Lost sheep. Lost tribes.

Lost sheep. Lost tribes. The following, you with the Berean spirit hopefully will find to be, "wholly Scriptural". I will be using some assistance some from C.Welch here.The name Israel was originally given to Jacob at Peniel (Gen. 32:28), and according to Dr. Young (Young's Concordance) it means "ruling with God". Others have given the meaning as "contending with God" and "God commands, orders or rules".In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it, and at the end of three years, took it, and in the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken, and Israel carried away into Assyria (2 Kings 18:9-11). This captivity of the ten tribes was a judgment sent upon them "because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God".The Word of God speaks that He Who scattered them will regather them in His own good time. We do not read that they lost their identity while they were scattered."But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of JUDAH, Rehoboam reigned over THEM" (1 Kings 12:17).It is therefore a Scriptural fact that there was a remnant of Israel associated with the House of David.Further on in the same chapter, we read: "Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of JUDAH and BENJAMIN, and to the REMNANT of the people" (I Kings 12:23).Even after this, as we have seen when Jeroboam had been made king over the ten tribes, he felt uneasy about the attraction that the Temple services at Jerusalem would still exert over all the tribes of Israel. "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah" (I Kings 12:26,27).To counteract this great attraction, Jeroboam deliberately introduced idolatry into his kingdom: "The king . . . made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28).This sinful action stemmed the tide, and saved the kingdom as a whole from drifting back to Judah, but we must not assume that it prevented hundreds of those who were faithful to God from leaving Samaria and returning to Judah to join the little remnant of Israel that remained. The Scriptures definitely confirm that this is just what happened.In the First Book of Chronicles we have the genealogies of those who returned from Babylonian captivity, and we find therein this entry: "And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of EPHRAIM, and MANASSEH" (1 Chron.9:3).We must also take into account the evidence of 2 Chronicles fifteen: "And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him" (2 Chron.15:9).Here we not only get four tribes mentioned by name, but we are also assured that "out of Israel" there fell to Asa men IN ABUNDANCE. The Hebrew word translated "abundance" is the word "multitude" in Genesis 32:12 and 48:16; Deuteronomy 1:10. Is it possible, then, that these tribes can be lost? Do we lose, when we have abundance?In the next chapter we read that Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah, "to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah" (2 Chron.16:1).This action by the king of Israel shows how seriously he regarded the continuous loss of his people to the kingdom of Judah. We also find, in chapter nineteen, the king of Judah going through the people "from Beersheba to Ephraim", and "bringing them back to the Lord God of their fathers" (2 Chron.19:4). Again, we read in chapter twenty-three, in connexion with Jehoiada, the high priest: "And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem" (2 Chron.23:2).And again, in chapter thirty: "And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel" (2 Chron.30:1). "So they established a decree to make proc1amation throughout ALL ISRAEL from Beersheba even to Dan" (2 Chron.30:5). "Divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem" (2 Chron.30:11). "A multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not c1eansed themselves" (2 Chron.30:18).We are told that these Israelites returned to their possessions and cities (2 Chron.31:1).We have already seen that, before the captivity, the tribes of Israel "in abundance" went back and joined with Judah, and it therefore follows that, when the ten-tribed kingdom was taken into captivity, representatives in plenty of all Israel must have remained in the land as part of Judah.In the days of Josiah (531 B.c.