Sabbath: Lord of Jews and Gentiles
Read for This Week’s Study: Matt. 14:1-21, Exod. 3:14, Matt. 14:22-33, Isa. 29:13, Matt. 15:1-20, Matt. 15:21-28.
Memory Text:“‘I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles’” (Isaiah 42:6, NIV).
Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com
In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says explicitly, “‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (NKJV). No question, Christ’s earthly ministry was directed mostly toward the nation of Israel.
But, as the whole Bible shows, Israel wasn’t the only people God cared about. The reason God chose Israel was so that He could bless all people on earth. “This is what God the LORD says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: ‘I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness’” (Isa. 42:5-7, NIV).
It was through Israel, or more specifically from the Messiah who would arise from Israel, that God would reach out to the whole world. This week we’ll see a little more of the Lord’s outreach to all in need of salvation.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 14.
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that's true! our king died for the Israel and us(gentiles) so we got the salvation cause of that king
I greet you in the name of our soon coming Lord! I have a question on the introduction. If the israelites had done the assignment that God had given them to lighten other nation,was Christ going to come?see matt 15:24
Hello sibanda, Christ could still come to deal with sin once and for all.
Jesus is not averse to looking at "What might have been" scenarios.
(If the miracles that had been done in Capernaum "had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." (Matt 11:23.) Miracles would have been ENOUGH to turn, and to save, the people of Sodom. There was definitely a way by which Sodom could have, would have, been saved! But God had no-one, at that time, that He could use to do the things that were necessary. (The principle can be seen, I suggest, in Eze 22:30-31 etc). So yes, Jesus speaks in terms of "What could have been".)
If the Israelites had done their appointed "assignment", and had gone out into the world, enlightening and blessing the nations, then would Christ have come?
I believe that, yes, Christ would still have come at the appointed time. But what a different reception He would have received! Jesus would still have died, but instead of dieing outside the city walls, He would have died at the appointed place in the Temple, and His blood would have been handled in a very different manner.
Yes, Jesus does speak of a what if, or what could have been. Yet what do we expect? Do we really expect that Israel on their own could go out into the world without the coming of Jesus and without the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost? For without Jesus, what would the 12 have been or the 500 have been? Without the Holy Spirit what would these men of Israel been?
For surely it took the Advent of the Messiah and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these the chosen and called men of Israel before they could spread the Gospel from beyond Judea unto the whole world.
Jesus coming was to bring salvation (freedom from sin) to earth. The Israelites was the Father chosen generation. They were chosen so nations could see the only living and true God. His name was to be spread abroad. Like the Israelites we too are a fallen generation of people. Christ entire coming was in truth to redeem mankind back to the image of God after the fall in the garden.That's why one of His prayers for us in Matthew 6:10 "Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." In other words, let His will be done in me, as it is in heaven.
Well, God chose Israel not just as the nation through whom the lineage of the promised Messiah would come, but they were to be a model people, a "specimen", before all other nations on earth, of God's benevolence and faithfulness in keeping His promises to those who follow Him in obedience. From God chose Abraham to be "the father of many nations", this sacred covenant was to be kept, but the children of Israel rebelled against their Maker and Deliverer from the bondage of Egypt,with grave apostasy. They did not seem to want to be chosen, though they had solemnly pledged time and again, "all that the Lord has said we will do" (Ex. 19:8;24:3)
By the time Christ came there were mainly rituals and ceremonies and a "form of Godliness" which denied the power thereof. Jesus worked to set things straight in word and in deed, demonstrating how the laws that He Himself instituted, should be understood and kept, albeit, amidst hostile rejection, daily challenges and merciless attacks by the leaders of Israel, on the Living Word of God manifested in the flesh and was verily among them.
Among Christ's missions on earth was the breaking down of barriers of every sort and type, making the kingdom of God accessible to everyone. Jesus stood in the temple and read aloud the prophesy about Himself, from the scrolls in the Book of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free" (Luke 4:18). There was no doubt whom Jesus came to save - His healing hands, messages of hope, and raising of the dead, touched people of every race, nation and background. Look at the men He chose as His disciples! Putting things into proper perspective the apostle declared, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus"(Gal 3:28).
Yeah Jesus'coming was inline with salvation of mankind after Adam n Eve sinned,if the Israelites did their part still Jesus would come on earth
Again I as stated above Israel needed the Advent of the Messiah and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit before they could do their part. Regardless if we are Jew or Gentile we can not hope to do what God has called us to do without Jesus and without the Holy Spirit.
Before those men of Israel who Jesus called and chose could do anything, Jesus first had to come unto them, die for them rise again, then send the Holy Spirit upon them. It was only then they went out boldly proclaiming the Gospel unto the whole world.
Praise God He not only came for the privileged but the less privileged hence i too can bask in his full and free Salvation and invite others to do so
With me I was given my wife by God so that she shows me the truth after spending so much time in and out of churches seeking for the truth. My wife was my Israel and I was the Gentile and she showed me the doors to the Remnant Church especially when she gave me the book "Desire of Ages"
1970s A fijian Pastor Epeli Soro brought mission to the Island call Nairai and baptised some the second thing he want to build a church there .Easy when our God lead everything my uncle Koroi offer a peace of his land to build the sda church and its still there today .Our Lord will take care of everything according in his will.