One For Israel

Dr. Erez Soref: It was olive trees like these here in the garden of Gethsemane that witnessed Yeshua's final hours. My people Israel are God's olive tree. We've endured centuries of crushing, exile, persecution, and pressing.

Guest (Female): It’s not easy to live in this country. We have all sorts of conflict with others and within us. But again, our identity is rooted in Christ.

Dr. Erez Soref: Why? Because God chose Israel not for our sake alone, but for the world to know the God of Israel. I am Dr. Erez Soref. I was born and raised in the heart of Israel. But I never heard the gospel message until on a journey abroad, my eyes were opened to the Jewish Messiah.

From that point, my life has been dedicated to bringing this gospel back to my people Israel, equipping them to reach Israel and the world. Together as Jews and Gentiles, we are one in Messiah, one for Israel.

We've seen that God chose a covenant with my people and with this land. He uses Israel to showcase his love and faithfulness to the world. But now let's look at my people today. It may shock you, but in the place where the Bible was written, you cannot find a Hebrew New Testament in any local bookstore.

Over 99% of Israelis do not follow the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. Early in the book of Acts, it was scandalous to think a Gentile could follow this Jewish Messiah. Today's scandal in Israel is, can a Jew really believe in Jesus?

We're seeing an awakening in Israel today, but through history, it's been mostly non-Jews who believed. This is no surprise to God. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be rejected by his people. In a way, his rejection by his own people, just like the rejection faced by Moses, David, and Joseph, actually proves that he is the Jewish Messiah.

But does that mean that God has rejected Israel, that they are no longer his chosen? Let me spoil the answer for you. No. In Romans chapter 11, Paul is crystal clear: by no means has God rejected Israel.

Again, Israel's rejection of the Messiah wasn't a surprise to God. He initiated this awakening in Israel through a Jewish movement fully knowing it would be rejected, first by the religious leaders, then by the majority of our people. Isaiah 53 prophesied exactly this scenario.

To unravel the paradox, we need to understand the wisdom of God, that his invitation of faith was always open to all who would hear. Look at the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt in Exodus. Scripture records Egyptians and others coming out with the Hebrews.

Look at Rahab, Ruth, and Naaman, just to name a few, who were all Gentiles invited into the covenant of faith. With almost every command given in the Torah, God provides a way for the stranger to join in. God has chosen Israel as his priesthood to serve the nations, helping them discover him and his love.

The priesthood role remained in the new covenant as the twelve disciples were given the task of making disciples of all nations. The High Priest is our Messiah Yeshua, who the book of Hebrews calls our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

He chose Israel as a display to showcase his love and covenant, that the world would see, come to him, and be grafted into the family tree of faith. Throughout scripture, the prophets describe Israel's history as cycles of falling away and faithful return.

Isaiah used agricultural imagery to capture this pattern like an olive tree after harvest. Isaiah declared, "The glory of Jacob will fade, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches. In that day, people will look to their maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel."

Many Israelites would turn away from God and lose his protection, facing exile or oppression. But always a remnant survived, faithful people who remained true to God, like those final olives clinging to the highest branches. Yeshua warned that the same pattern would affect his followers.

"Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." This is why he urged his disciples to remain in him, to be part of the faithful remnant that endures.

The prophets saw Israel as an olive tree that would be stripped and beaten, yet a remnant would survive. From that remnant, Isaiah prophesied would come a branch. "A shoot would come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots, a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him. He will raise the banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel." When Isaiah spoke of "The Branch," he was prophesying about the Messiah.

Remarkably, Yeshua grew up in Nazareth, a name derived from the Hebrew word for branch. As God's chosen branch from God's chosen tree, Yeshua would accomplish what the rest of Israel could not. He would bear fruit for all nations, suffer for the world's sins, and bring the blessing that Israel was called to give.

Yeshua became the embodiment of Israel's calling. He was the one chosen to represent Israel, just as Israel was chosen to bless the world. He was literally one for Israel. God's plan with Israel has always been to include the nations in Israel's blessings.

To see this pattern better, let's look in the book of Ruth in the Hebrew scriptures. Ruth was a Moabite woman who found herself in an impossible situation. When her husband died, she chose to follow her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel, declaring, "Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God."

But here was Ruth's dilemma: she wanted to worship the God of Israel and be part of his people, but the law explicitly stated, "No Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation." She was permanently excluded, a foreigner surviving by gathering leftover grain in the corners of fields.

Then Ruth met Boaz, a relative of her late husband. He showed her kindness, protected her, and invited her to eat with him—remarkable favor for a Gentile woman. One evening, Ruth approached Boaz at the threshing floor and made a bold request: "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman redeemer of our family."

This was marriage language. Ruth was asking Boaz to cover her, to take her as his wife. It was audacious, a foreign woman from an enemy nation approaching a respected Israelite man. The prohibition of marrying a Moabite wasn't lost in the narrative here.

Boaz, a man of faith and honor, knew God's word very well, but most importantly, he seemed to know the heart of God. He saw Ruth and her desire to come not under his wing, but under the wing of the God of Israel.

