How odd of God...

British journalist W.N. Ewer wrote: “How odd of God to choose the Jews” and in response are the words: “But not as odd as those who choose a Jewish God and hate the Jew.”

Christian antisemitism is confounding. It is a terrible self-harm on the part of the church. In Genesis 12 the Lord chose Abraham and cut a covenant with him (Gen. 15) so that “through your offspring all the nations on earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 22:18) What does God’s intended blessing to the nations via the Jewish people look like? It looks like the days of the early church!

When we read Acts 2 we see the birth of the church at Pentecost. The church was exclusively Jewish. But the Great Commission, which was given to a Jewish group of followers, was for the gospel to go out to the whole world. We know from the narrative in Acts that the gospel got stuck in Jerusalem and Judea. So God gave the apostle Peter a dream in Acts 11 where he was told to eat unclean animals lowered down in a sheet from heaven. The point was not that bacon sandwiches taste great (even though they do!) but that the Good News was for everyone – Jew and gentile alike. After the dream Peter had a knock on his door and left to visit to the house of Cornelius … and many gentiles were added to the faith that day!

Biblical missiology must include Jewish evangelism. God has created a symbiotic relationship between Jew and gentile. Jewish people were specifically created by God to bring his light to the nations and the gentile church was created by God to provoke Israel to jealousy (Rom. 10:19). So, it is a terrible self-harm by the church when it neglects, ignores, or downright will not participate in the facilitation of and participation in Jewish evangelism. God has ordained that it is Jewish believers in Jesus who will lead gentiles to faith in Jesus, and vice versa.

I see a lot of Christians who will criticise the Jewish people and the nation of Israel for behaviour which is unbiblical, even “unChristian”, apparently without understanding that if a person is not born again, no matter if they are a gentile or a Jew, they will not have the ability to think or act in a way that honours and obeys God’s word. I see Christians get frustrated with Jewish behaviour and so write off Jewish people. This is not what Christ commanded us to do.

Using the same measure, would the church cancel mission to criminals or other undesirables in society? Will the church cancel gospel mission to Russia because of the war in Ukraine? The gospel is the primary response Christians should have to these challenges both local and global.

Furthermore, how can the people who were created to bring God’s light to the world do so if they do not yet possess His light? Surely, we as the church must honour our God-given responsibility to bring His light back to the people who first gave it to us. When we do so, this is when we will see the gospel spread like a wildfire through the nations. Surely this is what Paul is referencing when he speaks of “life from the dead” in Romans 11:15.

It is time for the church to understand and act on the call of God to prioritise the evangelisation of Jewish people for the benefit of the whole world. And most certainly, the last thing we should be doing is “punishing” Jewish people by withholding the only One who can save them because we have a “thing” for them – whether that thing be a problem with them because we dislike them too much, or whether that thing be that we love them so much that we do not want to offend them with the gospel.

Yes, how odd of God to choose the Jews – but odder still he chose you too!

We must not limit Christ’s mission only to the people we like; we must go to those whom God has commanded us to go. As a church let’s do better. I pray we will repent and do our part to make sure Jewish people, like all people, hear the Good News of Jesus.