Infos on Israel		Teaching Articles
	"New" Old Knowledge Birgit Barandica E., December 2008 In many aspects, we are living in exciting times nowadays! I remember certain prophecies in the nineties of the past century, in which it was said that God would be giving "new knowledge" now. Back then I did not understand what that meant. I thought it is all said in the Bible, He would not add to His own word, would He? No, He did not add! But in the meantime, I advanced a good bit on my own faith walk and realized things that are new indeed! Yet not 'new' in the sense of 'it had never existed before', but of 'I never have seen that aspect before!': things that have always been in the Bible and have been read so often yet somehow never been understood. And all of a sudden it is as if a veil had been removed from your eyes and familiar scriptures all of a sudden get a significance as if they were brand new. This is true for the personal faith walk of an individual person the same as for the development of the believers worldwide. And so it is my conviction that God is opening knowledges for us during our present times like it has never happened before! I think this pertains in particular to the fact that more and more Christians are discovering their Jewish roots in their faith these days, the same as more and more Jews are coming to know their Savior Yeshua Ha'Mashiach (Jesus, the Anointed One)! This has always been realized throughout history in one way or another, but the way it happens nowadays is unique in the world! The fact that God has amplified (not replaced) His people is being explained by Paul as follows, "As he says in Hosea: I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one, and, It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God'," (Romans 9:25-26, NIV. Paul is refering here to Hosea 2:25 and 2:1).	The Watchman International Ministry of Jakob Damkani Jews For Jesus TV-Streams, biblical teachings with Messianic theologian Jeffrey Seif, successor of Zola Levitt. Emphasis on Israel, prophecy and Jewish roots in our Christian faith. Hebrew for Christians a true treasure chest!

This is us - gentiles, non Jewish believers in Jesus with no Jewish ancestors either. Yet what was being misunderstood over so many centuries and which led to so many tragedies for the Jews, is the fact that it was so often thought that the Christians had replaced' the Jews as being God's chosen people...

Yet this is being disproved in many parts of the Bible. In chapter 11,17-18 Paul explains this to the Romans who were no Jews, by means of the cultivated olive tree: "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you."

In this example, the tree stands for God's chosen people - the original tree is still there!! We Gentiles, or heathen Christians, were originally grafted in as strangers and so the same nourishing sap floats through us now too, as it does with the original branches of the cultivated tree! Hence we are one - Jews and Gentiles, who believe in Yeshua Ha'Maschiach!

A root has to be strong, for it nourishes and carries the tree. In spite of all problems the Jewish people had and are having throughout all history, they are strong: they are the only people in all history that has never perished, like it happened to all other people (predominantly the ancient Romans, Greek and Egyptians) - for despite their disobedience and rebellion in several instances they have always held fast to the God of their forefathers Abraham, Jacob and Isaac and God to them.

If the Christians would have really replaced the Jews as God's chosen people, then we Christians would be a tree without roots. Yet without roots, no tree can stand for long. But this was being tried several times in our history - standing alone, without roots... Of course, it did not work! Just the contrary, the tree tilted over. This can be seen in many schisms and seperations among Christians (starting with the first synod of Constantinople in the year 381), in massive inner Christian persecutions (for example the inquisition) and in particular in the outragous persecutions of the Jewish people, the apple of God's eye. It began with the first massive persecution by emperor Nero, which led to the destruction of the second temple in the year 70 and the dispersion of the Jews into the whole world. Since then, there have been numerous pogroms which ultimately led to the horrifying Holocaust.

Returning to Paul's tree example: he applied particularly this example because the people back then knew their environment so well that they understood it perfectly well. Olive trees grew and still grow in all the Mediterranian area und everyone knew how to treat them. Bad branches were broken off so that they would not lower the quality of the tree as a whole.

Yet here, the natural tree example stopps and the spiritual one begins: the broken off branches stand for the non-believing Jews. Contrary to the natural trimming however, God does not look at those branches as 'bad'. In the natural, those branches would have been burned. But those spiritual broken off branches are not being 'burned'. Though they had to be taken out for the time being so that the tree could grow strong, yet they were kept 'elsewhere' and God will graft them in again eventually!

In the same manner God is treating the branches that He grafts in: in the natural nobody would graft wild branches into cultivated trees - they would lower the overall quality of the tree. Yet in God's supernatural realm it is different: God grafts the 'wild' branches into the cultivated tree, where they are being 'refined'! When time is ripe, He will graft the kept branches back in!

And Paul goes on saying, "And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!" (verses 23-24).

Here now we are coming back to the "new knowledge" mentioned above - in our present days more and more Jews recognize Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha'Mashich, as their expected Messiah! This is happening in an unprecented velocity and quantity.

The following verses 25-27 make it water clear that the Jews were NOT replaced by believing Gentiles, meaning Christians, but that we all together are one unity. I simply cannot explain why people still saw it that way, although it is written so clearly in God's word... read for yourself:

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins", (reference made to Isaia 59:20-21).

Another very clear and wonderful scripture is this one from Ephesians 2:14-22 (New International Reader's Version): "Christ himself is our peace. He has made Jews and non‑Jews into one group of people. He has destroyed the hatred that was like a wall between us. Through his body on the cross, Christ put an end to the law with all its commands and rules. He wanted to create one new group of people out of the two. He wanted to make peace between them. He planned to bring both of them as one body back to God because of the cross. Christ put their hatred to death on that cross. He came and preached peace to you who were far away. He also preached peace to those who were near. Through Christ we both come to the Father by the power of one Holy Spirit. So you are no longer strangers and outsiders. You are citizens together with God's people. You are members of God's family. You are a building that is built on the apostles and prophets. They are the foundation. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in the building. The whole building is held together by him. It rises to become a holy temple because it belongs to the Lord. And because you belong to him, you too are being built together. You are being made into a house where God lives through his Spirit.

Aaronitic Blessing
Numbers 6:24-26

"Yewarech'cha Adonai ve-yishmerecha;
Ya’er Adonai panav elecha ve-yichunecha;
Yissa Adonai panav elecha ve-yassem lecha Shalom."