THE IDENTITY OF THE JEWS

There’s a lot of discussion concerning the identity of the Jews and their right to the land of Israel. I’ve written two small articles related to those topics that are below. Let’s discuss them at our next fourth Saturday fellowship.

The Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant

God made a promise to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3.

The Abrahamic Covenant was made in Gen. 15:18-21. When Abraham was 99 years old (Gen. 17:1), God ratified His covenant with him (Gen. 17:2-9). The word “covenant” appears 13 times in Genesis 17. Every Israelite had to be circumcised which is a sign of the covenant (Gen. 17:10-14).

The covenant is called an “everlasting covenant” (Gen. 17:7, 19), and the land promised to Israel is to be an “everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8). Therefore, this covenant will never end/terminate because God is keeping His promise to Abraham and his descendants, the Jews who are also Israelites.

The Mosaic Covenant is not to be confused with the Abrahamic Covenant.

The Mosaic Covenant is first mentioned in Ex. 19:5-6. Israel promised to keep it (Ex. 19:7-8) but didn’t. The writer of Hebrews refers to the Abrahamic Covenant which is based on God’s promise and therefore cannot be broken (Heb. 6:13-20).

There is a difference between the covenant with Abraham (an individual) and the Mosaic Covenant made with the nation of Israel, Abraham’s descendants. The Abrahamic covenant is unilateral which means only God is responsible to keep that covenant of promise. The Mosaic covenant is bilateral which means on God’s part He will bless Israel when she’s obedient and curse her when she’s disobedient. So, that means Israel’s compliance was strictly required. When Israel broke the covenant, God dissolved her as a nation but didn’t erase her identity. Why? Because God will not break His promise to Abraham.

Who Are The Jews?

Check out this first:

https://youtube.com/shorts/KvuM147VV44?si=fUeH9IxdTxt-3uiM

I’ve heard and seen Tucker Carlson’s interview with Mike Huckaby a number of times, and heard many reactions to it.

Here is my take:

Tucker Carlson’s questions, though challenging, reflected his ignorance of the biblical theology (God’s promise), real time history of Israel, and his bias against believing the biblical definition of Israel which includes Jews.

Like so many others, either Carlson doesn’t know or deliberately ignores the meaning of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. Huckaby’s answers were okay but needed to be “fine tuned.” He should have challenged Tucker with answers from Scripture, even if Tucker wouldn’t believed him. My responses are too many to put in a this blog, but I would have started with Gen. 12:1-3 and taken Tucker for a ride through the Bible. He would have been shown that Israel always means Abraham’s descendants. God promised Abraham that his son, Isaac, would be the Jews’ ancestor (Heb. 11:18). Isaac’s son was Jacob whose name was changed to Israel (Gen. 35:10). Israel had 12 sons, and they became the nation of Israel after they left Egypt (Ex. 19:6).

There was a split between them  after King Solomon’s death in about 930 BC. They became Judah and Israel (1 Kings 12).

The word “Jew” was first used after the captivity, appearing first in Esther 2:5, being a short form of “Judah.”  But Jews were also descendants of Israel (Jacob) and thus over time the reference (“Jews”) was extended to all of Israel’s descendants. I would advise Tucker and all other skeptics to read the list of Jesus’ ancestors in Matt. 1, Luke 3:23-38. In Rom. 4:12 Abraham is called “father of circumcision,” meaning of Jews. In Gal. 3:16 and Heb. 2:16, Abraham’s seed is Christ who, therefore, was also a Jew (see John 4:9). In Heb. 7:5, all of twelve brothers (Jacob’s sons) were descendants of Abraham.

The word “promise” is extremely important in connection with the covenant God made with Abraham.

First, God promised a son and innumerable descendants (Gen. 15:4-5)

Second, God demonstrated that the promised covenant cannot be broken (Gen. 15:8-17)

Third, God promised him a vast amount of land (Gen. 15:7, 18-21)

The writer of Hebrews indicates that these core elements were included in God’s unbreakable promise to Abraham. He said God added an oath to confirm His promise even though it wasn’t necessary (Heb. 6:13-18). It “was impossible for God to lieregarding his promise, yet He added an unnecessary “oath” represented by the “smoking oven and a flaming torch” (Gen. 15:17).

In conclusion, if God breaks or changes His promise He made to Abraham, there would be no Jews. Then, John 3:16 would be untrue, there will be no church, no rapture, no second coming, and no new heaven and earth.

Apostle Paul wrote about spiritually blind people like Tucker: “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).

Check out under Biblehub.com.

the title, “Who is Considered the First Jew?”

A side note: I don’t believe Abraham was a Jew but is the father of them.