaning \u201cGod-manifest.\u201d Many Jews refused to bow down to him. When he sacrificed a pig on the altar in the second Temple and dedicated the altar to the god Jupiter, a group of Jewish people became completely enraged.
\nA Jewish revolt began in Israel when Mattathias, a righteous priest, slew a fellow Jew for submitting to the ungodly commands of Antiochus. After three years of fighting led by Mattathias\u2019 son, Judah, the small band of Maccabees (\u201chammers\u201d) led the Jewish people to victory. They purged and rededicated the sacred Temple, which Antiochus had desecrated.
\nThis is the story celebrated today as Hanukkah, Hebrew for \u201cdedication.\u201d Not only is this battle recorded in the Apocrypha, the non-canonical writings of the Jews of the second Temple period, but the eighth chapter of the prophet Daniel paints a vivid picture of the events leading up to the Maccabean revolt. We know that Yeshua observed the anniversary of this military victory, for John 10:22 records his walking in the Temple at \u201cthe Feast of Dedication.\u201d
\nAfter the cleansing and rededication of the second Temple, two major political\/religious parties developed in Israel, One, the party of the Scribes, known as Pharisees, were pietistic and separatistic. They began to lose control over the people, while their opponents, the Sadducees, who were more Hellenistic (influenced by Greek thinking), became more powerful. Life in Israel became a real mix of ideas, politics, the supernatural and the study of the Torah and prophets, combined with the traditions of the rabbis. And on top of this confusion was the increasing control of Rome.
\nDuring the first century of the Common Era, Roman rule dominated Jewish history. At the time of Yeshua, the Jews longed for a military Messiah, a hero like Judah Maccabee. It was this desire that caused so many to miss the truth that Yeshua was the Messiah; he just did not fulfill the people\u2019s expectation of a military leader. In fact, nothing in Jewish tradition taught that Messiah was to die and be resurrected. That is why he had to teach this to his disciples.
\nThe number of synagogues in Israel had greatly increased by the first century. They were more a place for social gathering and study than for worship and ceremony. The Temple was still the focal point for Jewish worship. But with the complete destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., some major changes took place.
\nThe synagogue became the place of worship. Those Jews who had chosen to follow Yeshua, having understood him to be the fulfillment of the ancient sacrificial system of Israel, could not fit into the new rabbinic religion of Israel. The rabbis attempted to teach alternative means for atonement and to find explanations for the missingTemple. The Jewish believers could not submit to their teaching.
\nFurthermore, as we have said, Yeshua had warned his disciples to flee from the coming destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (Matthew 24). Because of his teaching, the believers had removed themselves from a key event in Jewish history. The separation between the Jewish believers in Yeshua and the larger Jewish community was widening.
\nIn 132 C.E, the gap grew greater still when the leading rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, proclaimed Bar Kokhba, a military leader, to be the Messiah. Believing him to be the military hero they sought, the Jewish authorities expected Bar Kokhba to lead the Jews in their revolt against Roman rule. After three years of struggle, this false Messiah led 580,000 Jews, including himself and Rabbi Akiva, to their deaths.
\nIn 135 C.E., the Romans threw the Jews out of their land, dispersing them throughout the Roman Empire into Spain, Africa, Asia Minor, Europe, and else where. This Diaspora has only really ended in the twentieth century. Keep in mind that some Jews did remain in the land of Israel, mostly in Galilee, but those who remained were very much in the minority from that time forth. Also, there were still Jews living in Babylon (today, Iraq) from the time of captivity.
\nSolomon Grayzel in A History of the Jews gives us information about Jewish population at that time.<\/p>\n
A reasonable guess estimates that there were about eight million Jews in the world just before the conflict with Rome. Probably about one million lived in Babylonia, outside the Roman empire.\u2026 Thus it has been calculated that in the first century C.E the Jews were ten percent of the total population of the Roman empire.<\/p>\n
The flight of the Jewish believers at the time of the destruction of the Temple, combined with their unwillingness to submit to rabbinic authority (particularly in the abandoning of the regular Jewish army under the command of Bar Kokhba), caused a permanent and total separation between them and the rest of the Jewish community.
\nWe have record of Jewish believers leading congregations until the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E After that time and the promulgation of the laws of the Theodosian Code, we see a disappearance of Jewish believers. Since that time, believers in Yeshua have often assimilated into predominately Gentile congregations.
\nThis information can help you understand why it seems most Jews haven\u2019t believed in Yeshua through the ages. The fact is, many have, but because those Jewish believers did not remain part of the Jewish community, no one knew about them. Not until the recent revival among Jewish people and, with it, the rise of the Messianic congregational movement, has the Jewish community become aware that many Jews do believe in Yeshua.<\/p>\n
From the Great Dispersion to Today<\/p>\n
Because this is a book about sharing the Messiah with Jewish people, and not a modern history of the Jews, I\u2019ve taken pains to choose those events that will most directly affect your witness. These five major events are:<\/p>\n
1. The development of the Talmud and the Jewish religion
\n2. The anti-Semitism of the Roman Catholic Church
\n3. The immigration of Jews to the United States
\n4. The persecution by Nazi Germany
\n5. The rebirth of the nation of Israel<\/p>\n
Our next chapter will discuss the Talmud in light of its impact upon Jewish religion. An earlier chapter spoke about the anti-Semitism of some of the Church fathers and of the Roman Catholic Church. What remains for us here is to consider the immigration of Jews to America, the Holocaust initiated by Nazi Germany, and the rebirth of Israel.
\nJewish life in Europe in the second millennium was most unpleasant. Jews, as I said, were accused of causing the Black Death. They were blamed for many social, financial, and political problems. They began to be \u201cghetto-ized\u201d\u2014forced to live only among themselves.
\nReligious persecution persisted, and when there was an opportunity to move to America, where freedom seemed possible, many Jews packed up all they had, boarded boats, and sailed to the New World.
\nAlthough there have been Jews in this country since 1621, the first Jewish settlement wasn\u2019t officially established until 1654. As you might guess, it was in New Amsterdam, later known as New York.
\nSoon after, Jews came from many European countries, including Holland, England, Germany, and Spain. They had to struggle for their rights in this new land, but struggle they did. They fought in the American Revolution, won the right to own property, and were granted full U.S. citizenship equal to their Gentile counterparts.
\nBy 1825, the United States had become home for 6,000 Jews. By the Civil War, mostly as a result of immigration, 150,000 Jews lived in the U.S. Like other Americans, some fought for the North, some for the South. By 1871, 250,000 Jews, mostly of German background, lived in this country.
\nDuring the period from 1881 to 1914, a second major wave of Jewish immigration washed across the American shore. These 2,000,000 Jews from Eastern and Central Europe were driven from their homeland by prejudice and pogroms. Most were Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jews. During World War I, more than 250,000 Jews fought in the armed forces of the United States.
\nWith the Jewish population growing, groups such as the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League of B\u2019nai B\u2019rith were organized to tend to the needs of these new American citizens. The Great Depression brought extra pressure on this poor immigrant people.
\nPerhaps the single most important factor prompting Jews to escape to America was the rise of Hitler\u2019s virulent brand of anti-Semitism in Europe. Seeking safety, thousands of Jews emigrated before the dark days of destruction that began in 1933 when Hitler became dictator of Germany,
\nHitler initiated a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, confiscated the possessions of many Jews, and espoused a racial superiority doctrine. His policies were permitted under the Nuremberg Laws and promulgated by a powerful propaganda machine, particularly through widespread distribution of the newspaper Der Sturmer.
\nHitler reasoned rightly that centuries of anti-Semitic propaganda would sufficiently affect and infect Western minds so that not many who heard of the horror would defend the Jews, no matter what the Nazis did. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a little booklet first printed in Czarist Russia, which Hitler had translated into German, detailed a Jewish plot to take over the world. It was later proven to be a fabricated document, but by then was already widely circulated, helping Hitler\u2019s cause. Henry Ford was one very influential American who supported this poisonous propaganda until he admitted he had been misled. This book is reappearing in Moslem countries today.
\nThe night of November 9\u201310, 1938, brought with it the horror of Kristallnacht, \u201cthe night of the broken glass.\u201d Hitler\u2019s hordes were unleashed; they destroyed synagogues, devastated Jewish shops and homes, and arrested thousands. The world remained silent.
\nFrom 1939 until the end of Hitler\u2019s horrors, 6,000,000 Jews and an equal number of non-Jews lost their lives under Nazi domination. During the time from 1933 to 1942, 175,000 Jews from Germany Austria, and other Nazi-dominated lands escaped to enter the United States. Many more Jews arrived after World War II.
\nBy 1957, the U. S. Jewish population had reached 5,200,000. Today that number is close to 6,000,000, with half living in the Greater New York City area. A half-million Jewish people reside in Los Angeles, a third of a million in Philadelphia, and several hundred thousand each in Boston, Chicago, and the Baltimore-Washington area.
\nAbout 4,000,000 Jews currently reside in Israel, hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union. The other four million Jews are scattered over all parts of the earth. This dispersion can be seen as the fulfillment of the word spoken by Moses: \u201cADONAI will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other\u201d (Deuteronomy 28:64).
\nWithout question, the single most important event in post-biblical Jewish history has been the rebirth of the state of Israel. Each year for nearly 2,000 years, Jewish people have concluded the Passover meal, by saying, \u201cNext year in Jerusalem.\u201d This prayer, begun in 135 C.E., has been a plea to God to allow us to celebrate the Passover in Israel. In 1948, this longing became a reality.
\nAlthough Jews have inhabited Israel off and on since the Dispersion, it wasn\u2019t until the late 1800s that the notion of a renewed Jewish state began to receive support. Backed by funds supplied by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Jews began to establish agricultural communities in Israel. In 1897, at the First Zionist Congress, convened by Theodor Herzl, the World Zionist Organization was founded to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in the land known today as Israel. Herzl was its first president.
\nControversy raged within and without the worldwide Jewish community; still Herzl maintained his vision and obtained support for his cause from other leaders. Chaim Weizmann, the fourth president of the World Zionist Organization, was able to persuade England to issue the Balfour Declaration in 1917, approving the idea of a Jewish homeland in \u201cPalestine.\u201d
\nIt was not until 1948 that Israel was finally granted full statehood. Great Britain, receiving enormous pressure following World War II, opted to turn over the question of a Jewish state to the United Nations. The U. N. recommended dividing the territory into Israeli and Arab states. On May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation for the first time in modern history.
\nAlthough Israel has had to defend herself in numerous wars since 1948, it appears that in God\u2019s timing, the day for Israel to exist as a nation had come. It is a modern miracle that such a small country, vastly outnumbered by surrounding enemies, survives. We see this as God\u2019s hand protecting his people.
\nThis skeletal report on 4,000 years of Jewish history has been designed to provide you with information to enhance your understanding of your Jewish neighbor. The next chapters will flesh out our skeleton by offering insight into the religion and culture of the Jewish people. They are tied very closely to the history that has been outlined thus far, and you will see the details of the completed picture come to life as we proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201410\u2014<\/p>\n
THE RELIGION
\nOF THE
\nJEWISH PEOPLE<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
The Three T\u2019s:
\nTorah, Temple & Talmud<\/p>\n
In the study of civilizations it is usually quite difficult to separate history from religion. For the Jewish people it is impossible.
\nWhy? Because the Jews were created with religion in mind. When God formed this people, his intention was that they would teach the world about him. From the beginning, the history and religion of the Jewish people were intertwined the way ivy crawls up amidst the branches of a tree.
\nThe last chapter briefly surveyed the history of the Jewish people, from God\u2019s ancient covenant with Abraham to the establishment of the modern State of Israel. Throughout, there were references to religion. This chapter will highlight the religion of the Jewish people from Bible times, through its development over the last two millennia, and as it is practiced today.<\/p>\n
From Abraham to the Great Dispersion<\/p>\n
From the time of Abraham until the giving of God\u2019s Law through Moses, the religion of Israel was rather primitive. Altars of stone were erected to commemorate certain divine interventions by the Lord. Abram built an altar to the Lord upon receiving the promise of a land to be given to his descendants (Genesis 12:7). This practice seems rudimentary, but it was a great step up from the polytheism that marked the times.
\nWith the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Israel\u2019s religion became oriented toward social relationships and the worship of God. The system of sacrifice became more developed. Through the Tabernacle and its later replacement, the Temple, God revealed to his people an earthly picture of the heavenly courts (Hebrews 9:23).
\nThen, when Solomon\u2019s Temple was destroyed and the Jews were taken into captivity (586 B.C.E.), their religion changed dramatically. As the review of history indicated, the center of religious life now shifted. The scribes and their teachings dominated for nearly a century until the building of the second Temple, when emphasis returned to the ancient system of sacrifice prescribed by God, through Moses. But by the time the new Temple had been completed, the priesthood had taken on the nuances of a political rather than a religious office.
\nAmidst these changes, the rabbis gained greater authority. Various schools of religious philosophy developed and the Jewish people found themselves divided, as individuals allied themselves with one school or the other. By Yeshua\u2019s day there were the religious sects\u2014Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes\u2014and political sects like the Zealots. These are just a few of the many sects which divided the Jewish people.
\nThe New Covenant talks much about the Pharisees and the Sadducees, both continually struggling for influence. The Pharisees were more flexible with regard to interpreting the Word of God, whereas the Sadducees were more literal in their interpretations, more rigid in their rules. The Pharisees believed in the reality of the supernatural, while the Sadducees denied it. An example of their divergent views is recorded in Matthew 22:23\u201333, in regard the question of the Resurrection. The Pharisees believed in resurrection; the Sadducees did not.
\nAnother religious sect, the Essenes, had much in common with the early believers in the Messiah, particularly in that they shared all their earthly possessions. This separatist group was \u201cheavenly\u201d minded, hoping for a deliverer, but most likely did not follow Yeshua. Many scholars believe that the Essenes were the people responsible for preserving what are now called the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some have suggested that John (Yochanan, in Hebrew) the Immerser was a member of the Essenes.
\nIn addition to these religious sects, there was also a party known as the Zealots. They were not truly religious, except in their dedication to overthrowing the Roman rule over Israel.
\nJudaism in the first century, and even somewhat earlier, had no clear-cut theology. Although many beliefs were held in common, there were also many variant viewpoints.
\nOne conviction that many held in common, however, was that Yeshua was not the Messiah. Those who believed in him were considered a separate sect and were sometimes called \u201cNazarenes,\u201d sometimes \u201cthe Way,\u201d and sometimes \u201cChristians\u201d (although the \u201cGreek-ness\u201d of the term, in that the word \u201cChrist\u201d is present, instead of Messiah, seems to indicate that it was reserved mostly for Gentile followers of Yeshua).<\/p>\n
From the Great Dispersion to Modern Times<\/p>\n
In the last chapter, I mentioned the Talmud. More than anything else, this collection of writings influenced the religion of the Jewish people. In many ways, it was the religion of the Jewish people.
\nReferred to as the Oral Law, or the Tradition of the Elders, the Talmud is believed by many Jews to have been handed down on MT. Sinai along with the written Law, the Torah. As a result, it has exerted tremendous influence in matters of religion.
\nThe traditions and commentaries that later formed the Talmud trace their roots back into early Jewish history. Tradition teaches that Moses himself first received these oral laws, then passed them on to Joshua, who, in turn, handed them down to the elders (the judges). Then the laws were delivered to the prophets, who handed them over to the care of the Great Assembly, 120 leaders who returned from exile under the leadership of Ezra. This is according to Avot\u2014a tractate of the Talmud\u2014chapter 1. Finally the laws arrived in the hands of the rabbis.
\nRabbi Akiva was responsible for organizing much of this oral material shortly after the time of the New Covenant. The writing, however, is credited to another, Rabbi Judah HaNasi. His work, known as the Mishnah, formed the foundation of what later became known as the Talmud. The Mishnah is not a commentary on the Bible, but rather is material organized in six sections, called Orders, which discuss various issues in the Bible and Jewish life. The teachers of Mishnah, called Tanna\u2019im, completed their work around the end of the second century.
\nThe rest of the Talmud, known as Gemara, was not completed until the end of the fifth century of the Common Era. The Gemara contains discussions concerning the Mishnah, conducted by the Amora\u2019im, other Jewish scholars.
\nThis entire system is predicated on the premise that God revealed the oral law to Moses, as well as the written law. Although it is rare to meet someone today who holds this elevated view of the Talmud, the impact of the traditions and teachings of the Tanna\u2019im and the Amora\u2019im must not be underestimated.
\nThese teachers endeavored to construct a fence around the Torah to keep their people from violating the laws of Moses. By doing so, they hoped their people would not even get close enough to the laws to break them. The legal system became so cumbersome that rabbis were continually called upon to decide legal issues. That is why rabbis are sometimes called \u201clawyers\u201d in the New Covenant.
\nIn theory, the rabbis had a good idea. Sadly, though, people became so entangled in the multitude of rules and religious regulations that some of the essential meanings in the Torah became lost. Tradition overshadowed truth.
\nYeshua spoke of this problem. In the Sermon on the Mount, he prefaced his \u201cYou have heard it said\u201d remarks by instructing his disciples to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Stating specifically that he had come not to abolish the Law and the prophets, but rather to fulfill them, Yeshua then launched into a sermon on the essence of the Law. One can\u2019t help thinking that Yeshua\u2019s concern was to confront the authority of the oral tradition and to return his disciples to the deeper meaning of the Torah.
\nBut the influence of the Talmud grew still greater. Different Talmuds developed in both Jerusalem and Babylon. Through the last 2,000 years, study of Talmud has been considered one of the noblest and highest practices to which a Jewish boy could commit himself. Its study has occupied the greatest minds of the Jewish people.
\nMuch can be learned about the Bible from studying the writings in the Talmud. Much can be learned about Jewish history by reading the many debates and discussions recorded there. Unfortunately, even though some of the material found in the Talmud points to the Messiah, to a great extent its writings have obscured the Messiah from many Jewish eyes. Yeshua\u2019s view of the authority of the oral law, which is that it is not inspired as is the written law, coupled with his decision to delegate spiritual authority to his apostles, rather than the traditional rabbis, created a conflict that exists to this day.<\/p>\n
Modern Times<\/p>\n
Early Jewish settlers in the United States formed synagogues in which to worship. The first was founded in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1658. Later, synagogues were established in Savannah, Philadelphia, Charleston, and throughout the thirteen colonies. These were Orthodox synagogues. At that time no other branch of Judaism existed.
