Israel & Christians Today newspaper - December 2021

God With Us

- Rev Henk Poot Christians for Israel Netherlands

The words spoken by the prophet Isaiah to the house of David (Isaiah 7:14) have a deep significance for both Israel and Christians.

The Fullness of God

God is unimaginably great. He inhabits an inaccessible light; His majesty is so great that He is called a consuming fire, and no one can bear the intensity of His being. When God turns towards His creation and towards His people (Isaiah 43:7), He reveals Himself in the Son, the radiance of His glory and the imprint of His being (Hebrews 1). John writes that no one has ever seen God, but that the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him to us.

The Hidden One

Jesus is the son of the house of David. He is the seed that the Lord promised to Abram (Genesis 12:3) and which was to come through the generations of Israel. He is the twig from the broken-off branch of Jesse. He is God and Jew. Mary, the virgin who gave birth to the Messiah, is the mother of the Lord but also represents her people. The Jewish people gave the world the Saviour.

This means that Jesus is connected to the Jewish people in His very being. That has never changed. Even though the gospel of the Kingdom has gone around the world and has found an audience with us, Jesus has always remained present in the midst of His people as the Hidden One. In the wanderings and sufferings of Israel, He was and is still Immanuel.

Servant of Israel

This also means, however bewildering it may be to us, that a Jew has borne the sin of the world, that a Jew has been at the forefront of His people when the gospel went into the world, that Jesus will return as a Jew on the clouds of heaven and that the Lion of the tribe of Judah will ascend the throne of David to rule over the entire world. And that God has given the judgment to a Jew. Yes, He is God’s Son and what a privilege that we may live with Him, that He dwells in us by His Spirit, that we may praise Him in worship.

Not only the cross but also the star of David belongs to Him. Jesus draws us, as it were, to Israel. Paul writes in Romans 15 that Jesus became a servant of Israel to confirm the promises of God to the fathers. With this, Paul encourages the new believers from Rome to treat His people with respect and love. But when he writes further, he shows that one of those promises is that the Gentiles will glorify the Lord together with Israel. That is what it is all about! The believers from the nations at the side of Israel in the praise of the Lord.

King of Jacob

In these days of Advent and Christmas, let us not forget how closely Christ is connected with Israel. Gabriel calls Him the King of Jacob, the angels sing of the joy that will fall upon all the people, Anna and Simeon speak of the consolation of Jerusalem, and Zechariah prophesies that His people will finally be delivered from their enemies. Jesus, the King of kings, was and is Immanuel.