Something quite unique is revealed when looking into the six chapters known as “Parashah Noach”, beginning with the episode of only eight people being selected to build and enter into the ark and ending with the episode of the people of the earth scheming together to build a tower to enable them to reach heaven, only to be driven apart by Yahweh Himself into what may be regarded as the formation and beginning of the various peoples and nations of the earth. A Parashah beginning with the emphasis on a handful of people that Yahweh had chosen with his own hand and ending with the emphasis on the diversity and variety of the languages and the nations of the earth. The first part of the Parashah is about the insiders, the chosen ones, and the latter part of the Parashah is about the outsiders, the foreigners. And already at this early stage of Scriptures we find ourselves confronted with a question (and to a certain extent, a paradox) that is repeated over and over again – not only during the period covered by Scriptures but even up to the day and age that we are living in right now.
This paradox may be formulated as follows: If it is true that Yahweh had chosen only one group or one nation as his unique and set-apart people, where does it leave those (like the majority of us) who are not being part of this group – at least not ethnically? Many people are perplexed by this question. Many believers from nations other than Israel today are just as confused as the people spoken of in Bereshit (Genesis) 11 (the last chapter of this week’s Parashah) who were scattered in all directions of the earth, away from a place subsequently called “Bavel” (or Babylon), meaning “confusion”. What is the point of choosing Yahweh, if He had already chosen a group other than ourselves, as His chosen people? Why is it that even the Messiah proclaimed that He was only sent to the lost sheep of Yisrael and that when He sent out the twelve, He told them specifically not to go to the heathen nations but to the lost sheep of the house of Yisrael? Not long after his death and resurrection, however, these very same disciples went out once again and shared the Good News of salvation in Y’shua’s Name to people from all the nations of that time. And, to add to the confusion, one may also ask: Why do thousands of non-Jewish believers today insist that they belong to Yahweh, while at the same time declaring that many of Yahweh’s instructions were not given to them, but only to the Jews?
This entire conundrum can only be properly understood within the framework of what we may call: The miracle of outsiders becoming insiders. Outsiders becoming insiders is not a man-made concept. It is not a new idea that someone came up with, for fear of being left out of the Father’s plan of salvation. No, it is a principle firmly established in Scriptures. It is Yahweh’s own design. He clearly revealed it to Avraham when He promised him that He was going to bless his children and his children’s children and that through these descendants He was going to bless all the nations the earth. It was a plan of salvation that would start off with the descendants of Avraham but, eventually, it would not exclude the tribes and the nations of the earth. In Scriptures, we see this principle at work in the example of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite who came into contact with the people of Israel and chose to be fully identified with them and with their Elohim. She told Naomi in so many words: Where you go, I will go; where you stay, I will stay; your people will be my people and your Elohim will be my Elohim. Eventually, Ruth was the great grandmother of Dawid, and as such, this Moabite woman was part and parcel of the family tree of Y’shua, the Messiah. And what is even more surprising is that her mother-in-law, or the mother of Boaz her husband, was no-one less than Rachav, the non-Jewish prostitute who lived in Jericho and who protected the spies that had been sent out by Yahushua, shortly before the city of Jericho was conquered and brought down to ruins by the people of Israel.
Every now and then it became clear that Yahweh was serious when He promised that nations other than Israel would also be blessed by Yahweh’s dealings with his own people. Before the birth of Y’shua of Natsaret (Nazareth) it was not something that had happened on a world-wide scale. Even during Y’shua’s own life here on earth, the incidents involving people from other nations were not very frequent and obvious. But we do have enough incidents and references in Scriptures – and even a sharp increase of such incidents towards the time of the apostles – to confirm the truth of what Shaúl had said in this regard: “I want you to understand the mystery of the Messiah which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His set-apart emissaries and prophets: The nations are to be co-heirs, united in the same body, and partakers together in the promise of the Messiah” (Ephesians 3:3-6). People from the nations becoming co-heirs with the people of Israel, united in the same body and partakers of the same promises, is not something that many people had previously known or expected. It was a mystery, a secret, something that gradually surfaced more and more with the coming of the Messiah, and beyond.
Y’shua often hinted something to this effect. He dealt mainly with people from Israel, but He also healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 and commended her faith when she compared herself with a little dog who would eat the crumbs that would fall from a table. In Luke 7 He healed a Roman centurion’s servant and once again He commended his faith, declaring that in all of Israel He had not found such a belief. Even the Samaritan woman whom Y’shua had met next to a well in Sichar and who subsequently became a Messianic believer, is a good example of Y’shua’s knowledge of his Father’s design for non-Jews to be included in the extended household of Yahweh and the future Messianic kingdom. This woman did not even expect that Y’shua would talk to her and showed her surprise by asking: How is it that you, being a Jew, is asking a drink from me, being a Samaritan? In the end Y’shua told her that Yahweh was looking for people who would worship Him in Spirit and in truth and He clearly implied that people like herself was not to be excluded from the format of belief that Yahweh had in mind right from the very beginning. Quite evidently, it was with people like this in mind that Y’shua later declared to his followers that He had other sheep that were not of the same fold as the ones that had already acknowledged Him as their Shepherd.
Let us return, briefly, to the time before the coming of Messiah. Do we have clear evidence from the Old Covenant Scriptures that Yahweh had made provision for people from the nations of the earth to join his own people and become partakers of the same heritage and the same salvation? Yes, we do. When the temple in Jerusalem was dedicated to Yahweh for the first time, Shelomo was already looking ahead prophetically and included these words in his prayer: 1 Kings 8:41-43 “Also, when a foreigner, who is not of Your people Yisrael, would come from a far land for Your Name’s sake – since they hear of Your great Name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm – and he shall come and pray toward this House, would You then hear in the heavens Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, so that all peoples of the earth know Your Name and fear You, as do Your people Yisrael, and know that this House which I have built is called by Your Name.”
The miracle of outsiders becoming insiders was clearly envisaged by the prophets, most clearly in the book of YeshaYahu, but also in others, for example:
Jer 3:17 At that time Yerushalayim shall be called the throne of Yahweh, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the Name of Yahweh, to Yerushalayim, and no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Ezek 47:22 And it shall be that you divide this land by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who sojourn in your midst and who bear children among you. And they shall be to you as native-born among the children of Yisrael – with you they have an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Yisrael.
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the House of the Elohim of Yaakov, and let Him teach us His ways, and let us walk in His paths.
Zec 2:11 And many nations shall be joined to Yahweh in that day, and they shall become My people. And I shall dwell in your midst.
These prophesies, and the fulfilment thereof, is nothing less than a miracle out of Yahweh’s hand! The mere fact that a group of people are gathering here today, calling on the Name of Yahweh, while the majority of us have no formal connection with the nation of Israel, is an almost unbelievable miracle! But it is also the fulfilment of Scriptures. We should not try to interfere with the way this process had clearly been portrayed in Scriptures. We should simply approach Yahweh and allow Him to teach us his ways. We are not supposed to label some of his ways as “for Jews only” and others as “also for non-Jews”. No, we should rejoice in the fact that we now have an inheritance in the midst of Israel and no longer walk after the stubbornness of our own hearts. A major miracle has taken place – as wild olive branches we have been grafted into a good olive tree – we can call ourselves Yahweh’s people and we are privileged to walk in his paths, having been snatched from a path leading to certain death!