\nAs the German Jews arrived in America in the mid-1800s, they brought with them the influence that led to Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism gleaned some of its ideology from the higher criticism of the German intellectual community, the same higher criticism that gave birth to the theological liberal movement within Christianity. In 1875 the Reform movement established the first U. S. rabbinical seminary, Hebrew Union College, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop and promote liberal Judaism.
\nIn 1886 the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was formed in Philadelphia. From its teachings sprung another movement known as Conservative Judaism. Conservative Judaism rose up to moderate the Reform movement. It is theologically more conservative, more middle-of-the road, a compromise between Orthodox and Reform Judaism.
\nThe fourth branch of Judaism is known as Reconstructionist Judaism. Originated by Mordecai Kaplan in 1934, it teaches that Judaism is more than a religion; it is a religious civilization. Although fewer in number than the other branches, Reconstructionism has some strong support within the intellectual circles of the Jewish people and is a growing movement.
\nOrthodox Jews strive to keep the laws and traditions of Judaism with great zeal. They express an expectancy for the coming Messiah. They believe in an afterlife and consider the Torah and Talmud to be the Word of God.
\nReform Jews tend to liberalize laws and traditions, picking and choosing what they wish to believe and observe in today\u2019s world. They do not teach about the coming Messiah, but have opted for the concept of the Messianic age, a higher plane and a period of peace, into which they believe we are all moving.
\nConservative Jews follow the teachings of the rabbis but allow for certain modifications to make tradition fit into the society in which it is practiced. For example, whereas Orthodox Jews do not allow men and women to sit together in the synagogue, Conservative Jews do. This middle-of-the-road position also guides their views pertaining to the Messiah and the afterlife.
\nReconstructionist Jews, like Conservative Jews, seek to adapt Judaism to the world in which it must function. However, to this end Reconstructionist Jews, unlike Conservative Jews, incorporate modern secular thought in the services of their synagogues. They are drawn to concepts such as ethical culture, ritual enrichment, and artistic creativity.
\nIt will help you in your witness to know a little about the various branches of Judaism, though you should not necessarily conclude that your neighbor is committed to all the doctrines espoused by the synagogue to which he belongs. As is the case with many Christians in churches, Jewish people often join synagogues, not so much because of theology, but because of proximity to their home and the personality of the rabbi. When you\u2019re getting to know your Jewish neighbor, at some point you\u2019ll want to ask what exactly he or she believes personally.
\nThe glossary at the end of this book lists terms that pertain to the religious observances of the Jewish people. You will find that no matter which branch of Judaism your Jewish neighbor belongs to, most of the terms listed are relevant to one degree or another.
\nTake, for example, the term kosher, which means \u201cacceptable\u201d (to God). Most obvious, pork and shellfish are non-kosher, or treyfe. Generally, only the Orthodox and some Conservative Jews \u201ckeep kosher!\u201d But they may have their own individual interpretations.
\nAn Orthodox Jew would not even go to a restaurant that served treyfe. However, a conservative Jew might not eat sweet-and-sour shrimp at home, but might in a Chinese restaurant.
\nThe point is that all Jews have some way of dealing with the issue of kosher and nearly every aspect of Jewish life. Your Jewish neighbor surely has his own understanding of the issues of Jewish life. If you are friends with him (or her), you might inquire about these issues. It\u2019s possible to even point out some of the inconsistencies in practices as compared with the biblical teachings.
\nJust as the history of the Jews is intertwined with the theology of the Jews, both are intertwined with the rich and fascinating culture of the Jewish people, which we will now examine.<\/p>\n
\u201411\u2014<\/p>\n
JEWISH
\nCULTURE<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Celebrating,
\nJewish Style<\/p>\n
No nation, other than the Jews, was ever formed with the express purpose of being a continual testimony to the existence of God. No other people were gathered together to teach the truths of the Almighty. No other people were created to receive his words, inscribed upon tablets of stone. Because of this uniqueness, the history, religion, and culture of the Jewish people have been and always will be intertwined.
\nDespite this singleness of purpose, however, God has allowed for a great deal of diversity among the Jewish people. As someone has said, when you get four Jews together to discuss a matter, you will invariably end up with five opinions!
\nTo begin with, Jews trace their cultural origins to two major groups, the Ashkenazim and S\u2019fardim. Ashkenazi Jews are from the Eastern European nations and tend to be fairer-skinned. S\u2019fardic Jews hail from the Mediterranean countries and are darker. The black, curly hair, and dark soulful eyes of the Israeli is a picture of the S\u2019fardic Jew.
\nEach of the two major groups, Ashkenazim and S\u2019fardim, has its own traditions and customs. To understand your Jewish neighbor better, ask questions about his or her background.
\nAdditional diversity can be seen in politics. Traditionally, Jews in America have tended toward a socially liberal philosophy and consequent membership in the Democratic party. Through the years, the Democratic party seemed most sensitive to the needs of immigrants and more interested in offering aid to the downtrodden. There still is a leaning toward the left, although as Jews have become more established, they have slowly begun drifting toward a more conservative point of view.
\nRegarding Israel, you will also find a variety of views. Some American Jews are critical of the ways of the Israelis. Others hold fast to an \u201cIsrael, right or wrong\u201d position. But one thing the vast majority of Jews agree on is the need for keeping Israel strong. The fact is, it was only a little more than a generation ago when Hitler led a civilized nation to exterminate 6,000,000 Jews. That vivid memory keeps Jewish people acutely aware of how important a homeland is, one in which they would be willing to make their last stand if necessary.
\nYou may not agree with the politics of Israel, or the way things are done there, but, as a Bible-believer, you must speak to your Jewish neighbor about Israel in a non-critical, supportive way. Just as people bristle when they hear others speak badly of their mothers, Jews don\u2019t like to hear Gentiles speak badly about their motherland. Jewish people may vary when it comes to ethnic background or political views, but on the subject of Israel\u2019s survival, you will find Jews strongly united.
\nAt the risk of sounding redundant, there is something else all Jewish people have shared: persecution. From Abraham onward, Jews have had to struggle to survive. Modern history has found Jews forced to live in ghettos set apart specifically for Jews. In Eastern Europe these little towns were called shtetls. Jews knew that safety could be found only within the environs of the shtetl. Outside of the village lay danger. It was easy to divide the world into two categories: \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem.\u201d
\nThis \u201cus\/them\u201d mentality can make it hard for Jews to trust \u201coutsiders.\u201d The truth is, many Jews, deep within, still have a basic fear of outside people. This makes your witness harder. You are most likely going to be perceived as one of \u201cthem,\u201d an outsider. Remember our chapter on credibility: identification is a key factor. It will help your witness if you can learn and appreciate the culture of your Jewish neighbor.
\nAppreciating Jewish food, humor, music, and other aspects of culture should not be a tough assignment. You will most likely enjoy and appreciate some of the things that make us \u201cus.\u201d One thing is for certain, Jewish people love to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah<\/p>\n
When a young churchgoer is confirmed, the event is often celebrated with cookies, cakes, coffee, and punch in the church social hall following the service. Contrast this with the Jewish \u201cconfirmation\u201d known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, which mean \u201cSon\u201d or \u201cDaughter of the Commandment.\u201d
\nThe typical Bar or Bat Mitzvah is held in a synagogue service on the Sabbath (Saturday) morning closest to the thirteenth birthday, although girls can become Bat Mitzvah anytime in their twelfth year. (I guess the rabbis consider girls to mature at a younger age than boys.) The child is actually treated as an adult and asked to participate in the regular service.
\nThis is part of the legal rite of passage for a thirteen-year-old boy (or twelve-year-old girl). Standing before the synagogue, he or she is asked to perform adult roles in the service\u2014reading from the Tanakh; chanting the blessings; giving a little drash, a short sermon.
\nThe service is generally longer than your average church service, but I think you\u2019ll find it fascinating. Remember, Yeshua went to synagogue; there were no churches in his day.
\nAfter the ceremony, there is an elaborate kiddush, a spread of food, provided by the parents, that you wouldn\u2019t want to miss. If you are ever invited, definitely go. Not only would you be showing your support for your friend\u2019s culture and Jewishness, but you\u2019ll be treating yourself to a great time.
\nIn recent years, the Bar and Bat Mitzvah have become more than rites of passage. They have become occasions for gala celebrations. Jewish history, fraught with catastrophe and turmoil, has caused Jewish people to look forward to such joyous occasions.
\nToday the Bar or Bat Mitzvah party is a first-class catered event to which relatives from far and near are invited. Beginning in the evening, eating, drinking, dancing, and general revelry carry on nonstop until the early hours of the morning.
\nIt usually costs a great deal, so often only family and close friends are invited. If you\u2019re ever invited to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, consider it a great honor and, by all means, go. You may not drink alcoholic beverages or believe in dancing\u2014there will likely be both at this bash\u2014but your not going might offend your Jewish friend.
\nYou should also bring a nice gift. Often guests give the Bar Mitzvah boy or Bat Mitzvah girl a check. Since eighteen is the number that represents \u201clife\u201d in Hebrew, an eighteen-dollar check should be the minimum. That\u2019s a way of wishing long life to the young person.
\nThe Bar Mitzvah is just one example of how Jewish culture differs from \u201cChristian\u201d culture and how Jewish history and religion have impacted it. You will probably become aware of these cultural differences as you get to know your Jewish neighbor.<\/p>\n
Family and Education<\/p>\n
Family has traditionally been a high priority among the Jews. In the TORAH we find some instruction that has elevated the importance of family and education. The Lord told the Jewish people, \u201cHonor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land which ADONAI your God is giving you\u201d (Exodus 20:12).
\nHe also instructed Israel to \u201cteach them [his laws] carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up\u201d (Deuteronomy 6:7).
\nThis emphasis on family and education has kept the Jewish people relatively exempt from the temptations of the world, until recently.
\nToday, not unlike what is going on in the rest of the world, more and more Jewish couples are getting divorced and Jewish teenagers are as susceptible to drugs as any other kids. You may find that your faith can be a beacon to draw your Jewish neighbor back to the biblical values that are at the heart and core of his own culture.
\nA few other cultural aspects of Jewish life find their roots in the religion of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Kashrut<\/p>\n
Kashrut refers to all the dietary laws, whereas kosher means \u201cin alignment with religious law,\u201d or as I said in the last chapter, \u201cacceptable\u201d to God. Another way to translate it is \u201cproper and fit.\u201d Many things can be considered kosher\u2014a Torah, an action, a prayer shawl. But when you hear about it, you\u2019re probably thinking about food, for that is its most common application.
\nThere are many laws of kashrut: how an animal should be killed, how an animal should be cooked, what animals are considered \u201cfit\u201d for food. The laws God gave to the Jews were to set them apart as a holy people. He didn\u2019t want his chosen ones mixing in with the pagans and their practices. The dietary laws did much to distinguish the Jews from the non-Jews, and thus kept his people unique.
\nAlthough there are many specific biblical commands concerning kashrut, many additional traditions developed surrounding them. To give you an example of how the Talmud and traditions have worked, let\u2019s look at one kosher law.
\nDeuteronomy 14:21c reads, \u201cYou are not to boil a young animal in its mother\u2019s milk.\u201d God didn\u2019t want his people boiling baby goats in their own mother\u2019s milk, possibly because it was a pagan practice, possibly to show kindness to animals. From this commandment, religious Jews have ended up with two sets of dishes for meals\u2014one for meat products, one for milk or dairy products, and sometimes even two refrigerators, one for meat, the other for dairy.
\nIt was this same zealous line of religious thought that led the rabbis to state that a separate set of dishes was needed exclusively for Passover. This was to ensure that there be no chance of eating leavened bread during the Passover week (the Feast of Unleavened Bread). It is unkosher to do so.
\nThis all might sound a little much, and perhaps it is somewhat excessive, but the initial idea to put a \u201cfence around the Law\u201d was a plan to make it harder to break God\u2019s commandments. The fence was composed of tradition. Tradition became such a strong force in the life of the Jewish community that we hear the character Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof, offer it as the reason Jewish people were able to keep their balance. \u201cWithout tradition,\u201d he explains, \u201cour lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof!\u201d
\nYour Jewish friend may or may not keep kosher. He or she might keep biblically kosher. He or she might keep traditionally kosher. At home the laws of kashrut might be kept. In a restaurant they might be suspended. Some Jews won\u2019t eat pork, but use only one set of dishes. Others might keep all leaven out of their homes during Passover, but order shrimp if they go out to dinner.
\nAs with other ways of my Jewish people, there are a lot of varieties on the kosher theme. Taking time to talk to your Jewish neighbor about his or her ideas concerning kashrut is the best way to gain understanding.<\/p>\n
Circumcision<\/p>\n
Another cultural event that finds its roots in Scripture is the ceremony that surrounds a birth. All of us celebrate the birth of a newborn baby. It is one of the most exquisite events in life. Jewish people have a unique ceremony surrounding the birth of a baby boy, called B\u2019rit Milah, the Covenant of Circumcision. It is at this ceremony that the baby is named.
\nThis practice goes back to the days of Abraham. Circumcision was to be a sign of the covenant God made with the Jewish people and was to be performed on each male when he was eight days old (Genesis 17:10\u201314).
\nLuke 2:21 records Yeshua\u2019s circumcision and naming:<\/p>\n
On the eighth day, when it was time for his b\u2019rit-milah, he was given the name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception.<\/p>\n
I realize there is some debate today concerning the subject of circumcision. Is it good for Gentiles to circumcise their sons? Should believers, Jewish or Gentile, circumcise their sons, given Paul\u2019s thoughts on the subject expressed in Galatians? Is it an old-fash-ioned ceremony that should be avoided because it might be traumatic for the infant? Obviously, addressing this question is beyond the scope of this book.
\nFor our purposes you only need to be aware that at the birth of a son and the circumcision and naming that follow, a major event is taking place. Congratulate the parents that their son has been given the sign of the covenant God made with the Jewish people, and to those who allied themselves with Israel.<\/p>\n
Naming<\/p>\n
The naming ceremony has variations. In Bible times, a baby boy or girl was named \u201cSo-and-so, son\u201d or \u201cdaughter of so-and-so.\u201d This is seen where Yeshua called his disciple Shim\u2018on bar Yonah, meaning Simon son of Jonah. There were no last names as we have today. Boys and girls were identified with their parents this way. These Hebrew names are used, even in a modern synagogue service, when calling someone to bimah (pulpit) to read from the Torah.
\nThe Jewish people you\u2019re likely to meet will not be known by their Hebrew names. Since Jews have lived in the lands of others since the Dispersion, they have adopted names popular in the lands in which they live.
\nWhen I was born, my parents named me Barry, an Anglo-Saxon name. The name I was given at my circumcision, Baruch, Hebrew for \u201cblessed,\u201d is rarely used. Only a few of my closest family and friends ever call me this. In America I am Barry Rubin. But if I were to live in Israel, I\u2019d be Baruch ben Israel. (My father\u2019s Hebrew name was Israel.)
\nMy Hebrew name means \u201cBlessed son of Israel.\u201d Nice, huh! (Ben is Hebrew for son, whereas bar is Aramaic. Often these two ancient languages of the Jewish people are used interchangeably. You can see examples of this in the New Covenant.)
\nI, like most Ashkenazim, was named after a deceased relative. This tradition was developed to memorialize the dead through the living. This is another naming custom of my people.
\nKnowing about these auspicious occasions, the birth, circumcision, and naming of a Jewish child, will give you an opportunity to converse in an intelligent way. You could inquire about the name and what it means. You can ask about the deceased person who is being memorialized. You can even send a card or gift. It is one of those times when you can really show your love and friendship.<\/p>\n
The Wedding<\/p>\n
Another event in the life of your Jewish friend that is especially meaningful is a wedding. Even though Jewish weddings have similarities to Christian weddings, there are a few differences of which you should be aware. If you go to your Jewish friend\u2019s wedding or the wedding of his or her child, you may see some unusual ceremonies.
\nTo begin with, often the parents of both the bride and groom walk their respective children down the aisle. By doing so they symbolize the concept of both man and woman leaving their fathers and mothers to join their mates. This is the same symbolism in a Christian wedding, except usually it\u2019s only the father who walks his daughter down the aisle.
\nYou will see the two who are getting married standing under a canopy, called a chupah, which symbolizes the consummation of marriage. In biblical times, a man brought a woman into his tent and consummated their relationship. Then they were considered married. Since tents often symbolize God\u2019s covering of his people, I see the chupah as standing for God\u2019s covering of the union. When I conduct a wedding, this is something I mention.
\nOnce the couple is under the canopy, the rabbi will ask the groom to repeat the following: \u201cBe sanctified [set apart] to me with this ring in accordance with the Law of Moses and Israel.\u201d You may also hear the reading of the k\u2019tuvah, or marriage contract. This, written prior to the ceremony, is the promise made by the groom to love and care for his wife, and for the wife to honor and care for her husband. The Sheva B\u2019rakhot, the Seven Benedictions, are usually chanted in Hebrew by the cantor or rabbi at the close of the wedding ceremony.
\nAt the culmination of the ceremony, it is customary to place a small glass on the floor for the groom to step on and break. The breaking of the glass has several traditional derivations, but the most prevalent one is that it commemorates the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. Those who understand the meaning are reminded that Judaism is incomplete without the Temple. We Jewish believers in Yeshua see that the sacrificial system was fulfilled in the atoning work of the Messiah.
\nThen comes the party. Since a wedding is a simchah, a celebration, it behooves guests to have fun. So, if you are attending a Jewish wedding, enjoy yourself! Eat, sing, dance as long as you don\u2019t have a conviction against it (and you\u2019re not on a diet). Remember, Paul said to the Jews he became as a Jew. So enjoy!
\nAt the birth of a baby, at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, at the marriage of a couple, you have a wonderful opportunity to grow closer to your Jewish neighbor. These occasions give you a chance to show your identification and concern for your Jewish friend. But there is no time in which to draw closer than following the death of your neighbor\u2019s loved one.<\/p>\n
Death<\/p>\n
To a believer, death means \u201cabsent from the body present with the Lord.\u201d We miss the one who died but have the assurance that he or she is in a far better place. For Jewish people who don\u2019t believe, death is desperately depressing. Jewish funerals are sad affairs. Jewish people today are without a real hope of an afterlife. So, questions about the futility of life flood the mind. Some Jewish people hold a somewhat superstitious view of life beyond death, but it seems to me that most consider death the end, not the beginning.
