Bible Study The Hope of Israel

[charlesj]

The "hope of Israel" is a dual text taken from the writings of Luke in Acts chapters 26 and 28. The time element is at the close of the Apostle Paul's career. We see Paul in the first text standing before king Agrippa urging the claims of Christ. In the second text Paul is in the presence of the chief Jews in Rome.
Let's hear the apostle of God as he speaks to us:

The first text:
Acts 26:6-7
6 "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers.7 "To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.

The second text:
Acts 28:16-20
16 Now when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
17 And it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them: "Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,
18 "who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death.19 "But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation.
20 "For this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain."

We learn several things in these two passages.
1. To king Agrippa Paul said the Jews had accused him in the courts because of what he preached on the hope of Israel.
2. To the chief Jews, Paul said that he was bound with the chain because
of what he preached on the hope of Israel.
Therefore, we can conclude -- Paul was NOT preaching what the Jews believed and wanted him to preach on Israel's hope.
What he preached antagonized the Jews! The hope of Israel was not what fleshly, national Israel was hoping for. They were hoping for an earthly Messiah. They were hoping for an earthly kingdom. They believed the Messiah would come to restore their kingdom and to rule and reign on the earth out of Jerusalem.
Paul preached "the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers . . . Their hope in Christ!
This antagonized the Jews and caused them to bitterly persecute Paul and had him chained in the Roman prison.
What do most preachers teach today on the "hope of Israel?" What these preachers preach today does not antagonize the Jews. As a matter of fact, it's what they've always wanted! They are preaching what the Jews want, that is, the restoration of their earthly nation. These preachers don't have to worry like Paul did, for the Jews will never put the modern day preacher in prison for what they preach. The apostle Paul should have met the twenty-first millennial preacher and they could have made life easier for Paul.

The effectiveness of these two passages in Acts is conclusive on two important points:
1. On the promise made of God unto the fathers, unto which the true Israel
hoped to come,
2. On the difference between the true hope of Israel and what Israel
falsely hoped for.

The hope of the promise was spiritual and was attained in Christ by the gospel. What the Jews hoped for was fleshly and national and was no part of the promise of God made to the fathers. The hope of Israel is not the "millennial" hope. The true hope of Israel, based upon the promise that God made to the fathers, was foreign to their Jewish expectation. It had to be explained to them in the light of the fulfilled promise according to the gospel.


Your servant in Messiah, Yahshua
charlesj

 

[MrVersatile48]

HOW EVENTS REFLECT SPIRITUAL DIMENSION

Hi again, Charles!

Do forgive my slowness & sleepiness today: from what I just read @ http://www.metro.co.uk Monday is the worst day of the week for many folk - & it didn't take into account that many folk, like me, have had many nights with very little sleep since the heatwave began

Did you include verses @ Christ, & specifically His return, being 'our blessed hope'? (Concordance @ http://www.BibleGateway.org )

The above paragraph was put in after my paste below


Anyway, this noisy library had also contributed to my total forgetting the OP topic, let alone what you said: I just know that, when I saw your headline, even before I read your post, I knew that this word from the http://www.crosswalk.com 'Religion Today' daily email, @ Israel's hope, belongs here:-

Featured Article

Ministry Head: Foiled Plot Reflects Ongoing Spiritual Battle
Allie Martin

The president of a ministry that works with Christians in the Middle East and other persecuted nations says the failed plot by terrorists to bring down passenger airplanes shows the true nature of the spiritual battle between Christianity and Islam.

According to an Associated Press report, officials say most of the suspects arrested in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners are believed to be British Muslims, at least some of Pakistani ancestry. Accounts leaked by investigators described a plan, just days away from being carried out, that would have used liquid explosives to bring down ten planes in a nearly simultaneous strike.

A federal law enforcement official in Washington says that at least one martyrdom tape was found during ongoing raids across England on Thursday. Such a tape, as well as the scheme to strike a range of targets at roughly the same time, is an earmark of al-Qaida. President Bush said the foiled plot is a reminder that America "is at war with Islamic fascists."

Officials with the Washington, DC-based Council of American-Islamic Relations are worried that such language used to described the suspects could spark a "religious war." The group takes issue with President Bush's statement that "his nation is at war with Islamic fascism," saying that it "contributes to a rising level of hostility to Islam and the American-Muslim community."

The group's executive director says Muslims do not link Christianity to fascists or terrorists, and he would like the same courtesy extended to Islam, which he calls a "religion of peace."

A Reason to Live vs. a Reason to Die
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, says the failed plan is evidence of the spiritual darkness in which Muslims exist. "In the war against terror," says Moeller, "we have to give Muslims a reason for living before they come to us with a reason for dying."

Moeller's group assists Christians living and serving in persecuted countries such as Pakistan, the country of origin for most of the terror suspects in the foiled plot. "These suicide bombers, these suicide terrorists, are laboring in a hopeless reality, without Christ, without hope of eternal life," he notes, "except -- in their belief -- if they martyr themselves for the cause of Islam.

The Open Doors president says the failed plot shows the importance of Christians living and working in Islamic nations to reach others with the gospel. "We have to reach out in Christ's love to witness to these people so they don't come to us with bombs," he says. "We can go to them with the weapon of love in Jesus Christ."

In the aftermath of the planned terror plot, Moeller is concerned that Christian missionaries in those nations are on the front lines in a war that has eternal consequences. "It is a spiritual battle that has real, physical results on the ground," he explains. "These days are extremely tense right now throughout the Middle East with Israel's and Lebanon's war going on."

And these latest developments, he says, certainly do not help matters. "[W]ith this terror plot unveiled about our transportation between the U.S. and the U.K., these things create increasing tension for our brothers and sisters on the ground in those countries.

"We need to pray for them," he says. "We need to pray that their witness remains strong."

Moeller expects persecution and tensions to increase in Muslim nations as more come to Christ throughout the region.

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Must go

God bless!

Ian