-that is eighty years after the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians), we read: "And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and of ALL THE REMNANT of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin" (2 Chron.34:9).Here we reach absolute, positive proof, that the ten tribes were never lost. Even though those deported by the Assyrian kings never returned, this does not affect the argument, for the "remnant of Israel" was quite sufficient to perpetuate the seed, and preserve the continuity of the people.This captive people are called not only "Jews" but "Israel". Ezra, in his second chapter, gives a list of those who came back to Jerusalem at the end of the seventy years' captivity, and he heads the list with the words: "The number of the men of the people of Israel" (Ezra 2:2).At the end of the list we read that "all Israel" dwelt in their cities; and we read again of "Israel" in Ezra 7:10,13, 9:1 and 10:1,5. The kingdom of Judah was taken captive by the same line of kings as had taken captive the ten-tribed kingdom, and any one of the ten tribes was as free to go back as were the members of the tribe of Judah. This we find they did (see Ezra 7:7).When the returned captives assembled before the rebuilt temple on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, "twelve he-goats" were offered "for all Israel", "according to the number of the tribes of Israel" (Ezra 6:15-17). From this time onward the title "Jew" became a generic one, and was used without discrimination for any member of the nation of Israel. The tribes of Israel were certainly not lost when Paul stood before Agrippa and said: "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26:7).The word "instantly" could only be used here of actual service; it could not have been used if any of the twelve tribes had been lost.James also addresses his epistle: "To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad" (Jas. 1:1). Could this letter have been so inscribed if the bulk of the ten tribes had by this time lost their identity? Was this letter returned to James marked "Not Known, Gone Away"? Apparently none of the apostles thought the tribes were lost physically. Paul never said he tried to deliver the message but could not find them. James' letter did not return to him not at this address. Paul said all Israel had heard in Romans ten, which is the last letter written when the Acts period epistles were being written.Paul says, "I am verily a man which am a Jew" (Acts 22:3), and yet he also calls himself an "Israelite" (Rom. 11:1). Peter also calls himself "a Jew" (Acts 10:28), in spite of the fact that he was a Galilean (Acts 2:7). The "Jews" who were assembled on the day of Pentecost were addressed by Peter as "Ye men of Israel" and "All the house of Israel" (Acts 2:22,36), while in Acts four we read that "all the people of Israel" were guilty of the death of Christ, not merely Judah (Acts 4:10,27).The suggestion that God would preserve the ten-tribed kingdom after their captivity and bless them centuries later in the guise of Gentiles is quite unscriptural. According to Scripture, the Lord said that He would "destroy the sinful kingdom from off the face of the earth", but would not utterly destroy the "house of Jacob". The remaining members of the twelve tribes, that had not been deported by the Assyrians, were to be "sifted among all nations as corn is sifted in a sieve" (Amos 9:8,9), until the time for their ultimate restoration-for we read that "all Israel shall be saved". "The Lord of Hosts . . . shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel" (Isa. 8:13,14).This passage looks forward to the cross and discountenances the idea that only "the Jews" were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. In the Acts Peter speaks of the Lord as "the Stone which was set at nought of you builders" (Acts 4:8-11), and in his epistles quotes Isaiah 8:13,14 (1 Pet. 2: . It is obvious from this passage that Christ became a "stone of stumbling" and a "rock of offence" to both houses of Israel, and not merely to the house of Judah.Those whose fathers crossed the river in the Exodus are called Jews. They are Israelites and they are called Israelites. They are called Jews. If this is not in your heritage, then are you an Israelite? Did the Jews navigate to America and Briton? If there are Jews there, then the answer is yes. But upon the announcement of the church His body, even Paul had to lay aside his Jewishness (Ph'p 3) in order to reach for the high calling revealed to the Mystery body after Acts concluded Israel to blindness.Who are Israel? Abraham had eight sons-Ishmael, by Hagar; Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah, by Keturah; and Isaac, by Sarah. Ishmael was "cast out", for he could not be the heir together with Isaac (Gen. 21:10). Of the sons of Keturah it is written, "Abraham gave them gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son" (Gen. 25:6). But of Isaac we read, "and Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac" (Gen. 25:5). If mere physical descent from Abraham had constituted a claim, then seven other nations descended from these seven other sons might have disputed Israel's rights. The deciding factor was God's sovereign election.Again, coming close to the problem, the Apostle carries the argument a stage further. The other nations referred to