\nThe first seven-day period after the burial of a relative (burials are to take place as soon after death as possible, no later than three days after) is called shiva, which literally means \u201cseven.\u201d During this time the family will wear an item of torn clothing. In Bible times, when people mourned they would rend, or tear, their garments. Mourners sit on low stools or boxes, not normal-sized chairs. Some actually sit on the floor. This sitting for seven days is where the expression \u201csitting shiva\u201d comes from. No leather shoes are worn. Shaving or hair-cutting is not permitted; nor is the use of cosmetics. None of the usual pleasures of life is to be enjoyed.
\nIt is customary during this period to visit the mourning family in the home where they are sitting shiva. However, since words cannot adequately express the grief the mourner is feeling, visitors are generally asked not to say anything to those mourning unless spoken to. It is also customary to allow fond discussion of the deceased if the mourner mentions the one who died. This aids the mourner through this difficult period.
\nTwo other periods of mourning, one lasting for thirty days following the date of death, the other until the one-year anniversary, complete the mourning period.
\nIf you are close enough to your Jewish friend, you can visit the shiva house. Be with your Jewish friend, letting him or her talk about the loss just experienced. It would not be in good taste to talk about the afterlife at this time, no matter what is being said. This is a time simply to recognize the sovereignty of God and emphasize God\u2019s mercy and compassion. It is not a time to discuss judgment, atonement, salvation, heaven, or hell. Your ministry to your Jewish friend should be one of comfort and consolation. Pray that the Comforter can give you words to console your Jewish neighbor.<\/p>\n
Understanding the cultural uniqueness of your Jewish friend will go a long way toward introducing him or her to the Messiah. You will not only understand your audience, but you will grow closer as friends. It is important that you build a relationship of trust, confidence, and friendship with the person with whom you want to share. Leave the pulpit-pounding to others. You need to be a friend, ready, willing, and able to love your Jewish neighbor. The glossary in the back of the book offers you more information about the history, religion, and culture of the Jewish people that may be helpful to you in your witness.<\/p>\n
SECTION IV<\/p>\n
The Feedback: Barriers to Belief<\/p>\n
Once I watched two Jewish men debate the Messiahship of Yeshua. One was a believer, the other was not. On the surface such debates sound worthwhile, but argumentation often leads to anger, which is what happened in this case.
\nAssessing the impact of the debate (and there have been many such debates in history), I concluded that nothing was accomplished. Nothing, that is, except to show two Jews fighting one another.
\nI recount that story to you because in this section we are going to discuss barriers to belief. Although you might feel equipped to win debates, let me offer you a suggestion.
\nOne of the traps we fall into is to suppose that all we must do is present a clear case for the Messiah and people will believe. Unfortunately, this is not true. Scripture teaches us that God\u2019s Spirit is responsible for drawing individuals to the Messiah. Faith is a gift from God.
\nYou might ask, then, \u201cHow do I begin sharing my faith?\u201d The answer is easy, Clear away the clumps. The following illustration will help you understand.
\nSeveral years ago I tried my hand at gardening. I knew next to nothing about it, but I asked around, read a little, and set out to see if my thumb was green. It wasn\u2019t! But I learned some valuable lessons in the process.
\nI learned about clump. The soil in which I was attempting to garden was one big lump of clay, hard as a rock. All the books I read on the subject told me that the soil had to be broken up, that clumps had to be cleared out. I spent hours and hours chopping away at those large chunks. It almost broke my back!
\nLater, I noticed that the seeds I had planted in the areas I prepared most diligently grew. The ones I had put in soil less rigorously primed hardly grew at all. The seeds contained within them the potential for life. My part in the process had been to encourage that life to grow.
\nThis section is about clump-clearing\u2014breaking up the barriers to belief. Your Jewish neighbor may be a seed waiting to germinate. By learning how to break up the barriers to belief, you can encourage the seed to grow. It is the work of God\u2019s Spirit to draw the person to the Lord. Your job is simply to start breaking up the ground and clearing out the clumps. Your Jewish neighbor might just be part of the remnant.
\nYou will see from the witnessing model at the beginning of this section that we have arrived at the final point in the communication process. It\u2019s called Feedback, Barriers to Belief. You already have a good sense of who you are and how you may be perceived. We have discussed what the \u201cJewish Gospel\u201d is all about, and you have a better idea what your Jewish neighbor is likely to believe, think, and feel.
\nYou saw in Section III that the history, religion and culture of the Jewish people are intertwined. In this section, I separate them so I can teach you about the barriers to belief and how to break up these clumps so the Good News can be planted. However, we must first look at the subject of discernment.<\/p>\n
\u201412\u2014<\/p>\n
THE ART OF
\nDISCERNMENT<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
When is a Question
\nNot a Question?
\n(That is the Question)<\/p>\n
When Yeshua sent out the twelve disciples he instructed them saying: \u201cPay attention! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves, so be as prudent as snakes and as harmless as doves\u201d (Matthew 10:16). He was warning his disciples to be alert when they went out as his representatives. He wasn\u2019t calling his own Jewish people \u201cwolves.\u201d Remember he was a Jew and was speaking to Jews, as well as about some of them. He just knew they\u2019d face some big \u201cchallenges.\u201d
\nYou need not be worried that your Jewish neighbor is a wolf whom you should fear. You won\u2019t face the same danger as the disciples did. Most Jewish people are kind and thoughtful. Nevertheless, Yeshua\u2019s advice is worth heeding. Be prudent as serpents and harmless as doves. Among other things, this means that you should be discerning in your witness, especially when it comes to answering questions.
\nThere are many different kinds of questions. Some are asked to gain information. Others have different intentions.
\nHave you ever listened to a call-in radio show on which an expert was available to answer questions? You\u2019ve probably noticed how many of the questions asked aren\u2019t really questions at all. Sometimes they appear as questions but are really statements. Sometimes they are challenges disguised as questions. Sometimes they are asked only so a person can hear himself talk.
\nWhen I first began teaching in a college I didn\u2019t have much discernment. Often students would raise their hands, ostensibly to ask a question or receive clarification. After listening for a while, I would offer what I considered to be an appropriate answer, only to find out that the question was not a question at all.
\nThe more experience I had, the more I realized that occasionally a questioner would use his or her question time to give a little speech. The longer I taught, the more adept I became at distinguishing true questions from false questions. I developed a little discernment.
\nLikewise, talking with people about the Messiah requires some degree of discernment. Occasionally, a question may be raised for the purpose of challenging what you say. Sometimes a question might simply be a way of expressing personal feelings. Experience, coupled with prayer for discernment, will help you sense the question that often lies behind the question.
\nOne characteristic of the communication style of Jewish people is to answer one question with another. For instance:<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, Bernie, how\u2019s your daughter?\u201d
\n\u201cHow do you think she is with five kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
Was Bernie asking a question? No, he\u2019s complaining on behalf of his daughter, maybe for himself, as well. Here\u2019s another example.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad, do you think you could get me a new car?\u201d
\n\u201cA new car? Do I look like I\u2019m made of money?\u201d<\/p>\n
Both of these responses to the questions appear like questions but are really answers disguised as questions. When, where, or how this style of communicating began is hard to say. But does it exist among the Jewish people? Would I lie about such a thing?
\nNo matter when it began, a similar system was already in place at the time of Yeshua. He also answered questions with questions. You will see this as we go through this chapter.
\nIn order for you to be more effective in communicating the Good News that Messiah has come, here are a few examples of Yeshua\u2019s communication style. They show you how he answered a question with a question\u2014and how he applied principles of discernment.<\/p>\n
The Challenging Question
\n(Read Matthew 21:23\u201327)<\/p>\n
The chief priests and elders of the people came to Yeshua and asked him by what authority he taught. From a human point of view, they had every right to pose this question because they were responsible for the care of the people. Yeshua\u2019s authority came from the Father and obviously exceeded theirs, but he wasn\u2019t ready to reveal this to them. He wanted to avoid responding directly. He did so by answering a question with a question.
\nHe asked the chief priests a question he knew they wouldn\u2019t want to answer. He promised that if they first answered his question, he would respond to theirs. Before responding to their challenge, he placed the chief priests in the position of having to admit that John the Immerser had received his authority from heaven. If they refused to acknowledge this, the chief priests would arouse the anger of those who believed John to be a prophet.
\nYeshua wasn\u2019t trying to make trouble. He was avoiding confrontation and challenge, and facing them with the insincerity of their question. When you talk with your Jewish friend about Jewish things, you might find yourself challenged. It might help you understand what I mean if I share some of the challenging questions I have heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho gave you the right to tell me that Yeshua is the Messiah?\u201d
\n\u201cDo you know Hebrew?\u201d
\n\u201cHave you been to rabbinical school?\u201d<\/p>\n
Are these really questions? Not really. They are challenges. It might be wise, in such cases, to avoid answering them. Proverbs 26:5 says, \u201cAnswer a fool as his folly deserves, so that he won\u2019t think he is wise.\u201d In some ways, this proverb applies. Let\u2019s examine, for a moment, some ways you might answer the challenging question.
\nSuppose you were able to say honestly, \u201cYes, I speak fluent Hebrew and have recently graduated from rabbinical school.\u201d Do you suppose that would persuade your questioner that your point of view had suddenly become more tenable? Don\u2019t assume it for a moment! His response to your impressive credentials might likely be a flippant, \u201cWell, you certainly didn\u2019t learn very much in rabbinical school,\u201d or even, \u201cWith such a fine education, why waste your time trying to convert Jews?\u201d Again, these responses come from real conversations.
\nOf course, credentials count. And yes, there will be times when a direct answer is warranted. But you\u2019ll have to seek discernment, otherwise you risk \u201ccasting pearls before swine.\u201d
\nChances are you won\u2019t hear the statements above, simply because you\u2019re not a \u201cprofessional missionary,\u201d just a concerned friend. But I offer these to you as examples of challenges dressed up as questions. Pray for discernment and you will begin to detect the difference between what is sincere and what is merely designed to get you off the Gospel track.
\nYeshua\u2019s approach was to sidestep the challenging question by answering with another question. If your Jewish neighbor challenges you saying, \u201cDo you speak Hebrew?\u201d or \u201cHave you been to rabbinical school?\u201d try answering with a question such as, \u201cIf I did speak Hebrew or if I had been to rabbinical school, would you be more open to believing that Yeshua might be the Messiah?\u201d It might help your Jewish friend realize that he is really just challenging your right to share your faith with him.
\nAgain, let me reiterate that you will probably not be challenged the way workers in Jewish ministries have been. None of your Jewish neighbors is going to expect that you\u2019ve been to rabbinical school or are a Hebraicist. I just want you to see that sometimes a challenging statement comes dressed up as a question and to offer you a way to deal with it.
\nRemember, your right to share comes from a higher authority. That you don\u2019t speak Hebrew and that you have not been to rabbinical school has nothing to do with the fact that God has revealed to you the truth of the promised Messiah. But stating so in a forthright way might not be timely to do at this point in your witness. So, be discerning like Yeshua. Consider sidestepping the challenging question.<\/p>\n
The Trap Question
\n(Read Matthew 22:15\u201322)<\/p>\n
Matthew tells us that the Pharisees counseled together in order to entangle or trap Yeshua. They sent out their disciples with some Herodians, the political party that supported King Herod. After complimenting Yeshua\u2014\u201cRabbi, we know that you tell the truth and really teach what God\u2019s way is\u201d\u2014they set their trap, \u201cSo tell us your opinion: does Torah permit paying taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?\u201d
\nThey were trying to trap him into alienating himself from either the common people or the Roman rulers. Either answer would have resulted in serious repercussions. Had Yeshua admitted that it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, the commoners, already heavily taxed, would have muttered resentment. If, on the other hand, Yeshua had declared it unlawful, he would have been in trouble with the government.
\nOnce again, Yeshua answered their question with one of his own: Taking a denarius, \u201che asked them. Whose name and picture are these?\u2019 \u201d The answer was obvious: \u201cCaesar\u2019s.\u201d He concluded, \u201cgive the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give to God what belongs to God!\u201d He never really said whether or not it was lawful. He reflected reality back to his questioners and gave no offense to either group.
\nYour Jewish neighbor might ask, \u201cDo you support Israel?\u201d This can be as loaded a question as the one posed to Yeshua centuries ago. Your Jewish neighbor knows that things are not perfect in the Land, but there may be another issue behind your neighbor\u2019s question that goes beyond current events. It is the issue of whether or not you can be trusted. Are you a friend of the Jewish people, or not? Are you an \u201cus\u201d or a \u201cthem\u201d?
\nIsrael is the Jewish homeland. In the back of the minds of many Jews is the notion that someday they might choose (or be forced) to live there. Your answer to your neighbor\u2019s question, \u201cDo you support Israel?\u201d will reveal a lot about you and about the faith that you are espousing. Are you to be considered trustworthy (remember our discussion on credibility)? Is what you\u2019re sharing about Yeshua safe to listen to?
\nMost believers I know support Israel because of what the Bible says. Not only must Jews be living in the Land before the return of the Messiah, but God guaranteed it to be a homeland for his people. Most believers would answer, \u201cYes, I support Israel.\u201d
\nThere are, however, American Jews who find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. Some are embarrassed and concerned by the recurring Palestinian problem. They don\u2019t want Israel to be or appear to be violent. Yet they understand the need for a homeland.
\nOthers support a strong stand concerning the unrest on the West Bank. Some would like to move all Palestinians out of the Land, period. American Jews have strong feelings on both sides of the issue about Israel. Some have expressed themselves in critical terms. Others are more supportive. What you need to remember is that it\u2019s the Jewish homeland that Jews are arguing about. In many ways its a family matter.
\nYour answer to the question, \u201cDo you support Israel?\u201d will require discernment. Instead of offering a quick yes or no, why not use this opportunity to clarify your position? You can present the biblical view that God promised the Land to the Jewish people (Genesis 13:14\u201315; 15:18\u201321; 26:1\u20135; 28:1\u20134). Explain that you are looking for the day when there will be lasting peace in the Land\u2014the day when the Messiah returns to set up his kingdom of peace. You can express some thoughts about how sad you are to see young Palestinian and Jewish children hurt.
\nDo not feel trapped into giving a quick yes or no when more explanation is needed. For you to be critical about Israel means speaking against the \u201chomeland.\u201d Be careful if you choose to do it.
\nIt might not be the intention of your Jewish neighbor to trap you as the Pharisees tried to ensnare Yeshua. Still, the question might be unintentionally loaded. By avoiding an unequivocal yes or no, you may effectively use the opportunity to explain the real answer\u2014that peace will not come until Yeshua does. Your witness will be stronger for it.<\/p>\n
The False Question
\n(Read Matthew 22:23\u201333)<\/p>\n
Matthew tells us that later that day, after Yeshua had dealt with the Pharisees, he was visited by the Sadducees, who presented him with a false question. The subject was resurrection, something that Yeshua had taught his disciples about. But here he was faced by the Sadducees, the sect of Jews that did not believe in the resurrection.
\nTheir question was complex and intentionally sticky. They proposed a hypothetical situation. Suppose a man were to die, and his younger brother, following the Torah (Deuteronomy 25:5), were to marry the dead man\u2019s wife. Then suppose this man died and his next younger brother married the wife. Then suppose this happened to all seven brothers in the family. Whose wife would the woman be in the resurrection?
\nIt was a false question because they were inquiring about something in which they didn\u2019t believe. Perhaps they were looking for a way to discount the rest of his teaching.
\nWhen I became a believer in Yeshua, I found myself drawn to the way in which he communicated; he was like no one I had ever studied before. But coming upon this situation with the Sadducees really stumped me. Certainly Yeshua was not naive. Why, then, did he bother to answer this false question put forth by the Sadducees?
\nReading over this portion of Matthew, I found my answer in verse 33: \u201cWhen the crowds heard how he taught, they were astonished.\u201d It seemed to me that Yeshua\u2019s response was not so much for the sake of the taunting Sadducees, but for the sake of the multitudes who might be led astray by their false teaching.
\nWhen you\u2019re witnessing to your Jewish neighbor, you too might be asked a false question. For example, \u201cIf Hitler had believed, could he have gone to heaven?\u201d You could respond in a straightforward manner stating exactly what you believe. Keep in mind that this may be more than a question about your theological beliefs. It may really be designed to find out how you or your \u201creligion\u201d feels about the persecution of Jews.
\nUsing discernment, you could turn the question to the subject of God\u2019s judgment, righteousness, and mercy. Express your horror at what Hitler did. Find out if your neighbor lost any family in the Holocaust. You might even ask if he or she believes in heaven and hell, and if not, why the question is really being asked. To use a term from the sales world, you might \u201cqualify\u201d your friend for that kind of discussion.
\nLook behind the question in order to discern what is really going on. Perhaps your Jewish neighbor really does care about what happened to Hitler. But, more likely he\u2019s curious about your beliefs, or is looking for a way to conveniently disengage from your witness.
\nThe truth is, the question about Hitler is absurd. Given the nature of Hitler, and the apparent unrelenting hardening of his heart, it seems beyond comprehension for him to have repented. Truly, it\u2019s a question that doesn\u2019t deserve an answer. It\u2019s like the one about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Proverbs 26:4 states, \u201cDon\u2019t answer a fool in terms of his folly, or you will be descending to his level.\u201d
\nIn Yeshua\u2019s response to the false question posed to him, he used the opportunity to preach a little sermon on the resurrection to those within earshot. He gave an answer, but it wasn\u2019t the one that the Sadducees had expected. You, too, can use a false question to lead someone closer to the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n
The Testing Question
\n(Read Matthew 22:34\u201340 and Mark 12:28\u201334)<\/p>\n
The Pharisees had sent the Herodians to Yeshua. Then the Sadducees had a go at him. Next came the Scribes, experts in the fine points of Jewish Law. Matthew tells us that their purpose was to test him.
\nThe Scribes were technically conversant in all 613 mitzvot (commandments) found in the Torah. The study of these mitzvot occupied each of their waking moments. Perhaps they could get Yeshua to answer a question about these God-given standards of behavior. \u201cRabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?\u201d
\nPerhaps this was the standard test the Scribes administered to any professed teacher of the Jewish people. Or perhaps they were setting Yeshua up to give a \u201cwrong\u201d answer.
\nThe logical choice for Yeshua might have been to focus upon the Sabbath, since the keeping of the Sabbath had taken on supreme importance among the Jews of that day. The rules and regulations of Sabbath-keeping had become a favorite topic of discussion. Matthew had already described a conflict that had flared up when Yeshua\u2019s disciples were accused of breaking the Sabbath by picking food (Matthew 12:1\u20138). Perhaps the Pharisees sought to test Yeshua\u2019s attitude concerning the Sabbath.
