Hi gang!  I invite you to join me on an interesting journey today, but we must harken back a few days when we talked about God’s purpose for His chosen people.  There, we highlighted the truth that God desires to bless all families of the earth through His chosen people (Genesis 12:3).  In fact, God’s Word tells us that they are to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6-7, Isaiah 49:6) and a holy nation and kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6).

One of those “priests” was the Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, and who was instrumental in describing how Gentiles can be “grafted in” to the family of God.  He claimed that Jews and Gentiles could have equal standing before God, through faith in Messiah.

But let’s consider the Apostle Paul for a moment.  We are first introduced to Paul (known as “Saul”) in Acts 7:58, where he looks on as Stephen is stoned.  Acts 8 chronicles Saul’s persecution of the church, but in Acts 9 we learn of his conversion while on the road to Damascus.  It was a dramatic conversion and Paul went on to become perhaps the greatest evangelist of the first century.

However, let’s dig in a bit.  Often, the thought is that Saul was a Jewish leader who persecuted Christians, was converted, became a Christian leader and changed his name to Paul.  Saul = Jewish = bad.  Paul = Christian = good.  Not so!

Saul of Tarsus was indeed a Jewish leader, but also carried the name of Paul from birth.  Saul was his Hebrew name, Paul was his Greek name, the common language of the day.  Also, consider that early Christians were actually Jews!  (It was only later that the Gospel went out to the Gentiles!)  Thus, Saul persecuted fellow Jews who believed in Yeshua well before they were called Christians.  The fact is that he never persecuted members of a different religion, he didn’t convert to a different religion, he didn’t take a new name after his conversion, but continued to identify himself as a Jew until the end!

Yet, the Apostle Paul fulfilled God’s purpose in being a light to the Gentiles!  In A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Romans (page 495), Messianic Jewish scholar, Joseph Shulam said:

Paul is part of the people of Israel, whom God has chosen to be a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ before Him….Paul’s “offering” of the Gentiles “fulfills the prophetic passages in Isaiah 61:6 and 66:18-24.  The nations are Israel’s offering to God when His people return to their God and the land, in fulfillment of her priestly task to serve the nations.”

Paul understood what the prophet Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 66:19 (NIV): They shall declare My glory among these nations.  Interestingly, one of the major Jewish festivals is the Feast of Tabernacles…the ingathering of people to Jerusalem as an “offering to the Lord!”

When we understand the Jewishness of our Christian roots, it all fits together, doesn’t it?  In this case, Gentiles are seen as an offering to the Lord, yet it was Paul who recognized his sacred duty and his Jewish calling to take the Messianic message to Gentiles.

As Gentiles, we owe a debt of gratitude to Paul (and others), and to our Jewish Messiah who invited us to join Him in salvation!  We have now joined our Jewish brothers and sisters in the calling to be a “holy nation and a kingdom of priests!”

Points to ponder:

• To whom are we declaring God’s glory?
• Who are we “offering to the Lord” in celebration of His amazing grace to us?

Just as the Apostle Paul was faithful to his calling, let’s be faithful to ours as we await the return of our Messiah!