above were descended from different mothers, but the Apostle goes on to show that even sons born to Isaac' by the same mother do not share equal privileges. Esau was the elder, Jacob was the younger, both children of the same mother, yet Esau was rejected and Jacob chosen: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger" (Rom. 9:11,12).This is not the only place where a distinction is made between the true seed, and the merely natural seed. For example, when the Lord looked upon Nathanael he said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed" (John 1:47).Herein we have ample reason to investigate the three adoptions, with their respective hope and callings. God has made divisions, we are instructed to rightly divide the word of truth.One would think that if gentiles are the Israel of God, then Paul there truly would be no difference, but this is not what we find at all. Galatians, where the Israel of God makes an only mention, we should realize is an early epistle. Early being after 46ad, but before 62ad. Paul always speaks to the Jew first, then to the gentile. The last Acts epistle, Romans speaks of the gentile being graphed in contrary to nature, partakers of Israel's spiritual things, but even that was only to provoke Israel that Israel might bear the fruit of repentance and receive their promised kingdom which is still covenanted to Israel - and yet, entirely set aside at the end of Acts, with the Salvation of God sent to the nations, everyone would hear. Israel became lo-ammi, the tree was cut down, the church which is His body is then introduced for the first time in Scripture - is not to Israel, but for you gentiles.During Acts, the only hope the gentile had was that Israel's hope might obtain and then they would receive blessings through Israel. At the end of Acts, gentiles were very desirous of Israel's carnal things, and they began to mimic Israel. Would the Bible call this behavior coveting? Paul reveals the Mystery, but in so doing he found 'all in Asia turned away'. These were none other than those who believed. But they did not go for this going to heaven business, or the different choosing of God. Nope. They want what God will fulfill in Israel.What is the hope of your calling becomes emphatic then. Many have not found the answer to this.

Lost sheep. Lost tribes. Let us first acknowledge that all Israel had heard. Well, did they? Had all Israel heard? They were sent, and that's the word apostellō to the lost sheep, and the apostle writes that all had heard:Rom 10:18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people (the gentiles), and by a foolish nation I will anger you.They may have been spiritually lost, and this we know to be true, Paul said if it were not for a remnant Israel would have been as Sodom and Gem... They did not, as a nation repent, the kingdom they did not receive. Instead, they became the prophetic Lo-ammi, or, not My people, fulfilling the dreadful prophecy of Isa. 6:9-10, blind. Not blind as to their identity, but blind as to the truth which is in Christ, their shame. They had been lost because of idololatry, because they had not known God, clothed with envy, wrath, , malice, anger, hate, &c, &c.I'll need some assistance from my good buddy C.Welch here.Israel would be they who are called sheep in the Bible. As we have seen, the people were not physically lost. God knows where they were, they maintained their identity, they came to Jerusalem for the annual feast days just like they did for centuries. In 1948 they returned to part of the land God has given them. Israel has always set up synagogues throughout their travels. We see this today in every country they inhabit.It was Peter who was commissioned to feed the sheep, and his epistles are addressed to the dispersed of Israel, and James uses the same word but it is translated differently in the English.The Saviour said: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:5,6). "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd."The R.V. reads: "And they shall become one flock," which recognizes that there are two Greek words here, one aule, translated "fold", and one poimne, which is better translated "flock". Poimne is related to poimen a "shepherd", but aule refers rather to the enclosure of the fold, and is translated in John 18:15 "palace", while the verb aulizomai is rendered "lodge" (Matt. 21:17) and "abide" (Luke 21:37). It was Israel who said: "We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand" (Psa. 95:7).In John ten the' Lord envisaged another company of the redeemed, a company who never were of the FOLD of Israel, yet who shall eventually be united with that people and make one FLOCK.The fact that the greater gathering is called a flock and not a fold suggests that there is no confusion, no carrying over of Israel's distinct