Living in a
Parenthetical Aside
Suddenly, I realized that as a
child of God by adoption, from the perspective of the Gentile persuasion, I
have been living in a spiritual parenthetical aside.
Centuries ago, God caused something
to be written in His Holy Bible.
Isa 49:6 And
he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of
Jews may have written the
oracles of God, the words of the Holy Scriptures, but that does not mean they
understood what they wrote. They also
wrote about the coming of the Messiah, and yet most of them today are no more
informed than their ancestors, who helped crucify the Messiah.
We often lose sight of the
fact that Christ Jesus lived and was crucified under Levitical law. His earthly life was lived as part of the Old
Testament age. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John were all written during the New Testament age, but they were written about
the last days of the Old Testament.
Jesus Himself was not sent to
Gentiles. He did talk to, and interact
with a few Gentiles, but he was sent to Israelites!
Matt 15:24
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Even the Opening of Acts
still has the Apostles dealing, with one notable exception (Cornelius) with
Jews. Their mission was also to
Israelites, and not primarily to Gentiles.
Acts 11:19
Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and
When Jesus told the Apostles
plainly what would happen, they did not understand! Most Jews have little or no understanding
concerning Christ.
Luke 18:31-34
31 Then he took unto him the
twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to
32 For he shall be delivered
unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted
on:
33 And they shall scourge
him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew
they the things which were spoken.
I must admit that few
“Gentile” Christians understand God’s plan for the ages!
When Jesus was laid in the tomb,
and His followers went to see it, they did not understand what they were
looking at.
John 20:1-10
1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark,
unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the
sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the
sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came
first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went
he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth
the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes,
but wrapped together in a place by itself.
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and
he saw, and believed.
9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the
dead.
10 Then the disciples went away again
unto their own home.
Peter saw, believed, and went
home. They were so impressed that they went fishing. At that point, it had not
occurred to them to spread the good news.
They had no understanding of the consequences of the resurrection.
John 21:3
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a
fishing. They say unto him, We
also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship
immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
So, how did I get into this
parenthetical aside?
Acts 9:3-6
3 And as he journeyed, he came near
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou
persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told
thee what thou must do.
Saul was out causing havoc
among the Jews who believed in the resurrected Christ, when he actually met the
resurrected Christ! That meeting changed my life.
Without that meeting, I would
have now been happily on my way to oblivion, or worse.
Acts 9:10-15
10 And there was a certain disciple at
11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called
Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of
12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his
hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil
he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on
thy name.
15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,
and kings, and the children of
Saul became Paul and brought
the gospel of Jesus’ grace to the Gentiles. And so, one Sunday morning at
That is how I ended up living
in this parenthetical aside. God focused
on
Have you acknowledged Christ
as Lord? If not, today could be your
day.