ANTI JEW

Anti-Jew

 

All anti-Semitic prejudice is due to ignorance of the benevolent purpose of God for this nation.

 

Cf. Isa 49:5-6, 13, 15

 “And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

 “Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted”

 “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee”

 Rom. 11:26 “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

And from what looks like a certain demise as they are surrounded on every side by hate motivated prejudice.

 In the words of Samuel J. Andrews: As the covenant of God with the Jews was a national one, so must also Christ's acceptance or rejection be. From the beginning of their history, God had dealt with the people as a “corporate body.” Their blessings were national blessings, their punishments national punishments. All their institutions, ecclesiastical and civil, were so devised as to deepen the feeling of national unity--one high priest, one temple, one altar, one royal family, one central city. What was done by the heads of the nation was regarded as the act of all, and involving common responsibility. Only in this way could the purpose of God, in their election to be His peculiar people, be carried out. Hence, in this greatest and highest act, the acceptance or rejection of His Son, the act must be a “national one” – not singular as in the church where it is individual. Those who acted as their rightful representatives must do it in the name of the whole people. If those who sat in Moses' seat should discern and receive Him, the way for the further prosecution of His work was at once opened, and under His divine instruction the nation might be purified and made ready for the glorious Kingdom, so often sung by the psalmists and foretold by the prophets. But if, on the other hand, the nation acting through its lawfully constituted heads rejected him, this national crime must be followed by national punishment. Individuals might be saved amid the general overthrow, but the people, as such, failing to fulfill God's purpose in their election, must be scattered abroad, and a new people be gathered out of all nations.

            It was under the conditions imposed by these great historic facts that the Lord began His ministry among the Jews. He came to a people in covenant with God; a people that God desired to save, and that must, as a people, accept or reject Him. All the details that are given us of that ministry by the Evangelists must, therefore, be viewed in the light of these facts.