Israel the Inheritance of God

Part 1

Tim Moore: That’s more important than anything else. So what motivated you, a nice, Gentile boy from Northern England to write a book about God’s people and about Israel?

Paul Wilkinson: Well, Tim, that particular book was written during the lowest point in my life as a Christian. A lot of things had happened and there was a lot of spiritual attack, and I found myself in a very desperate place. Very much alone in lots of ways.

But when I believe that the Lord had prompted me to write again, it wasn’t with a view to even publishing what I was going to write. I wanted to write something as a love offering to my Lord and Savior, Jesus, to thank Him for everything He’d taught me over many years about His everlasting, steadfast love for His people, Israel. And so that’s what I did.

Just Bible studies every day, me with the Lord. And eventually, it just came into some kind of book format. And all I did was lift my laptop at the end to the Lord committed to Him, closed the laptop lid. And as far as I was concerned, that was it. And then I was contacted. And within a couple of months, it was published.

Tim Moore: Well, I’m grateful that it was because I think your love offering to the Lord has blessed me. I really think it’s going to bless many of our viewers who get a copy because your love offering, and I appreciate the fact you said it was written during a low point.

I think as you study the Word of God, and you obviously have a great reverence for His Word, you realize that even the story of Israel is a demonstration of His love to people who don’t deserve His love, just like you and me.

Paul Wilkinson: That’s right.

Tim Moore: But He lavish is it on us because of who He is.

Paul Wilkinson: Absolutely. And that for me is the heart of the book. It’s the heart of God’s Word. And when we think of Bible prophecy, we can all too often just focus on timelines and charts and events and names, but what is God doing throughout? He’s revealing who He is. He’s revealing the kind of God that He is, His heart, His compassion.

The fact that He is God and not man, and He doesn’t deal with us…and He doesn’t deal with Israel the way we deserve, the way Israel deserves because He’s a merciful, loving, compassionate God who keeps covenant, remembers His promises, keeps His vows. And that’s why the whole of God’s Word ultimately points to the glory of God, not the glory of a nation, not the glory of the Church or any man, but God.

Tim Moore: You know, that gives me great assurance because if the promises of God to you and to me were dependent upon me deserving them, or remaining deserving of them, I would have no hope. But the promises of God are relying on God’s character.

You know, you mentioned Bible prophecy. I’ll quote one of many citations in your book, C.I. Scofield, you referenced. That’s a revered American theologian and author. And he confessed at one time as you wrote, that he thought lightly of Bible prophecy, rationalizing, “What has that to do with me? And, “Why should I care particularly what He’s going to do with Israel?” But Scofield came to realize that such an attitude deprived him of the most intimate fellowship with the Lord.

Paul Wilkinson: That’s right. And it’s our lord’s desire to bring us into fellowship with Him. That He doesn’t just treat us as servants who fulfill a work or some kind of program, but He calls us to be His friends. He calls us to come into the most intimate place with Him where we hear His heart and we are privileged to understand the way that He thinks, which is not the way the world thinks.

The world system is under the control of the evil one who just wants to destroy and kill and distort and twist. But our Lord Jesus has brought us into covenant fellowship with Him. And it’s not just about fulfilling a purpose, doing a work. It’s knowing Him personally. And as the Lord Jesus said, He said it originally to Israel in Isaiah 43, “You shall be my witnesses.” And the Lord Jesus repeats this to His first disciples in Acts 1, “You shall be my witnesses.”

And that’s more than just speaking words and doing things and going places and sharing the Gospel, as vital as that is, it’s representing who He is. And that, for me, is the key to everything.

Tim Moore: That is such a tremendous privilege. But it’s also such a tremendous responsibility.

Paul Wilkinson: Absolutely.

Tim Moore: We feel it here at Lamb & Lion Ministries. We are ambassadors for the King here on Earth. Every Christian is. And so we are conduits of His blessing by revealing what we have in a relationship with Him. We’ll get to that in terms of making Jewish people jealous, as Paul says. But let me clarify a term.

Your book title, Israel: The Inheritance of God. So when we speak of Israel, are we talking about an Old Testament man whose name was originally Jacob? Are we talking about an ethnic people group? Are we talking about an ancient and modern nation named Israel? Are we talking about a land of that name? What are we talking about?

Paul Wilkinson: Yes. Yes, we are.

Tim Moore: Yes. Yes, all of them are.

