Jesus is Not Like Buddha

III. Israel and Judaism

God's Plan for Israel and China

   The first three chapters of the Bible tell of God's creation of the world and mankind's rebellion against God. The next few chapters tell how the following generations continued in that path of evil. God displayed His anger against mankind's rebellion by destroying most of the world's population with a massive flood. Later men went to build a city with a huge tower to make a name for themselves. In response to their pride and self-reliance, God scattered them over the face of the entire earth and confused their languages so that they could not understand each other.
   At that point, approximately 4000 years ago, God chose one man named Abraham out of all the people in the world for a special purpose that would shape the rest of the Bible and the rest of human history. God said to Him:

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)

   In summary, God made two incredible promises to Abraham. First, God would make Abraham's descendants into a great and blessed nation. Second, and even more incredible, God would bless all nations and races of the earth through Abraham.
   These two promises provide a summary of the entire Bible. Recall that the Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament records the history of how God made the descendants of Abraham into a great and blessed nation, the Jewish people of Israel. The New Testament tells of the blessing for all nations of the earth which came through Abraham's greatest descendant, Jesus Christ.
   Since God's plan was to bless the whole world through the Jews, He placed them in the land of Israel right at the meeting point of Africa, Asia, and Europe. As stated in the introduction, Christianity is not a "Western religion." God's gift and God's message for China does not depend on America, Britain, or Rome. It does, however, depend on the things that God did in Asia thousands of years ago amongst Abraham and his descendants.
   God promised to bless all nations through Abraham, but what are those blessings that God has for China and all the world? People who hate God often hope for "blessings" which are not at all pleasing to God. One of God's great blessings is that He renews our minds to understand what true blessedness consists of. In the most famous sermon (speech) that Jesus ever gave, He began by turning His listeners' idea of "blessing" upside down:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:3-12)

"Kill Your Only Son"

   The fact that God told a man to kill his own son and burn the body as an offering to God is shocking enough. However, what makes it even more shocking is that the man to whom God said this was the same man whom God promised to make the father of a great nation. Moreover, the son whom God said to kill was the very son through whom God had promised to build that great nation. This is what happened:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
   "Here I am," he replied.
   Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
   Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
   Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
   "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
   "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
   Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
   "Here I am," he replied.
   "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
   Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." (Genesis 22:1-14)

   God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his only son demonstrates that God expects us to let nothing get in the way of our obedience to Him, no matter how hard it is. Also it is a reminder that God never said that the path of following Him would be easy. God tests the hopes, dreams, expectations, and faithfulness of all those who follow Him.
   Yet there is a greater significance to this event. The Bible later explains that Abraham knew he could trust God completely. God has the power to bring the dead back to life, and God had promised to make a great nation through Abraham's son. If God commanded Abraham to kill his son, Abraham knew he must obey, and he trusted God to bring his son back to life:

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Freedom from Slavery

   God always does fulfill all of His promises, and He did indeed make Abraham the father of a great nation. However, God also told Abraham about the hardships that nation would face. "The LORD said to him, `Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.'" (Genesis 15:13) As God had said, after Abraham's death his descendants became slaves in Egypt. Yet even in slavery, their people continued to grow in numbers.
   After four hundred years of slavery the Israelites cried out to God for help. God heard their cries and said that He would rescue them. But slave masters do not easily let their slaves go, so God began to send plagues upon Egypt. God caused insects to cover their land, the Egyptians' cattle died, etc. Even after God displayed His power and sent so many warnings, still Pharaoh (the ruler of Egypt) would not let the Israeli slaves go.
   As the final and greatest plague God said, "About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt--worse than there has ever been or ever will be again." (Exodus 11:4-6) God said that the Israeli families would be kept safe, their children would not be harmed, but only if they followed God's instructions for them:

"Each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.... The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs....
   "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."...
   When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down....
   At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. (Exodus 12:3-30)

   That day is called the "Passover" because when God went across Egypt bringing a plague of death He passed over the Israeli homes when He saw the blood on their doorframes. The Jews observe the Passover every year as a reminder of how God brought them out of slavery. It is one of the most, in fact probably the most important date on the Jewish calendar.

The Blood that Covers Sin

   There is a recurring pattern in the Biblical events that we have learned about so far. At critical points in history God allows for an animal to be killed in place of a human. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were covered with shame because of their rebellion against God. They deserved to die immediately, but instead God used animal skins to cover their shame. Leaves sewn together were not sufficient; a creature had to die for their shame to be covered. Later God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, but at the last moment God stopped him and allowed him to sacrifice a ram in place of his son. At the time of the Passover, every household in Egypt experienced a death. However, God allowed the people of Israel to sacrifice a lamb, and the lamb's blood took the place of the blood of their sons.
   Later God made it clear that this pattern was no coincidence. Allowing for the death of a substitute was part of God's plan. God commanded the people of Israel to build a temple in which the glory of His presence would dwell. Whenever someone realized he had done wrong by sinning against the Lord, he was to take an animal, generally a goat or lamb, as a sin offering. God commanded the person to then place his hand on the head of the animal and kill it.
   When the man put his hands on the animal's head, it signified that the animal was taking the man's sin and therefore the punishment that he deserved. Sometimes even the sins of the entire community were put on the head of one animal. "He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert." (Leviticus 16:21-22)
   From the very beginning God's courtroom has handed down one and only one punishment for breaking any of God's law: the death penalty. However, in His mercy God has sometimes allowed a substitute of His choice to pay the penalty. Wherever there is sin, there must and will be death. But if the death of the sacrifice took the penalty that a man deserved, then God considered man's guilt to be covered over by the blood of the lamb or goat. Thus the man was forgiven, because to forgive someone is to cover over the guilt of what they have done against us. The word "atonement" in the Bible describes this kind of "covering". God is willing to forgive our sins, but only when they have been atoned for, that is, only when they have been covered and washed away by the blood of an acceptable substitute:

