Man sinned and God already had a plan of salvation even before the foundation of the world.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13:8
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1Peter 1:18-21
He would accomplish his plan of salvation through specific people and through a specific nation.
And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Genesis 22:15-18
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3
God's has blessed the whole of humanity through the nation of Israel and salvation has come to the whole world through the tiny nation of Israel: God's truth to the world has gone out to the nations through Israel's prophets and Jesus the Messiah was born in Bethlehem in Israel into a Jewish family to a Jewish girl. He taught in Israel and commanded his desciples to teach the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Since Adam sinned and sin passed onto humanity, God has been unfolding His plan of salvation to restore humanity to Himself. He has spoken to people directly and through His prophets so that his plan of salvation would be clear to all those that know Him.
Here is a geneology leading upto the nation of Israel.
Adam had a son called Seth. Seth had a son called Enos and Enos had a son called Cainan. Mahallaleel had a son called Jared and Jared had a son called Enoch.
And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Enoch was taken by God. This is also a picture of Jesus' ascension and a picture of the rapture when all believers will be taken into heaven to be with the Lord.
Methuselah had a son called Lamech and Lamech had a son called Noah.
Noah was chosen by God to build the ark that would protect him and his family during the flood. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japhet. The children of Israel are descendents of Noah's son Shem, hence the term Semites and anti-Semite.
Shem had a son called Arphaxad and Arphaxad had a son called Eber. Eber is the father of the Hebrews. Eber is Hebrew in English.
Eber had a son called Peleg, Peleg had a son called Reu, Reu had a son called Serug, Serug had a son called Nahor, Nahor had a son called Terah and Terah had a son called Abram who was called by God and later renamed Abraham.
Isaac had a son called Jacob. After Jacob struggled with the angel of God, he was renamed Israel.
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Genesis 32:24-30
Jacob, who was renamed Israel, had twelve sons who were the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel who would collectively be known as the people of Israel. These are the twelve sons of Jacob after which the twelve tribes of Israel are named:
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.
Genesis 35:22b-26
Before his death Jacob, who was also called Israel, called his twelve sons to bless them:
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
Genesis 49:1-2
The promise of kingship was to Judah, Jacobs fourth son.
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 49:8-10
Jesus is also called the lion of Judah because he is a descendant of Judah. King David was from the tribe of Judah. Jesus is also called the son of David. King David established his Kingdom with his capital in Jerusalem. Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem and Jerusalem has been the centre of Judaism for the last three thousand years. Notice the coat of arms of the city of Jerusalem.
After Solomon's death the tribal kingdom was divided. Israel consisted of ten tribes and remained settled in the north of the land. Judah and Benjamin remained in the south.
The Northern kingdom of Israel, which consisted of ten tribes, was attacked and scattered by the Assyrians in the year 722 B.C. and the Southern kingdom of Judah, which consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was attacked by the Babylonians in the year 586 B.C. The temple of Solomon was destroyed and the people were taken to Babylon into captivity.
When Ezra and Nehemiah were given permission by the King of Persia to rebuild the temple, and the exiles returned to Jerusalem, the land was called Judaea, after Judah and the people were called Jews. In Hebrew the tribe of Judah is Yehuda and a Jew is a Yehudi.
I repeat the last part of Genesis 49 verse 10:
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him (Judah) shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 49:10
The image and the promise of a Messiah is formed and given throughout the Hebrew bible. The Messiah was first promised to mankind as a saviour and then to Israel as redeemer and King.
Israel was the only nation who had intimacy with God. Israel is called the apple of God's eye and God's bride.
Jesus is Israel's Jewish Messiah who is also a light to the gentiles.
As the inscription on the plaque on his cross stated in Hebrew, Greek and Latin for the whole world to understand: Jesus the King of the Jews.
And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Luke 23:38
Endless scriptures in the Old and New Testament speak of God's eternal covenant with Israel.
As Isaiah prophesies in chapter 29:10-12 and Paul quotes in Romans 11:8, God has poured upon Israel and spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear and a heart that does not understand.
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
Isaiah 29:10-11
(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Romans 11:1-25
Jesus the Messiah, the Lamb of God, came to die for the sins of the world and his people, the Jews, were made unready to receive him so that salvation could go out to the Gentiles. Refer to "He came to die for our sins" April 2009
With the rejection of Jesus and the destruction of the temple the Jewish people were scattered to the four corners of the earth. They have suffered persecution and death in a hostile and anti-Semitic world that is indifferent to understanding neither their history nor their place in the Bible and in God's plan of salvation.
Nevertheless, the imminent fulfillment of God's promise to bring His people back to the land together with the prayer "Next year in Jerusalem" accompanied the Jewish people through almost two thousand years of hardship in exile.
The gradual fulfillment of this promise became undoubtedly evident in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel.
Throughout the years, there has always been a Jewish presence in the land; the return of the exiles began in the late 1800's; however, there has not been Jewish sovereignty in the land since the Maccabees in the 2ND century B.C.
When Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection, accompanied by two angels, the disciples watched in awe. The two angels responded to the disciples saying: Why do you marvel? Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives in the same way that He left.
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
Acts 1:9-12
The Lord's return to His land and His people was also prophesied by Zechariah: And His feet will descend on the mount of olives.
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Zechariah 14.4
Jesus will return to the land of Israel to save the Jewish people from their enimies. He will bring peace to the earth, set up his millenial Kingdom in Jerusalem and reign over the nations from there.
Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zechariah 14.3
The Jewish people have no dreams of conquest: they want to live in peace in the land that God promised them.
Those who are religious are waiting for the promised Messiah to come and deliver them from the hatred that surrounds them; those who believe in Jesus know that He is the promised Messiah and wait for His return on the clouds of heaven: He will brring peace and reign from Jerusalem.
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13,14