position and sphere by giving it to the Gentiles. There is no justification here or anywhere in the Scriptures to use the term "spiritual Israel" of any company of believing Gentiles; that is but confusing the "fold" with the "flock.Throughout the Bible we have straightforward statements we take to be fact. Whereby God has said He does not change His mind. God will not change His mind. God cannot lie. The gifts and callings of God are without change of mind.Parenthetical interlude:At the end of Acts, being the same time of the writing of Romans, where all Israel had heard, something dreadful befell them. Finally, after all day with the leaders of the Jews, Paul had made a startling declaration, a first in Scripture ~Act 28:28 "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." Now you have probably read where I, epouraniois, have stated that there are written in Scripture, different churches, and that aft4er Acts is revealed 'the church' which has to do with 'the Mystery. Moreover, I attempt to show this is not introduced until after all Israel had heard, whereby the apostle then is sent afterwards as a prisoner of the Lord for the hope of you gentiles, while reminding these same gentiles that before, when they stood outside the middle wall of partition awaiting the reading to Israel first, where they would hear Israel's message and of their prophesied position of being able to realize what was happening, Paul writes in Eph2, they had no hope and were without God in the world. Paul stress' that now, after the conclusion of Acts, God created a new company, and that this had been hid in God, it was given to Paul alone to make it known, and this new created company God had chose before the foundation of the world, whereby NOW all nations, Israel too-just being another nation having no more any preeminent position-could come into the fullness of the measure of the stature of the Christ. This calling is revealed as the mystery. The hope is 'in Christ', not in Israel, and the inheritance is with Christ in the heavenly places, not with faithful Abraham. The connection is to the head, not to Israel.This distinction God has made. And it is in effect for this next bit of info. Because, many people just won't believe it, soooo, God has made those previsions too, has not left anyone out, for no matter what sphere of blessing one's hope and calling is in, He is able to satisfy to the uttermost.Parenthetical end:...who shall eventually be united with that people and make one FLOCK.The ministry of John is at work today in a wider circle than that covered by the Mystery and the epistle to the Romans. Many believers today are manifestly "John 3: 16" believers, and their destiny is indicated in this reference to the future flock and Shepherd.Members of the church of the Mystery are neither called sheep, nor will they ever be brought into union with the "fold" of Israel to form one "flock". The one common characteristic that unites the two companies envisaged in John ten is that they both hear the voice of their Shepherd (John 10:2,3,4,16,27). This too is the characteristic of all who believe unto everlasting life (John 5:24,25) and looks forward to the day of resurrection for its fulfilment (John 5:28,29). The distinguishing mark of all these "sheep" of whatever "fold" they be is given in John 18:37 "every one that is OF THE TRUTH heareth My voice." Such are "of God" according to John 8:47. There is therefore great blessing in store for many today to whom the dispensation of the Mystery is a closed book, and if they do not know Him as the "one Head", what a privilege it will be to know Him as the "one Shepherd".Differences in sphere, calling and destiny there most certainly are, even one star is said to differ from another star in glory, yet only sovereign grace causes us to differ, and we have nothing but what we have received. Grace reigns and it is nothing less than our duty, to say nothing of our love, to readily accept all that the Scriptures reveal concerning these things that differ.i would reiterate, that they do know who they are. Gentiles are the pagan background people. If you were a Jew, or an Israelite as it were, you would know it. i have traced my lineage to 1000 years ago, and there is no memory of any of my fathers being in the Exodus. There were 70 nations, and Israel was created out of them, becoming the 71st, and they were the smallest of nations. imo, if Satan could get us to think we were someone else, or Israel's blessings were transferred to gentiles, then we would respond much less to the high calling revealed to the mystery body.Paul had to come to the mystery not as a Jew, but as a gentile. Read 3rd Phi'p for that. 2Ti 1:15 and 2Ti 4:11, both jew and gentile could not believe the mystery. I always hoped Cornelius heard the revelation of the mystery.

