thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father\u2019s house, unto a land that I will shew
thee:And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing: AND I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE, AND CURSE
HIM THAT CURSETH THEE: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed\u201d (Gen.

With those words, God him self established the irrevocable principle that those who bless the seed of Abraham will be, blessed, and those who curse the seed of Abraham will be cursed. Throughout history, anti-Semites who have tested this principle have done so to their own detriment.

For thousands of years, the Scriptures were passed down from one generation to
another by Jewish priests and scribes who painstakingly handcopied every word on scrolls
or parchments. (They didn\u2019t have printing presses or typesetting equip ment like we have
today.) Every thing had to be copied by hand, one word at a time. It was a very slow and
tedious process.

The priests and scribes were devoted to the preservation of God\u2019s Word and went to
great pains to eliminate any possibility of error in their work. For example, they would count
the number of Hebrew characters (letters) in a manuscript before making a copy of it. Once
they were finished, if the number of characters in the copy didn\u2019t perfectly match the num-
ber of characters in the original, the copy was destroyed immediately.

new ink, and bathe himself in the mikvah (a Jewish baptistry) before writing the name. Then
he would empty and clean the pen again, reinsert the old ink, and continue writing. Every
time the scribe came to theTetragrammaton he would repeat the process.

33). The translators of the Septuagint rendered it with the Greeklesous, from which the
anglicized form \u201cJesus\u201d comes. Mashiach is the Hebrew word for Messiah, or Anointed One.
So Yeshua ha Mashiach is literally \u201cJesus the Messiah,\u201d or \u201cJesus the Christ.\u201d

Never forget that the roots of our Christian faith are in biblical Judaism! Yeshua of
Nazareth was born of a Jewish family of the House of David, descended from the tribe of
Judah. He was raised and lived as an observant Jew. He preached in the Jewish synagogues,
offered sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple, and fulfilled the messianic prophecies in the
Jewish Tanakh (Old Testament).

The divinely-inspired Scriptures even specified the time of Messiah\u2019s coming. The Prophet Daniel predicted the arrival of \u201cMessiah the Prince\u201d in A.D. 33 (see Daniel 9:25, 26), the precise date of our Lord\u2019s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.1

Those messianic expectations found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Prophecies about
His birth, character, family, forerunner, ministry, place of residence, teachings, rejection,
betrayal, and crucifixion \u2014- all were fulfilled down to the smallest detail.

The Gospel was to be proclaimed to the Jew first. It was a priority not only intime,
but also inprivilege. Paul wasn\u2019t merely saying that historically the Gospel would be
preached first to the Jews. He was also pointing out that they enjoy a priority in privilege.
They have a special place in God\u2019s plan.

Jesus said, \u201c. . . salvation is of the Jews\u201d ( John 4:22). The Jewish nation, however, was
not set apart because of its superior merit or magnitude (see Deuteronomy 7:7). Neither
were the Jews chosen because of any partiality on God\u2019s part toward them (see Acts 10:34).
The selection of Israel to be a light to the nations was based not on human merit, but on
divine grace: \u201c. . . because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he

Israel\u2019s election was a matter of practical necessity. The unfolding of God\u2019s plan of
redemption had to begin at a particular point in time with a particular people, so He chose
the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In turn, it would be their responsibility to take this
good news to the rest of the world (see Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).

The Jews, therefore, were first in privilege. The covenants were made with the Jews.
The promises were made to the Jews. The prophets were sent to the Jews. In the Old
Testament, God made His earthly dwelling place among the Jews. So it was perfectly fitting
that when Messiah came, the Jewish people were the ones who were to hear about it first.

That\u2019s the biblical priority: to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. The real tragedy is
that in much of Christendom today, the order has been reversed. Some denominations are
eager to take the Gospel to everyone but the Jews. Even among evangelicals, \u201cto the Jew
first\u201d has all too frequently become \u201cto the Jew last\u201d!

According to theBerit Hadashah ( New Testament), there are five \u201cmysteries\u201d that
were previously undisclosed in theTanakh (Old Testament). One of those mysteries is
explained by Paul here in Romans, Chapter 11. It is the outworking of God\u2019s grace whereby
Jew and Gentile, after a period of disobedience by both, will be granted a place in God\u2019s

The Greek word for \u201cblindness\u201d in this passage literally means a \u201chardening,\u201d \u201cpetri-
fying,\u201d or \u201ccallous.\u201d Of course, a callous is a buildup of hardened skin at a point of sustained
irritation. A callous may form on your foot, for instance, where the skin rubs your shoe. The
callous will grow thicker and harder until finally there\u2019s no more sensitivity. That\u2019s the sort
of \u201cblindness\u201d Israelis experiencing. She has said \u201cno\u201d to God so many times, she\u2019s become
hardened and numbed. When Israel wouldn\u2019t listen to the Prophet Elisha, God sent the
Assyrians. When she wouldn\u2019t listen to Jeremiah, God sent the Babylonians. When she
wouldn\u2019t listen to Jesus the Messiah, He sent the Romans. And every time she has rejected
God\u2019s way, Israel\u2019s heart has gotten a little harder.

In the Book of Exodus, you will recall, Moses went before the Egyptian Pharaoh time
after time, asking for the release of the Children of Israel. On each occasion, Pharaoh
refused. We are told that Pharaoh\u2019s heart was \u201chardened,\u201d or calloused. Notice the progres-
sion. At first, Pharaoh hardened his own heart ( Ex. 7:13 -14, 22). In later confrontations, the
foolish king persisted in his stubborn defiance of the Lord (8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). It wasn\u2019t until
after the sixth plague that the Lord confirmed Pharaoh\u2019s willful action by hardening his
wicked heart for him (9:12).

Pharaoh hardened his own heart by refusing to listen to the Lord. With contempt in his voice, he bellowed, \u201cWho is this Jehovah that I should obey him?\u201d Every time the Egyptian king said \u201cno,\u201d his heart got a little harder. The callous got a little thicker. Finally there was a point where God hardened his heart. At that point, it became a judicial hardening, a sen- tence imposed upon him by God.

That\u2019s what has happened to Israel. Her heart has been hardened. The rulers of Israel refused to recognizeYeshua ( Jesus) asHamashiach (the Messiah) be cause He didn\u2019t come on their terms. His resume\u2019 didn\u2019t conform to their messianic job description. They demand-