\nAnother of the day\u2019s issues involved kashrut\u2014keeping kosher. Jews were restricted in what they could eat. Pork and shrimp were out. Meat could not be eaten together with milk products. Hands had to be washed according to a prescribed fashion.
\nTo this day there are those trained in kashrut, people who earn a living deciding on the fitness of certain products and procedures. If you examine the packages of many foods you will notice a \u201cU\u201d or a \u201cK\u201d in a circle. This means the food has been certified by a rabbi to be kosher. The Pharisees who tested Yeshua might have been interested in how highly he held these laws.
\nPerhaps they were interested in his thoughts on the issue of circumcision. This sign of the covenant was then and is still a controversial subject in the Jewish community. Did he think it was important?
\nWhatever lay behind the original question, Yeshua chose to respond to the test by quoting the Sh\u2019ma. Sh\u2019ma is Hebrew for \u201chear\u201d and is the beginning word of the central creed of faith for Jewish people, recited twice in every synagogue service. Yeshua is quoted as saying this is the greatest commandment in:<\/p>\n
Sh\u2019ma Yisra\u2019el, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one], and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength (Mark 12:29\u201331).<\/p>\n
His audience stood there, amazed. In those two short sentences Yeshua had summarized the Law and the Prophets. Ignoring their actual question, he spoke to the heart of the question behind it, namely, \u201cWhat is most important to God?\u201d He did not get tangled up in the test. He went beyond it. Not only that, but all Jewish people agree that the Sh\u2019ma is the greatest statement of their faith. So instead of getting mixed up in disputation over the Law, he affirmed the Law in a very Jewish way. And why wouldn\u2019t he? Wasn\u2019t he an observant Jew?
\nYou might hear a testing question from your Jewish neighbor. He might ask something that, at first hearing, sounds irrelevant to your purpose of teaching him about his Messiah. But there might be a question behind the question.
\nOne example focuses on the abundance of Christian denominations: \u201cYou say there is one Truth,\u201d this question begins. \u201cWhy then are there dozens of denominations, each advocating its own interpretation of the Bible?\u201d
\nThe answer to that question would involve a course in Church history. That\u2019s not my field, nor is it likely to be yours. But at the core it is really a question of whether or not anyone has the right to say there is one Truth. This is the issue that must be tackled. Regarding the question of Truth, you might point out that just because man is unable to agree on Truth it does not negate that there can be one Truth.
\nJust as Yeshua\u2019s answer soared beyond the Pharisees\u2019 testing questions, you too will need to resist the particulars and get down to the real issue, the Messiahship of Yeshua.
\nNone of this is meant to suggest that you become impolite or evasive, but rather that you communicate in a style Yeshua used. He often answered questions with questions. He avoided answering directly if direct answers could be purposely misconstrued and misused. He wasn\u2019t afraid of confronting people with the insincerity of their queries when appropriate. Yeshua was a most effective communicator; he got his message across to his people.
\nYou care about your Jewish neighbor. You want him or her to know the joy of salvation. Be prudent as snakes and as harmless as doves. Discernment will help you know which creature to emulate and when.
\nHaving touched upon the subject of discernment, let\u2019s turn to some actual questions you may face. Most of us who have been involved with sharing the Messiah with the Jewish people come up with the same lists of questions, the same clumps that need clearing. By presenting them here and explaining how the clumps got there in the first place, I hope to help you break through those barriers to belief.<\/p>\n
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HISTORICAL
\nBARRIERS
\nTO BELIEF<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Breaking Through
\nQuestions
\nof Doctrine<\/p>\n
The first kind of clump creating a barrier to belief is what I call the historical barrier. This clump was thrown into the garden by some of the awful things in history pertaining to the Jewish people and Yeshua. Here are how some really sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jesus was the Messiah, why have so many atrocities been committed in his name?\u201d<\/p>\n
As we have seen, Jewish people are acutely aware of the awful deeds that have been done to our people \u201cin the name of Jesus.\u201d On a lesser scale, whether you know it or not, some of this may be happening in your own neighborhood.
\nMany Jewish children have been called \u201cChrist-killers\u201d by misguided peers. Many a Jewish family has been snubbed by neighbors who attend church on Sunday. Many Jews have been excluded from country clubs simply because they were Jewish. This behavior cannot be justified, but we can try to explain what lies behind it.
\nThose who have persecuted Jews or anyone else in the name of Jesus were probably not real believers. And even if a profession of faith had actually been made, it is safe to say that they were not true followers of Yeshua.
\nMany people, even today, attend church but have no personal relationship with the Lord. Some go because it is traditional. \u201cMy parents went, the neighbors go, my community expects it, so I\u2019ll go, too.\u201d This is not an uncommon attitude (an attitude that often prevails in the synagogue as well, by the way).
\nIt is a good idea immediately to disclaim and disassociate yourself from the past persecutions of Jews when talking of faith with your Jewish neighbor. Express your sorrow that these atrocities have occurred\u2014and your sadness that they have taken place by so-called Christians.
\nBe quick, too, to disassociate these evildoers from Yeshua himself. Nowhere do we find him espousing hatred for his own people. Even when he hung on the execution stake, abandoned by everyone, including his own talmidim (disciples), he pleaded, \u201cFather, forgive them; they don\u2019t understand what they are doing\u201d (Luke 23:34). He died willingly to atone for the sins of all people.
\nYeshua taught love. He inspired gentleness. He practiced peace. He encouraged giving. There is no indication anywhere that he would have condoned the violence perpetrated by his so-called followers. Rather, he would have despised it.
\nUse the opportunity, if confronted with this question, to encourage your Jewish neighbor to read the Sermon on the Mount. It should be evident that persecution of Jews is far from what Yeshua stood for.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can I trust the New Testament? It\u2019s anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic!\u201d<\/p>\n
Your neighbor may at one time have read some of the New Covenant and come across what he might consider hateful diatribes against the Jewish people. Certain statements from the New Covenant appear to attack some of the Jewish people. In fact, some of these verses have been used to justify anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior.
\nHow do you explain these statements?
\nFirst, remind your neighbor that the New Covenant is a Jewish document, written about Jews, by Jews and for Jews (and non-Jews).
\nWe might consider their comments this way. It is not uncommon to criticize one\u2019s relatives, particularly within the context of a family gathering. \u201cCousin Rozzie ought to lose weight,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s about time Uncle Harry got a job.\u201d But let an outsider say anything about Cousin Rozzie or Uncle Harry, and they will be vigorously defended. Likewise, the New Covenant recorded some statements from Jews about other Jews. That can\u2019t be anti-Semitic.
\nStill, even the most avid antagonist of Yeshua might admit that the harsh things said concerning some of the Jewish people were true. Writings from the time of Yeshua point out that the criticism in the New Covenant leveled at some Jews was on target. But not all Jews.
\nCorruption had infiltrated the office of the high priest, so much so that it had become a political, rather than religious, office. A sense of self-righteousness prevailed among many of the Pharisees. The am ha\u2019aretz, the common people, were disdained by the leadership in Israel. The Judean Jews, those around Jerusalem, looked down their noses at the Galilean Jews. In fact, many of the New Covenant references to \u201cthe Jews\u201d are really about the Judean Jews. They had a superior attitude toward the Galilean Jews. Sin was present in the Land.
\nThe New Covenant is not alone in pointing out these problems. The Talmud addressed these problems, too. But since the B\u2019rit Chadashah was misused by anti-Semites through the years to persecute Jews, it is now seen as anti-Semitic.
\nYeshua\u2019s criticism of the hypocritical practices of some of the Jewish people was nothing new. The accusations were no harsher than those of the ancient prophets of Israel. It was Isaiah who spoke the following:<\/p>\n
Oh, sinful nation, a people weighed down by iniquity, descendants of evildoers, immoral children! They have abandoned ADONAI, spurned the Holy One of Isra\u2019el, turned their backs on him!
\nIsaiah 1:4<\/p>\n
No, the words of the Newer Covenant are not anti-Jewish. Yeshua did not hate his own people. He, like the prophets before him, hated sin. The statements he made were directed at certain Jews and they concerned particular problems. His words were no harsher than many found in the \u201cOlder\u201d Covenant. In all of Scripture, God\u2019s purpose in confronting sin was that he could show his steadfast and everlasting love when his people repented. If Yeshua was anti-Semitic, so was Isaiah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jesus is the Messiah, why haven\u2019t rabbis believed in him?\u201d<\/p>\n
To begin with you need to know something that may surprise you. Although you\u2019d think that Jewish people would listen carefully to their rabbi, giving this barrier to belief some basis, the truth is that most Jews nowadays are not too concerned with what the rabbis believe or teach. There are groups in which the rabbi truly does have the last word. The members of these ultra-Orthodox groups, called Chasidim, submit to the authority of their rabbis. It is unlikely that your Jewish neighbor is part of one of these groups, since they generally live together in tightly knit and self-sufficient communities.
\nSo, your Jewish neighbor might be bringing up the question about the rabbis\u2019 unbelief in Yeshua as a way of saying, \u201cIf our Jewish scholars don\u2019t buy into your conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah, then why should I?\u201d
\nYour response might be that many rabbis have believed. Yeshua himself was called Rabbi. Paul, the former Saul of Tarsus, was a noted rabbi. Nicodemus, who came to Yeshua by night, was called a ruler of the Jews and was a rabbi. Through the years there have been many rabbis who have believed.
\n\u201cThen why don\u2019t we know about them?\u201d your neighbor might ask. But even as he does, he will already realize the answer to this question. If a rabbi became a believer in Yeshua, he would be immediately defrocked and his name expunged from the rabbinical records. He certainly would not receive publicity in the Jewish community. His credibility would be brought into question. Murmuring concerning his mental state or his commitment to the Jewish people and to the Torah would be heard.
\nScripture teaches that eyes of faith are a gift from God. \u201cGod has mercy on whom he wants, and he hardens whom he wants\u201d (Romans 9:18). Yeshua preached to the lowly; his message did not appeal to those who considered themselves experts in God\u2019s ways. Paul showed his understanding of God when he wrote that \u201cGod chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise; and God chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the strong \u2026 so that no one should boast before God\u201d (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Jews have never proselytized. Why don\u2019t you just leave us alone?\u201d<\/p>\n
To begin with, it is not historically true that Jews have never proselytized. Today, it might be said that Jews don\u2019t proselytize, but centuries ago it was not that way.
\nThe very reason God chose Israel was to be a light unto the nations, the Gentiles. Throughout Bible history, the Jews are seen as a testimony people, from the Tabernacle to the Messiah. It was always God\u2019s intention to use this people to bring glory to himself and show the world a better way. Moses expressed it this way:<\/p>\n
Look, I have taught you laws and rulings, just as ADONAI my God ordered me, so that you can behave accordingly in the land where you are going in order to take possession of it. Therefore, observe them; and follow them; for then all peoples will see you as having wisdom and understanding. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, \u201cThis great nation is surely a wise and understanding people.\u201d For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as ADONAI our God is, whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that has laws and rulings as just as this entire Torah which I am setting before you today?
\nDeuteronomy 4:5\u20138<\/p>\n
Through the ages, the nation of Israel has been a testimony to the existence and love of a living God. Who could read the Scripture accounts of God\u2019s wooing his people back from sin and rebellion (the book of Hosea is a moving example) and doubt his commitment to this people? In spite of centuries of dispersion in unfriendly foreign lands and untold persecutions, who can deny that a supernatural force has been protecting the Jewish people?
\nIn the early days of the New Covenant there was much outreach activity on the part of the Jewish people. Finding themselves dispersed throughout the Middle East, they made many converts to Judaism. References in the New Covenant to proselytes and God-fearing Gentiles indicate that the Jewish people were not averse to bringing outsiders into Judaic practices. After all, they were only doing their job, bearing the light of monotheism to the polytheistic pagan nations.
\nThe ultimate performance of this role, of course, was by the apostle Paul, an observant Jew who became the bearer of the Good News to the Gentile world.
\nIf we believe what Yeshua said, it behooves believers to be sharing his message with anyone we can find, as Paul said, \u201cto the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile\u201d (Romans 1:16). Call it communicating. Call it proselytizing. Call it missionizing. Does it matter what it\u2019s called if the message is true? Believers are obliged to preach the Good News, and not exclude anyone, especially the Jews.
\nWhen Jewish people say, \u201cWe don\u2019t proselytize,\u201d what they are really saying is, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t either.\u201d The implication is that thereM is no Truth, that one person\u2019s opinion is as good as another\u2019s. It is an admission that the Jewish people are a long way from the days of being a light to the nations. But if there is a truth, a real objective truth, then sharing that truth is always appropriate.
\nIf your Jewish neighbor were dying of a disease for which you had the cure, the administration of that remedy would certainly be timely and fitting. It would not be considered proselytizing. It would be called caring.
\nTelling Jews about the Messiah is a far more caring thing to do even than sharing a cure for disease. Spiritual wholeness, having the relationship with God that he intended, is more important than physical well-being.
\nIt is a sad indictment of modern-day Judaism that there is little proselytizing. Perhaps if the Jewish people were convinced of the truth of Judaism as it is observed today, they would find it to be a message compelling them to share. Regardless of this, if you know the truth, then you also know that the truth ought to be proclaimed, especially to those people to whom that truth was first revealed.
\nThe statement that \u201cJews don\u2019t proselytize\u201d is merely a modern-day phenomenon, for in the past Jews fulfilled their role as a testimony people. Further, you ought to make it very clear that you are not witnessing so as to \u201cconvert\u201d your Jewish neighbor and turn him or her into a Gentile; your only interest is to help your Jewish neighbor meet the Messiah. You have the cure for much more than disease; you have the cure for sin.
\nDon\u2019t be ashamed of your efforts to share. It may cause some friction, but if you have laid the foundation for your relationship, that friendship will withstand this new dimension.
\nRemember, most of the historical barriers to belief are built upon misunderstanding. If you take the time to talk with and listen to your Jewish neighbor, you might be able to break up some of these barriers, clearing out the clumps to prepare the soil for planting.<\/p>\n
\u201414\u2014<\/p>\n
THEOLOGICAL
\nBARRIERS TO
\nBELIEF<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Breaking Through
\nTwo Thousand Years
\nof Confusion<\/p>\n
There are some barriers to belief that we could classify as theological clumps. They, like historical barriers, have to be broken up so that the Good News can germinate. These barriers, too, are often put in the form of questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can you Christians worship three gods? We Jews worship one!\u201d<\/p>\n
This misconception is common among Jewish people who don\u2019t understand what is meant by the Trinity (or tri-unity). I remember thinking that the Trinity was a kind of holy family: God, the holy Father; the virgin Mary, the holy Mother; and Jesus Christ, the holy Son.
\nBut even when Jewish people understand that the Trinity is really Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it still sounds suspiciously like three gods. And if this is true, it is tantamount to polytheism, a non-biblical belief, anathema to Jews.
\nA word of friendly advice. Don\u2019t fall into the trap of trying to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. If God wanted us to have an easy explanation, he would have provided us with one! Theologians have wrestled with ways to explain the unique nature of God for years.
\nThere are explanations such as the triune nature of water\u2014liquid, ice, and steam. But that and other explanations really seem to fall short. Nothing on this earth is wholly satisfactory to explain the unique nature of the creator of the universe. It would be arrogant for us to assume the task of trying to explain his nature, beyond that which he has carefully revealed.
\nBut there is an answer to the accusation \u201cYou Christians worship three gods.\u201d Reply simply, \u201cNo, we don\u2019t!\u201d As mentioned in the introduction to this section, Yeshua himself, quoting the Sh\u2019ma (Deuteronomy 6:4), said, \u201cHear, O Isra\u2019el, the LORD our God, the LORD is one\u201d (Mark 12:29). Yeshua espoused monotheism!
\nYou can also show that the word translated \u201cone\u201d in the Sh\u2019ma is the Hebrew word echad. Echad is a word that indicates a composite unity, as in Adam and Eve becoming \u201cone flesh\u201d (Genesis 2:24). There is another Hebrew word, yachid, which is also translated \u201cone,\u201d indicating an absolute singular unity, like the number one. But in the Sh\u2019ma, the central creed of Jewish faith, the Spirit moved upon Moses in such a way that he chose to write the word echad.
\nSo sensitive was this issue that the great rabbi and scholar Maimonides, in his \u201cThirteen Articles of Faith,\u201d took great pains to substitute the word yachid for echad in his description of God\u2019s nature, even to the point of rephrasing the Sh\u2019ma. Many feel that this was his attempt to counter the Trinitarian view espoused by the Church. Nonetheless, what Maimonides did was contrary to the Tanakh since nowhere does it refer to God as Adonai Yachid.
\nYou could also show some allowance in the Tanakh for the concept of composite unity. For instance, the Hebrew Scriptures frequently use plural references for God. The Hebrew word Elohim, translated \u201cGod,\u201d is plural. This is not a great argument, however, because there are some other plausible explanations for using this plural form.
\nYou might also point to some ancient Jewish writings that refer to a \u201cthreefold divine manifestation\u201d of God. But it is probable that neither you nor your neighbor has ever curled up with the Zohar, a book of Jewish mystical writings, to read about these emanations of the god-head.
\nThe simplest way for you to respond to the question of the Trinity, and the ground on which you might feel most comfortable, would be simply to say, \u201cI know why you think that, but really we believers don\u2019t worship three gods at all. In fact, we worship the God of Israel\u2014the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob\u2014the same God you worship.\u201d
\nThere are some specific Bible references that support the plural unity of God. Isaiah 48:16 reads,<\/p>\n
Come close to me, and listen to this: since the beginning I have not spoken in secret, since the time things began to be, I have been there; and now Adonai ELOHIM has sent me and his Spirit.<\/p>\n
This passage\u2014in which God was speaking through the prophet Isaiah\u2014seems to involve three divine persons: the \u201cSovereign LORD,\u201d \u201cme,\u201d and \u201chis Spirit.\u201d The \u201cme\u201d spoken of seems to have the same eternal nature as God himself, yet is sent by God, along with his Spirit.