Paul Wilkinson: Yes to all of those. But, you know, we think of Israel as God’s chosen people. We think of Israel as God’s wife in one respect, His flock. There’s lots of metaphor and lots of imagery in which God describes His relationship with this one family, as we read in Amos 3:2, this one family out of all the families of the Earth that He chose to be His own.

And Deuteronomy 4: 20, the Lord says through Moses, “I brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people of my own inheritance. You Israel, you the Hebrews, the Jews, you are my nachalah.” That’s the Hebrew word, nachalah. So that’s God, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of the world who owns all the nations, saying, “You, Israel, the fewest of all peoples shall be my inheritance on this Earth.”

Tim Moore: And Paul talks about that later. He didn’t choose the mighty, the strong, the most numerous. He chose the weakest, the most despised in some ways, of people who had become enslaved at some point in their history, famously. And He said, “That will be mine.” And to this day, why aren’t I glad He chooses people like you and me, Paul?

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: I am not the greatest…

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: Or the strongest. Sometimes I feel like I am the weakest.

Paul Wilkinson: Yep.

Tim Moore: And yet, He calls me His.

Paul Wilkinson: Yeah.

Tim Moore: And so that word that you talked about, nachalah, which means God’s heritage or possession, let’s explore what that means regarding not just the land, not just the people, but also the nation. How is there overlap between all those three being the inheritance or the heritage of God?

Paul Wilkinson: Yeah, so that word, nachalah, occurs 222 times in the Old Testament in 191 verses. It’s most commonly used in books like Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua when God is allotting to the 12 tribes of Israel, their portion in the Promised Land, in the land of Canaan. So it’s going to be their inheritance, their heritage. So God said to Israel, “I’ve gone ahead, I’ve prepared this land for you. It’s the most beautiful of all lands.” Deuteronomy 11, God says, “My eyes are always upon this land.”

And so He brings His people in to inherit this tiny piece of real estate, you know, no bigger than Wales, which is where I worship and fellowship back home in the U.K. in an Evangelical Gypsy church. But the Lord then uses that word to describe, as we’ve just said, how He sees His people, that I’m giving you Israel, a place to settle, a place to live, a place to rest, a place to worship me, a place to honor me, a place where you can show all the nations what I am like when I am in the midst of you.

And then God uses the Word and says, “But first and foremost, you are my inheritance.” And with that comes tremendous blessing, tremendous privilege. But as you just said, Tim, tremendous responsibility.

Tim Moore: Yeah. You know, I love to study Leviticus. People say Leviticus? Yeah, because you see both the blessing and the curse right there. To be in the proximity of a holy God has tremendous blessing, but it’s also very perilous, because God called His people to be holy, “You’re going to be set apart for me by me and to be with me.” And that requires a certain level of reverence to the Lord and obedience to His commands. And just like all of us, the Jewish people failed.

You know, talking about Him picking the despised, I’m always reminded of the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When Indiana Jones was asked which cup, and this was a Hollywood version of, you know, the Holy Grail. But which of these many cups would Christ have drank from? Well, the Nazi scientist and archeologist chose a very gaudy ostentatious cup. Indiana Jones wisely chose a very humble, simple cup, because I think there’s great symbolism there.

The Lord wouldn’t have chosen something that was gaudy and rich-looking. He came and took on human form. He humbled Himself. And so even in the movie, they did get, spiritually speaking, that aspect right, that the Lord would’ve chosen that, which was not uplifted and exalted. Instead, He chose the humble, the lowly. He chose the Jew. Goodness, Paul, He chose me.

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: You know, throughout the Church Age, at least until the middle of the past century, the Jewish people have been dispersed, persecuted, outcast, and forlone, forlorn, I should say. And casual Christians would not have been mistaken in thinking they were cursed by God. Indeed, I think they were for a season.

Paul Wilkinson: Yeah.

Tim Moore: But you point out that God foretold even that cursing and that He has maintained His covenant with them throughout even that horrific period.

Paul Wilkinson: Absolutely. And, you know, I’m always struck by the language that God uses when He’s speaking about His people. So I think of a passage like Ezekiel 5, where God is furious in His anger and His jealousy towards His people because of their idolatry. They’d broken covenant, they’re faithless to Him, and He’s venting His anger. He’s using Hebrew words like kinah and kenah that just speaks of this real indignation towards His people.

