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Out of all the nations of the world, God chose Israel to be His representative to the world.

2 Samuel 7:23-24 What other nation on earth is like your people Israel? What other nation, O God, have you redeemed from slavery to be your own people? You made a great name for yourself when you redeemed your people from Egypt. You performed awesome miracles and drove out the nations and gods that stood in their way. You made Israel your very own people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God.

Israel was called to be a light that testifies of the One true God, to all the pagan nations of the world.

Deuteronomy 14:2 You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.

Exodus 19:5-6 Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.

Israel was God's special people, so He warned them not to worship Him the same way the pagan nations worship their false gods.

Deuteronomy 12:29-31 When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, *How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example" you must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates.

But like so many times, Israel gave into their temptation, and did exactly what God told them not to do.

2 Kings 17:7-8 This disaster came upon the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods. They sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. They had followed the practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of them, as well as the practices the kings of Israel had introduced.

God wanted Israel be a holy people that He could call His own special treasure. But so many times Israel failed, and so many times God showed them mercy.

The New Covenant is God showing mercy to Israel, once again. When Messiah came, He came to save Israel from the sins she committed while she was under the first covenant.

Hebrews 9:15 For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under the first covenant.

Messiah came to save Israel.

Matthew 15:24 Then Jesus said to the woman, I was sent only to help the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

Even the New Covenant itself is made with the House of Israel.

Hebrews 10:16-17 This is the new covenant that I will make with Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them, then He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Hebrews 8:7-10 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Messiah's mission is to restore Israel, and become her King.

Matthew 27:11 Jesus stood in front of the governor, Pilate. The governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Yes, I am, Jesus answered.

Luke 2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon who was righteous and devout, looking for the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Acts 1:6-7 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom of Israel? He replied, The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.

Luke 1:32-33 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!

Messiah's ministry, through the New Covenant, was all about God restoring Israel, not the Gentiles. The Gentiles were never God's chosen people.

Matthew 10:5-7 Jesus sent out these twelve followers. He told them to go, saying, Stay away from people who are not Jews. And do not go to any town in the country of Samaria. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.*

God didn't reach out to the Gentiles until after Paul's conversion. God used Paul to minister to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. This started after Stephen was stoned, because Stephen's death was Israel's final rejection of Messiah.

Romans 11:13-14 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.

To this very day, God's promise to Israel still stands, He still wants Israel to be His holy people, a people that He can call His own special treasure, and the Gentiles are going to help make that happen.

Romans 11:28-29 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Gospel, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.

God's people will be a holy people, who obey Him, and worship Him the way He desires to be worshiped, in spirit, according to truth.

John 4:24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Israel is God's chosen people, but God is not stopping with just Israel. God wants people from all nations to be His people, and live according to His will, including honoring His Sabbath.

Romans 9:24-26 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. As he says in Hosea: "I will call them my people who are not my people, and I will call her my loved one who is not my loved one", and, In the very place where it was said to them, "You are not my people", there they will be called "children of the living God."

Isaiah 56:6-8 As for the Gentiles, the outsiders who join the people of the Lord and serve him and love his name, who are his servants and don*t desecrate the Sabbath, and have accepted his covenant and promises, I will bring them also to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and make them full of joy within my House of Prayer. I will accept their sacrifices and offerings, for my Temple shall be called *A House of Prayer for all people" for the Lord God who brings back the outcasts of Israel says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.

Through Messiah, God is joining both Jew and Gentile together to make one new man, the Israel of God.

Ephesians 2:16 He planned to bring both Jews and Gentiles back to God as one body. He planned to do this through the cross. On that cross, Christ put to death their hatred toward one another.

Galatians 6:15-16 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God.

Some people will ask me, in a very angry manner, "So, what am I supposed to do, become a Jew?" Basically, yes, in the eyes of God. When a Gentile is grafted into God's chosen people, and begin following His Torah, like Messiah did, they become part of God's people. This is what makes Israel jealous.

Romans 2:25-29 The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God's law. But if you don't obey God's law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. And if the Gentiles obey God's law, won't God declare them to be his own people? In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God's law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God's law but don't obey it. For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

A Gentile, before coming to Messiah, is without hope and without God in the world. They are strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel, and had no share in the promises of God, but God's plan was to graft them into His chosen people, through the shed blood of Messiah.

Ephesians 2:11-13 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called, the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to 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.

God's plan, for the Gentile people, is to save them and graft them into His chosen people. God will use the Gentile people to help restore Israel back to Himself by provoking Israel to jealousy.

Romans 11:11 Did God's people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.

This is very important for a Gentile to understand. God is using the Gentile people to provoke Israel to jealousy so that they return back to God.

Romans 11:17-18 But some of the branches, who are the Jews, were broken off. You who are not Jews were put in the place where the branches had been broken off. Now you are sharing the rich root of the olive tree. Do not be proud. Do not think you are better than the branches that were broken off. If you are proud, remember that you do not hold the root. It is the root that holds you.

