Outcasts Then and Now

They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. John 16:2-4

I’ve just been reading about the atrocious acts against the Jews during the Medieval and Spanish Inquisitions beginning around 1198 with Pope Innocent III.  Anti-Semitism has continued on and it is even evident that Martin Luther propagated it with his brochure Against Jew and Their Lies. Brutal treatment for years…actually hundreds of years…was perpetuated, sometimes beginning with making them outcasts from their own synagogues, just like Jesus predicted in this passage from John 16. Lest we forget…God  promised… And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Genesis 12:3. Jesus was speaking to Jews, His disciples, but as followers of Christ they were also Christians. This blessing in God’s promise applies to the treatment of Jews, not of Christians. We need to be mindful to be a blessing to the Jews. There is a ministry that reaches out to provide support, like bomb shelters, for single Mom’s and their children in Israel. It is called Deborah the Brave Ministries, based in Roswell, New Mexico. http://deborahthebrave.com/index.html   Do you pray regularly for the people of Israel? 

RSVP:  Jesus is reminding us of things He spoke of with His disciples, warning them of future killings that would take place. This should serve as a warning to us…for we don’t know just what our future will hold, but we can choose to be a blessing to the people of Israel. How will you respond to Jesus today?  

Prayer ~ Father, forgive the people who so brutally treated the Jews as they did during the Inquisitions…and even the Anti-Semitism that is evident today. Help me to be a blessing in even some small way to Jews today…especially to those in Israel. Bless the Deborah the Brave project to provide encouragement and support to single mothers in Israel.

 

© 2014 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise noted.