By Claudia Koenig
Since my first visit to Israel, I have met many born-again Gentile Christians who cannot be distinguished from Jews. They become look-a-like Jews. Women dress according to Jewish customs and cover their heads. Men grow long beards and wear a tzitzit and talit. Some begin to attend synagogues and mix Jewish rituals with their Christian beliefs. They are now receiving the law of Moses, rejecting the freedom in Jesus Christ. They have left their first Teacher and Counselor, Jesus—the Son of God, who is the wisdom of God—and have looked to the wisdom of a Jewish Rabbi, a man.
I often wonder, how can the spiritually lost Jews see their Messiah, the Light of the World, in the Gentile Christians who want to be Jews? The Jews look upon these Gentiles and wonder what their Christian beliefs could not do for them that they would look to the Jewish religion and customs.
How can one share the true living Son of God, the Messiah, to the Jews in Israel amid such confusion? Where is the authenticity of the knowing and having an intimate relationship with the Messiah by the power of the Holy Spirit, that would lead the Jews to jealousy through conviction of sin and that would plead for repentance to know their Messiah of whom they witnessed living inside the born-again Gentile heart?
“Abba, Father, You sent the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected Yeshua. Restore the Gentiles who now live in and visit Israel, and Your people, to their first love, Your Messiah. Cause the Gentiles to once again embrace the Light, Yeshua, so that in the midst of the Israeli Jews, they may bear witness of the Messiah, who pursues after their souls, so that the Jews may believe in Yeshua and have eternal life. In the Name of the Son of God, Holy Spirit, in Your power, bring down from heaven the light of the nations, Jesus, into the heart of the Gentile that the Jew may see Yeshua and bring into the Jews the glory of Israel, Yeshua, that the Gentiles may see Jesus. Cause the world to know that God has a Son who has created one new people, the Gentile and the Jew in Himself, the light and glory of the God of Israel.
“Abba, do the Gentiles not know that the Jews are crying out to know their Messiah and that when the Gentile believers follow the law of Moses, they are denying the power of salvation in Christ to the Jews? Abba, cause them to return to their first love, Yeshua. He is soon to return, and Your people, the Jews, need the Gentiles to bear witness that Yeshua is their Messiah! Abba, they say that the Jews have veils over their eyes, but Your Word says that when a Jew believes in Yeshua, the veil is removed!”
Act 13:46 (NLT): Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.”
1 Corinthians 1:24: But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 John 2:27: But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
Luke 2:32: “He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel.”
Ephesians 2:14: For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
2 Corinthians 3:14: But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.