\nThere are also references to \u201cthe angel of the Lord,\u201d who is identified with God. In Genesis 16:7\u201312,\u201dthe angel of ADONAI\u201d spoke to Hagar, Sarai\u2019s handmaid. Genesis 16:13 states,\u201dSo she named ADONAI who had spoken with her El Ro\u2019i [God of seeing].\u201d A similar scene is in Genesis 22, where \u201cthe angel of ADONAI\u201d constrained Abraham from slaying his son. These verses clearly identify \u201cthe angel of ADONAI\u201d with God.
\nThere are references to the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, as far back as Genesis 1:2: \u201cthe Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.\u201d Isaiah 11:2 says, \u201cthe Spirit of ADONAI will rest on him\u201d (the Messiah). There are many other examples as well where \u201cthe Spirit of God\u201d performs many of the activities and functions attributed to God.
\nOne last comment on this subject. Occasionally you will hear the related statement, \u201cHow can God have a son?\u201d Granted, the concept of Yeshua\u2019s sonship is a little hard to grasp. Obviously, Yeshua was not a son in the way in which we are familiar with the term. He wasn\u2019t born from God\u2019s wife as you might find in Greek mythology. He didn\u2019t \u201cgrow up in God\u2019s home\u201d as our sons do in ours. His sonship means something entirely different. Let me explain what I mean.
\nTo use the word son expresses the idea that one possesses the specific personality and identity of the father. This does not always mean solely a physical bond. For instance, Yeshua renamed James and John Boanerges, \u201cSons of Thunder,\u201d giving us a vivid picture of two boisterous men who deserved this fitting nickname (Mark 3:17).
\nEarly in Israel\u2019s history God spoke of Israel as \u201cmy firstborn son\u201d (Exodus 4:22).
\nIn one way we all can be considered sons of God. But Yeshua was different. He was the Son of God. He was God\u2019s unique Son, the perfect one, because he was the incarnation of God himself.
\nAccording to Hebrews 1:3, \u201cThis Son is the radiance of the Sh\u2019khinah, the very expression of God\u2019s essence.\u201d Like the rays from the sun, Yeshua shows us the true essence of all that is God. Sun rays are not the sun itself, but they are inseparable from it, because without the sun, there would be no rays. Yet we know the rays are distinct because we can see the light in the sky of suns of other solar systems that have long since burned out. What we see are the rays that were generated by those suns thousands of years ago.
\nTwo other passages support the truth that God has a Son. Psalm 2:7 states: \u201cYou are my son; today I became your Father.\u201d This psalm was applied by Luke at Acts 13:33. Also see Matthew 3:17.
\nA second and perhaps even more persuasive passage comes in the form of a riddle from the Tanakh and can even be used that way in your own sharing. It asks:<\/p>\n
Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hand? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son\u2019s name? Surely you know!
\nProverbs 30:4<\/p>\n
All of the tri-unity can be found in the Tanakh. That in itself allows for this seemingly foreign concept to be considered \u201ckosher\u201d for Jewish people. But, once again, explaining it thoroughly is too tall an order for even the best theologian.
\nI suggest when sharing with your Jewish neighbor that you simply show Yeshua\u2019s teaching that God is one, seen in his quoting of the Sh\u2019ma. Further, you might share some of the other verses I have offered to show that the Older Covenant allows for\u2014and even points to\u2014the composite nature of the one true God.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can a man be born from a virgin? This is simply not possible!\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously your Jewish neighbor is referring to the miraculous conception of Yeshua. And, interestingly enough, the explanation to this question is one of the easier ones to offer your Jewish neighbor.
\nThe question really goes back to the sovereignty of God. If God can create the heavens and the earth and all that is in them out of nothing, as taught in Tanakh, then creating a person through miraculous means is really no problem. For us it would be impossible. For God, it\u2019s no big deal.
\nAlso, consider the fact that it was through miraculous conceptions that God created the Jewish people. It is no coincidence that the mothers of the people of the promise\u2014Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel\u2014were barren. Genesis 18:11; 25:1 and 29:31 teach us that God opened the wombs of the matriarchs. Since it was through the divine and miraculous intervention of the Almighty God that the Jewish nation was born, it is entirely consistent that the redeemer of the Jewish people would also be born through miraculous means.
\nCouldn\u2019t it be true that in these divine acts, God was giving us a hint of the future miraculous birth by which the Messiah would come to dwell among us? Remember your Jewish friend might be operating from an anti-supernatural bias. The miraculous conception of Yeshua would really be no problem for the God who created the heavens and the earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can you believe in substitutionary atonement? We Jews don\u2019t believe that anyone can atone for someone else\u2019s sins!\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement that Jews don\u2019t believe in substitutionary atonement is both true and false. Nowadays, it is true. But in Bible days it would have been false.
\nSince the destruction of the Temple and the end of the sacrificial system in 70 C.E., rabbis have tried to offer alternative methods to atone for sin. With the loss of the Temple, the only place for the sacrifice was gone. And without the sacrifice, there was no scriptural way to atone for sin.
\nDiscussions concerning this dilemma appear throughout Jewish writings. \u201cHow do we make the reconciliation with God that he requires without his prescribed sacrifice?\u201d the sages asked. Instead of recognizing that God himself had fulfilled the sacrificial requirement once and for all through the death of Yeshua, the rabbis set out to find another solution.
\nThe answer they developed centered around \u201cworks.\u201d Performing mitzvot, good deeds, they reasoned, must be God\u2019s alternative plan for atonement. While there is nothing wrong with performing good deeds, this was never God\u2019s plan for atonement lest people get self-satisfied.
\nThree particular mitzvot were offered as solutions for the problem of the missing Temple. First was t\u2019shuvah (repentance), then tz\u2019dakah (charity), and finally t\u2019filah (prayer). These activities were the rabbis\u2019 alternative program for earning forgiveness. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, no sacrifice is offered; instead, Jewish people practice t\u2019shuvah, tz\u2019dakah, and t\u2019filah.
\nAnd so, today, Jewish people report, \u201cWe Jews don\u2019t believe in substitutionary atonement!\u201d So when you, in your Jewish Gospel message, present the fact that Yeshua died for their sins, they probably won\u2019t relate to it. The concept is foreign.
\nJewish people, especially those committed to keeping other Jewish people from being exposed to the Gospel, are fond of quoting Hosea 6:6, \u201cWhat I desire is mercy, not sacrifices.\u201d This is a misapplication of the verse. Some may be reacting to what is seen as hypocrisy, where a sinner comes to church on Sunday, is \u201cabsolved\u201d of his sins, only to go out and sin again the next week. Any true believer would hardly consider this form of religion to be walking the walk of true Messianic faith.
\nThose who misapply Hosea 6:6 in an attempt to discount the sacrifice of Yeshua assume that the B\u2019rit Chadashah, the New Covenant, doesn\u2019t teach that God desires more from his children than the motions of religion. What they fail to see is that Yeshua quotes this very verse, as seen in Matthew 9:13.
\nThe question boils down to this: Do believers teach that all you need to have is a sacrifice and you will be saved? The answer is no! John the Immerser proclaimed, \u201cTurn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near\u201d (Matthew 3:2). Yeshua, the Messiah, restated this same message at the beginning of his public ministry (Matthew 4:17).
\nJames, in his discussion of faith and works, echoes this very sentiment:<\/p>\n
What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such \u201cfaith\u201d able to save him? Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
\nJames 2:14, 17<\/p>\n
James says that we are saved by the kind of faith that results in good works. Otherwise, our faith is stillborn. He is not suggesting that works are required for salvation; he is saying that works should result from salvation. This is why Yeshua teaches, \u201cYou will recognize them by their fruit\u201d (Matthew 7:20).
\nBelievers ought to have no dispute with the desire of the Jewish people to perform mitzvot, good deeds. Indeed, society has prospered because of the worthwhile and noble contributions of Jewish people. Good deeds, however, do not atone for sin. For this, God set up a system of atonement stated in Leviticus: \u201cFor the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life\u201d (17:20).
\nSince most Jews are unfamiliar with the concept of vicarious or substitutionary atonement, you may find this a barrier to belief. Therefore, you\u2019ll need to show your Jewish neighbor this essential component of faith, with its foundation in Leviticus and its fulfillment in Yeshua. Isaiah 53 depicts a Jewish person dying for the sins of his people. Daniel 9 describes the Messiah as being \u201ccut off\u201d before the destruction of the Temple. Taken together, these passages compose a pretty good argument for what Yeshua did when he died on the Roman execution stake (cross) on a hill called Calvary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you Christians believe in the dead coming back to life? We Jews don\u2019t believe in the resurrection of the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
If your neighbor argues that Jewish people don\u2019t believe in resurrection, you can contend that resurrection is indeed a Jewish concept. Not only can it be found in the Tanakh, but resurrection was and is taught by religious Jews to this day.
\nWhat your Jewish neighbor is really saying is, \u201cMost Jews don\u2019t believe in the resurrection of the dead.\u201d That is true. But here are a few references to resurrection found in the Tanakh:<\/p>\n
Many of those sleeping in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and abhorrence.
\nDaniel 12:2<\/p>\n
Should I ransom them from the power of Sh\u2019ol? Should I redeem them from death?
\nHosea 13:14<\/p>\n
As we saw before, the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection, came to Yeshua ostensibly to question him about it, underscoring the fact that it was a prevalent doctrine at this time.
\nMaimonides, the great rabbinical scholar of the 1100s, wrote in his \u201cThirteen Articles of Faith, \u201cArticle Thirteen:<\/p>\n
I believe with perfect faith in the resurrection of the dead at a time which will please the Creator, blessed be His name, and exalted be His memory for ever and ever.<\/p>\n
This was written more than a thousand years after the time of Yeshua.
\nClearly, Jews believed in resurrection in the days of Tanakh, in the days of Yeshua, and for hundreds, even thousands of years since. I\u2019m quite confident that if you talk to Orthodox Jews today, you will find this belief present in their religious thinking.
\nOne Orthodox rabbi, Pinchas Lapide, wrote that he is convinced that Yeshua himself was resurrected from the dead. On the back cover of his book, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, he is quoted as saying, \u201cI accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event.\u201d This man, however, is not ready to confess that Yeshua is the Messiah. Rather, he says he is the Messiah for the Gentiles.
\nJews do\u2014or at least did\u2014believe in the resurrection of the dead. That is something you\u2019ll need to teach your Jewish friend should you hear the statement, \u201cJews don\u2019t believe in the resurrection of the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes you believe in an afterlife? We Jews don\u2019t believe in heaven or hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once again this statement reveals how far popular Judaism has strayed from the once-accepted truths of biblical and Jewish theology. Although there is less emphasis on the afterlife than one finds in most Christian circles, the doctrines of heaven and hell do have strong roots in Jewish thought.
\nIn Jewish parlance, \u201cheaven\u201d is Gan Eden, literally, \u201cthe Garden of Eden,\u201d and ha \u2018olam haba, \u201cthe world to come\u201d; hell is Gehenna, referencing a dump where garbage was burned.
\nIt was said of Yochanan ben Zakai, mentioned earlier in connection with the development of rabbinic Judaism, that on his deathbed he was fearful for the future. Asked by his disciples why he was crying, he said that he didn\u2019t know which way he would go when he met his maker.
\nToday\u2019s most widely held position by those who do believe in an afterlife is usually that the quality of one\u2019s deeds determines where a person ends up Tradition teaches that each year on Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, God opens up his books in heaven. These are considered to be his books of accounts, with assets and liabilities. Reviewing a person\u2019s life during the year, God prepares to write his name in one of three places: in the book of the totally righteous, in the book of totally unrighteous, or in the book of the in-between.
\nAs you might expect, most everyone qualifies for inclusion in the book of the in-between. You are then given ten days, until Yom Kippur, to make amends with those whom you have wronged in the past year, to balance your account. These ten days are called the Days of Awe, Yomim Nora\u2019im, and when they are over, jewish tradition teaches that your fate is sealed for the next year.
\nAlthough heaven and hell are not widely-held doctrines, they still do exist in Jewish theology, and though most Jewish people don\u2019t believe in the system, the system is still there. If your Jewish friend says that Jews don\u2019t believe in these concepts, you can show that it may be true today, but historically it is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jesus was the Messiah, why isn\u2019t there peace on earth?\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Jewish people who are truly looking for the Messiah expect him to bring peace to the earth as is stated in Scripture:<\/p>\n
He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Then they will hammer their swords into plow-blades and their spears into pruning-knives; nations will not raise swords at each other, and they will no longer learn war.
\nIsaiah 2:4<\/p>\n
The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; calf, young lion and fattened lamb together, with a little child to lead them.
\nIsaiah 11:6<\/p>\n
These and other portions of Scripture that talk about world peace are associated with the coming of the Messiah. In past generations Jewish people waxed on about all the wonderful things that would happen \u201cwhen the Messiah comes.\u201d There would be no more poverty, suffering, pain, and certainly no more war.
\nYou can understand, then, that people familiar with the predictions of world peace and universal prosperity have trouble seeing in Yeshua the fulfillment of their expectations. I often hear, \u201cThere have been more wars since the time of Jesus than in all the history before him! \u201cThis is undoubtedly true. And it\u2019s a sad commentary on the supposedly enlightened world in which we live, especially a world with so many believers. This, too, however is foretold in the Word of God:<\/p>\n
When he [Yeshua] was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim [disciples] came to him privately. \u201cTell us,\u201d they said, \u201cwhen will these things happen? And what will be the sign that you are coming, and that the \u2018olam hazeh [this world\/ age] is ending?\u201d
\nYeshua replied: \u201cWatch out! Don\u2019t let anyone fool you! For many will come in my name, saying,! am the Messiah!\u2019 and they will lead many astray. You will hear the noise of wars nearby and the news of wars far off; see to it that you don\u2019t become frightened. Such things must happen, but the end is yet to come. For peoples will fight each other, nations will fight each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various parts of the world.
\nMatthew 24:3\u20137<\/p>\n
This is not a comforting description. But it\u2019s something we can identify around us. These words were spoken by the Messiah, not preaching peace and prosperity, but describing a world to which he would one day return. With that return he will bring the peaceful reign that Jewish people expect from the Messiah, as it is written:<\/p>\n
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there. Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim [Jerusalem], coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, \u201cSee! God\u2019s Sh\u2019khinah [the glorious manifest presence of God] is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.\u201d
\nRevelation 21:1\u20134<\/p>\n
To deal with the difficulty that Messiah has come, yet did not establish world peace, you must show that his work is not finished. Yeshua told his followers that there will not only be more and more wars, but famines, earthquakes, and bad news in the world.
\nThe good news is that there will be an end to all bad news. But you need to point out that no one enters the kingdom without establishing peace with God, as it is written; \u201cSo, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have Shalom [peace] with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah\u201d (Romans 5:1).
\nNow that you are better equipped to break up the historical and theological barriers, let\u2019s turn to some of the personal barriers to belief you might face as you share the Good News with your Jewish neighbor.<\/p>\n
\u201415\u2014<\/p>\n
PERSONAL
\nBARRIERS
\nTO BELIEF<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Breaking Through
\nIndividual Objections
\nto Faith<\/p>\n
Why do I need someone to atone for my sins? I\u2019m a good person!<\/p>\n
This is one of the biggest personal barriers to belief there is. It\u2019s a big clump that needs to be cleared.
\nNone of us finds it easy to face our sins. Most of us have a highly developed system of what psychologists call \u201cdefense mechanisms.\u201d Yet the Bible teaches that we all sin and come short of the glory of God.
\nYour Jewish neighbor may actually be one of the finest, most decent people you know. Jews are renowned for their concern for the downtrodden, care for the sick, and commitment to civil justice. They often adhere to high standards of behavior and, as a group, strive to be morally superior to others around them. Remember, the Jewish people were to set an example for the rest of the nations. Even when a Jew does not believe in God, there exists a leftover sense of responsibility to uphold high standards of moral conduct.
\nAssuming that your Jewish neighbor is a \u201cgood person,\u201d you need to communicate that God is not dealing merely with outward manifestations of kindness and goodness. He looks on the heart and judges sin. He knows what is going on deep down inside.
\nThe rabbis describe two forces operating within a person: the yetzer hatov, the good inclination, and the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. They say these inclinations impact moral choice. The apostle Paul described his struggle as a continual warring between the flesh and the spirit. He summed it up in words with which we all can readily identify, \u201cFor I don\u2019t do the good I want; instead, the evil that I don\u2019t want is what I do\u201d (Romans 7:19). In other words, even he could not live up to the high standard of God\u2019s righteousness.
\nMost people, although hesitant to admit that they are sinners, sense that both Paul\u2019s statement and the rabbinical concept ring loudly with truth. Man has a propensity to sin. That nature is what Yeshua came to deal with. He came to atone for our sins and, by the Spirit of God, do away with anything that goes against the will of God.
\nYour Jewish neighbor needs to feel assured of a few things: that you value his or her friendship; that you appreciate the good things he or she does; and that you believe God is also glad for those good deeds.
\nBut your Jewish neighbor also needs to understand what Isaiah wrote concerning himself and his people: \u201cAll of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags\u201d (Isaiah 64:6, 64:5 in Jewish Bibles). Your Jewish neighbor needs to hear what King David had to say: \u201cNo one does what is right, not a single one\u201d (Psalm 14:3). He needs to recognize that Abraham sinned (Genesis 12:10\u201320); that Moses sinned (Numbers 20:7\u201313); that even the beloved David sinned (2 Samuel 11:1\u201312:12).
\nYour Jewish neighbor must become aware of the truth that any sin, external or internal, has its consequences; that sin is more a matter of the heart than of the hand; that there is an eternal, spiritual consequence to this sin that affects him and God.<\/p>\n
Rather, it is your own crimes that separate you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he doesn\u2019t hear.
\nIsaiah 59:2<\/p>\n
As good as your Jewish neighbor is, surely he recognizes that he has encountered an evil inclination within him, a fleshly thought, a secret sin. In God\u2019s eyes, covert sins count as much as overt ones. He or she needs to know this.
\nOne Saturday evening while shopping at a mall, I had an opportunity to share the message of the Messiah with some Jewish people. After I explained why the Messiah had to die, they smiled patiently and objected, \u201cBut we\u2019re good people; we don\u2019t need anyone to make atonement for us.\u201d
\n\u201cDo you obey God\u2019s laws?\u201d I asked them.
\n\u201cCertainly!\u201d came the reply.
\n\u201cWhat did you do today?\u201d I asked, judging from the number of bags they were carrying that they had spent a good part of the day shopping.