A Gentile, who is grafted in, won't pick up where Israel left off, by worshiping God the way the pagans worship their gods. When a Gentile gets saved, they start worshiping and obeying God the way Israel was supposed to, including keeping the Sabbath. This is what provokes Israel to jealousy. Notice how when almost the whole Gentile city gathered on Sabbath, it provoked the Jews to jealousy? This means the Gentiles went out and invited other Gentiles to church. This is the beginning of the early church, Jew and Gentile worshiping as one in Messiah.

Acts 13:42-45 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost, the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.

If the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, this would have been the perfect time for Paul to say something, but he didn't. As a matter of fact, if Sunday was now the Lord's Day, they could have just come back the next day, but instead, on the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered on the Sabbath to hear the word of God, and it provoked Israel to jealousy because this is what God called Israel to do.

Leviticus 23:3 You have six days in which to do your work, but remember that the seventh day Sabbath, on that day do not work, but gather for worship. The Sabbath belongs to the Lord, no matter where you live.

Gentiles gathering on Sunday would never provoke Israel to jealousy, because honoring the Sabbath testifies that you belong to God.

Ezekiel 20:12 And I gave them the Sabbath, a day of rest every seventh day, as a symbol between them and me, to remind them that it is I, the Lord, who sanctifies them, that they are truly my people.

Ezekiel 20:20 Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.

Honoring the Sabbath is godly, while honoring Sunday is rooted in pagan sun worship, which is forbidden by God.

In Roman culture, Sunday was the day of the Sun god. In paganism, the Sun was a source of life, giving warmth and illumination to mankind. Sunday - Wikipedia

On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.* Emperor Constantine's decree March 7, A.D. 321

Today's mainline church is doing the same thing Israel did that got themselves in trouble with God. Today, the church is worshiping God the way the pagans worship their false gods. Just about everything in today's mainline church is rooted in Babylonian sun worship, including, Sunday worship, Easter, Christmas, Good Friday and so much more.

The Easter or Ishtar symbolism of the Sunday resurrection of the spring fertility cult (Easter, the Anglo-Saxon form of Ishtar), is a pagan system of worship that first penetrated Christianity in the second century. The symbolism stems from the death of Tammuz on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday. The 40 days of Lent were picked as one day for each year of his life since he died at age 40. The rest of the traditions of Easter were "Christianized" into the story of the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah. "{WikiBooks & Wikipedia}

This is why God is calling His people to come out of Babylon.

Revelation 18:4-5 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of Babylon, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues" for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God is ready to punish her for them.

As a grafted in people of God, everything about Israel's history becomes our history. We can learn from Israel's past mistakes.

Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction.

1 Corinthians 10:11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

All this is not for nothing, God is preparing a people to be part of His new creation. God is making a new heaven and new earth, where only God's goodness and righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:13-14 We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there. Dear friends, since you are waiting for these things to happen, do all you can to be found by Him in peace. Be clean and free from sin.

In the new heaven, and the new earth, there will be no more sickness, death, pain or sorrow. Nothing that sin brought into God*s first creation, will be part of God*s new creation.

Revelation 21:3-5 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, Gods home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new! And then he said to me, Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."

God's Kingdom, with Messiah as King, will last forever, and He wants a big family.

2 Peter 3:9-10 The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

Daniel 2:44 In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself stand forever.

God will use the same Torah and the same Prophets, that He gave to Israel, to create a holy people, who want to be part of His Kingdom.

Acts 24:14 This I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a cult, I worship the God of my fathers. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Torah and that is written in the Prophets.

He will call them out of the world, wash them of their sin, and give them a new nature, and a new spirit, by forgiving their sins, and writing His Law in the hearts and mind.

Ezekiel 36:25-28 Then I will put clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will make you clean from all your unclean ways and from all your false gods. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My Laws and be careful to do what I tell you. And you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be My people, and I will be your God.

Jeremiah 31:33 this is the new covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Hebrews 8:10 For this is the new covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

God's grace does not do away with the Torah or the Prophets, it does away with God's punishment for breaking His Law.

Romans 4:8 Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.

Living a righteous, and holy life, is what God*s grace teaches us.

Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

God's grace won*t allow us to live in sin.

Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

Not even our faith will allow us to reject God*s Law. Faith moves us to obey God's Law.

Romans 13:31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Remember, God is going to use His law to make a people holy by writing it in our hearts and mind. This will inspire us, and motivate us, to obey the Torah and the Prophets, through the life example and teachings of Israel*s Jewish Messiah.

1 John 2:6 The one who says he abides in God ought himself also walk just as Jesus walked.

1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

1 John 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

If you feel called by God, and have a desire to live for Him, then call on His Son, because it's through Christ that we get grafted in.

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Being cleansed of your sins, through the shed blood of Messiah, will put you on a whole new path in life. You will have a clean slate, and be a new creation with a new spirit, and new desires.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

If this is you, then go, and be a light for God to the Jews, and to the rest of the world, by living holy for God, as His chosen people.

1 Peter 1:14-16 So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy."

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Romans 9:24-26 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea: "I will call them my people, who are not my people; and I will call her my loved one who is not my loved one" and, In the very place where it was said to them, "You are not my people", there they will be called children of the living God."

A Jew, receiving their Messiah, should feel at home in any church because churches should be walking just like Israel's Jewish Messiah.

1 John 2:6 The one who says he abides in God ought himself also walk just as Jesus walked.