ISRAEL AND THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Struggling to trust that God would honor His promise to provide an heir through his barren wife Sarah, Abraham—the Patriarch and father of the Israelites—designated his servant Eliezar to be his heir. However, God came to him in a vision and assured Abraham:

·       … “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” Genesis 15:4.

To illustrate His promise, God directed Abraham to look up at the uncountable stars and then assured him that this is how many offspring he would have:

·       And he believed the LORD, and [God] counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

The Lord “Yahweh” provided Abraham with a mysterious gift—the gift of righteousness—that transcended anything that Abraham could have expected. It was a gift that would reshape human history. What did Abraham understand about God’s strange and unexpected gift? We do not know. Scripture doesn’t tell us. Abraham never refers back to it. Instead, Abraham’s focus had been upon having an heir and a landed inheritance.

However, without the gift of God’s righteousness, humankind was destined to be endlessly coerced to prove their worth, significance, and righteousness through their own efforts. In the process, they would become self-obsessed narcissists, endlessly preoccupied with proving their own righteousness [once their immediate material needs had been assured.]

This reality has become particularly true about the Israelites, to whom God had given the ability to be successful:

·       “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:17–20)

Sadly, this divine warning has become the portrait of Israel’s history. However, God promised that He would never abandon Israel permanently:

·       But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the LORD of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” For thus says the LORD of hosts: “As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not…The [Gentile] inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ” Zechariah 8:11–15, 21-23

What happens when we reject God’s gift of righteousness? We become self-condemned to have to endlessly construct our own righteousness. It is not enough to hit just one home run. Instead, we have to hit the ball out of the park continually. However, once we convince ourselves and the world that we are a “somebody,” the battle doesn’t cease. Instead, the higher we exalt ourselves, the harder we fall.  And, the perpetual process of proving our worth continues.

John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world of his day, was asked, “How much more money will you need to be happy?” He famously answered, “Always a bit more.” As with any addict, we always need a greater fix to maintain our high.

Let’s apply this to my Jewish people. Even the Orthodox have rejected the God of the Bible for the god of the Talmud—in other words, the opinions of the rabbis. As a result, they are on the Rockefeller rollercoaster, forever clawing their way to the top, controlled by the need for the righteousness of God that they have rejected.

How is this manifested? Often, through various wild, idealistic quests—even messianic quests to be the greatest and most self-sacrificial. For this reason, many Jews were drawn into causes that would eventually come to persecute them. However, the prospect of attaining self-righteousness blinded them to the costs, both to themselves and to those they sought to help. Some had supported Hitler but more often communism. To both, they had fallen prey. And now they are hated by their fellow Leftists.

Oddly, this Jewish quest for self-righteousness can also lead to a rejection of their own people. This is a way that some Jews can demonstrate that they are above tribalism. The late poet T.S. Elliot reflected on the dangers of such misguided idealism:

·       Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.

Consequently, some Jews viciously attack Israel. Jeffrey S. Tobin writes:

·       At the heart of this sinister effort [to denigrate Israel] are its preferred mouthpieces: Israel-hating Jews who typically chime in to criticize the Jewish state “as a Jew.” They are essential props in the campaign to legitimize efforts to distort and deny traditional Jewish beliefs. While sometimes couched in the language of faith, scholarship and human-rights advocacy—and purportedly anchored in Jewish historical movements—the goal is much the same as that of bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists: destroy the Jewish state, something that could only be accomplished by the slaughter of its people. (“Progressive Judaism ‘without Israel’ is a tool for antisemites,” Jewish News Syndicate, 1/17/2024, at https://www.jns.org/progressive-judaism-without-israel-is-a-tool-for-antisemites/ )

It seems plain that there are some progressive Jews who want to show the world: “I am more righteous than you.” I understand this because I also used to be this way until I received the free gift of God’s righteousness. When we are assured of His love, we become free from the never-ending need of having to prove ourselves righteous and worthy.