Having begun our survey of the separation of the Christian Church from its historical roots, we now consider aspects of our inheritance: what legacies have the Jews given us?

The history of Israel reveals many things. Above all, the Jewish people are a living witness to the covenant faithfulness of the One True God. In addition, however, despite much failure to attain the highest goals of Torah, the Jewish people passed on to the Christian Church a testimony of Biblical interpretation and lifestyle, giving enough light on God's relationship with (and requirements of) mankind for the Christian Church to enter into its inheritance.

Unfortunately, because of the failure of Israel to live up to the perfect standards of Torah, the Christian Church has largely failed to give credit where it is due. We will make a brief survey of just a little of what the Christian Church owes to the Jewish people. First an important comment.

Good but not Perfect

No-one claims that Israel was perfect. Indeed, God did not choose Israel because of its size:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy... (Deut 7:7-9)

Nor did they displace other nations on merit:

Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deut 9:4-6)

The prophets constantly echoed the theme of imperfection which, at its lowest point, even resulted in exile from the Land:

If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then...it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known - wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. (Deut 28:58-65)

The Book of Lamentations shows the anguish of a fallen nation:

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers She has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. (Lam 1:1-5)

Contemporary View

Even a contemporary comment recognizes the failure of Israel to achieve perfection. In Popular Halachah: A Guide to Jewish Living (edited by Avnere Tomaschoff, 1985), we read in the chapter entitled 'Serving the Creator':

Because of the sins of our forefathers, we were driven from our land, the land of Israel. Exile, dispersion and suffering caused many of our people to neglect the study of the holy language (Hebrew), to forget the Torah and to assimilate among the gentiles.

Our Expectations

We do not need to labour the point further. We acknowledge that Israel has not been a perfect light to the Gentiles. However, there are two errors we can commit as we respond to this. The first error is to expect perfection from Israel. The second is that, on account of the imperfection, we neglect all the good that has been done for the Christian Church because of the testimony of Israel.

It is only by God's grace that the Christian Church exists at all. With the biblical testimony of Israel to help us understand God's ways and draw near to him, we must remember that all good is from God. However, we can still validly consider these things from the human level. We would not even have our Bibles if it had not been for the Jewish people who had to walk the hard road before us, write down what they heard and experienced, and bring the Scriptures to us through many generations.

If we had received the truth in our Bibles another way, we would not have had the living testimony that Israel brings, showing their full humanity. Imperfect though this human testimony is, it is nevertheless a good and useful testimony, the one from which we learn. If they had not walked the hard path of seeking to respond to God, and failing, would we not have failed in the same way?

Imperfect though their testimony is, Israel provides a vital living testimony of true humanity seeking God. If they had not walked this hard path before us, would we not have failed in the same ways they did?"

When we look at the Jewish inheritance we must consider it, from our human standpoint, as good but not perfect. We should not seek to emulate their failures, but we can learn from their experiences and, starting from that point, we can use the Scriptures to seek out the good roots of that testimony.

If we keep this testimony alongside us as we also seek to walk with God, we can ignore what is imperfect and learn from what is good. We can also give credit where it is due for all that the Jewish people have given to the whole world. Their testimony came at great cost.

Jewish Communities

To investigate what we owe the Jews we simply need to look into their community life, in which there is much variety. In our day, among the people in the Land of Israel as well as in Jewish communities around the world, we can observe everything from atheism to devotion to the God of their Fathers. In the midst of this variety, we discover every aspect of God's dealing with the Jews and of their response to him.

In the Home

Jewish communal life shows us that community is built on family. Our first picture is therefore not of the Synagogue, but of the home. The focal point of the home is the family mealtime. This is most strongly emphasized at the Shabbat table, where we hear prayers to God, blessings on the children and between husband and wife, the sharing of bread and wine, and the candle-lighting ceremony to remember the light of the Sabbath, pointing to rest in God.

Jewish traditions are not necessarily straight from the Bible but they are generally a response to this heritage. In this case, the response is to the biblical emphasis on the Sabbath; to thank God for His provision, to bless one another and centre one's spiritual growth in the family.

Education and Worship

On other occasions, the home becomes a centre for education. We can picture the father studying from the teaching of God, leading evening prayers or talking to his children about the Scriptures and about God. We see an emphasis on education in the home and remember how God said to Israel:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-9)

If we were to look around a Jewish home in more detail, we might see the mezuzah on the door (parchment including these verses from Deuteronomy). Similarly, at a Synagogue we would see the tefillin (small boxes also containing verses) on the arms and forehead of the men in prayer. These are among the constant reminders of Torah's centrality to the lives of the Jews.

From Synagogues to Churches

In the Synagogue we would hear Torah read on a yearly cycle, again emphasising that Torah is central to the life of the Jew. But the Synagogue is not only a place of congregational meeting- it is also a House of Prayer and a House of Study. Here there are echoes back to the days of the Temple (there are also echoes in the function of Christian church buildings).

