The Church has given God a Gentile Identity

We have just spent a whole month in our friend’s home in Jerusalem. We were looking after their lovely little cat Ugi. Our friends from Jerusalem came back to the UK to visit their family. They were happy to let Karen and myself have their home and everything in it for the whole time they were in the UK. We had access to all of their home; their food, kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, garden and of course little Ugi. While Karen and I were in their home in Jerusalem we became very fond of little Ugi so much so that we were sad to leave him. We also made friends with their neighbours some of whom are very Godly people.

So why am I telling you this? Well, it came to me that there is a storyline in our experience that needs to be shared, a parallel that can be drawn from this and applied to the church and Israel. So if you will bear with me while I explain.

Imagine if you will, that Karen and I had decided in our love for Jerusalem and fondness for Ugi to take over their home. We staked a claim on the cat, the home, the furniture, all the equipment even trying to replace ourselves in the neighbour’s affections. We then told our friends that this was now our home, our furniture, all the equipment was ours plus the garden. We then told them you have nothing to do with this neighbourhood, Ugi is our cat, not yours you have been replaced. I’m sure you would all agree how despicable this would be. That an act of kindness and goodwill on their part would have been so treacherously rewarded.

Well is this not a similar situation between the church and Israel, has this not been the response of the church for decades? We in the church have taken the blessings of the Messiah of Israel, Jesus the Saviour, claimed exclusive rights to him and rejected his covenant people along with the Covenant promises made to them. Basically we have given God a gentile identity. Why do I say that? The church of Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, has been negligent for decades over her relationship with Israel. This is absolutely evident now that Israel is battling an existential threat from a deadly ideology that desires to remove the Jewish people from the planet. There are very few churches who uphold Israel and her covenant promises in prayer, or to comfort or in solidarity with God’s plans for her.

Therefore, we in the body of Christ need to abandon this identity theft and get back on track. This is the track that apostle Paul laid out for Gentiles in Romans 9/3:’For I could wish myself were a cursed from Christ for my brethren (Israel) my countrymen according to the flesh, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the COVENANTS, the law, the service of God, the PROMISES made to the fathers: Abraham Isaac and Jacob, from whom Messiah came in the flesh who is eternally blessed Amen’.’

So in conclusion Karen and I are more than grateful to our brother and sister in the Lord. For they have shared their home, their kitchen, their garden and their wonderful cat with us and we thank them and bless them. We also pray for our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ in all congregations that they will be grateful that they share in the covenant that brought them salvation as it promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Gordon Beattie, ICEJ UK Prayer Co-ordinator