A Life in Exile

How easy it is to twist something written or said to one’s favor. This is evident in our political world, but it also happens in religious communities as well. While it’s true that Israel was to be a blessing to the nations, God knew they would fail in their task. Even with the guidelines of the Law of Moses, they quickly turned to the idols of neighboring nations, neglected their own Creator, and looked down on Gentiles.

As the centuries went by, the Jews increasingly interpreted the Scriptures to their advantage and failed to see the reality of Messianic prophecies. By the time of the Christ’s arrival, their blind eyes and hardened hearts led them to reject the Lamb of God.

Yet, they could not deny the change in his followers. Nor could they deny the miracles done in His Name in the days after his ascension.

Drawn by a leaping beggar.

Luke tells us the story in Acts 3, of how the healing of a man opened doors for the gospel. Peter and John had just healed a lame man near the temple, and his thrill at restoration led him to jump and leap and praise God. If anything will draw a crowd in a solemn place, that would do it, and the people ran toward the men in Solomon’s Colonnade. Peter, never shy to seize an opportunity, began to preach.

He immediately makes sure that they realize it was not in their own power that the man was healed but in that of Jesus Christ. And just in case they’d forgotten who Jesus Christ was, he tells them, it’s the Jesus…

whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.

Acts 3:13-15 CSB

Ouch, that must have stung. (Gotta love Peter).

Yet, he then quickly goes on to say he doesn’t really blame them because they acted in ignorance. Not sure that was really helpful, but that’s what he said. Their ignorance of who Christ was and their plan to kill him had been long ago predicted or prophesied, so it came as no surprise.

Called to repentance.

Peter tells them, that though they killed the Messiah in ignorance, God has now opened the door to redemption through that same Christ, if they would simply repent and believe. The man they killed is the man who can wipe out the same sin.

What comes as a result of that redemption? Seasons of refreshing. Even in these dark days of occupation by Rome, economic and religious oppression, those who come to Christ find refreshing, because they find hope. That hope is maintained until God brings the restoration of all things that the prophets also wrote about.

So, the prophets foretold the suffering of the Christ and also the final restoration he would ultimately bring on his return.

One more thing.

That’s not all that the prophets foretold, and it’s here that Luke goes to a passage all the way back in Genesis.

“You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring. God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

Acts 3:25-26

This reference to Genesis 18:18, is where the Israelites failed to see what God was telling them. The offspring of Abraham that would be a blessing to the nations or families of the earth, was not just Israel, in the sense that the Messiah would come through them, but it was the Messiah himself. He is the offspring, the seed, the sprout, the shoot, the Lion of Judah, the Son of David. It was all about Jesus, not Israel, and that’s where they’d messed up.

So, Peter sets them straight by quoting this verse and then saying that the servant God raised up, was not Israel, but Jesus. This is the Messiah who was sent to bless Israel first, by getting them to turn from their evil ways.

Yes, Israel could still be a blessing to the nations, but only in as much as they trusted and followed Christ Jesus. The blessing Israel was offered through Christ is the same that he offers us Gentiles, as we represent all families along with our Jewish brothers and sisters.

Ask the Lord to open opportunities for you to share the story of history so that others may know seasons of refreshing until the day when all is restored at Christ’s return.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Learning from the Past post, click HERE, or start the series from the BEGINNING.