THE NEW TESTAMENT AND RACE
Australia
Some people have thought and even said, that in the New Testament all disinction of Race is done away. That with the closing of the Old Testament all people were made and regarded by God as absolutely on one common level. That no privilege , no advantage from that moment was accorded to any nation above another.
That is a very sweeping assertion, and if true would seriously affect us today.
But what did our Lord say? Does He give us any guidance? He said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”(Matthew 15:24).
How will such people explain that? And Weymouth’s translation is even more pronounced. “I have no commission except to the lost sheep of the house of IsraeL”
” No commission”? How very strange!
And how will such people explain His words to the Syrophenician woman?
“It is not meet (right) to take the children’s bread, and to cast (it) to dogs?” (Matthew 15:26).
“Children”! “Dogs”! Here is a terrible distinction!
Both these vital statements were uttered voluntarily by our Lord. There was no necessity to utter them except to declare a truth!
Further, what about those other words equally distinctive and equally forcible which our Lord commanded His disciples at the very outset of their mission work?
Words which are neglected and over-looked today: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into (any) city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go, rather, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6).
And again Weymouth is more pronounced “Go not, He said, among the heathen, and enter no Samaritan town; but, instead of that, go to the lost sheep of Israel’s race.”
These words are absolutely amazing from the lips of our Lord; but ought not to be if we have carefully read Ezekiel Chapter 34. The figure of Israel as “The lost sheep” is taken from that wonderful chapter.
Here are a few extracts from it:
Verse 2. “Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe (be) to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?”
Verse 6. “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, …and none did search or seek after them).”
Verse 10. “Behold I (am) against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand.”
Verses 11 and 12. “Behold, I, (even) I, will both search my Sheep, and seek them out…..so will I seek out My Sheep, and will deliver them.”
Who are these sheep? Anybody, Everybody? That cannot be; for then would they need no seeking out. For Verse 13 says:
“And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.”
Verse 16. “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away.”
And Verse 30 gives their name. “Thus shall they know that I, the Lord their God, (am) with them, and (that) they (even) the house of Israel, (are) my people, saith the Lord God”
There we have proved conclusively that God’s sheep are“The House of Israel.”
We may not like this, we may even rebel against it, but it is there proved beyond dispute, and we should be wise to believe what God says.
Now we may know what Christ our Lord meant when He said “Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
In Ezekiel 34 God owns His sheep and says that He will go after them and seek them out. And in Jesus Christ, He is shown doing it.. For in Matthew 15:24 Our Lord Himself declares implicitly that that was why He was sent “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It fu1ther explains why in Matthew 10:5-6; Christ gave a similar command to His disciples:
” Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.“
There we have God fulfilling to Israel the promise and prediction of Ezekiel 34.
These sayings of our Lord could not refer to the Jews, for in this connection Christ our Lord distinctly said, that the Jews were not His sheep, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” (John 10:26).
Who then were His sheep in Palestine in His days if the Jews were not?
Please remember that Benjamin who belonged to Israel was here, and domiciled in Galilee. This is how it came to pass that Galileans received Him; but He could not walk in Jewry, for they sought to kill Him .
Here also is the reason why all the twelve disciples except Judas were of Galilee. “Are not all these who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7). There also is the reason why when our Lord ascended to heaven after His resurrection, the group of assembled disciples were addressed by the angels as “Ye men of Galilee”.
Further, why the epistle “to the Hebrews.” if all distinction of race is, done away?.
And why does St. James address his epistle to the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad? And why is St. Peter’s first epistle addressed to the strangers scattered throughout Fontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Bithynia?
Sufficient attention has not been paid to those words of our Lord in Matthew 5:17 which declare absolutely and without cavil that the law and the prophets remain unaltered; and if so Israel’s position and predictions are also unaltered.
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets (that is exactly what our teachers suggest He has done); I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
Ought we not then to pause before putting ourselves into opposition to our Lord?
Courtesy: Covenant Message