He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.... In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:33-35)
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. (Leviticus 17:11)
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

   Altogether there were numerous daily sacrifices to be made, special weekly and monthly sacrifices, and extra sacrifices on special days of the year. The enormous amount of blood that God required to be shed on Israel's altar demonstrated His great anger against man's sin. Although God was showing mercy and providing forgiveness to Israel through this process, at the same time He was also showing that no amount of animal sacrifices could ever completely solve man's sin problem.

Priests

   Three important kinds of people in Jewish history help us to understand Israel's relationship to God. We will look at them in the order they most commonly appear in the Bible: priests, kings, and prophets.
   Israel consisted of twelve distinct tribes who descended from the twelve different great-grandchildren of Abraham. God set apart one of those tribes, named Levi, to be priests and to serve in all of the work surrounding the temple. Amongst the priests, God set apart one man to be the high priest.
   One job of the priests was to teach the people to not to approach the temple or the worship of their Holy God as as they did any other common part of life. "[The priests] must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean." (Leviticus 10:10) "[The priests] are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean." (Ezekiel 44:23) The priests themselves, before they began serving in the temple, had to be cleansed through a ceremony that involved several animal sacrifices. Some of the blood was sprinkled on the priests and on the special clothes they would wear only in the temple. Once again we see that sin defiles us before God, and only blood can cover over sin. God did not allow anything or anyone in His temple unless it had been cleansed by blood.
   Furthermore, the temple area was divided into different sections to separate the holy from the common. There was an outer courtyard built around the temple which only the people of Israel could enter where they would bring their animals to sacrifice. The first room of the temple was called the Holy Place which only the priests were allowed to enter. Then there was a veil and behind the veil was the Most Holy Place in which several sacred objects were kept including the stone tablets on which God had written His law. The Most Holy Place was where God said His presence would dwell. Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place and even he could only enter once a year on the "Day of Atonement".
   The Day of Atonement is probably the second most important day on the Jewish calendar after Passover. The high priest was required to make several animal sacrifices on that day in addition to the usual daily sacrifices. God commanded that he bring into the Most Holy Place some incense and the blood of a bull. The priest would use the smoke of the incense to keep him from looking directly at the place where God promised to appear, for God had said, "No one may see me and live." (Exodus 33:20) Then the priest was to sprinkle the bull's blood between the place where God would appear and the stone tablets which God's law was written on. If God looked at His law He would see that all of Israel had broken it and thus they all deserved the death penalty. But now God would see the bull's blood instead of the broken law, so the blood of the bull covered over the record of Israel's sin.
   Therefore we see that the priest's job was to serve as a mediator between the Holy God and common man. The priest represented the people in seeking God's favor and mercy. Before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden they knew God personally and could speak with Him directly. They didn't need a priest. Yet sin put up barriers so that now man had to remain distant from God's holy presence. Even the priests were extremely limited in their access to God's temple. They had to make sacrifices for themselves before they could offer sacrifices for other people. The priests (just like all monks and other religious figures today) faced the same death penalty under God's judgment as the rest of us. Because of their own weakness, the priests were very limited in how much they could do to make peace between man and God.
   Thus God promised to send a priest greater than all the priests of Israel. The first priest mentioned in the Bible was a mysterious man named Melchizedek. The Bible says that Melchizedek was greater than Abraham the father of Israel (see Hebrews 7:6-7). God promised that He would send a Holy One to serve as priest in the order of Melchizedek. This priest would prove to be completely without sin because the death penalty would not have power over him:

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110:4)
"You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." (Psalm 16:10)