\nThey answered, \u201cWe were here at the mall.\u201d
\n\u201cSo how is it that obeying the fourth commandment?\u201d
\nThey weren\u2019t sure what the fourth commandment was. I reminded them that we Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath holy. Obviously they were not keeping it too holy there at the mall.
\nThey became aware that they were relying on their own standard for goodness and righteousness. In essence, they had made up their own religion. Many Jewish people will sum up their religious conviction by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t do anything that would hurt anyone else.\u201d At the same time, though, they don\u2019t keep the ways of God.
\nWhen he was asked what the greatest commandment was, Yeshua said it was to love God. To love God mans to obey him and seek to please him. This is where many of us fall short. Yes, we might do good things, but, too often, we fail to love God first.
\nMy Jewish people have done their share of good things. This is great! But doing good deeds in an unbelieving context can lead to self-righteousness and turning away from God. It is the nature of humankind. And it was for this very reason that God provided a way to reconcile with him. Yeshua is that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I believe in Yeshua, I won\u2019t be Jewish anymore!\u201d<\/p>\n
This objection always gets to me. It shows just how far Messianic faith has gotten from its Jewish roots. The Church today feels about as Jewish as ham and cheese on white bread with mayonnaise.
\nWhat am I saying? For nineteen hundred years, most followers of Yeshua have been Gentiles with little recognition of the Jewish beginnings of their faith. But it wasn\u2019t always like this.
\nIf you recall the debate of Acts 15, the question concerning the Jerusalem Council revolved around whether or not Gentiles could be saved without first submitting to Jewish Law, thereby becoming Jewish. Since nearly all the early believers were Jewish, they were not sure how to instruct the non-Jews who also followed the Jewish Messiah.
\nCertain Jews\u2014particularly among the Pharisees who believed in Yeshua\u2014felt \u201cIt is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe [Moses]\u201d (Acts 15:5). After much debate Peter stood and said,<\/p>\n
And God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh to them, just as he did to us; that is, he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their heart by trust. So why are you putting God to the test now by placing a yoke on the neck of the talmidim \u2018which neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to bear? No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are delivered\u2014and it\u2019s the same with them.
\nActs 15:8\u201311<\/p>\n
Finally the Council agreed to follow James\u2019 suggestion to write the Gentiles at Antioch \u201cto abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood\u201d (verse 20). The letter was delivered in person by Paul and Barnabas and the community rejoiced because of its encouragement.
\nBut in a short time, the Jewishness of Christianity greatly diminished. In relatively few years, what had started out as a Jewish sect became a Gentile religion.
\nNowadays, a new Jewish believer goes through an unmistakable identity crisis. I can still remember lying on my bed the night I invited Yeshua into my life. I was afraid to go to sleep for fear that I might awaken as a Gentile. It wasn\u2019t that I was anti-Gentile. Some of my best friends were Gentiles. I just felt determined to maintain my Jewish identity. For the first time in my life, I understood that God had a special plan for the Jewish people. He had made me a Jew. Still, that night I was fearful that belief in Yeshua might put pressure on me to abandon my heritage. After all, most believers I had met were Gentiles.
\nBut the next morning I awoke craving a bagel, lox, and cream cheese sandwich. Boy, was I relieved!!!
\nActually, I knew in my head I was still a Jew and that nothing would ever change that fact. Believing in Yeshua might have made me an unusual Jew, but a Jew, nonetheless. Being Jewish is a matter of birth, not choice (except for those who convert to Judaism). I was born a Jew and I\u2019ll die a Jew. But thanks to God, when I die as a Jew, I will be in heaven because of the work of another Jew, Yeshua of Nazareth.
\nIf your Jewish neighbor wonders whether or not he will remain a Jew after accepting Yeshua, assure him that he will. There have been other Jews claiming to be the Messiah. They all had their followers. Bar Kokhba, the hero who died in the Roman revolt, had many. Did his devotees cease to be Jews because they followed him? Of course not. And no rabbi today believes Bar Kokhba was the Messiah.
\nShabbetai Zvi proclaimed himself to be the Messiah in the 1600s. He had quite a following in Europe. But when he ran into some trouble he converted to Islam. Obviously, he was not the Messiah. But his Jewish followers remained Jewish.
\nOthers who made Messianic claims had followers who believed they were the Messiah. Nowhere was there any hint that the Jewish community cut them off saying that they were no longer Jews. This only happens when Jews choose to follow Yeshua. But faith in him does not cause a person to stop being Jewish, no matter what the Jewish community or the rabbis say. That identity was a sovereign work of Almighty God. No modern rabbi or Jewish leader can change that.
\nMany rabbis today take the position that a Jew who accepts Yeshua is still a Jew, albeit a wayward Jew. The funeral ceremonies Jewish families once held to mourn a loved one who accepted him do not often take place anymore. This is due, in part, to the strong stand taken nowadays by Jewish believers. We are now more committed to living as Jews, especially our following of the Messiah Yeshua.
\nIn response, the Jewish community senses that Jewish believers in Yeshua are better Jews than they were before. Now they regularly worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now they show a stronger commitment to Israel and her survival, based on belief in the Word of God. Many are even moving there.
\nAsk your Jewish friend if a Jew who practices Buddhism is still Jewish. Ask your Jewish friend if a Jew who is an atheist is still Jewish. Ask your Jewish friend if a Jew who practices yoga is still Jewish. Most likely, the answers will be yes!
\nThen ask why following a Jew who taught Torah and led Jews and Gentiles into a personal relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob makes one a non-Jew?
\nTo accept Yeshua as Messiah, Savior, and King does not make a Gentile out of a Jew. Yeshua will make your neighbor a Messianic Jew!<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what will happen in my family if I accept Yeshua as the Messiah and Savior?\u201d<\/p>\n
As we just discussed, there was once a time when Jews who accepted Yeshua found themselves unwillingly cut off from their families and friends. It wasn\u2019t unusual for the relatives to sit shiva (mourn for the dead, as we discussed before) for the wayward son or daughter who professed faith in Yeshua. But, times have changed.
\nAlthough it can still be quite upsetting for a family when one among them becomes a believer in Yeshua, it is not as threatening as it once was. In the past, when a Jewish believer joined a church, he often lost his Jewish identity. It no longer was important to marry another Jew, maintain a Jewish lifestyle, and enjoy the culture of the Jewish people.
\nSince Jews are a minority to begin with, to lose even one is seen as a threat to the very existence of the Jewish people. Therefore, when the life of a new Jewish believer began to revolve around the fellowship of his church, the ignoring of the Jewish community made it seem as if he had left his people. And in many ways, he had.
\nNowadays, when a Jew becomes a believer, he can maintain his identity and commitment to his Jewish family, friends, and community. One of the reasons for this has been the growth of the Messianic congregational movement.
\nOver the past decade, hundreds and hundreds of such congregations have sprung up all over the world. These congregations usually consist of a mixture of Jews and Gentiles who want to worship God in a Jewish way, centered around both the living and written Torah, Yeshua.
\nThe music sounds like other Jewish music. The liturgy contains scripturally appropriate portions from the Jewish prayer books. The holiday celebrations focus on traditional worship enhanced by full Messianic meaning.
\nFor example, Yom Kippur is observed with the traditions but always with the recognition that Yeshua has made the final atonement for all sin. Passover is observed acknowledging the full impact of the Messiah, our Passover, as Paul referred to him in 1 Corinthians 5:7, but remembering our deliverance from Egypt.
\nMany non-Jews enjoy this kind of worship and feel an affinity to the Jewish people and their traditions and customs. There is no \u201cmiddle wall of partition\u201d in Messianic congregations, as there was in the Temple, separating Jews and Gentiles. Instead Jews and Gentiles worship the one true God together.
\nBecoming aware of this movement may help you to place your Jewish friend in a worship environment that might help him or her feel at home. \u201cContextualization\u201d has become a buzzword in mission schools. Missionaries have grown acutely aware of how necessary it is to place the fewest number of stumbling blocks in the path of someone accepting the Good News message. The Messianic congregation is the height of contextualization for Jewish believers.
\nUnderstand that if your Jewish friend accepts Yeshua, there might be some negative reaction from family and friends. This is to be expected. But usually after a short time of adjustment, acceptance of his or her new faith will follow. There are people all over the country who can introduce your Jewish neighbor to other Jewish believers who can empathize with what he or she might be experiencing. I\u2019ll be sharing how you can connect with a Messianic congregation later.
\nHappily, there is today a great openness in the Jewish community to the person of Yeshua. Never before in history have so many Jewish scholars considered him a credible Jew. Books are released regularly that discuss Yeshua as a great Jewish leader. We even have a pamphlet called \u201cThe Most Famous Jew of All,\u201d in which we quote other famous Jews and the nice things they had to say about Yeshua. This is a great day for sharing the Good News with Jewish people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere was God when the 6,000,000 died?\u201d<\/p>\n
This probing question does not relate directly to Yeshua, but rather reflects a relationship, or a non-relationship, with God. For many Jews who lived through the Holocaust, belief in a caring, involved God has become next to impossible. We might have discussed this question under historical barriers to belief. But because of the personal impact the Holocaust had on Jewish people, it fits better in this section.
\nIf God is almighty and cares for his people, how could he let the Nazis kill one-third of his chosen people? As you may expect, this is a very sensitive subject. Frankly, I don\u2019t know if anyone has the answer to this dilemma. While it\u2019s true that after the Holocaust the nation of Israel was reborn, and that this rebirth was part of God\u2019s end-time plan, to throw this out as a justification for the Holocaust is insensitive.
\nSome say that God promised protection to the Jewish people only when they were living in the land of Israel. Foretold in Scripture were dangers and disasters if the Jews were expelled from the land, something that finally happened in 135 C.E. But again, to point this out to a Jewish person may sound cold and cruel.
\nOne explanation focuses on freedom of choice: \u201cGod has given man freedom of choice. He won\u2019t step in every time things don\u2019t go the way he desires.\u201d But does that truth ease the pain of having lost a husband or wife, parent or child, in the Holocaust? No, it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s too philosophical. To point this out to a Jewish person may not be sufficient; in fact, it may be insensitive.
\nI don\u2019t think anyone has adequately explained how 6,000,000 of God\u2019s chosen people could be allowed to suffer and die as they did.
\nBetter than trying to explain where God was when the 6,000,000 died you might instead try expressing the broken heart of God when any of his people suffer. Our Father in heaven must have suffered like all parents. My father used to tell me that when he had to punish me it hurt him worse than it hurt me. I never believed that. It was my \u201ctush\u201d that was red. I couldn\u2019t figure it out. Until I became a father. Now I understand. I must assume that God\u2019s suf fering exceeded that of his people. He is our heavenly Father.
\nThere\u2019s no easy way to break through this barrier to belief. Sympathize with your Jewish neighbor. Empathize if you can. It is possible that he or she lost relatives during that dark day in Jewish history. Your understanding might help undo a little of the hurt that is keeping your friend from faith in God.<\/p>\n
You now have a good idea of what personal barriers to belief may keep your Jewish neighbor from faith. These clumps, along with the theological and historical clumps, can really inhibit the birth or growth of the Good News seed planted in Jewish hearts.
\nBut equipped with the right tools and committed to putting in time and patience, you can clear the clumps away. You can break through the barriers to belief. You can overcome Jewish objections to trusting in Yeshua. Prepare yourself as best you can and leave the rest to God. Through your loving witness, Jewish people you know might discover that they are really part of the remnant.
\nOur last chapter will describe an actual witnessing event. It will serve to summarize much of the material you\u2019ve already learned and make the point in a fresh way. You\u2019ve read about this before. It\u2019s the story of the woman at the well.<\/p>\n
\u201416\u2014<\/p>\n
PUTTING IT ALL
\nTOGETHER<\/p>\n
\u2014or\u2014<\/p>\n
Dropping Your Line
\nFor the Lord<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not enough to understand the \u201cGentile Great Commission.\u201d It\u2019s not enough to know how to sensitize your language. It\u2019s not even enough to develop a deeper understanding of your Jewish neighbor or co-worker. And finding out how to break down barriers is again only part of the process. We need to put it all together.
\nAt the beginning of this book, I shared the story of my first fishing expedition, to focus on the fact that Yeshua said he\u2019d make his disciples \u201cfishers of men.\u201d That was his promise to those who wished to follow him, and although it is 2,000 years later, we, too, are his followers. Now, as always, he wants us to be fishers of men.
\nYeshua gave us wonderful instruction in the art of fishing. The Good News of Yochanan (John) recounts the story simply and effectively. It concerns the Messiah and a woman he met at a well. This transaction is a classic example of persuasive communication\u2014an effective witness.
\nThis seems like an appropriate time to summarize a thought that I\u2019ve tried to weave through this book. If you remember only one thing, I hope it is this: witnessing is nothing more than effectively communicating the Good News of Yeshua, the Messiah\u2014that he came and died to atone for our sins. You might forget much of what I\u2019ve shared, but if you remember that witnessing to Jewish people is about communicating the truth that the Messiah has come, you\u2019ve learned a lot.
\nYeshua\u2019s whole purpose on this earth was to seek and save the lost. Although most of his ministry was directed toward his own people, he surely had a burden for non-Jews. His father sent him to die for their sins too. They too, needed a savior. They needed to receive the gift of eternal life.
\nThe woman at the well was not Jewish. She was a Samaritan, part of a people who developed in the northern kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam after the separation from the southern Kingdom of Judah.
\nSamaritans were a mixed race with pagan roots, descended from Jews who had intermarried. Keeping many of the same practices of their brethren in Judah, they revered the Torah, claiming to have a version even older than that of the Jews. They traced their genealogy back to Jacob. They rejected the rest of the Tanakh and developed their own religion, similar to Judaism. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews.
\nIn the fourth chapter of John, Yeshua, a Jew, met a Samaritan woman. Let\u2019s now observe Yeshua in this encounter. It\u2019s an encouragement to witness. I suggest you read the whole section\u2014John 4:5\u201330\u2014first, and then let\u2019s look at the seven steps in witnessing.<\/p>\n
Be Willing<\/p>\n
Without question, being willing to witness is the first requirement in any kind of evangelism. Perhaps it seems like an obvious statement, but you have taken that first step by reading a book like this. You have shown your desire to serve the Lord by bringing the Good News to your Jewish neighbor. But you may still need to overcome certain hurdles to continue on your way. Yeshua\u2019s example is helpful:<\/p>\n
He came to a town in Shomron [Samaria] called Sh\u2019khem [Sychar], near the field Ya\u2019akov [Jacob] had given his son Yosef [Joseph]. Ya\u2018akov\u2019s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon.
\nJohn 4:5\u20136<\/p>\n
Because of his desire to let the Samaritans know that the time had come, he overcame the hurdles that could have stood in the way. He could have offered physical, religious, and social excuses for avoiding the encounter.
\nIn his humanity, Yeshua was tired. He was \u201cexhausted from his travel.\u201d We find out later that he was thirsty and hungry. He knew what would happen if he asked this woman to get him a drink\u2014his request would lead to all kinds of questions. It might even have caused him less strain simply to get the drink himself. Yeshua could have thought, \u201cI\u2019m too tired. I need to take care of my physical needs before I can minister to someone else.\u201d But he was willing to witness.
\nA \u201creligious\u201d reason for him to avoid getting involved was that she was a Samaritan. Not only did Jews avoid Samaritans, but observant Jews did not (and still do not) converse publicly with women other than their wives. He could have gotten off the hook and rested. Do we have religious excuses to not associate with some people? Are Jews off limits to you in your mind?
\nHis \u201csocial\u201d excuse could have been that this was not the kind of woman with whom he should be seen. Over the course of time, she had had five husbands and the one with whom she was living was not even her husband (John 4:18).
\nYeshua could have found a lot of excuses. In his humanity, Yeshua was tired, hungry, and thirsty. He could have come up with a number of physical reasons to not get involved. But Yeshua\u2019s willingness to witness overcame these physical obstacles.
\nDo we get too tired to contact a Jewish friend? Are we too busy? Do we need to take care of our own creature comforts first? Do we find social excuses to not witness? Do we say, \u201cThose people are too _____ (you fill in the blank)\u201d?
\nAre there any hurdles you need to overcome to witness to your Jewish neighbor? Is your own busy schedule or the potential loss of business a practical physical hurdle? Are there social hurdles such as the discomfort that comes with finding yourself at an event that\u2019s culturally different? Are there religious hurdles, such as \u201cthey know too much about the Bible\u201d?
\nThose obstacles can be overcome in the interest of your witness. Begin with prayer. Pray that you will have the boldness to present the Messiah in a clear, forthright way. Pray that your Jewish friend will be willing to listen to you. Pray that the way will be made clear before you, that all the barriers, obstacles, and hurdles might be cleared away, or at least smoothed out a little.
\nOnce you\u2019ve made up your mind to witness, once you\u2019ve said you are willing, talk to God about his beloved creature who is your neighbor, your co-worker, or your friend. It is God who placed you in the unique position to witness to the saving gift of the Messiah. Surely, he will help you with your witness \u2026 if you are willing.<\/p>\n
Create Interest<\/p>\n
Imagine how surprised the Samaritan woman was when that Jewish man spoke to her! \u201cHow is it that you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Shomron?\u201d (John 4:9) She knew very well that Jews and Samaritans didn\u2019t get along, didn\u2019t even converse. Her interest was piqued.
\nThis is an example of what social psychologists call cognitive dissonance: two conflicting thoughts, concepts, or ideas being placed together. This well-known principle of social psychology explains many communications.
\nWhen I wrote the first edition of this book in 1989, my younger daughter Shira, was creating dissonance. She thought she was playing the piano. Pounding the keys was more like it! The sound was so dissonant it attracted my attention. (Shira gave up piano and is now studying voice; her singing is not dissonant at all; it\u2019s beautiful.)
\nAs I write this revised version, my older daughter Rebecca is playing the piano. She takes piano lessons and has become quite accomplished. Rebecca\u2019s playing is present in the background, but is not dissonant. I\u2019m enjoying it, but it is not distracting me from writing this.
\nIn music, dissonance is defined as a simultaneous combination of tones in a state of unrest, needing completion. It is an effective tool in music, if used properly. But it can also make for some pretty nasty sounds. One thing is certain, when those dissonant sounds are produced, we notice. Dissonance demands attention!
\nYeshua, addressing the woman at the well, caused her to experience cognitive dissonance. Here was a Jewish man speaking to her, a Samaritan woman. That wasn\u2019t supposed to happen. A naturally talkative and curious person, the woman immediately became puzzled and challenged Yeshua. Of course, he knew she would.
