Did the Jews Lose Their Right to the Kingdom of God?
The True Israel and the Return of the King and Friday Wrap Up 11-08-2024
Today’s Verse and Thought
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”(Matthew 21:43)
God took away the Kingdom
This week we have been looking at Jewish history leading up to the time of Christ and the development of Rabbinical Judaism. We know that many of the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah in favor of the traditional teaching of the Rabbis. In response to this, Jesus would tell the Jews two parables.
The scene in Jerusalem - Matthew 21
Jesus had just made his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. All the people lined the road and most spread their cloaks, or laid palm branches in front of him, calling out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”.
Right after His exciting entry, Jesus went into the Temple and “he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers,’“ (Matthew 21:12b-13). Jesus chastised the Temple leaders and healed the blind and sick who were there.
The Jewish chief priests and the scribes became “indignant” at the “wonderful things” that Jesus did, and they challenged his authority. The leaders completely ignored the miracles that were taking place and instead were focused on the people praising and following Jesus’ authority instead of theirs.
People don’t like to lose their grip on power and Jesus was blatantly challenging the authority of these false leaders.
“…for he [Jesus] was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”(Matthew 7:29)
Jesus left them to their own jealous bitterness, and went to Bethany for the night. In the morning, he headed back to Jerusalem. On the way, “he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.”(Matthew 21:18b-19).
Anyone who has ever grown figs knows that the fruit begins to form before the leaves come out. They are small hard green nodes at this stage. When the leaves grow, this signifies that the figs are on the tree and ripening. If a fig tree is full of showy green leaves, there should be ripe fruit under them. This tree was all show and no fruit.
The fig tree has been used as a symbol of Israel throughout scripture
Fruit is used to symbolize the visible actions that come from within a person’s heart. Jesus had warned the people to look at the fruits of a person’s life, rather than being deceived by all their showy words and lofty ideas. These are the false ministers who are all talk but their fruit was either nonexistent or rotten.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.”(Matthew 7:15-17)
Jesus had made His entry into Jerusalem. He cleansed the Temple and chastised the leaders, asserted His authority, and now he cursed the fruitless fig tree. It was a picture of the Jewish leaders who were all show and no substance. Just as the fig tree withered and died, so too did His own people. They were spiritually dead. Jesus came to give them life, but many rejected it due to the false teachings of the leaders.
The Two Parables
God "took away the kingdom of heaven" from the Jews. This comes from the next part of this passage when Jesus told two parables.
“The Parable of the Two Sons can be found in Matthew 21:28-32. The basic story is of a man with two sons who told them to go work in the vineyard. The first son refused, but later obeyed and went. The second son initially expressed obedience, but actually disobeyed and refused to work in the vineyard. The son who ultimately did the will of his father was the first son because he eventually obeyed. Jesus then likens the first son to tax collectors and prostitutes—the outcasts of Jewish society—because they believed John the Baptist and accepted “the way of righteousness” (v. 32), in spite of their initial disobedience to the Law.” (source)
The second is the parable of the vineyard
The master of the house, the landowner, prepared his land with a protective fence, a watchtower, and grapevines. He then rented the vineyard to tenants to care for the vineyard until the harvest.
When it was time to gather the fruit, the landowner sent servants to collect it, but the tenants killed the servants. The landowner again sent servants to gather fruit, and the tenants killed them too. On the third attempt, the landowner sent his son. The evil tenants thought if they killed the son, they could steal the vineyard for themselves. But the landowner took the vineyard away from them and gave it to other tenants.
The landowner is God
The vineyard is Israel
The tenants/farmers are the Jewish religious leadership
The landowner’s servants are the prophets who obeyed God and preached His word to Israel
The son is Jesus
The other tenants who are the Gentiles
Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders (the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes) criticizing their rejection of Him and their rejection of all the prophets that He sent to the Jews over the centuries.
The "kingdom of God" here is a shadow of what was coming through Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom and His eternal reign. The Jews were given the opportunity as God’s elect to take their place in God's plan of salvation through Jesus and to eventually reign with Him in the Millennial Kingdom.
“Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:’You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.’”(Matthew 13:14)
The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and the message of repentance. And at Jesus’ public hearing the people rejected him and condemned Him to death. The Kingdom was then given to others, the Gentiles, through the apostles of the early Church.
The New Covenant of God’s grace fulfilled the Old Covenant of the Law through Jesus Christ, the stone that many stumble over. The Jews rejected Jesus, so He rejected them. Was this a permanent rejection? Did the Gentiles now take the place of Israel forever?
" Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits." (Matthew 21:43)
To be continued…
Today’s Question
Verses to Explore
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”(Galatians 5:22-23)
“Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”(Matthew 21:42)
“…saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”(Luke 9:22)
“…so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…”(Colossians 1:10)
Today’s Prayer
Father I pray that today we examine our own fruits and increase our knowledge of you. I know many times a day we tend to not be a source of the good fruits of your Spirit. Our fruits can be hidden behind a lot of leaves that may seem like we are righteous, but when you look under them, sometimes our fruits are not very nourishing.
We can talk a good talk, but the truth will be show in our fruits.
Help us today to submit our lives to you wholeheartedly so that we can produce a good harvest. And help us to find good teachers who will care for our lives with your truth in love, and not just make us feel good with positive vibes and false teaching, or waste our time filling our heads with useless controversies and nonsense. Let us be purposeful in our pursuit of knowledge so that we glorify you with good fruit.
Keep us in your care on the narrow road and show each of us what to do in order to produce fruit for your kingdom. May all honor and glory be yours always. Amen.❤️