Quotes About Israel

The Christian canon consists of two different, separate voices, indeed of two different choirs of voices. The Old Testament is the voice of Israel, the New that of the church. But beyond this, the voice of the New Testament is largely that of a transformed Old Testament which is now understood in the light of the gospel.

He knew all the prophecies. He had studied them. That small town cut out virtually all claimants to Messiah. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Leaders of Israel, bring forth your clan heads from all the twelve tribes!" The twelve clan leaders stepped forward with trepidation. They knew this could not be good. "Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God is a holy God! And these leaders of the clans have not exercised their authority in honor of Yahweh's holiness! They have allowed Ba'al worship to thrive amidst their tribes!" The twelve clan leaders looked at one another in fear.

Judges of Israel, each of you kill those of your men who have yoked themselves to Ba'al of Peor." Women screamed and guilty men took off, trying to escape the swords that came after them. Men were hacked and hewn by the edge of sword and axe for their abominable practices in Israel's midst. Yahweh's zeal for holiness did not end with the Canaanite heathen. It applied as much to Israel as to anyone else. Yahweh would not compromise his glory.

Deut. 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." Psa. 82:1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

They would worship you when you brought them success or food for their bellies, but they would impale you on a pole if you crossed them or failed to live up to their expectations. The people were a mob. Yahweh did not pick Israel because they were more righteous than the other nations, or for anything in themselves. He chose them as his people from his own mysterious sovereign will, for his own mysterious sovereign purposes.

In concert with this phrase is the key reference to gods early in Deuteronomy 32. Israel is chastised for falling away from Yahweh after he gave Israel the Promised Land: "They sacrificed to demons not God, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded" (Deut. 32:17). In this important text we learn that the idols or gods of the other nations that Israel worshipped were real beings that existed called "demons.

Demons could only possess those who invited them in. But unfortunately for Israel, many Jews violated the first commandment of Yahweh's Ten Words from Sinai, and worshipped the Canaanite gods. This failure gave the spiritual forces of this present darkness a grip of influence over Israel. She was infested with demons.

as he read through the Levitical laws, he received a vision of Yahweh's holiness so pure and intense, it was like a blinding light that pierced his soul. Israel was a royal priesthood of Yahweh's perfection. And he understood again that Yahweh's laws were not restrictive, but freeing. They were the boundaries for experiencing the best that the creator offered to humanity.

this island and her sister city, Sidon, just twenty-five miles north up the coast, had a far more dark and fascinating spiritual significance than mere Greek imperial expansion. The gods of the Phoenicians, Ba'al, Asherah and Molech, constituted a trinity of wickedness that shadowed Israel through much of her history. The Seed of Abraham never seemed to fully eradicate this Seed of the Serpent from their land. These gods seemed to have their talons dug deep into the soul of the nation.

In conclusion, the entire narrative of Deuteronomy 32 tells the story of God dispersing the nations at Babel and allotting the nations to be ruled by "gods" who were demons, or fallen divine beings called sons of God. God then allots the people of Israel for himself, through Abraham, and their territory of Canaan. But God's people fall away from him and worship these other gods and are judged for their apostasy. We will now see that Yahweh will judge these gods as well.

Across from the lampstand is the table of showbread. It is three feet long and a half-foot wide and made of wood overlaid with ornately tooled gold. On it are twelve cakes of bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and they are replaced on the Sabbath. It is a meal for the priests to commune with the 'bread of life' of the presence of Yahweh.

Annas responded quickly, "My colleague Joseph is taking Scripture out of context. David was speaking metaphorically, and Isaiah's Suffering Servant is Israel, not Messiah." A voice interrupted their debate. "I can see my tardiness has inspired you to discuss the matter of Messiah in my absence." Pilate paused at the entrance of the chamber, with his personal guard. Everyone stood in respect.

The terminology used by Paul in the first passage contrasting the many gods and lords with the one God and Lord of Christianity reflects the client-patron relationship that ANE cultures shared. As K.L. Noll explains in his text on ancient Canaan and Israel, "Lord" was the proper designation for a patron in a patron-client relationship. There may have been many gods, but for ancient Israel, there was only one Lord, and that was Yahweh."[19]

Ittai remembered the words of Lahmi to him, An ancient prophecy of a messiah king born of the Seed of Eve and of Abraham will rise within Israel. He remembered that Goliath was going to call out their Champion and challenge him to a duel. No one could best Goliath. No one, except a messiah king, a gibborim savior. That would be miraculous.

Sending the goat out into the desert to Azazel, was not an offering to the damnable goat demon, but rather it was a banishment of Israel's sin to the realm of chaos outside Yahweh's kingdom—the same realm of Azazel.

Yahweh chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chooses what is weak to shame the strong, and what is low and despised—the things that are not—to bring to nothing the things that are. The only thing I can offer you is that Yahweh did not choose Israel because she is more righteous than other nations. She is not. He chose her so that our faith in him may not rest in our own goodness, but in the power of Yahweh, who delivers us from our own evil.

In the section below on Babel Inheritance, Deuteronomy 32:9 is shown to describe Yahweh as dividing the nations up at Babel and allotting the peoples under the authority of other gods, while keeping Israel as his own people. Yahweh would be the name he would use to mark the strong demarcation between his people and the people in slavery to other gods.

Joshua said, "She is not a harlot." Though they were facing certain death in the hands of the enemy, Rahab's soul rose with hope at the words of Joshua. To hear that pronouncement from the very leader of Israel's lips made her believe her identity had been transformed. She was a daughter of Israel, an adopted child of Yahweh, the living god. Her past was dead and gone.

Judah is a lion's cub; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." And then Sheshai said, "Lion and scepter. The kingly seed we seek is the line of Judah within Israel." Talmai said, "One out of twelve tribes. But that is still not as specific as we require.

Israel is the only truly democratic, secular country in the Middle East, right in the middle of all of them.

Everybody had one thing in common: we were all taught to hate Israel and the Jews. In the universal hatred that was preached against Jews, virtually no distinction was made between the Jewish religion and the Israeli state. In my Christian private school, we studied only the New Testament.

A favorite Palestinian tactic was to set up a couple of cannons or rocket launchers in a Christian village, fire a few rounds into Israel, and then quickly withdraw, knowing that Israel's return fire would fall on innocent Christian civilians.

By preserving a person named Daniel, God was preserving a nation called Israel in order to send a Savior named Jesus to save persons like us and ten thousand times ten thousand more of the same. Daniel's willingness to risk everything to make that redeeming God powerfully known expresses how great and precious is the incomparable grace of God toward those who will trust in him.