And then in the very next chapter, chapter 6, he uses a Hebrew word shiavur, which means broken. That is used in Exodus 32 when Moses throws the 10 Commandments down because the people are in revelry, and they’ve just forgotten the Lord and the covenants are broken. And God uses that word, shiavur, to say, “This is my heart, Israel, you’ve broken my heart.”

This is God speaking. And you think, well, that’s it. You know, they deserve judgment. They deserve to be cast off forever for what they’ve done. But then you continue in Ezekiel and you get chapter 36. I don’t know how many times, Tim, the Lord says, “I willl, I’ll bring you back. I’ll give you a new heart. I’ll put a new spirit in you. I’ll give you a heart of flesh. You will love me; you will worship me.”

And Jeremiah 31, “I’ve loved you with an everlasting love.” Hosea 11, “I can’t give you up, oh, Israel. All my compassion is stirred up within me.” And the way the Lord just turns the anger and the judgment into mercy and grace and forgiveness. Yes, there’s a long, dark period of judgment and being…

Tim Moore: Or discipline, we might say.

Paul Wilkinson: Discipline. Yeah. He disciplines those He loves.

Tim Moore: He loves.

Paul Wilkinson: To bring back, not to destroy. And that’s the consistent testimony of the prophets. And of course, Paul writes in Romans 15 that Christ came to… He came to serve the circumcision, the Jewish people, to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. Not to end the promises or reinterpret or reapply, but to confirm everything that God had said and promised to His people.

Tim Moore: You know, even as we’re talking right now, if your interest is peaked about what we’re talking about with God’s promises to His chosen people, Israel, let’s hear about how you can get a copy of Israel: The Inheritance of God.

Resource

Announcer: Israel: The Inheritance of God is a powerful book that answers a timeless question, why did God choose Israel? Paul Wilkinson opens the pages of Scripture to reveal God’s own heart for the people, the nation, and the land of Israel. His preservation of all three testifies to His faithfulness and offers encouragement and affirmation to all who trust in the promise keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Get your copy from Lamb & Lion Ministries for only $20, including shipping. You’ll be glad you did.

Part 2

Tim Moore: Well, welcome back again to Christ in Prophecy, as we’re talking about Israel: The Inheritance of God, with the author, Paul Wilkinson. And, Paul, you talked about how the Jewish people were set aside. We would perceive them to be cursed. God even uses that phraseology. But really it was a disciplining because He loves them. And indeed, too many Christians, I think, don’t recognize that God does discipline those He loves.
But we have seen too often how Christians, Gentile Christians have despised, have rejected, or have esteemed lightly the people of Israel, quoting directly from Ezekiel 28. And God says, “Do not do that. Do not reject and despise my people. If I’m disciplining them, don’t pile on.” Don’t say, “Aha,” because then He’ll turn His righteous anger on those who despise His chosen people.

Paul Wilkinson: That’s right. And the Apostle Paul gives a very clear and sober solemn warning to the Church when he is writing his letter to the Romans, chapter 11. He says, “Do not be arrogant against those natural branches, the Jews, that were cut off for a time from the olive tree, because the Lord can cut you off.”

That’s the warning. Whatever that means, you know, that there’s a warning in there. And again, Paul says, ” It’s not you, Gentile believers in Jesus that support the root, it’s the root that supports you.” So Paul is saying, be very, very careful. And he starts that chapter by saying, “Has God cast away His people forever?” In other words, “God forbid, by no means,” depending on what translation.

In other words, “That’s impossible because of who God is, that He keeps covenant, He keeps His vows, He remembers His promises. And even when His people, Israel, or His people, the Church, you and I, Tim, individually are faithless. He remains faithful. And that’s why He gets all the glory.

Tim Moore: It certainly is. That’s why I say, “Praise the Lord.” It is not my faithfulness that I have hope in or I depend upon. It’s His faithfulness.

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: And yet, so many would say, “Well, He has rejected and despised Israel.” And that is so very wrong. Paul, I think that we, too often, and I say we collectively as Gentile Christians, as the Church, fall into the foolish manipulation of Satan that he used against Balam to try to curse the Jewish people. And in some twisted way, we actually end up cursing those that we should bless.

And that has happened all too often in the Jewish perspective. The nations that have cursed them and persecuted them the most have been ostensibly Christian nations, Russia, Germany, even Spain, sometimes Great Britain in recent years. And yet, we as Christian nations, ex-Christian peoples should be the ones to make the Jews jealous. Jealous of what? Of the relationship we have with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Paul Wilkinson: That’s right.