The Jewish people passed on to the Christian Church models of prayer, worship, and honouring the Bible as the teaching of God, in both the home and the community.

From the Jews we have not only inherited the Scriptures and their testimony, but also models of communal life, prayer, worship, teaching, celebration and devotion."

Our knowledge of the One True God comes from our Jewish inheritance. If the Jews had not been zealous to remember the Shema (the Hebrew word for hear) then how would Gentiles have responded to the coming of Jesus? Without this heritage, the Church would have all too readily drifted into even more idolatry than has occurred over the years of Christianity. The Shema is from the Book of Deuteronomy:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deut 6:4-5)

The Feasts

What would the Christian Church have made of the Feasts of the Lord had not Israel faithfully celebrated the Feasts on a yearly cycle? How would they have understood Passover (and in relation to this, Communion) without the rooting in the Passover Seder of the Jews? From the time of Moses until today, the Passover Seder has developed and been celebrated in ways interpreted by the Rabbis. We are free to look through the traditions into what the Bible says, but we have the Jewish interpretation as a place from which to begin.

Witness to the World

Then there is the wider fruit of Israel's Torah-consciousness. It was always God's intention that this Nation should be the light to the world. Instead of a book of philosophy, God prepared a people to live out his purposes, observable by all nations. In the midst of a pagan world, Israel has been a witness to the living God who dwelt among his people, and also to the ethical and legal requirements of a nation under God.

Instead of a book of philosophy, God prepared a people to live out his purposes as a witness to all nations."

It is true that the Christian influence on the world's legal and moral stance has been great. Nations such as Britain and America have attempted to frame their constitutions on biblical principles. However, the first nation to show the way was Israel. They demonstrated that the Living God enters into the affairs of men not just through dry commandments but through living relationships and we have seen the outworking of this giving vision and hope for our own nations.

Suffering

In all of this, Israel has suffered the consequences of being the chosen nation in covenant relationship, demonstrating every aspect of man's need, his relationship with God, his failings and successes. God came to earth in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) through the relationship he had been building with the people of Israel. The suffering of Israel, on account of their inability to live out this relationship to the full, brought us necessary teaching, so that we all might inherit what was first offered to them.

Faith and Works

Israel is built from families, and yet it is a nation, a corporate entity. There is a balance here that the Jews teach us between family and nation.

There is also a balance between faith and works. Every nation is bound to its own inheritance of land. The nation of Israel teaches us the very meaning of inheritance: an inheritance (in biblical terms) is something that God gives and yet which you also work for. Israel is a society that sees faith and works in balance- and as a consequence, Jews have achieved success in every area of human endeavour, even in the Diaspora.

We can therefore learn about the biblical balance of work and faith by observing the Jews (this has long been the starting point for the work ethic of Christian believers, and we must not forget it).

Christian Inheritance

The Christian Church has entered into the inheritance of the Jews, not to replace the Israel of God, but live as part of the Israel of God's family of faith rooted in Messiah:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh...that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:10-22)

From Inheritance to Biblical Root and Fruit

We can go on and on taking examples from every area of life to emphasise the indebtedness of the Christian Church to the Jewish people, and each of us should be careful to study this and give credit where it is due. Though Israel was not perfect, and even though individual Jews cannot fulfill their Covenant response to God unless they have faith in Yeshua the Messiah, we have good examples from Jewish life of the inheritance into which we were adopted. Every study of Jewish response to God is an example to us. This was touched on by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ...Now these things became our examples...

When we read the Psalms, we ought to read them in the context of Israel's experience, out of which they were written. When we read the prophets we should study first the context of the history of Israel, as we seek to know God and the prophetic understanding of our own day. When we read the Torah we should consider how Israel responded to God through his teaching. We will find lessons for every part of life. If we look at the practices of the Christian Church and the fruit of Christianity among the nations, we must realise that all practical application of biblical principles began with the Jewish people.

We must realize that through history and across the world, all practical application of biblical principles began with the Jewish people."

Then we must go back to the Bible itself and study what is biblical, what is a good tradition and what is not useful from Jewish tradition, thereby maturing in our own response to Scripture. We have years of Christian history to consider too, in our appraisal of what the life of faith is meant to be. In all our searching, we must remember that our biblical inheritance was passed on to us through Israel and the Jews.

The most important truth of all is that Jesus the Messiah comes one hundred per cent from a Jewish background. The testimony of Jesus is perfect, but he would not want it to be detached from the background of Judaism from which he emerged - as King of the Jews. The perfect message of Jesus is not in isolation from this context.

Apart from Jesus, Israel did not fulfil the prophecy of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. But they have suffered for us in passing on an inheritance, and we must recognise this as part of our own heritage.

For Study and Prayer

Consider Romans 11 in light of what we have studied.

Next time: Theological Conflict