Before we discuss these two passages, let’s make sure we all know what I am talking about.
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First, in Exodus God is talking to Moses just before giving him the 10 Commandments, and he states that if the Israelites will obey all God’s laws they will his treasure from among all the peoples, and more than that (Exodus 19:6 CJB):
“…and you will be a kingdom of cohanim for me, a nation set apart.’ These
are the words you are to speak to the people of Isra’el.”
What we have here is God telling Moses that even though the Levites are the only tribe to be cohanim to the Israelites, all of Israel is to be God’s priests to the rest of the world.
This is why the Jews are God’s Chosen people- they are chosen to be his priests to the world.
How do I know they are to be priests to the world? Simple: what does a priest do? The priest leads the people in the proper worship of God and teaches them about God, which (of course) includes God’s instructions for worshiping him and treating each other. The priest serves as an example to the congregation of how God wants us to live.
Because the Levites are priests to the Jews, and all the Jews are God’s priests, the only ones the Jews can be priests to are the Goyim, the Nations…in other words, the rest of the world.
Now we come to Acts 10, which is the narrative about how Kefa (Peter) has a vision on the roof; in that vision, God has unclean animals dropped from the sky and tells Kefa to eat. Kefa refuses to eat, and God says to not call unclean that which he makes clean. This happens 3 times. After the third time, Kefa awakes and the Bible tells us he was wondering what that dream was all about.
Just at that moment, three visitors come to the door and ask to see Kefa. The men are Romans who work for Cornelius, a commander of the Roman army who is also (and most likely, secretly) a convert to Judaism. Cornelius also had a dream, a vision where he is told to seek out Kefa, and the three visitors tell Kefa about that vision. Kefa realizes that his vision is associated with the vision Cornelius had and thereby agrees to go with them.
Let’s stop for a moment to make sure we all understand one very important issue: a Roman was an unclean person, and their houses were not to be entered because they also were unclean, being furnished with many idols of the Roman gods. For Kefa to enter one of these homes was to become unclean, himself.
Where were we? Oh, yeah- Kefa is going to see Cornelius.
So, Kefa enters the home and tells them about Yeshua. The entire household believes, and they are all baptized then and there, and as they are baptized they receive the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit.
Kefa is amazed! He is seeing unclean people receive God’s spirit in the name of Yeshua, thereby making them clean in God’s eyes. Now Kefa understands what his vision was about: it had nothing to do with animals or the laws of Kashrut (Kosher), which is the traditional Christian teaching, i.e. that this vision means the kosher laws are no longer valid.
Absolutely not! It all has to do with God’s promise to Abraham way back in Genesis 22:18.
God promised Abraham that his descendants will be a blessing to the world, and through the descendants of Abraham, we received the Messiah, Yeshua, whose sacrifice became the only way for Jews to be forgiven of their sins, especially after the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
God’s spirit had always been given exclusively to Jews, but now Kefa sees that the unclean Romans can also be forgiven through acceptance of Yeshua as their Messiah, cleansing them of their sins and allowing them to also receive the Holy Spirit!
What is happening here is the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation for the entire world! As Shaul (Paul) said in Romans 1:16, salvation is to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles.
God promised Abraham his descendants would be a blessing to the world, and after God made those descendants priests to the world, through their High Priest, the Cohen HaGadol of the Jews, Yeshua, the greatest blessing anyone could ever receive was made possible: the blessing of being forgiven of sin and to live in God’s presence for all eternity.
And that’s the 1-2-3 of Salvation:
- Abraham’s descendants (the Jewish people) will be a blessing to the world;
- The Jewish people will be God’s Chosen people, chosen to be his nation of priests to the world, bringing the Torah to them; and
- The High Priest of the Jewish people, Yeshua ha Maschiach, is the means for the Goyim to receive the ultimate blessing that had previously only been available to the Jews, which is forgiveness, receipt of the Holy Spirit, and to be in God’s presence throughout eternity!
That’s how it all fits together.
So, if you are Jewish but haven’t accepted that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised, then unless the third Temple is built before you die you are in trouble.
If you are Christian and believe Yeshua (or as you probably know him, Jesus) is the Messiah, but you go along with the traditional Christian teaching that Jesus did away with the laws God gave in the Torah, then you are rejecting what Yeshua taught, and I believe you will be in as much hot water as the Jewish person who rejects Yeshua.
The plan is simple, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the way it all fits together, so unless you accept Yeshua as the Messiah God promised to send AND obey God’s instructions in the Torah (as Yeshua taught us to do), you may think you are on the path to salvation, but I think you will be sorely disappointed when you come to the end of that road.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, as well as “Like” my Facebook page and join my discussion group, Just God’s Word. I would greatly appreciate it if you would also share these messages with everyone you know, and please buy my books. If you like what you get here, you will love my books.
One last thing which I need to start mentioning more often: make sure that what I am telling you is biblically verified. If you just read what people write, or listen to what you are told without making the effort to check it out for yourself in the Bible, you are being very foolish.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
