To understand the nation of Israel, Judaism, and the word “Jew”, we first need a brief history lesson in this area.
The nation of Israel was made up of twelve tribes, named after the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed by God to Israel. These are called the children of Israel, the man. The twelve sons of Israel and the twelve tribes names are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. The tribe of Joseph was divided into two tribes by Israel at the time of his death and named after the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, bringing the count to thirteen tribes. The tribe of Levi was set aside by God as the tribe of Priests, and these were spread among the other twelve tribes. From the tribe of Judah would come all the kings or ruler ship of Israel. Jesus was of this tribe, and was a descendant of King David.
Upon King Solomon’s death, the throne went to his son Roboam. Under this king’s harsh ruler ship and heavy taxation, the kingdom split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom retained the name Israel, and the southern kingdom was called Judea, named after it’s dominant tribe, Judah. With the tribe of Judah was the tribe of Benjamin, and some of the tribe of Levi. The northern kingdom’s (Israel) dominant tribe was Ephraim, and was made up of the remaining ten tribes, and some of the tribe of Levi.
The northern kingdom of Israel was subsequently conquered by the Assyrians. These ten tribes were scattered among the earth, and are largely still lost today. The Babylonians later conquered the southern and remaining kingdom of Judea, which was later conquered by the Romans.
This brings us to the day of Jesus. Jesus was from the land of Judea, under Roman occupation and control. As such he was called a Jew. Jesus practiced the religion of his ancestors, we now call Judaism. The Jews resented being occupied in their promised land by these outside invaders. They were anticipating the arrival of their messiah, their deliverer, as promised by the prophet Isaiah (9:1-7). The Jews were looking and waiting for what they had decided they wanted. But they were in bondage because of their own sins.
Jesus said I come not to do away with, but to fulfill the law. He was speaking of the laws written in the Jewish Torah, the Christian Bible’s first five books. Jesus observed and stayed true to all the laws given to the Israelites by God the father. Jesus observed the feasts of the Lord as laid out in the Torah, we now call Jewish feasts. It was the priests that did not understand the law. Because of their lack of faith, they had no understanding of God and his ways. They found fault with Jesus according to their flawed understanding. Jesus went to Jerusalem that fateful year at the time of the Passover to celebrate the Passover. The difference is he knew that this year, he would be the Passover Lamb.
Jesus did not come to start another religion. He practiced what we now call Judaism, which would more accurately be called the worshiping of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Yahweh in Hebrew, Jehovah in English. These laws are all still in effect for the people of God. Those calling themselves Christian are grafted into the family of God as the seed of Abraham, the Israelites, so these laws now would apply, just the same as they would to the Israelites in that day. The difference is we need not supply a burnt offering because that has been taken care of once and for all by Jesus. And we need not go to a priest to get to God the father because we all have been washed clean of sin by the blood of the lamb.
Believers are called the bride of Christ. He will stamp us all with his name. We need not apply our own names, Catholic, Baptist, or Methodist, or even Christian. Christians say the word Christian means Christ-follower. This would imply Christ as the destination or our worship. Jesus is the head of his church. He leads by example. Do not change from his religion to a man made religion. Jesus said I am the way to the father. Jesus did not say he was the destination.
We are now worthy to commune with God the Father because of the Son’s blood. This is what God wanted for all mankind from the beginning. Man gave this away for a bite of fruit in the garden, but Jesus has restored what we have lost, and offered it again to us. Take it. God always completes the objection he set out to accomplish. He created this world with the objection of having communion with his offspring, mankind. His objection will come to fruition. You have been granted by a gracious God the choice to be a part of it. The alternative is separation from God for eternity. This means separation from everything good, and togetherness with everything evil. There is no middle ground.
Exodus 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Ephesians 3:6 That the gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the: and he is the saviour of the body.
Revelation 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.