Israel and Elijah
1"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."
2"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
3"You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts.
4"Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
5"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
6"He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."
Whatever time frame you want to apply this it concerns Israel, those that remember the words of Moses. There are few Christians who preach encouragement to the Jewish people the way this text describes it. It is an admonition for us or else God will use the stones themselves to speak these words to God's only true Israel the Jewish people. Who is God going to smite but the neighbors of Israel who won't listen to God's way being expressed in Israel's restoration process. Zech 12. Those curses are being manifested even in this day. It's a burden for the world that they are not qualified to deal with.
Major insight: gentiles aren't Jews. Most Christians aren't Jews, therefore they aren't Israel. That would be stealing from God's covenants as well as the all of the other nouns listed in Roman 9:2-4. (brethren, kinsmen, flesh, Israelites, adoption, glory, covenants, Law, temple, promises, fathers, flesh). You can't eat just one.
3For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
5whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Elijah is better left as a prophetic role for any who can perform things for Israel as he did, no one person today is qualified for that as a title. Many modern prophecy commentators think it applies to someone Christian, but the text doesn't say that either. Some few Christians do speak in this vein, there are also (and more importantly) some voices in Israel who admirably address the role one Jew to another, "turn back to the covenant".
2"But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
3"You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts.
4"Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
5"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.
6"He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."
Whatever time frame you want to apply this it concerns Israel, those that remember the words of Moses. There are few Christians who preach encouragement to the Jewish people the way this text describes it. It is an admonition for us or else God will use the stones themselves to speak these words to God's only true Israel the Jewish people. Who is God going to smite but the neighbors of Israel who won't listen to God's way being expressed in Israel's restoration process. Zech 12. Those curses are being manifested even in this day. It's a burden for the world that they are not qualified to deal with.
Major insight: gentiles aren't Jews. Most Christians aren't Jews, therefore they aren't Israel. That would be stealing from God's covenants as well as the all of the other nouns listed in Roman 9:2-4. (brethren, kinsmen, flesh, Israelites, adoption, glory, covenants, Law, temple, promises, fathers, flesh). You can't eat just one.
3For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
5whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Elijah is better left as a prophetic role for any who can perform things for Israel as he did, no one person today is qualified for that as a title. Many modern prophecy commentators think it applies to someone Christian, but the text doesn't say that either. Some few Christians do speak in this vein, there are also (and more importantly) some voices in Israel who admirably address the role one Jew to another, "turn back to the covenant".
posted by J B at
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
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