Kings

   People will often accept an evil king or ruler over them as long as they feel confident that he will lead the fight against their foreign/external enemies. That is exactly what happened early in the history of Israel. God was Israel's good King who provided them with all they needed, ruled with justice and mercy, and protected them from their enemies as long as they were faithful to Him. "The LORD is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." (Psalm 10:16-18)
   Israel had every reason to put their full confidence in God, but their faith was small. So when they saw the men who ruled as kings over the other nations they felt that they needed one as well. They said, "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8:19-20)
   In response God said, "They have rejected me as their king." (1 Samuel 8:7) He warned them that a king would take many of their possessions and property for himself, and he would take some of their children to serve him. Still the people wanted a king so God granted them one, but he warned them that he would not rescue them from their own king when the king oppressed them. "When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day." (1 Samuel 8:18)
   The problem with anyone who comes to power as king or ruler yet does not fear God is that he will very likely start to think of himself as a god. Such rulers begin to act as if the whole earth was created for their own sake, as if it was in their power to accomplish anything they desired, and thus they expect everyone to treat them as a god. Rather than serving the people and protecting the poor and oppressed people in the land, the king lives primarily to make himself look great. In the Bible we find stories of several kings who followed this pattern. God's judgment came upon all of them, and their kingdoms were all eventually brought to nothing.
   In contrast, a king who fears God realizes that his authority only comes from being under God's authority. A good king uses his position to destroy corruption, to preserve justice, and to help the suffering. The greatest king that Israel ever had was one of their first kings, a man named David. " David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people." (2 Samuel 8:15)
   Every king who thought he was a god has been proven wrong by his death. Every kingdom that thought it would last forever has been proven wrong when another kingdom rose up and conquered it. Likewise the greatest and strongest nations on earth today will not last forever. However, God made a special promise to David. Even though David would die, from amongst David's descendants God would raise up a king who would rule forever with justice and righteousness:

"Now then, tell my servant David, `This is what the LORD Almighty says:... When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.... I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'" (2 Samuel 7:8-16)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

Prophets

   We can know a certain amount about God by looking at the world He created. When God brings us into judgment, no one will be able to say, "God, I didn't believe in you because no one taught me." God has already declared that He will not accept such excuses. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
   However, what we can learn about God by looking at what He has made is limited. If I look at someone's work then I know something about their abilities, but I cannot know their thoughts unless they choose to express them. Likewise, no one can know the thoughts of God unless God chooses to reveal Himself in some way.
   The clearest way that God revealed Himself to His chosen people Israel was by sending His word to them through prophets. The Bible is a collection of the words of God's prophets. The prophets taught and reminded the people about God's law. However, throughout their history Israel kept disobeying the commandments of God, so the prophets spent a lot of time warning them of God's coming judgment. Through the prophets, God told them that they must turn away from their evil deeds, otherwise He would send in their enemies to conquer them. Therefore the prophets very often had a message that the people didn't like. Most prophets were persecuted in some way because of their message, and some of them were killed by their own people, the Jews.
   At the same time, God warned His people that there would be many false prophets, and indeed there were. Anyone in Israel who pretended to be a prophet but was not truly sent from God was supposed to be put to death, " But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death." (Deuteronomy 18:20) In practice, though, this usually did not happen because the people liked the messages of the false prophets more than the messages of the true prophets. God is holy and He hates sin. Man is sinful and rebellious against God. Therefore God's message to man is often painful because He exposes the evil within us and commands us to turn away from evil and instead follow Him. False prophets focus their message on what the people want to hear, "If a liar and deceiver comes and says, `I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people!" (Micah 2:11) One of the most important tests of a prophet was whether he tried to get the people to worship other gods:

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

   The most important prophet in Israel was Moses. Moses had a special relationship with God amongst all the prophets because the Bible says God spoke with him "face to face". He is the one who led them out from slavery in Egypt, and he is the one who first taught them God's law. Thus Moses is considered (in human terms) the "founder" of the Jewish religion. Although the law given by God through Moses is extremely important, God made it clear that His revelation of Himself to man was not yet complete because He promised to send Israel another prophet like Moses, "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him." (Deuteronomy 18:18)

The Promised Priest, Prophet, and King

   The Old Testament (i.e. Jewish Bible) is like a mystery novel without the last chapter. Over and over God indicates that there is something greater to come in Israel's history, or rather someOne greater. The last portion of the Old Testament was written around 500 BC. Many Jews are still waiting for the last chapter to be written because they do not realize that the One whom they are waiting for has already come.
   This person that the Old Testament foretells has an important title. In the Hebrew language it is "Messiah", in the Greek language it is "Christ". Both of these words mean "The Anointed One". In the Old Testament, people were anointed with oil when they were set apart to serve in a very special role with God's spirit in them to empower them. In particular, the three groups of people who were anointed were priests, kings, and prophets. For example:

Priests:
Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. (Exodus 30:30)
Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull's blood... (Leviticus 4:16)
Kings:
David had been anointed king over Israel. (2 Samuel 5:17)
Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, `This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.' (2 Kings 9:3)
Prophets:
Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm. (Psalm 105:15)
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. (Isaiah 61:1)

   In the previous sections we saw that God promised Israel a coming Holy Priest on the order of Melchizedek who would live forever, a coming King who would reign with righteousness over David's throne, and a coming Prophet who would know the Lord face-to-face even as Moses did. Melchizedek was not only a priest but also a king (see Genesis 14:8). David was not only a king but he was also a prophet (see Acts 2:29-30). Moses was not only a prophet but also served as a priest (see Leviticus 8:15, Numbers 7:89, Exodus 24:8). Thus God was indicating that His promises for a great priest, king, and prophet to come were all related. Interestingly, the title "Christ" (Anointed One) is descriptive of all three of those roles. God kept giving hints that the Christ would fulfill all of the hopes of Israel in one person:

Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: `Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.' (Zechariah 6:12-13)