Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

boring, routine rituals without meaning (Mark 7:13; Mark 7:6). God, in His infinite knowledge, knew that the Hebrews would be dispersed for over 1,900 years. God selected the church to bring forth spiritual fruit in Israel's absence. Jesus said that God would let out His vineyard to other husbandmen who would bring forth fruit in their season (Matthew 21:41). In Greek, the words let out mean go give forth to lease . The church and the Gentiles have a lease on the vineyard, which will eventually expire. The Circumcised and the Uncircumcised Paul explained how God would raise up the Gentile church to minister to the world. In Romans 10 and 11, he explained in detail the mysterious relationship of Christ to natural Israel and to the spiritual Israel, the Christian church. Since natural Jews confirm their covenant relationship to God through circumcision, Paul used the term circumcised when speaking about natural Jews, and the phrase uncircumcised when speaking about the Gentiles (Romans 3:30). Paul was Jewish, yet he was called of God to "bear the Lord's name to the Gentiles" (Acts 9:15). Paul wrote, "I preached among the Gentiles..." (Galatians 2:2) and confessed that he "preached among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ..." (Ephesians 3:8). Peter was ordained by the Holy Spirit to minister to the Jewish branch of the Christian church, while Paul served the Gentiles. Paul confirms this when he wrote, "The Gospel of the uncircumcision (Gentiles) was committed unto me, as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter" (Galatians 2:7). The first church was one unit consisting of two distinct branches, one being Jewish and the other Gentile. Both preached the same Gospel and received the same Holy Spirit. Due to religious and cultural differences between the two groups, contention often arose within the church that had to be settled by leaders on both sides. In Romans, Paul used the imagery of two olive trees. He taught that there was a natural olive tree (the Jews) and a wild olive tree (the Gentiles) (Romans 11:17 and 11:24). I believe that Paul used imagery previously found in Isaiah 11:1, which reads: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." (Isaiah 11:1)

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