If there’s any one thing we can learn from the story of Ruth is that when a gentile accepts the God of Israel, that person is also to accept the people of Israel.
You can’t have one without the other.
The reason why is because God makes a spiritual connection between the convert and the Israelite.
I can appreciate this reality is both mysterious and difficult to understand…
Yet it’s true.
When a gentile comes to the faith in the God of the Hebrews, a relationship is created between that person and natural born Hebrews.
This is seen in the 5 promises Ruth made to Naomi:
“I will go wherever you go
I will stay wherever you stay
Your people will be my people
I will die where you die
I will be buried where you are buried”.
The “I” in these promises refers to a gentile…
And the “you” refers to an Israelite.
So as we move forward in the Book of Ruth, there’s something interesting I want you to notice.
Ruth is ALWAYS referred to as “Ruth the foreigner”…
Or “Ruth the Moabite”.
She is never regarded as a Hebrew.
Yet, the local folks of Bethlehem were aware that Ruth had switched over allegiance from the gods of her people to the God of Israel.
They were also aware of how she was lovingly looking after and caring for Naomi.
So when they referred to her as “Ruth the Moabite”, they weren’t insulting her.
They were just acknowledging the objective and unchanged fact of her gentile background.
They had accepted her decision to forsake the gods of her people and become one with them.
Yet at the same time, they knew she was NOT a native born Hebrew.
Ruth’s DNA had NOT somehow been transformed to that of a physical ethnic Jew.
Yet in some mysterious way, she now possessed a Hebrew heart or soul…for lack of a better expression.
This does lead to an interesting question however.
When Ruth pledged allegiance to the God of Israel and made the decision to become one with Israel…
Was she now a Hebrew?
Or was she still a gentile living among Hebrews?
Or maybe some strange combination of both?
I would say this is the one question that gentile believers in the God of Israel struggle with the most…
I know some gentile believers like to assert they are no longer a gentile after they came to faith in the Jewish messiah.
I myself when attending a Messianic Congregation in San Francisco used to wear a Kippah and lie about my ethnic background telling everyone I encountered I was ethnically Jewish when I knew I wasn’t…
Such was the degree of just how insecure I was in my identity…
And that fact that I was mixed race (Asian and White) didn’t help matters much either…
Which leads me to the takeaway for today…
Whether you are of gentile or Jewish background, your Father in heaven has created you in His image and wants you to take pride in who He has created you to be…
The many inferiority complexes we suffer from originate because we compare ourselves to others…
And deep down inside we wish we were “white”, “black”, “Jewish” or whatever.
And it doesn’t even have to be about race.
The same principle applies whenever we judge ourselves as inferior because we’re not as tall as another person, don’t make as much money, aren’t as skinny or heavier, can’t speak English or another language as well and so on and on…
Boy, I’d say a good 95% of the insecurities that plague us human beings would be solved in an instant if we’d just wholeheartedly ACCEPT who God has created us to be…
Whether we’re a Jew or Gentile or even some green alien from outer space.
Interestingly, the Jewish leadership of the early Messianic church struggled with this very same issue.
Remember, the first so-called Christians were ALL “Jewish”.
When gentiles started coming to faith in the God of Israel via their acceptance of the Jewish Messiah as their Lord and Savior, the big question was what do to with them?
And what were they exactly?
Were they now Jewish and should they be circumcised?
Or were they something else?
So let me close with this question to you all.
Actually I have 2 questions depending on whether you’re a Jew or Gentile…
If you’re a gentile believer in the Messiah, how do you view your identity?
Do you consider yourself to be some kind of “spiritual Israelite” or something?
Or if you’re a Jewish believer who has come to faith in Yeshua as the Messiah, how do you view us gentiles who have come to faith in your God and your Messiah?
Do you view us as equal brothers and sisters to you in the faith or something else?
As a gentile believer in the Jewish Messiah, my personal answer is I don’t believe I have become ethnically Jewish but at the same time I’m aware I’ve been grafted into the spiritual commonwealth of Israel.