Tim Moore: Instead of making them despise…

Paul Wilkinson: That’s right.

Tim Moore: Our Jewish Messiah.

Paul Wilkinson: Yeah. And all too often, and this remains a mystery to me. You may understand it more, Tim, but Christians get locked into church traditions, theological traditions. They want to defend their church. They’ve got favorite authors, favorite leaders from times past. You know, a lot of churches have been caught up in the deception of reform theology, amillennial Augustinian theology that had no place for Israel. The church was the Kingdom of God on Earth.

And praise God for the Protestant Reformation. But Calvin and Luther got so much wrong. They got their eschatology wrong. They didn’t understand God’s purposes for Israel. They didn’t understand the Rapture of the Church. They didn’t understand the Second Coming of Jesus and the Millennial Reign. And more than that, they were vicious in the way that they spoke about the Jewish people.

And yet, so many Christians, so many churches get locked into following men like that and attaching their names to their churches or to their belief system. And Paul warned the Corinthians so clearly about this party spirit. We follow Apollos, we follow Cephas, we follow Paul, we follow Christ. No, Christ alone.

Tim Moore: Christ alone.

Paul Wilkinson: Jesus alone, Jesus only. And if that theology that you hold so dear does not line up with Scripture, dismiss it, discard it, and get back just to the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to be your teacher.

Tim Moore: You know, the Reformers got a few things right. Christ alone, Scripture alone.

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: But then they’ve added some of these misconceptions of man. And you’re exactly right, we have to return to the Word of God, and quite frankly, the love of God…

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: For the people of God.

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: And that’s still born out today. What a blessing I think it is for you and I and for our viewers to live right now when we can witness God being faithful to His ancient promises, to regather the Jewish people. 150 years ago, Christians and themselves would’ve said, “What would God bring the Jewish people back to that land?” They’re very happy in places like Russia and Germany and Poland.

Paul Wilkinson: Yeah.

Tim Moore: And yet we can see with hindsight how God orchestrated even the evil intent of the world, of Satan, to His greater glory to fulfill His promises. On page 84, Paul, I think you capture, or at least your book writes, what probably is the thesis of your whole presentation. You say, “It is impossible to truly know the God or know God as the Lord of hosts without knowing Him as the God of Israel, for the two go hand in hand, past, present, and future.” And that is a convicting realization. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those are not dead men.

Paul Wilkinson: No.

Tim Moore: As Christ says, “They live on.”

Paul Wilkinson: Amen.

Tim Moore: And His love for His chosen people continues to this day.

Paul Wilkinson: Absolutely, and, you know, for me, Tim, that phrase, that title, Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that occurs over 50 times in the Old Testament together as a unit, a name, a title that God uses as of Himself or prophets, like Jeremiah in particular, use. That, yes, our God is the Almighty. He’s the Transcendent. He’s the Most High. He is the Lord of hosts.

But at the same time, He’s the God of Israel. He’s imminent. He’s present. He’s on Earth. He’s very much involved, intimately involved in one nation in order to bring all the nations to Himself. So many Christians are happy to say, “Well, He is the Lord of hosts,” but they don’t continue at the same time. And you can’t separate the two. He’s the God of Israel, Lord of hosts…

Tim Moore: Certainly is.

Paul Wilkinson: God of Israel. And all these names. He’s the Father of Israel, He is the Creator of Israel, the Rock of Israel, Shepherd of Israel. These are titles and names that God uses of Himself. And He said, didn’t He? In Numbers 6, when the Lord instructed Moses to tell Aaron to bless the people of Israel, and in the way that He blessed them, the name of God will be put upon this people and they will be blessed forever.

Tim Moore: You say this, page 94, “God’s love for His people is faithful, unconditional, enduring, trustworthy, and completely undeserved.” I can only say amen and amen, As someone who has experienced that love. “His love is dependent entirely on His character, and without it, neither Israel, nor the Church, nor the world could survive.” How does that play into His chesed, or chesed, His blessing?

Paul Wilkinson: Well, again, it’s simply a self-revelation of God. Chesed is that beautiful, it’s like Hebrew gem that just sparkles all the way through Scripture, pointing back to His love is steadfast, His love is steadfast, His love is steadfast. It doesn’t change even when His people change, even when His people don’t reciprocate and they don’t love Him back, they don’t honor Him. He remains faithful to who He is.