Giving mention to the seventy nations reminds me of a pretty neat picture revealed in the seventy palm trees. One that effects us. And while this will be redundant for some, maybe others will find some edification by it.Eph 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, “For you Gentiles” is what I want to look at. “Gentile” in Hebrew is “go^y”. We get the word “guy” from it; this guy or that guy, well, that’s just the word gentile. It is “ethnos” in the Greek; ethnology, the study of nations, people, &tc. We can translate it most of the time as “nations”. To the Hebrews, any one that is not a Hebrew, or a Jew, is a Gentile. To a Roman, anyone who was not a Roman, was a “barbarian”. To the Greek, anyone who was not a Greek was a “heathen”. At the time of the writing of the NT, the gentiles, the nations, were referred to as the uncircumcised. By the time Abraham came on the scene, the people had divided themselves up into nations, and they were called nations. In Genesis 2:1, we find that there were a “host” of man[kind] which the LORD had created. In the Bible we don’t have anything to indicate “nations” such as we know, however, in Genesis 1:26, God said, “let us make man…” without the article, and it was “very good”. And, we know that there are, so there must have been, separate races that God saw as “very good”. When we get into Genesis 11, we find the genealogies of the three sons of Noah. The “families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations”. When you add them up, you get seventy nations. When Israel was taken out and separated, as a chosen people according to the promise of Abraham, Israel became the seventy first nation. You remember that when they were in their wilderness journey’s, they stopped at Elam, where there were twelve springs, and those twelve springs were watering seventy palm trees. So we have the twelve tribes of Israel, and the seventy nations in picture. This gives us a little more on the purpose of that called out nation, that peculiar people. Peculiar in their relationship with God, in dress, customs, habits, and peculiar because they were to remain separate from the world, to be used by God as a channel to bring the knowledge of God to the nations. They were to be a blessing to the people of the world just as those springs were a blessing to those palm trees. That was the place where Israel was to have, and a place that Israel finally will one day have, and they will be priests to bless the nations by. In Mathew 28 a great commission was given to baptize the nations. This has yet to be fulfilled, and will be so at a future age, or dispensation. The apostles did complete the one given to them in the 16th chapter of Mark and Acts 1:3-7. that one is finished, complete.Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Whenever He takes up this power, He will fulfill the promise to Israel, of course Hebrews tells us not yet, not until the times of the gentiles is full. Even Abraham knew that these promises were not to be carried out until the time of resurrection, which is why he lived in tents. He figured that since the LORD could wait, and live in a tent, that there was no reason for him to build a big fancy house. Abraham could wait too. He was a stranger in the land that God gave him, even buying a burial place for his family. Take Hebrews 11, and the heroes of faith; Resurrection is in view, but people forget that. They want to fix up the world, to make it better, bring peace, save every one and every thing; but that isn’t part of God’s plan. I think of Easter Island, and how they were seemingly so ignorant that they destroyed themselves by cutting down all their trees. Well, isn’t that what we are doing on a larger scale, destroying the physical livelihood of this earth. We just cannot think right apart from God. We are supposed to rotate the land usage and give it a Sabbath to keep it refreshed, but we don’t. In Mathew 13 Christ tells us to just let the tares be till they are ripe, then they can be taken out and burned in the fire. Then reap the harvest. So we shouldn’t get in too big a hurry. In the past, the gentile nations have been given up twice. In Genesis 6:5-8 we have a picture of the people, and it is a picture of people today:Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. And he did, he destroyed them. And below we see where the nations are once again dealt with as a whole, being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth:Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. In Romans 1, Paul is talking about it. Telling the Jew first, of course, how bad the gentles had been in the past, and the Jews were like, amen, that’s right, that’s certainly so, but then Paul tells them that they had done the same thing in the next chapter. Lets pick it up in v18. Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom 1:23 And [ex]changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. Amen. These are the nations, the subject is the nations. They turned everything into a god, even worshiping flies, old Beelzebub, lord of the flies, and the scarab beetle, who lives in dung. They said it was a symbol of resurrection. The LORD can’t hang out with a people like that, nor can he today. I think one would be hard pressed to find a house of the LORD today that doesn’t have an image of deity in it, an image of man. Some of them might even have a Bible on its own podium, perhaps with lit candles surrounding it, but is it even opened?!?Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up …Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up …Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over … The LORD gave up Israel two times as well, once in Acts 28:28, and once right here, the LORD found there was “no remedy”:2Ch 36:15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up quickly, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 2Ch 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Then what happened? They went into Babylonian captivity for seventy years. It had to be seventy years of Sabbath, because of the 490 years of Israel not obeying the Sabbath of the land every 7 years. They got by until God cast judgment upon them. God is very exact about His Word, He is very fair. 2Ch 36:21 To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years. That was the first time God gave up on Israel, and the final time is recorded here, where they are told; be it known therefore unto you, God is sent to the nations:Act 28:28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. They probably don’t realize that God has given them up even today. I have a Jewish friend I sail with, and he says Jesus of Nazareth was not the messiah, He is yet to come. Just how is there going to be one that is any greater than the one that was already here would be a good question. Messiah, He’s still going to come. That’s his hope. Blinded. Its pretty hard to get anywhere at all with them. There were three periods of history that the nations had been given right to access. From Adam till the flood, when they were given up. Then from the flood to Babel, when they were given up. Then from Acts 28 till the recall of Israel the nations have the forefront. Israel has taken her place amidst the nations. “Lo-Ammi”. Israel also has been given three periods of access. From Abraham to the captivity, in Babylon. From the captivity till Acts 28:28. And one in the near future, in the last week of Daniel 9, where God will seal the 144,000 of the 12 tribes listed in Revelation 7. We find, that throughout history, there have been a few gentiles who came to the LORD through Israel. Abraham was notable, and we can include a few others here; Job, Balem, Nebuchadnezzar who even wrote part of the Bible after he got his faith established. There was the queen of Sheba, and Jethro. The question becomes, what will their future be? With the dying malefactor, it was “paradise”. It looks as though all falling under the blessings of Israel will find their resurrection on the earth. And Cornelius, accepted by God, has the hope of the kingdom, has the same hope “in the land”. Then there was the Syrophenician woman, a Canaanite woman. Now, all these were supposed to be exterminated by the Israelite, they were a false seed; of course when she called Him the son of David, that didn’t work because of her blood. Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. But when she called Him LORD, her faith wouldn’t let Him go, and He reminded her she was a dog [gentile], but she established herself. This just shows that those who had contact and believed, could receive crumbs that fell from the table, they could get healing and so forth, and if any were friendly to the Jewish people, according to the promise made to Abraham - they prospered, but they didn’t share in Israel’s hope. Then there was the centurion who Christ said none in Israel had He seen as much faith. He just had life, it showed in his faith. To sum it up, Israel, according to the flesh, were a chosen people out of the believers, and had the privilege. We have a chosen people today too, but they aren’t chosen according to the flesh in Ephesians. This body is a spiritual body of believers on the earth with all their blessings far above all heavens. We have a tendency to judge, but we can’t judge whether anybody has life. We base our moral ideas, our rules, ordinances Paul calls them, on things seen. When we go through the Bible we find that God didn’t draw the line on things like that. There are things better than sacrifice, and better than morality. Satan probably doesn’t even like immorality, he’d like to reform society, to establish an imitation kingdom on the earth, to one better God. The problem is, that he has to deal with the old nature, and he can’t see that because he himself has that same old nature. And he can’t create in people any new nature. additionally, he can’t even hold them but for a short period of time because he can’t even resurrect those that are his. God can create, as Paul says, a new nature, which if they don’t have then they don’t belong to Him. Not only that, God can resurrect the children and have them perfectly freed of every thing they inherited from Adam. Satan can’t compete with that at all, but he can’t see it, for he has that old nature. He is just blind and can’t see that he is blind. He is naked before God and God’s people, but he thinks he is clothed in righteousness. We have in Ephesians, 2nd Timothy, and Titus, the promise of eternal life made in Christ before the ages began. This is all about the outworking of the mystery. We came here to assist in God’s plan of redemption to foil the workings of Satan. Mankind is probably the piece called the pawn in the game of chess. Just one of the pieces on the board. I want to end this with the thought that if God created the earth to be inhabited, surely we can believe Him when He tells us the heavens are created to be inhabited as well. And we can see something of that in His promise and call towards us in our hope which He is calling us to “in Him”. And that hope is in the heavenlies, far above all. It isn’t down here on the earth. That is the hope of another people. We fight not against flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities in high places. And the Bible tell us that the soul is in the blood.Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. We all come here, just as He would come here, only His blood delivered us from sin. Not sin in this age, but in the one to come. It is the atonement. It was no secret that gentiles would be blessed through Israel, so those teachings during the Acts was not part of our calling. Paul taught no other things but that which Moses and the prophets had taught during that period. After Acts, Paul tells us he was given a new revelation, called the Mystery. The brand marks that he bore are what we can see of Paul, that he lived his life as he preached it, to prepare us for the message he would give that we may believe Paul was actually given to us, as the apostle to the nations. I believe that those who receive this calling will be the ones who are obedient to the instructions the LORD has left for us, and rightly dividing the word of truth.