As we approach the end times, we approach that moment in history wherein God has promised his chosen people, the Jews, that the Messiah will come and restore the Kingdom. Focus first on God’s word. He repeatedly teaches how important the Jew is in His eyes and how He has chosen to intervene in the affairs of the nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6-9 (NKJ)
6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
7 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
8 “but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;Exodus 19:5-6 (NKJ)
5 ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”Deuteronomy 14:2 (NKJ)
2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 28:9 (NKJ)
9 The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
Psalm 33:12 (NKJ)
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
Psalm 105:6-10 (NKJ)
6 O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac,
10 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,Psalm 105:43-45 (NKJ)
43 He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.
44 He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor of the nations,
45 That they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise the LORD!Psalm 132:13-16 (NKJ)
13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place:
14 “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.Isaiah 41:8-10 (NKJ)
8 “But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend.
9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’Isaiah 43:1-5 (NKJ)
1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west;Jeremiah 2:3 (NKJ)
3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD.’ ”
Malachi 3:17 (NKJ)
17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”
There are many more references in the Scriptures that make the same point over and over again. God has chosen Israel as His special people, the firstfruits of His increase. Again, every non-Jew is a Gentile. I am a Gentile. One of the leaders of the Jews who persecuted Jesus Christ and all of His followers was Saul of Tarsus, a student of Gamaliel, the great Jewish teacher of the time. Saul’s heart was changed as God taught Him the truth regarding His Son. Saul became known as Paul. The Holy Spirit witnessed to his spirit and he, a Jew of renown, became God’s messenger to the Gentiles, after his Jewish counterparts rejected him. As a Jew, he knew that the Jews were God’s chosen people but he also knew, because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him, that the Gentiles too, were called to love, honor and obey God.
Listen carefully to Paul’s instruction to the Gentiles concerning their relationship to the Jews. Remember, you, a Jew, are the root and Paul was a Jew. We Gentiles are the branches, grafted in, by the Grace of God.
Romans 11:16-25 (NKJ)
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Read chapters 1-12 in the book of Romans. Your personal position with the Lord is “in process.” Until the moment that we die, we make choices. God’s forgiveness for our bad choices exceeds our understanding. We deserve retribution yet we are offered mercy instead. Israel, God truly has chosen you. Have you sought Him with all of your heart, mind, strength and soul? The Word is a treasure, full of instruction, love and wisdom and a gift directly from God.