Following our discussion of the Jubilee Year, I mentioned that nowhere in the New Testament will you find the term “Kinsman Redeemer” being applied to Yeshua.
However, the term you will find in the New Testament is “redeemer”.
Here’s the thing and I’ve said this before.
The New Testament authors assume you are already aware of the nuances about these sort of things such as a Kinsman Redeemer because they are basic Torah topics.
The Torah is the only place you’re going to find an explanation outlining the credentials, qualities and duties of a Kinsman Redeemer.
We find that in perfect accordance with the Law of Moses, Yeshua fulfilled the requirements of a Kinsman Redeemer because FIRST, he was a kinsman and SECOND he had the means to pay the debt.
Now the key question we really need to answer here is WHO EXACTLY ARE YESHUA’S KINSMEN?
The answer I think is pretty simple and obvious.
Yeshua’s kinsmen are the Israelites, period.
There is only ONE physical people and nation on earth that Yeshua fully identified himself with:
THE HEBREW PEOPLE AND THE NATION OF ISRAEL.
Yeshua never and I mean NEVER presented himself as some kind of universal savior for all mankind.
He never made himself out to be some weird generic dude who represented all humans from every nation.
The truth is Yeshua was a dark, olive-skinned Semitic man.
He was born to a fully Jewish mother and we have Miriam’s genealogy as undeniable evidence proving this.
The only laws Yeshua followed were the Law of Moses and the traditions he participated in were all Jewish traditions.
The only God he worshipped was YHWH, the God of Israel.
In terms of ethnicity and national identity, Yeshua was a super Jew!
He was about as Jewish as it gets!
So again, who were Yeshua’s kinsmen?
The answer is Jews, plain and simple.
Well, actually to be more accurate, his kinsmen were the Israelites, God’s elect people.
Hence, it would logically follow, if Yeshua is indeed a Kinsmen Redeemer, then that means he can only redeem his kinsmen who are the Israelites.
I mean, DUH, is there anything clearer than this point?!
If that’s not the case, then he’s NOT a kinsman redeemer at all.
He would be a universal redeemer.
It’s common among gentile folks to spout maple syrupy platitudes like “Isn’t it wonderful that Yeshua saved all humans universally without exception or distinction” without realizing that such a notion is NOT substantiated by Scripture.
And keep in mind that I’m saying this as one who comes from gentile extraction (as far as I know) himself.
Let the TRUTH come out and let the doctrinal lies die and be buried deep at the bottom of the deepest ocean.
Did Yeshua come to redeem ALL humans universally minus exception or distinction?
Scripturally, the answer is NO.
Yeshua only saves those who TRUST IN HIM.
Leviticus 25 makes it clear that a Kinsman Redeemer CANNOT redeem a foreigner.
And throughout the whole Bible, a foreigner is defined as a non-Hebrew.
So if you’re a gentile, does this mean you’re doomed?
Fortunately, the answer to that question is also an affirmative NO.
I’ll start getting into this topic from my next post.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
Yeshua withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him,
crying out, “Lord, Son of David,have mercy on me!
My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
Yeshua did not answer a word.
So his disciples came to him and urged him,
“Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
He answered,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
The woman came and knelt before him.
“Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied,
“It is not right to take the children’s bread
and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said.
“Even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Yeshua said to her,
“Woman, you have great faith!
Your request is granted.”
And her daughter was healed at that moment.
-Matthew 15:21-28
This is a wonderful teaching, wish more people would understand this! We are all grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel! Just to add: Not only was He a Hebrew but He was also a full blooded Human Hebrew!
Amen! Thanks for reading!
yes…sounds very logical my friend….im guessing here but my gut feeling says the author of this is someone who believes hes a jew and spent his life convincing himself that somehow he or his group is more special then all the others and then attaches his identity to this concept…..yes friend..is so logical to think that a great creator is gonna come to protect the all special jews in israel….whom the last 5 jewish prime ministers have all be either convicted or on trial for corruption…..yea kid…..real logical !!
I’m not Jewish.
Dear brother, in several verses it is mentioned that Jesus Christ ordered the apostles to scatter throughout the world and make them disciples. If he is concerned only about the Hebrews, why should he do that?
Reaching Jews in the Diaspora.
Is not Noah’s covenant more superior than the covenant YHWH made with Israel? Brother.
He identified himself with Noah ( Shaliach) as the one who gives rest to the world . He identifies with gentile ( job , a gentile Prophet , Melchizedek. A type of gentile Christ and Cyrus , a gentlile king who foreshaspeed Christ
I guess John 3:16 should read “for God so loved Israel, that he sent his only begotton son that whosever of Jewish descent that believes on him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Abraham was not Jewish. Ruth was a Moabite woman and Boaz her kinsman redeemer. I am a daughter of Abraham and Jesus is my kinsman redeemer. Your posts are very subtle in implying that one must be Torah observant and that non jewish israeli believers are like second class citizens in the kingdom of God. New believers may get discouraged when reading this post. God so loved the World. If anyone in the world wants to rejoice in the kinsman redeemer image of Christ than why would you want to discourage that?
Your point and criticism is well-taken. Thank you for sharing. Let me make it clear that as Paul said “There be neither Jew nor Greek in the body of the Messiah”. There are no second class citizens in the Kingdom of God. However, the Scripture does make it clear and so did Yeshua that salvation is from Israel and for Israel. But those who are grafted in, also become full-fledged citizens. In addition, consider that for the longest time the gentile church has treated Jews as second-class citizens and Jewishness with disdain. One mission of this blog is to rectify that and place Israel where it properly belongs, as God’s chosen nation with a mission to be a light unto the whole world. I should also add that I’m not Jewish by the way. Thanks for reading. Be blessed and SHALOM!
I think the reason for the disdain of Jewishness is the Talmud, which is the codification of the Traditions of the Elders by the Pharisees that Jesus repudiated. The more people learn about the wicked, vile, seditious, Kabala black magic in the Talmud, the more they are alarmed and repulsed by anybody who would subscribe to such Satanic doctrines. It involves subversive oaths to join gnostic secret societies. It is so wicked that even Babylon expelled the Talmudic Jews sometime around the 11th Century.
Only the small minority of Karaite Jews in Israel reject the Talmud and cling to the Torah only. It sounds like you give blanket approval to anybody who attaches to themselves the name of Jew. For example, Zionists are Bolshevik terrorists who have stolen a name with spiritual connotations to justify their bloody extortion of property from Christians, Arabs and Shephardic Jews who had lived on the land for centuries.
Good point. I think it depends on what you mean by “Torah Observant.” The ceremonial laws are no longer binding today, having been fulfilled in Christ. However, the 10 Commandments of Exodus 20 and the various civil & cultural commands that follow in Exodus 21-24 (and elsewhere) are binding.