Christians, like the Psalmist David, want to know more about God in Christ the Messiah, to know more about the teachings of the Word, and the duties of our faith. When we understand that we are the true Israel, we also realize what our newfound responsibilities are. David had a foreboding sense that he and his prayers were not worthy before such a benevolent God who bequeathed so much promise. Likewise, we are heirs of the promise and yet every waking moment is not dedicated to the praise of God. We should make the Word of God our rule in everyday conversation, rather than the exception. We should look up to God as a lump of clay to be shaped in perfect form by the Potter; to help this honorable vessel glorify Him. When we glory in the Lord, we are spreading His reputation. It was by His design that His repute would be through His people; even the enemies of His people would stand in awe of such a fearsome and jealous God. And it was all because we have His Word; an owner’s manual, if you will, for having communion with Him, not just for today, but for eternity.
What a brutal war of words! Jesus verses His enemies; the Edomite Jews. I would say that I have never had a conversation that was as full of hateful statements as is in this one. Jesus declared to this particular group of people that they were not related to Him at all; for they had a different father than He had. The proof of this was that they did not act like Abraham: they didn’t love Him; they didn’t obey His words and they didn’t believe Him. They were the fruit of a barren tree. He then declared to them that they were liars and murderers just like their father was; for their father was the entity that committed both of these sins.
Did you notice how the Edomite/Jews answered our Savior in verse 48? They replied that He was a Samaritan and had a demon! What did they mean by that statement; calling him a Samaritan? It wasn’t very complimentary because they also said that he also had a demon. This was blasphemous! We will try and answer this question in the remainder of this sermon.
Joe Biden's Speech at the Jewish American Heritage
The Vice-President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, offered lofty praise for the Jewish community. His statements raised some eyebrows and seems to have put anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists and true Bible reading Christians into a complete distrust of government officials. For when he spoke at the Democratic National Committee event for Jewish American Heritage on May 21, 2013, the Vice-President said that the Jewish people underestimated the impact of their Jewish heritage; that they underestimated the impact that have had on the development of this nation. He added that you can’t talk about the civil rights movement in this country without talking about Jewish freedom riders and you can’t talk about the women’s movement without talking about Betty Friedan. He noted that the Jews in this country had a:
Disproportionate representation in the Senate (11%),
Impressive share of Nobel Prizes (33% of all Nobel laureates), and
Major role in the civil-rights and womens’-rights movements,
Major role on behalf of gay marriage via their control of the media.
The Vice-President explained: “I believe what affects the movements in America, what affects our attitudes in America are as much the culture and the arts as anything else,” He added: “Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry.”
Biden also cited one of his favorite explanations for the success of gay marriage — “it wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was Will and Grace, it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace the measure.”
In those developments, Biden explained, “the influence[of Jewish people]is immense.”
This is the story of an incident in the lives of two twin brothers; Jacob and Esau and their father: Isaac and their mother: Rebekah. Each parent loved one of their twins boys the best, “And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: But Rebekah loved Jacob” Genesis 25:29. The twins were not identical: for Esau was hairy and red at his birth: “And the first [eldest] came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau” Genesis 25:25.
There were many important differences between the two twin brothers:
The Bible is different than every book that has ever been written because it is through the auspices of Almighty God. Think about that for a moment. Most religions of the world have their own so called holy book, but our Holy Bible is the only one that claims to be the actual words of God. More than 3000 times we read “thus saith the Lord” or “God said,” followed by a direct quotation. No one knows exactly how many books have been published throughout history, but according to Google’s advanced algorithms, the answer is close to 130 million books. And there is only one book that can qualify as being inspired or more succinctly, the Word of God. In Christianity we hear the word ‘inspiration’ all the time coupled with the word ‘infallible.’ This prompts the inquiry: why would the “Author of our Faith” (Heb. 12:2) use fallible men to write Scripture? Well, think about it; we don’t have any of the original documents or autographs from which copies were made and survived as our only resource.
One of the Bible's most outstanding proclamations is that it plainly claims to be the inspired word of Almighty God. This is what Paul, a highly educated Israelite proclaimed, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (II Tim. 3:16). Peter wrote that the content of Scripture "never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21). To early church leaders, inspiration was not an ecstatic overpowering of the writer's consciousness, as described in the occult as “automatic handwriting,” but rather a high degree of elucidation and divine awareness of God's revelation. Scripture indicates, and the early church recognized, that God inspired the biblical writers to use their own minds and their own styles to write what God wanted them to write. Likewise, we are all unique in the eyes of God, not just robotic disciples.