Even though it took many years, I’m happy to say God has replaced the inferiority complex I used to hold towards my Jewish brothers and sisters in the faith with a healthy identity that accepts who I am without having to look down on or up to anyone else.
I truly feel that in the body of Messiah there is neither Jew or Gentile.
The feelings of inferiority are gone…
So I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The next time we meet, we’ll see what Rabbi Shaul (the Apostle Paul) had to say on the matter.
Totally grafted in!
Yes! Absolutely, you are grafted in. Thanks for answering.
A follower of Yeshua
Amen! Thanks for answering.
A messianic Israelite.
Amen!
Yes. They must accept the God of Israel not religion of Judaism. The Jews are not part of Israel again until the Two Sticks are grafted back together.
Judah was removed from the Kingdom of Israel because of the idolatry of King Solomon.
God divorced the house of Israel, not Judah. However, with Christ’s death, Israel is redeemed.
is there not the custom that to be jewish you need to be born of a jewish woman/mother your jewishness is passed down through you woman not the man…..so if a jewish man marries a gentile woman the children are not jewish.. but if a gentile man marries a jewish woman the children are jewish…???? is this true or false?????
True this is a well-established custom. But this post is not talking about that. This post is talking about what happens to one’s spiritual identity under the NEW covenant. Shalom.
well i was asking about the custom of being jewish through the woman aspect because if we are grafted into the family is someone not jewish then…if we accept jesus as our savior are we not then grafted into HIS family and that now makes us jewish……. if a jewish family adopts say a new born into there family and is raised in the family will they not be considered jewish since they are in that family… so we might not be jewish outwardly in todays world but are we not jewish in the spirit sense, since we have been accepted into the family. also since ruth was a moabite ( not jewish) did she not become a jew some kind of way because did not jesus come through her line????
Yeah, I guess what you say makes sense. It wouldn’t fly in the Jewish world though…either religious or secular.
However, this does remind me about something I’ve talked about in the past.
You can choose to view yourself and base your identity from God’s perspective…
Or you can let yourself fall into the trap of viewing yourself from the world’s perspective…
Which leads to insecurities and low self-esteem because you’re always comparing yourself to others (I’m not as good-looking, don’t make as much money as the other person blah, blah, blah).
Choose wisely…
The world and this life is passing away…
But God and His Kingdom will NEVER get rusty and stands FOREVER!
Be blessed.
thanks big guy… ,
all the best to ya..
tony
thanks good sir, but a follow up question, then. when did abraham become jewish or how did he become jewish , then later it talks about one not being jewish not by outward circumcision but now of being a jew by being circumcision of the heart or something like that. thanks
Being Jewish in the sense of being chosen is always based on a declaration by God Himself…
Consider Jacob and Esau…
They both had the same mother and father…
Yet one was considered a Hebrew (Jacob) and the other (Esau) wasn’t.
Why?
The answer is because Jacob was DECLARED as chosen by God…
Hope this makes sense…
Be blessed!
another question mr R, how do i make sure “I” or anyone for that matter is DECLARED and chosen by GOD like jacob was chosen by GOD, i really dont want to end up being an ” ESAU ” ???? lololol
thanks for your time
tony
I would say if you have an inclination to follow the God of Israel, that’s a sign that you’re being called…and thus are chosen.
Be blessed!
oh sorry i forgot, since i did not see your answer, on my question about RUTH…. was she ( RUTH )not a moabite woman…. and it was through her line that jesus came was it not…so how did she become jewish then….???? for without her being jewish how is jesus a jew???
tony
She didn’t become Jewish, ethnically that is…
That’s my whole point.
Ruth was married to a Jew. Her mother-in-law was Naomi. When Ruth’s husband died, Ruth and Naomi moved to Israel. Moabite women were not penalized under the law. Boaz, a Jew and relative of Ruth’s deceased husband, married Ruth and they had Jewish offspring like King David and Yeshuah.