He saw a woman who valued the covenant enough to take the risk of rejection and poverty in a land she didn't know. Think about it. Naomi's sons and husband had died penniless in a foreign land. We sometimes think that we need to have a powerful testimony, that we need to show that we've got it all together.

Naomi was in pieces, her family all dead. Their pursuit of fortune and survival in Moab only led to death and poverty. But Ruth found in Naomi something beyond prosperity, beyond the external. She found the God of Israel.

In her pursuit of faith, Ruth experienced something profound. Where the law created exclusion, it also provided redemption. The Torah barred Moabites from Israel, but the Torah also required that the name of the deceased be carried on, that the widows be redeemed by a relative.

Boaz was that relative. Through marriage, he could legally bring Ruth into the covenant people. So Boaz redeemed Ruth, marrying her and grafting this Gentile woman into Israel. And through their union came the line of King David, and ultimately Yeshua.

Yeshua is your Boaz, your redeemer. Just as Boaz spread his garment over Ruth, Yeshua has spread his covering over you. Remember the woman with the issue of blood who touched the corner of his garment?

She was ritually unclean, yet when she reached out in faith, his purity didn't become contaminated; instead, his purity transferred to her. His healing made her whole. This is exactly what Yeshua does for all of us today.

He doesn't simply declare you clean while leaving you unchanged. He actually transforms you, making you part of his people. He spreads his garment over you through covenant relationship. As Gentile believers, you have not replaced Israel. You've been invited to join the house of Israel.

In recent years, many believers have taken that invitation seriously and come together to serve my people when the world is growing with hatred against us, and some have even paid the ultimate price to stand with Israel.

Guest (Female): It was incredibly hard for us to know that some of our grandchildren were in the heart of the Gaza Strip fighting. Both of them, so everything that happened there...

Guest (Male): Listen, there are a lot of booms right now. Since October 10, 2023, we've been in the bomb shelter.

Guest (Male): The residents, including those who live here, don't have the opportunity to leave. And somehow I couldn't reconcile it with my conscience to say I'm going home now and leaving them in this situation here alone.

Guest (Male): This place is an assisted living facility for Holocaust survivors. Here Christian Germans host Jews free of charge.

Guest (Female): I was scared, and I think I still am when the alarm is on. God just gave me such a big peace into my heart that it's the right decision to come. We're at zero range, meaning as soon as there is a siren, rockets could already be hitting on the ground. The idea that someone could come and do something purely out of love, it's unheard of.

Guest (Male): Our dear Uriah was the fourth of five children. He faced everything difficult without complaining. And that's it. He was this cute little boy, so childlike. He just loved kids. He liked being with people, but not too much. But to hang with two or three friends, immediately.

At some point, he told me, "That's it, now I'm operative." He went straight to the front lines. Then they entered the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Khan Yunis, and that's where he was injured. Also, he was injured just him, a single bullet.

Guest (Female): A lot of people have already forgotten what happened on the 7th of October. History is repeating itself and nobody is getting it. But this time, it's even worse because we still have people who experienced that.

It makes me angry, not only sad, what the world is seeing in Israel and what they are mixing up, the facts. And I'm thankful to be here and to see the truth and what is really going on and to see this unity of Israel and to be part of it.

Guest (Male): I feel very sorry for people in the world who don't know the history, don't understand anything about the country or the people, yet still go to demonstrations and shout. It does not find favor in my eyes.

We respect others. We don't hate Arabs, not the Syrians nor the Lebanese nor anyone else. We want to live in peace and tranquility with everyone. For 100 years, there have been wars, and it's time to put an end to this.

Guest (Male): If God ever judges the world, after the 7th of October, no one will have any excuses. Every person had videos of Hamas on their cell phones showing what they did. There is no question of direction, understanding, or anything else. This is a very clear matter. I think that since the 7th of October, for every believing Christian in the world, neutrality is no longer an option.

Dr. Erez Soref: The story of Ruth reveals God's heart. He uses redemption and covenant relationship to bring outsiders into his family. What was impossible under the law became possible through a redeemer who was willing to pay the price.

This reveals something profound. This wasn't just about including one outsider. This was about God's eternal pattern. Ruth received a wedding invitation, and so have you. We offer a devotional that will help you experience your identity as part of the family in Messiah, abiding with him.

Get your copy and continue your journey going deeper in his love. What God accomplished in bringing Gentiles into his covenant is nothing short of miraculous. In Yeshua's time, the Greco-Roman world was quite happy with their complex religious system.

Multiple gods, adopted deities from conquered nations, even a statue to the unknown God, just in case they missed one. To Romans, Jews were actually considered atheists because they worshipped only one God. Some Gentiles did respect the God of Israel, and Jewish teachers occasionally traveled to make converts.

But as Yeshua observed, their efforts often produced people twice as bad as they were before. They were seeking to make transformation from the outside in. God's way was to start from the heart, not external actions for transformation.

Then something shifted after Yeshua's resurrection. The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, empowering them to be witnesses, as Yeshua said, to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And later, when Peter followed God's call to the home of Cornelius in Caesarea, the spirit began to fall on the Gentiles.