And that’s one of the words, you know… We love to quote Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd and mercy, and love will follow me all the days of my life.” And that word, mercy, is chesed. It’s like a pursuing love of God. And David experienced it personally. And this is the same love that continues to pursue Israel. It’s a love that pursues us. And again, all glory to the Lord Jesus that was demonstrated supremely 2,000 years ago on the cross when our Lord hung between Heaven and Earth and had that title written above His head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,”

Tim Moore: King of the Jews. But that mercy, that love that never falters, never fails and always pursues, praise the Lord, it pursued you, it pursued me. And I pray that it has pursued you. And that if you do not know the Lord, you realize He is pursuing you right now.

Paul, page 144, you say, “As a believer, I could immerse myself in blogs, websites, newsletters, magazines, documentaries, sermons, and books, and even study tours to Israel.” And of course, we offer a trip to Israel to learn what the Lord is doing before our very eyes. And you say, “And yet be left unmoved in my heart toward the Jewish people and brought no closer to Jesus.”

As I said, Lamb & Lion Ministry offers outreach in all of those mediums. But our goal is not merely to inform, it is to inflame. We endeavor to spark a passion for the Lord and His soon return as we draw people closer to our soon coming King. But if we draw closer to Him, I believe that our love for Israel becomes a supernatural Christ-like love as well.

Paul Wilkinson: Amen. Amen. And I remember, Tim, the most influential man in my life, personally in my life growing up before I was saved at the age of 19 was my grandfather, Harry Wilkinson. And he sat me down. He wasn’t talking about Israel at this point. He was just talking about my need of Jesus. And he said, “Paul, you’ve got a lot of knowledge up there in your head, but unless it drops 12 inches into your heart, it’s of no use.”

And that was the point I was making there, that we can immerse ourselves in books and podcasts, and they have their place, and they’re wonderful. But if it’s just knowledge, if it’s just up there in the head and it doesn’t sink into the heart and work its way out through the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives, then it’s of no lasting value. And that’s what the Lord wants. He’s touching our hearts, isn’t He? He’s bringing us closer, wanting us to come closer to His heart.

Tim Moore: I’ll close with this. You discussed the significance of God’s self-revelatory name, jealous. He calls Himself jealous. And given His holy jealousy for Israel, why should every Christian be encouraged that that is His name He calls Himself?

Paul Wilkinson: Because like Paul said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11, I think the Apostle Paul said, “I have a godly jealousy for you because I betrothed you to one husband, even Christ Jesus.” And the same God who’s jealous over His Earthly people, Israel, is jealous over us, His spiritual people, if you like, the Church. And that jealousy, yes it requires reverence, it requires a holy fear, it requires obedience.

But that jealousy is protective. That jealousy reminds us that He never stops watching over us, cares for us, provides for us. And any day, Tim, you and I believe this with all our heart, any day, we’re going to hear that trumpet call and we’re going to be caught up to be with our Lord and be with Him where He is forever.

Tim Moore: Forever. You know, that’s what I’m looking forward to more than anything else. Paul, I’m so glad your travels brought you again across the pond and right here to Maranatha Acres.

Paul Wilkinson: Thank you, Tim.

Tim Moore: So, brother, thank you for your faithfulness to our soon coming Lord, our jealous God, and for sparking even more our love for His people, Israel.

Paul Wilkinson: Praise the Lord.

Tim Moore: Amen.

Closing

Tim Moore: I’ve already told you that I was thoroughly blessed reading Israel: The Inheritance of God. We’ve been able to secure a number of copies and we’d be glad to send one to you. Just call the number on the screen or visit christinprophecy.org. For only $20, we’ll send you your own copy.

You know, Israel just celebrated its 77th anniversary as a modern nation. There is no greater sign that God’s prophetic clock is ticking toward midnight. Those with eyes to see recognize that Jesus return is imminent and soon.

And those who desire to be like King David and be recognized as after God’s own heart come to love what God loves. His word makes it clear that He loves the Jewish people, Israel. So I pray that you do as well and that you seek to bless Israel and the Jews.

I also hope to see you at our Annual Prophecy Conference in June, or on a pilgrimage trip… perhaps this year, in Jerusalem. For now, on behalf of all of us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries, shalom and Godspeed!

End of Program