\nIn your witness to your Jewish friend, you will need to arouse some interest in the Gospel. That\u2019s your second step. The way Yeshua did it was to do something out of the ordinary. Dissonance arouses interest. Perhaps you wear a cross. I\u2019ve already shown how the symbol of the cross can be an affront to Jews. But if your Jewish friend sees you wear a Star of David, that might arouse interest. Asked why you are wearing it, you can respond by saying something like this: \u201cBecause Yeshua, the Messiah, was a descendant of King David.\u201d Some believers even wear a Star of David with a cross in the middle of it. Talk about arousing interest!
\nYou might ask your Jewish friend if you could attend synagogue sometime with his or her family. Surely that would raise a question or two. If you are asked why, you might say, \u201cBecause I\u2019m interested in seeing the kind of service that Yeshua went to. I know he didn\u2019t go to church.\u201d
\nThere are lines of holiday greeting cards that believers can send to Jewish people to show appreciation and arouse interest. Even adding a personal thought to a standard greeting card for Christian or Jewish holidays can be a way of making that connection. For example, in December, you might send a holiday card to your Jewish friend, saying something like, \u201cI thank God for the Jewish people through whom God brought the Messiah and Savior. Merry Messiahmas!\u201d
\nYou can think of other methods to arouse your neighbor\u2019s interest, but let me caution you not to contrive a situation. As I used to explain to my communications classes, someone might arrest attention by firing a rifle before beginning to speak. But unless the message was about hunting or gun control or something gun-related, the rifle shot would be seen as contrived and would ultimately hurt the speaker\u2019s credibility.
\nI urge you to consider pertinent ways to arouse the interest of your Jewish friend. Without first getting your neighbor\u2019s attention, no amount of persuasion will succeed.<\/p>\n
Be Timely<\/p>\n
Whether or not a politician can get legislation passed, balance budgets, or create positive social change, most likely he or she can communicate. This natural ability to persuade, this aptitude for getting elected term after term, comes from having a knack for addressing the concerns of their constituency.
\nThey talk about timely topics, the concerns that matter most. If drug dealers stalk the community, politicians raise their voices in outrage. If pollution is poisoning a river, it will appear on a politician\u2019s agenda. The planks of a politician\u2019s platform are usually the pertinent affairs of the day. Why? Because timeliness is an essential component of good communication.
\nYeshua demonstrated this in his discussion with the woman at the well. She asked him about a Jew talking to a Samaritan and received a timely answer:<\/p>\n
Yeshua answered her, \u201cIf you knew God\u2019s gift, that is, who it is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink of water,\u2019 then you would have asked him; and he would have given you living water.\u201d She said to him, \u201cSir, you don\u2019t have a bucket, and the well is deep; so where do you get this \u2018living water\u2019? You aren\u2019t greater than our father Ya\u2019akov, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it, and so did his sons and his cattle.\u201d
\nJohn 4:10\u201312<\/p>\n
His was not the answer the Samaritan woman had anticipated. She had inquired about inter-religious relations\u2014Jews and Samaritans\u2014not water. But in his witness, Yeshua\u2019s plan was to get her off of one track and onto another. He planned to move onto spiritual issues in a timely way.
\nYeshua had found the woman at the well, not in a store or out in a field. She was there for only one reason\u2014to draw water. What more timely reference could Yeshua have chosen than water? Not only did a timely topic increase her interest, it also led to a spiritual dialogue, as we shall see.
\nYou may recall that in our earlier chapter about discernment we learned that Yeshua sometimes chose not to answer a question directly. In drawing the woman onto the subject of water, and then living water, Yeshua could not have chosen a better way to respond to her question about Jewish-Samaritan relations. In truth, he didn\u2019t answer it!
\nA few years ago, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson died. His followers believed he was the Messiah and expected him to resurrect soon. My organization got together with another, based in Israel, and published a book called The Death of Messiah. It addressed the issue of the Messiahship of Yeshua and what his death, as opposed to Rabbi Schneerson\u2019s death, did. It was timely!
\nHow can you be timely with your presentation of the Good News to your Jewish neighbor or friend? To begin with, you can learn through conversation what is on his or her mind. Obviously, the issue of death and resurrection was on the mind of the Lubavitcher Jews who followed Rabbi Schneerson. Your Jewish neighbor has many things on his or her mind. Try to figure out what these might be and see if you can guide your communication toward these things.
\nSuppose the newspaper reports a major occurrence in Israel. It seems that major events occur there almost daily. As we have said, most American Jews follow news of the Middle East with concern. Why not bring up the news item as an opportunity to discuss what the Bible says about Israel?
\nEarlier I mentioned a relative of mine with whom I have been sharing. The opportunity arose originally when she expressed to me serious reservations concerning the way world opinion seems to be turning against Israel. I was able to get into the Bible (specifically Zechariah 12 and 14) because of the timeliness of what the Bible has to say about Israel.
\nConsider what would have happened if I tried to approach her by announcing, \u201cSay, why don\u2019t we look into the Bible and study about the Messiah!\u201d Most likely, she would have politely declined.
\nIsrael is generally a timely topic to discuss with your Jewish neighbor. But it is not the only one. The newspaper is full of exciting issues that can lead into Bible discussion. I assure you that if you are willing to witness and seek to arouse interest, you will find many timely topics to discuss.<\/p>\n
Speak to Needs<\/p>\n
When you attract people\u2019s interest and discuss timely topics with them you may well be relating to their needs. By showing how your message can meet these needs, they will be more inclined to hear you out. Yeshua demonstrated this perfectly.
\nPicture him sitting by Jacob\u2019s well. Picture the Samaritan woman approaching him, a water pitcher on each of her shoulders. Feel the hot Israeli sun beating down upon her. It was noon.
\nAfter arousing her interest (by simply talking to her) and bringing up a timely topic (water), Yeshua moved the conversation to a deeper level:<\/p>\n
Yeshua answered, \u201cEveryone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously, Yeshua wasn\u2019t talking about H 2O. He was referring to a relationship with God. Jeremiah also used the expression living water:<\/p>\n
My people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water\u2026
\nJeremiah 2:13<\/p>\n
God was the living water. Yeshua was saying that knowing God provided permanent refreshment.
\nWe have all experienced the pleasure of drinking a tall glass of water on a particularly scorching day. There are few things in life that make us feel so good. If we have perspired, if we have become parched, that water offers intense pleasure. Drawing near to God offers a similar satisfaction, but for our spiritual thirst.
\nYeshua wanted the Samaritan woman to know God; he wished that she would experience the joy of drinking from the springs of salvation. But he knew he had to lead her to this experience. He could have told her, as he said to others later, \u201cI am the light of the world,\u201d but she wasn\u2019t looking for a candle. He could have replied, \u201cI am the bread of life,\u201d but she wasn\u2019t on a picnic. Instead, he spoke about something relevant to her immediate need.
\nWe see that Yeshua was beginning to get onto spiritual subjects. He spoke about \u201ceternal life\u201d (verse 14), but the Samaritan woman did not get his point. Her response was, \u201cSir, give me this water, so that I won\u2019t have to be thirsty and keep coming here to draw water\u201d (verse 15).
\nShe had no idea what Yeshua was talking about, and yet somehow she wanted what he was offering. Tired of traipsing back and forth to this well every day in the hot Israeli sun to get a few pitchers of water, she had a real need. Although Yeshua was interested in her deeper need, he decided to address her in the context of her present need.
\nWe, as his students, ought to model ourselves after our rabbi. If we seek the kind of spirituality evidenced by Yeshua, if we look for ways to be like him, let us share with people as he did\u2014with relevance, observing people\u2019s circumstances for the context of our communications, in other words, dealing with people\u2019s needs.
\nIt might sound manipulative, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s effective. A good communicator always attempts to understand the needs of those to whom he is communicating. Communication ethics require that interest be sincere. Surely the one who gave his life for the sin of the world is our greatest example of sincere interest in others.
\nIf a man you knew was about to drive off a cliff, naturally you\u2019d try to warn him. Well, unless your Jewish friends have eternal life, they are headed toward that cliff. It is imperative that your witness speak to their needs.
\nIn Motivation and Personality, the famous humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow described what he called a hierarchy of people\u2019s needs. He reduced mankind\u2019s needs into five basic categories; physiology, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow concluded that each level of need must be satisfied before a person can move on to the next level.
\nMaslow would probably not define his message in scriptural terms; still, I like his structure because it seems to move, in biblical language, from the flesh to the spirit. A good communicator must know the level on which he must speak in order to deliver his message successfully. A missionary to the down-and-out is not going to begin ministering by bringing up the subject of eternal life. If the person he\u2019s talking to is starving, the worker must first see to it that he is fed. That, of course, is the approach taken by many inner-city rescue missions.
\nBut, as a general rule, especially in America, there are not many hungry Jews. Except for a minority of older people or Russian immigrants who live in pockets of poverty, Jewish people today can be found in the middle class or better. So if the person you want to witness to is physiologically satisfied\u2014fed, rested, warm\u2014then you must discover the level of his greatest need.
\nPerhaps he does not feel safe or secure. Perhaps he doesn\u2019t feel loved. Maybe circumstances have denied him self-esteem. According to Maslow, all these must be addressed before the person can become self-actualized. A self-actualized person is one who is living at his own maximum potential. This person is more altruistic. He might be concerned with spiritual things. Until a person\u2019s first four needs are satisfied, it is less likely that he or she will seek to satisfy this higher need.
\nWhen we witness, we do well to understand the needs of those with whom we share. Although Jewish people are not generally hungry or ill-housed, there are many who feel a need for safety or security, particularly because of rising anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes.
\nAlso, you\u2019ll often find a need for belongingness. Your offer of friendship and fellowship as well as your commitment to the Jewish people and the land of Israel may speak to some of those safety and belongingness needs. In other words, be a real friend.<\/p>\n
Establish Expertness<\/p>\n
We spoke earlier about credibility, that extra something that makes one person more believable than another. You can develop a more credible testimony with every encounter. The way you relate to your family says something about how your faith operates. Your business dealings reveal further the reliability of that faith. Your works testify to the worth of your belief. Each of these adds to\u2014or detracts from\u2014your credibility quotient.
\nIn John 4:l6\u201319, Yeshua uses his supernatural powers to establish supernatural credibility. He was an expert! We, too, can exhibit expertness when witnessing to our Jewish friends. Remember, up until this point Yeshua was just a tired, hungry, thirsty Jew who was violating Jewish tradition!<\/p>\n
He said to her, \u201cGo, call your husband, and come back.\u201d She answered, \u201cI don\u2019t have a husband.\u201d Yeshua said to her, \u201cYou\u2019re right, you don\u2019t have a husband! You\u2019ve had five husbands in the past, and you\u2019re not married to the man you\u2019re living with now! You\u2019ve spoken the truth!\u201d<\/p>\n
He knew her heart. He knew her darkest secrets. He knew she was a sinner, yet he did not condemn her. Somehow, this Jew she had never met before knew everything about her. He was an expert in knowing her. \u201cHow amazing!\u201d she must have thought. Perhaps she could ask him some religious questions. And this is exactly what she did.
\nJewish people, like all people, yearn to know about the spiritual world. They watch television shows, videos, and movies about the occult, mysticism, and the supernatural.
\nBut it\u2019s the rare rabbi who teaches about angels, demons, heaven, hell, the Messiah, or resurrection. This is not the content of your average Sabbath morning sermon. Oh, sure, there are readings from the Tanakh and often the readings serve as a jumping-off point for the sermon. But, too often, what is missing is a sense of reality concerning Bible events. Somehow, I\u2019m sad to say, many of my people have lost their sense of the supernatural, relegating God to the status of a rabbinical tradition.
\nOften the miracles of the Bible are described as mere natural events that a superstitious and backward people attributed to what they called \u201cGod.\u201d It would not be surprising to hear discussion of \u201cthe myths of the Bible.\u201d The sense of awe has vanished from the worship of the majority of Jewish people.
\nFor the most part, then, Jews would not go to their rabbis to discuss issues of the supernatural. But, oddly enough, they might come to you if they are convinced that you truly believe in the supernatural. You may have the opportunity to explain things to your Jewish neighbor that he or she might not find answers to anywhere else\u2014information concerning the Bible or God or the afterlife.
\nAs I shared before, when I met the Rigneys, who introduced me to the Messiah, I was very thirsty to talk about spiritual things. One rabbi I spoke to was controlled by the Talmud and wouldn\u2019t discuss certain \u201cforbidden\u201d subjects. The other rabbi didn\u2019t even believe in God. My spiritual thirst demanded answers. The Rigneys were trustworthy and knowledgeable about the Bible as well as about the Jewish people; I had plenty to ask them. They had the answers to my questions.
\nYour Jewish friend may be thirsting for information about spiritual things. He or she may have wrestled with questions for decades. If you display evidence of credibility, your neighbor might ask you.<\/p>\n
Open Up the Scriptures<\/p>\n
The woman at the well sensed Yeshua\u2019s credibility. He knew all about her and still he talked to her. He accepted her, a major-league sinner. He was trustworthy and expert, two of the four factors that make a person credible. Here was an opportunity to ask questions that may have been bothering her for years:<\/p>\n
Our fathers worshipped on this mountain [Gerizim], but you people say that the place where men ought to worship is in Yerushalayim [Jerusalem].
\nJohn 4:20<\/p>\n
Even though it sounded like a statement, this lady was asking a question. Yeshua heard it, and answered her:<\/p>\n
Yeshua said, \u201cLady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. You people don\u2019t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews \u2026 God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly.\u201d
\nJohn 4:21\u201322, 24<\/p>\n
Recognizing Yeshua\u2019s credibility, she asked the question about worship\u2014Gerizim or Jerusalem? Yeshua used this opportunity to discuss scriptural subjects. She asked about the place of worship; he answered about salvation.
\nThe hour of salvation was upon her, he explained. Salvation was to come through the Jews. Furthermore, God had a way he wanted people to worship him that did not merely involve location\u2014God wanted to be worshipped properly.
\nKeep in mind that it took only a few minutes for this woman to feel comfortable and trusting enough to talk about these controversial issues. Yeshua was drawing her into the truth. Once he got to the spiritual subjects of salvation and worship, the \u201cclose\u201d was not far away.<\/p>\n
Introduce Salvation<\/p>\n
Suppose that when this lady with her pitcher of water had approached the well, Yeshua had stood up and said, \u201cHi, I\u2019m the Messiah. Got a drink?\u201d In modern-day vernacular she might have responded, \u201cSure, buddy, and I\u2019m the Queen of England.\u201d He was tired, hungry, sweaty, and dressed in the clothes of a working man, not the royal robes of a king. Not exactly Messiah-looking! The woman might well have walked away from this \u201cnut.\u201d But she didn\u2019t do this. His approach was slowly revealing; he moved carefully, following through, step by step, until she asked him if he might indeed be the Messiah.<\/p>\n
The woman replied, \u201cI know that Mashiach [Messiah] is coming. When he comes he will tell us everything.\u201d Yeshua said to her, \u201cI, the person speaking to you, am he.\u201d
\nJohn 4:25\u201326<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t help thinking that she had some hint that he was the Messiah. I hear a question mark at the end of her statement. She was ready. It was time. She believed. She left her water pot and broadcast the news all over town. \u201cCome, see a man who told me everything I\u2019ve ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah?\u201d How many people believed as a result of hearing her testimony is hard to say. But surely many did. Yeshua caught a lot of fish that day. There\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t as well.
\nYeshua was willing to witness, even though he had plenty of excuses to take it easy. He got her interest by just speaking to her. He was timely in his use of the \u201cliving water\u201d image. He spoke to her need, even though she misinterpreted it. He demonstrated his expertise by knowing what she was really like inside. He got into a scriptural discussion when she was ready. Finally, he introduced himself as the Savior when she asked.
\nI\u2019ve created an acronym to help you remember these principles: W.I.T.N.E.S.S.
\nWillingness
\nInterest
\nTimeliness
\nNeed
\nExpertness
\nScripture
\nSalvation<\/p>\n
The master fisherman promised that he would make his disciples fishers of men. May these seven steps help you as you fish\u2014for sheep\u2014for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.<\/p>\n
If I or my organization can offer any help to you as you set about to share the Messiah\u2014help obtaining Messianic Jewish resources, help locating your nearest Messianic congregation, or help answering questions you may have\u2014contact me at Lederer\/Messianic Jewish Communications, P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, MD 21029. Our e-mail address is Lederer@messianicjewish.net; our website www.MessianicJewish.net.
\nGod bless you as you fulfill your Great Commission\u2014and good fishing!<\/p>\n
EPILOGUE<\/p>\n
A few last words of personal testimony \u2026<\/p>\n
It was April 16, 1973, the day after Tax Return Day. I was working for my father\u2019s C.P.A. firm. He took the whole office sailing as reward for a successful tax season. It took place while we were sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
\nWe were moving along beneath the Bay Bridge. I looked up to watch some of the construction, marveling at the new span being added to the old bridge. Suddenly the serenity was shattered as a piece of steel tumbled from the bridge, crashing down onto our boat. It landed with an ear-splitting crack, so close to me that it broke my watch crystal. Fortunately, it did not break through the bottom of the boat.
\nThe others I was with raced over to where I stood, their voices high-pitched, full of panic and disbelief. Yet only one thought reached through to my numbed consciousness: Would God bring about something like this to make his point? Scripture does teach that Jews seek for a sign. But this? Or was HaSatan, the Adversary, trying to kill me before I received salvation in the Messiah?
\nI found that I was strangely calm about the fact that I had almost been crushed by the piece of falling steel. What made me shake, though, was the enormity of the spiritual decision that lay before me. Although I had studied Isaiah 53, although I had calculated the time of the coming of Messiah from Daniel 9, although I had understood a Jew could believe in Yeshua, I was still reluctant to yield my life to the Messiah. I had spent half of a year mulling it over.
\nThat night I attended a Passover Seder, the service that recounts the freeing of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt thousands of years ago. It was a Messianic service led by Dan Rigney. The commemorative dinner was held in Baltimore at a place called The Lederer Foundation, the organization I now serve as president. I listened as the elements of Passover were described with their full Messianic meaning. I asked questions of Dr. Henry Einspruch, a distinguished Torah and Talmud scholar, head of The Lederer Foundation. I knew I now believed.