The gospel began spreading to every nation. This event of Peter first sharing the gospel with Gentiles created no small controversy in Jerusalem. Paul described this phenomenon using an agricultural metaphor: wild olive branches being grafted into a cultivated olive tree.

Naturally, this is not fruitful. Wild branches can't successfully graft onto cultivated trees. Yet spiritually, this miracle happened and continues today. God was making clear that this work of unity in faith, Jews and Gentiles, is not something we can do in our strength, but a work of the Holy Spirit.

The evidence surrounds us. Hebrew scriptures have reached every corner of the globe in every language. People from every nation call upon Israel's God. As the prophet said, the earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Through Messiah, God has taken two distinct people, Jews and Gentiles, and created one new humanity. Paul explained it this way: "You were excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people." We have a special guest, Dr. Dina Awad.

She will talk with us about the impact and miracle of Gentiles being grafted into Israel's promises and how those roots can bring healing to our region today. Hi, Dina. Thank you so much for coming to talk to me today.

Your family has a very unique place in the Israeli church because you are leading one of probably the largest congregations in the country.

Dr. Dina Awad: Yes, we are one of the largest congregations here in Israel today. Our congregation is in Haifa, and we have about 400 to 450 members, which is sort of a mega-church in Israel.

Dr. Erez Soref: I think you're the only ones with two services, right? Phenomenal.

Dr. Dina Awad: Yes, we have two services every week. Our congregation started with a handful of Holocaust survivors, and it's amazing to see how much it's grown today.

And today we have Jews, we have Arabs, and we have people from all different backgrounds in our congregation. It's such a blessing to come all together and serve the same God, the God of Israel, in this land.

Dr. Erez Soref: Amen. Particularly at a time like this where we're experiencing, I mean, there's always some sort of conflict in Israel and the region, but the last two years have been particularly intense. How's it been in the congregation?

Dr. Dina Awad: I must say that I have not felt any tension in our congregation. Each one of us has different identities, backgrounds, different cultures, men, and women.

I think the main identity of all of us is our identity in Christ, and that unites us more than it separates us. For me, it's been a big blessing to come together even during the war, and we can pray for our soldiers, we can pray for our country, we pray for our leaders, for our enemies, for people in Gaza, for people in the countries around us and in Iran.

It's just amazing to see that everyone is united with this heart of blessing and knowing that we received the grace of God. That's what this world needs, and this is what our country also needs.

Dr. Erez Soref: Amen. So Dina, thank you so much for taking the time. It's been a real pleasure and real encouraging. Thank you so much.

Dr. Dina Awad: Thank you.

Dr. Erez Soref: But a critical question remains. Most Jewish people today have not accepted Yeshua as Messiah. Since he is the only way of salvation, what about Israel's future? Paul wrestled with the same agonizing question in Romans 11.

Did God reject his people? Did they stumble beyond recovery? His answer was an emphatic absolutely not. God hasn't replaced the olive tree of Israel with a new tree. He sees a glorious future for the Jewish people.

He said that even if branches have been cut off from the Messiah, God can and will easily graft them back in. Paul said, "If their transgression means riches for the world, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring? If their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?"

He reminded Gentiles, "You do not support the root, but the root supports you." And he declared with confidence: "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved."

Don't mistake Israel's current rejection of Yeshua as God rejecting Israel. Paul is emphatic: they remain loved because of God's covenant with the patriarchs. All Israel will be saved, and their acceptance of Messiah will be like life from the dead, as miraculous as resurrection itself.

There has always been a remnant of Jewish followers of Yeshua. Our Messiah warned us that the way was narrow. But even in Elijah's day, when the prophet lost all hope, God reminded him that there was a remnant in Israel that hadn't bowed their knee to Baal.

The unbelief of the majority of my people is temporary. God will keep his promises. All Israel will be saved, and those of us who believe in Yeshua are committed to being part of that salvation plan. For centuries, most believers in Yeshua have been Gentiles, which makes sense mathematically.

There are simply more Gentiles than Jews in the world. But Israel's current rejection of Yeshua doesn't mean God rejecting Israel. Paul's warning in Romans is clear: do not become arrogant. As Gentiles, you have been grafted into Israel's olive tree, not the other way around.

Remember, even Israel couldn't fulfill its calling without Yeshua, the true branch. The bottom line is this: all have sinned and fall short of God's glory, Jew and Gentile alike. We all need Yeshua, and we all need each other.

Here's the beautiful truth: God chose Israel so he could include you. And in including you, he will faithfully redeem Israel. Think about God's pattern with Ruth. He brought her into Israel through death, marriage, and redemption.

Through Ruth came King David, who united and brought salvation to Israel. God is doing the same thing today. As Gentile believers, you are Ruth's people, brought in, married to the Messiah, and redeemed. And through you, God will bring salvation back to Israel.

But how will this happen? Paul reveals God's surprising strategy, something we don't usually consider healthy in our relationships: jealousy. Next time, we'll explore how jealousy has always had a part to play in God's choosing and covenant, how he will ultimately use jealousy to fulfill his end-time purposes for both Israel and you as we continue to ask the question: Why Israel?