Deuteronomy 26:19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.
Yeshua said that anyone who failed to keep Torah and taught others to do likewise would be called the lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven. I have actually seen people argue that, because he also said that the last will be first and the first will be last, then this means that those who teach that the Law has been abolished will in reality be the greatest in Heaven.
Wow. Self-serving rationalization at its finest.
Yeshua did say that the last will be first and the first will be last, but one can clearly see his intended meaning from the context: He who surrenders earthly status in order to serve God will have great status in Heaven. (See Mark 10:17-31.)
Do you want to be great in God’s eyes? To be called great in Heaven? Then be a servant here on earth. How does one serve on earth? By obeying God’s commandments. As Yeshua said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
These are God’s commandments as expressed in the Torah and the Prophets:
Leviticus 19:17-19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. (18) Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. (19) Ye shall keep my statutes…
Zechariah 8:17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour…for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.
Matthew 22:35-40 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, (36) Master, which is the great commandment in the law? (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (40) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
What of The NEW Covenant, and The New Covenant “Jew”(Believer)?
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Jer 31:31-37 “Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE TIME THAT I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO BRING THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT FOR THEY BROKE THAT COVENANT, although I was an husband unto them, says YHWH: (Thankfully no longer natural “fathers” but YHWH, “Our Father” in “the NEWness of The Spirit not the letter”)
But this shall be the NEW covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says YHWH, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts(not in stone, but in their heart consciousness); and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be MY people. (“Come Out of her, MY people”! Come out of this world and it’s systems of religion)
And every man shall no longer teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know YHWH”, for they shall all know ME, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says YHWH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Thus says YHWH, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; YHWH of hosts is HIS name:
If those ordinances depart from before ME, says YHWH, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before ME for ever.
Thus says YHWH; If Heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says YHWH.”
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The NEW Covenant established The Truth that, “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, whose circumcision is that of the flesh, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart” as he was immersed in, of, by and through The Holy, Set Apart Spirit that is of The Only True G-D, Father(Creator) of ALL. And all gentile NEW Covenant Believers are “grafted into The Good olive tree”, they are of The NEW Covenant Jews…….
And The NEW Spiritual Israel?
“A Holy nation”…….
“A nation of kings and priests” indeed and Truth, and all New Covenant Believers are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” whose “citizenship (Life) is in Heaven”.
They are not of this wicked, evil world and it’s systems of religion because they have taken heed unto The Call of The Only True G-D, Father (Creator) of ALL to “Come out of her, MY people”…….
The NEW Covenant Believers have taken heed unto The Call to “Come Out” are have “set their affections on things above, Heavenly things” and no longer are of those “whose god is their bellies, and whose glory is in their shame, because they mind earthly things”, they are no longer of those who “love this world and their own life in, and of it”…..
There is no “new spiritual israel.” The new covenant was promised to Israel and Judah and anyone who wants to take part in that covenant must be grafted into the nation of Israel. Like the people who came out of Egypt, the nation of Israel is made up of natural born Israelites (including, but not limited to, Jews) as well as adopted sons from the nations.
According to Jeremiah, the important difference between the old and new covenants is in the medium on which the law is written, not the content of the law. In the new covenant, God’s Torah is to be written on our hearts and not on stone.
According to Paul, Israel is still God’s people, gentile believers are joined to the root of Israel (and not the other way around!), and the Law has not been made void.
Seems you didn’t read, or most comprehend what i had bore witness too.
Thing is the natural earthly nation of israel today is of ‘d’evil spirit that is “the god of this world”, he who is “the father of lies”…….
“THY Kingdom” HAS “COME” indeed and Truth…….
I read it. I disagreed with it.
Your choice ;-(
Does the sun still give light by day? The moon and stars light by night? Can the heavens be measured or the earth’s core explored?
Then neither have the seed of Israel been rejected. As Paul pointed out, gentile believers in Yeshua are grafted into the tree of Israel, not the other way around.
Certainly, many branches of the original tree have been cut off. (Though they can be easily restored.) Many other branches have not. This is because it has always been true that, “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, whose circumcision is that of the flesh, he is a Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart”. Paul’s words were not a new revelation, merely a summary of one of the central messages of the Torah and the Prophets and of the greatest command: Love YHWH with all your being.
What is a Yehudi but one who praises God? Yehudim who do not acknowledge their God and his role as their only savior will be rejected for that failure, as revealed in the Torah. Again, this is not a new revelation or a unique feature of the new covenant. It is a fact common to all relationships with the Creator.
This does not mean that the nation of Israel has been rejected. On the contrary, God repeatedly promised that such would never happen!
(By “nation of Israel” I do not mean the political entity consisting of the Knesset, prime minister, etc. I mean the people of Israel. A nation does not consist of its governors, ideology, or political forms. It is a people.)