\nThat night, in the quietness of my home, I told the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I believed Yeshua was the Messiah, sent to be my Savior. I fell asleep peacefully for the first time in six months. Like Jonah, who ultimately yielded to the Lord, I too knew I could run no longer.
\nIt was later that I discovered how many people had been praying for me in Baltimore, Washington, and all across the country! From time to time I still meet people who were praying for me back in 1972. One of those people who was praying was a nice Jewish girl, originally from the Bronx, named Steffi. She and I met a few months after I received Yeshua. We were married two years later and God has since blessed us with two lovely daughters.
\nYou want your Jewish friend to meet the Messiah. So does God. Start to pray; ask others to do the same. This is spiritual warfare and God has called you to do battle. Your most powerful weapon is heartfelt prayer.
\nHave your Jewish neighbor bring the bagels. You bring the Gospel. Soon we\u2019ll hear the angels in heaven rejoicing over the salvation of some of the remnant of God\u2019s chosen people. You can do it.<\/p>\n
GLOSSARY OF JEWISH TERMS<\/p>\n
These are common Hebrew and Yiddish words used by Jewish people. Hebrew, of course, is the ancient language of the Jewish people and the official language of the State of Israel. Yiddish is a language spoken by Eastern European Jews that uses Hebrew letters and sounds like German. It is spoken by many European and American Jews. If you understand these words, it will help you communicate better with Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Adonai \u201cLord\u201d; Since the Hebrew name of \u201cGod\u201d, YHWH, is not used by Jews because it is too holy to pronounce, Adonai is a substitute. HaShem, \u201cThe Name,\u201d is also used.
\nAliyah \u201cgoing up\u201d; immigrating to Eretz Yisra\u2019el, the Land of Israel. Also, when a person \u201cgoes up\u201d to read from the Torah, he makes an aliyah.
\nAshkenazi a Jew from Eastern, Central or Western European origin (Poland, Russia, Germany France, etc.)
\nBar Mitzvah \u201cSon of the Commandment\u201d; a boy who has reached age 13, the age of religious maturity, and who has a ceremony accepting responsibility for his ways before God
\nBat Mitzvah \u201cDaughter of the Commandment\u201d; a girl who has reached the age of religious maturity between 12 and 13 and who has a ceremony accepting responsibility for her ways before God
\nBimah during a synagogue service, the place from where the Torah is read and sermons are given
\nB\u2019nai B\u2019rith \u201csons of the covenant\u201d; a Jewish fraternal organization founded in 1843
\nB\u2019rakhah \u201cblessing\u201d; offered on any occasion that calls for praise
\nB\u2019ris; B\u2019rit Milah \u201ccovenant of circumcision\u201d; occurs when a boy is 8 days old (see Genesis 17:9\u201314)
\nChag Sameyach \u201chappy holiday\u201d; a greeting
\nChasid \u201cpious one\u201d; follower of Chasidism, an ultra-Orthodox sect
\nChazzan \u201ccantor\u201d; usually the leader of the liturgical part of the service
\nChupah the bridal canopy denoting God\u2019s presence in the new home and a reminder of the Temple at Jerusalem, symbolic of God\u2019s dwelling place with man
\nEretz Yisra\u2019el \u201cLand of Israel\u201d
\nGoy \u201cGentile\u201d; pl. goyim, nations
\nGut Yom Tov \u201cgood holiday\u201d; Yiddish word
\nHaftarah the section of the Prophets read immediately after the reading of the Torah at Shabbat services and on most holidays
\nHaggadah \u201cthe telling\u201d; the Passover story; also the ritual manual used for the Pesach service
\nHalakhah \u201cthe way\u201d; tradition, practice, rule in Judaism
\nHallel \u201cpraise\u201d; root word of halleluyah; refers to certain psalms of praise
\nHanukkah \u201cdedication\u201d; celebrates the rededication of the Temple of the Lord by the Maccabees in 165 B.C.E. Also known as the Festival of Lights
\nHatikvah \u201cThe Hope\u201d; Israel\u2019s national anthem
\nKabbalah Jewish mysticism
\nKaddish \u201choly\u201d; praise to God recited in memorial to the departed
\nKashrut the dietary laws
\nKiddush \u201csanctify\u201d; the benediction over the \u201cfruit of the vine\u201d (wine) to sanctify (make holy or set apart) Shabbat and holidays
\nKol Nidrey \u201cAll Vows\u201d; chanted on the eve of Yom Kippur
\nclean, acceptable food in accordance with Jewish law, especially excluding pork and shellfish (Deuteronomy 14:3\u201321)
\nL\u2019chayyim \u201cto life!\u201d; a toast or salute
\nK\u2019tuvah Jewish marriage contract
\nK\u2019tuvim \u201cWritings\u201d; includes historical and poetical books of the Bible
\nL\u2019hitra\u2019ot \u201cuntil we meet again\u201d; goodbye
\nL\u2019Shanah Tovah \u201cto a good year!\u201d; a New Year\u2019s greeting
\nMagen David \u201cshield of David\u201d; a six pointed star commonly worn by Jews and used as a symbol of the Jewish people
\nMashiach \u201cAnointed One\u201d; Messiah
\nMatzah \u201cunleavened bread\u201d; used exclusively during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
\nMazel Tov \u201cgood luck\u201d; congratulations
\nMenorah \u201ccandelabra\u201d; seven-branched (Exodus 25:31\u201337) except during Hanukkah, when a nine-branched menorah is used.
\nM\u2019gillot \u201cscrolls\u201d; part of the K\u2019tuvim, including the books of Esther (known as The M\u2019gillah), Lamentations, Song of Solomon, Ruth, and Ecclesiastes
\nMikveh \u201cthe ritual bath for purification\u201d; forerunner of the Christian \u201cbaptism.\u201d
\nMinyan \u201cquorum\u201d needed for a service; ten men thirteen years or older
\nMitzvah \u201ccommandment\u201d; in common usage, a good deed
\nM\u2019shummad \u201can apostate Jew\u201d; one who \u201cconverts\u201d to \u201cChristianity\u201d
\nM\u2019zuzah \u201cdoorpost\u201d; a parchment scroll usually in a metal container attached to the doorpost on the right side of the entrance to a house or room (Deuteronomy 6:9); contains the Sh\u2019ma (Deuteronomy 6:4\u201311) and other Scripture (Deuteronomy 11:13\u201321); also worn as jewelry
\nNer Tamid \u201ceternal light\u201d; a perpetual light in the synagogue signifying God\u2019s presence
\nNevi\u2019im \u201cProphets\u201d; the books of the prophets
\nPesach \u201cPassover\u201d; in practice, synonymous with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:14\u201320; Leviticus 23:5\u20138)
\nPurim \u201clots\u201d; also the Feast of Esther, celebrating the victory over Haman and those who sought Jewish extinction. Based on the book of Esther.
\nRosh HaShanah \u201cHead of the Year\u201d; the Jewish New Year, celebrated usually in September or October; actually the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24\u201325)
\nRuach HaKodesh \u201cHoly Spirit\u201d
\nSeder \u201corder\u201d; the Passover service (and dinner) usually conducted on the first and second nights of Passover
\nS\u2019fardi a Jewish person from Eastern, Oriental, or Southern Mediterranean origins (Turkey, Spain, Egypt, etc.)
\nShabbat \u201cSabbath\u201d; Friday sunset to Saturday sunset (Leviticus 23:3)
\nShalom \u201cpeace\u201d; used instead of \u201chello\u201d or \u201cgoodbye\u201d
\nShalom Aleykhem \u201cpeace be unto you\u201d
\nShammash \u201cservant\u201d; the caretaker or sexton of the synagogue or temple; also the ninth candle on the Chanukkah menorah
\nShavu\u2019ot \u201cWeeks\u201d; The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15\u201321)
\nShiva \u201cseven\u201d; the seven-day mourning period after the death of a loved one
\nSh\u2019ma \u201cHear\u201d; Jewish affirmation of faith (Deuteronomy 6:4) recited morning and evening by religious Jews and during all worship services
\nShul \u201cschool\u201d; another word for an Orthodox or Chasidic synagogue for the study of the Torah
\nShulchan Arukh the codified laws of rabbinical Judaism
\nSiddur \u201cprayer book\u201d; contains prayers, Scripture, and order of service
\nSimchat Torah \u201cRejoicing of the Law\u201d; conclusion of the public synagogue reading cycle of the Torah each year
\nSukkah \u201cbooth\u201d; used during Sukkot for meals and\/or sleeping
\nSukkot \u201cbooths\u201d; Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33\u201336)
\n\u201cassembly\u201d; usually Orthodox or Conservative Jewish house of worship
\nTallit \u201cprayer shawl\u201d; worn during worship in the synagogue or at home
\nTalmud \u201cstudy\u201d; the oral traditions, discussions, and instructions in 37 volumes (Hebrew\/English) of the great rabbis of Judaism (100 B.C.E. to 200 C.E). Commentary on the Tanakh, \u201cthe written law\u201d
\nTalmud Torah a community religious school teaching Hebrew, Talmud, Torah, and secular subjects as well
\nTanakh \u201cTorah, N\u2019vi\u2019im, K\u2019tuvim (T-N-K)\u201d; the Old Testament
\nReform Jewish house of worship
\nT\u2019fillin \u201cphylacteries\u201d; leather boxes attached to leather thongs wound around the head and arm, used by very religious Jews during prayer. The box contains portions of the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:8)
\n\u201cLaw\u201d; the five books of Moses, also known as the Chumash
\nTreyfe \u201cunacceptable food\u201d; also, not in accordance with God\u2019s ways; a Yiddish word
\nTzaddik \u201crighteous one\u201d; usually applied to a spiritual leader, one who is learned and pious
\nTzitzit \u201cfringes\u201d attached to the four corners of the tallit (Numbers 15:38\u201340)
\nYahrzeit the anniversary of the death of a loved one; a Yiddish word
\nYarmulke \u201cskullcap\u201d; a Yiddish word; used to cover mens\u2019 heads, especially during worship in the synagogue or home (also called kippah or \u201ccovering\u201d)
\nYizkor \u201cmay he remember\u201d; the memorial to the dead
\nYom HaBikkurim \u201cDay of First fruits\u201d; associated with resurrection (Leviticus 23:10\u201314)
\nYom Kippur \u201cDay of Atonement\u201d; holiest day of the Jewish year, observed with fasting and prayers for forgiveness (Leviticus 23:26\u201332)
\nY\u2019shivah a religious school of higher learning
\nZion \u201cIsrael\u201d
\nZionist one who supports the idea of a Jewish state, namely, Israel<\/p>\n
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/p>\n
Ausubel, Nathan, ed. A Treasury of Jewish Humor. Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1951.<\/p>\n
Goldberg, M. Hirsch. The Jewish Connection. New York: Stein and Day, 1976.<\/p>\n
Grayzel, Solomon. A History of the Jews. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1970.<\/p>\n
Kj\u00e6r-Hansen, Kai, ed., The Death of Messiah. Baltimore: Lederer Publishers, 1994.<\/p>\n
Lapide, Pinchas. The Resurrection of Jesus. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983.<\/p>\n
Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row, 1954.<\/p>\n
Phillips, McCandlish. The Bible, The Supernatural, and the Jews. Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1970. (Available from Messianic Jewish Resources Intl., 800-410-7367.)<\/p>\n
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1967.<\/p>\n
Potok, Chaim. My Name is Asher Lev. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Crest, 1972.<\/p>\n
Rosten, Leo. The Joys of Yiddish. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968.<\/p>\n
Stern, David. Complete Jewish Bible. Clarksville, Md.: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1998.<\/p>\n
Ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Chosen Books, 1984.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Available Through
\nMessianic Jewish Resources International<\/p>\n
Kasdan, Barney. God\u2019s Appointed Times. Clarksville, MD: Messianic Publishers, 1993.<\/p>\n
Kasdan, Barney. God\u2019s Appointed Customs. Clarksville, MD: Messianic Publishers, 1996.<\/p>\n
Moseley, Ron. Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church. Clarksville, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1998.<\/p>\n
Rudolph, David, ed. The Voice of the Lord. Clarksville, MD: Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1998.<\/p>\n
Stern, David H., trans. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1989.<\/p>\n
Stern, David H. Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1990.<\/p>\n
STUDY AND DISCUSSION
\nQUESTIONS<\/p>\n
If you write out the answers to these questions and send them to our office, addressed to \u201cBagels Course,\u201d we will send you a beautiful, color certificate of completion that affirms you as a \u201clover of Israel.\u201d
\nYou will be able to display this so Jewish people might look at it and ask you about it. We ask that you include a check for $10 to cover the cost of the certificate, shipping and handling.<\/p>\n
Chapter One<\/p>\n
1. What are the four special reasons to share the Messiah with Jewish people?
\n2. What is the Biblical concept of the remnant?
\n3. What does Genesis 12:3 say and why is it important in Jewish outreach?
\n4. What is the greatest blessing you can bring to a Jewish person?<\/p>\n
Chapter Two<\/p>\n
1. What is the Gentile\u2019s role in Jewish evangelism?
\n2. Describe the \u201cproper attitude\u201d toward unbelieving Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Chapter Three<\/p>\n
1. Explain the Jewish revolt of 134 C.E
\n2. Many of the early church leaders instituted new traditions and laws governing the relationship between Christians and Jews. Briefly describe them.
\n3. What impact did the Crusades have on Jewish people?
\n4. How would you explain to a Jewish person the difference between Christianity and Nazism?<\/p>\n
Chapter Four<\/p>\n
1. Define credibility.
\n2. How can you become more trustworthy to your Jewish neighbor?
\n3. Can you be an \u201cexpert\u201d in the Bible when talking with a Jewish person? How?
\n4. What are some ways you can identify with Jewish people?
\n5. What are the three foundation blocks upon which credibility is built?<\/p>\n
Chapter Five<\/p>\n
1. Define Tanakh.
\n2. List and describe three premises that you can relate to your Jewish neighbor.<\/p>\n
Chapter Six<\/p>\n
1. Name some useful Messianic prophecies, briefly describe them, and quote the Scripture references.
\n2. What was the rabbinic interpretation of Isaiah 53 before Rashi?
\n3. What is the present Jewish view of Isaiah 53?
\n4. Explain the two-Messiah theory.<\/p>\n
Chapter Seven<\/p>\n
The following is a list of commonly used Christian terms that may be offensive to a Jewish person. Give the \u201cMessianic\u201d alternative:<\/p>\n
Christian (as an adjective) _______________________________
\nChristian (as a noun)____________________________________
\nChrist________________________________________________
\nChurch_______________________________________________
\nJesus_________________________________________________
\nDied for my sins________________________________________
\nHoly Spirit\/Holy Ghost__________________________________
\nTrinity________________________________________________
\nGospel _______________________________________________
\nEaster________________________________________________
\nChristmas_____________________________________________
\nPentecost_____________________________________________
\nSecond coming of Christ ________________________________
\nNew Testament ________________________________________
\nOld Testament_________________________________________
\nBaptism_______________________________________________
\nCross_________________________________________________
\nConversion____________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter Eight<\/p>\n
1. Name some physical stereotypes that Christians may have of Jewish people.
\n2 List some spiritual stereotypes about Jewish people.
\n3. In what ways do Jewish people share the same theology? In what ways are there differences?<\/p>\n
Chapter Nine<\/p>\n
1. Who was the first Jew?
\n2. Describe the development of the rabbinic office.
\n3. Who was Judah Maccabee?
\n4. John 10:22 describes Yeshua partaking in a celebration. What was the celebration?
\n5. Describe some events that caused the assimilation of Jewish believers into the early Church.
\n6. What was the first official Jewish settlement in America?
\n8. What happened on November 9\u201310, 1938?
\n8. Describe the Balfour Declaration.
\n9. Give the date that Israel became a nation in modern history.<\/p>\n
Chapter Ten<\/p>\n
1. By 100 B.C.E. there were three main religious sects in Judaism. Name them.
\n2. The Talmud is also called what?
\n3. What are the two bodies of work that comprise the Talmud?
\n4. There are four main branches of modern Judaism. Name and briefly describe each.<\/p>\n
Chapter Eleven<\/p>\n
1. Name the two major origins of the modern Jewish people.
\n2. What is a Shtetl?
\n3. Describe a Bar Mitzvah.
\n4. Define Kashrut.
\n5. Name some foods that are not kosher.
\n6. What is meant by putting a \u201cfence around the Law?\u201d
\n7. Jewish people have a unique ceremony for the birth of a baby boy. Name and describe this ceremony.
\n8. What is a chupah?
\n9. Explain the expression \u201csitting shiva\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter Twelve<\/p>\n
1. What is a \u201cchallenging question?\u201d How would you handle it?
\n2. What is a \u201ctrap question?\u201d How would you handle it?
\n3. What is a \u201cfalse question?\u201d How would you handle it?
\n4. What is a \u201ctesting question?\u201d How would you handle it?<\/p>\n
Chapter Thirteen<\/p>\n
1. Name some historical barriers to belief in Yeshua.
\n2. What is your answer to the accusation that \u201cthe New Testament is anti-Semitic?\u201d
\n3. Do rabbis believe that Yeshua is the Messiah?
\n4 Do Jews proselytize? Have they ever?<\/p>\n
Chapter Fourteen<\/p>\n
1. Explain the difference between the two Hebrew words echad and yachid.
\n2. What is the Sonship of Yeshua?
\n3. Does the Bible teach substitutionary atonement? What does this term mean?
\n4. Why is there no peace on earth today?<\/p>\n
Chapter Fifteen<\/p>\n
1. What does the Bible teach about \u2018good people?\u2019
\n2. When a Jewish person comes to believe in Yeshua, does he or she lose his or her Jewishness? Explain.
\n3. How would you help a Jewish person who is afraid to accept Yeshua because he or she feels they will lose his or her friends or family?
\n4. In trying to answer, \u201cWhere was God when the 6,000,000 died,\u201d what is the best approach?<\/p>\n
Chapter Sixteen<\/p>\n
1. In the chapter \u201cPutting it all together,\u201d you learned the acronym WITNESS. Explain this acronym.
\n2. What do you feel you have learned from studying this book?<\/p>\n
You Bring the Bagels, I\u2019ll Bring the Gospel: Sharing the Messiah with Your Jewish neighbor<\/p>\n
Messianic Jewish Publishers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOREWORD Many are the books and booklets telling us why and how we ought to share the life-giving message of the Gospel with our Jewish friends. Once in a while a book comes from the presses by a person who really has something meaningful to say. This latest work is by my friend Barry Rubin, … <\/p>\n