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Τhe sheep and the beasts of the earth, the reptiles and the birds of the sky
Writter: Evangelos D. Kepenes (February 13, 2022, 18:15)
Biblical definitions
Israel is the name God gave to Jacob (Gen. 32:38). Jacob/Israel had 12 sons and their descendants are collectively known as “the house of Israel”, “the house of Jacob”, “the seed of Jacob”, “the tribes of Israel”, “Israel”, “Jacob”, “the sons of Israel”, “the Israelites” (Rom. 11:26. Ps. 14:7. Is. 2:5, 59:20. Num. 23:7, 10).
The term “Sheep” identifies the tribes of Israel. They were the people of His pasture. (Ps. 78:52, 74:1. Matt. 15:24, 10:16. Rom. 8:36. 1Pet. 2:25. Mark 14:27. Heb. 13:20. John 21:17 etc.).
The other Nations are identified as “beasts, four-footed animals of the earth, reptiles and fowls” (Jer. 50:17. Acts 11:6)
God promised salvation for the tribes of Israel and for all other Nations
Hos. 2:18-20 “And I will make for them (the tribes of Israel / Sheep) a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground (the other Nations). And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.”
God Scattered the Sheep / tribes of Israel Among the Nations
The ten tribes that rebelled against the United Monarchy of Israel, where Saul, David, and Solomon reigned successively, founded the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which from the ninth (9th) century BC designated Samaria as its capital. In the south, the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David, forming the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Both houses, after successive civil wars, were taken into captivity, one by the Assyrians, the other by the Babylonians.
Jer. 50:17 “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him (Northern Kingdom of Israel), and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones (Southern Kingdom of Judah)».
Psa. 44:11 “You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations.”
Psa. 74:1 “O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?”
Jesus was born under the Law
Jesus, as the scriptures testify, was born under the Law to redeem those under the Law (the Israelites / Sheep) so that they might receive adoption. He became a curse for the Israelites “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” so that the blessing of Abraham (the promise of eternal life) might come to the other nations (Gal. 3:14). He ministered in the regions of Judea and Galilee, an area north of Samaria “he was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and taught in the Temple and in the synagogues and in the open spaces of Jewish cities and villages. All of Jesus’ conversations with the Israelites concerned the Law, its interpretation and its fulfillment. He chose Israelite Apostles and his first disciples (a kind of firstfruits) were Israelites.
Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:29)
Mat. 2:6 “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”
The first commandment to the Israelite Apostles was:
Mat. 10:5-6 “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
The scattered Sheep and the promises of gathering them into one folk under the great shepherd Jesus
Is. 11:12 LXXE “And he shall lift up a standard for the nations, and he shall gather the lost ones of Israel (10 tribes), and he shall gather the dispersed of Juda (2 tribes) from the four corners of the earth.”
Eze.. 34:11-13 “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.”
Jesus said to the Israelites / Sheep who lived in Jerusalem
John. 10:14-16 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold (ed. those scattered outside Palestine). I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Deu. 30:1-3 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy (ed. NT) on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.”
And through Jeremiah he said: Jer. 31:31-34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
And through Hosea Ηe spoke of the northern kingdom of Israel, of which He had taken the kingship and of which He had said “I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel” and “you are not my people".
Αfter He said: “and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God”.
And also “… in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’” (Hos. 1:6, 9, 2:16, 23)
Hos. 1:10-11 “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Caiaphas also prophesied the same thing: John. 11:49-53 “But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.”
And Ezekiel too: Eze. 37:21-22 “then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.”
These promises in the books of Hosea and Ezekiel were fulfilled
Peter, who had received the command to “feed my lambs” (i.e., the seed of Jacob), in his letter to Israelites of the Diaspora who had received God’s mercy and who were living among the nations, confirms the fulfillment of the prophecies of Hosea and Ezekiel.
1Pet. 1:1-2. 2:9-12 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you […] But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy […] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
Again: 1Pet. 2:25 “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
And James 1:1 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.”
The apostle Paul also confirmed the same.
Rom. 9:22-28 “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (ed. The Jews of the Diaspora, those living outside of Palestine). As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
Conclusion
Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, had to first gather the scattered sheep of Israel and then sent the apostle Paul to the Gentiles in the flesh (the beasts). (Acts 10:11-14, 1 Cor. 15:8)
Acts. 13:44-47 “The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
Acts. 9:15 “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”
Eph.. 2:11-18 “Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, [so] making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father”.
Gal. 3:10-14 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith; and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Flee from religions. Christ is our life
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