Torah: Exodus 27:20-30:10
Haftarah: Ezekiel 43:10-27

Long ago, the Jewish sages created reading calendars to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are the Parsha (from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books of the Old Testament). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days.

The Torah portion for February 28, 2026, Tetzaveh (You Are to Order) covers the vestments of the priests, the ordination process, and the altar of incense. The Haftara covers part of the instructions God gave Ezekiel about the future temple. The elements of this portion that I bring up here will be to explain how Jesus is foreshadowed in the Tabernacle and priestly clothes of the Law of Moses, and He is commemorated in the temple that is to come.

The Lampstand

Let’s start with the reading from Exodus. First instructions for the lampstand oil:

²⁰ “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. ²¹ In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel (Ex. 27:20-21).

Jesus, the night He was betrayed, went to pray at the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means olive press. Olive was and still is pressed to produce oil. The pressure of the cross on Jesus was so great that it pressed drops of blood out of Him. Just as the oil dedicated to the tabernacle was to keep the lampstand burning, so Jesus’ crucifixion would be to shine the light of the gospel. Jesus prayed for the cup to pass from Him. Most people think about a drinking cup, but there is another kind of cup that may too arguably have connections to this powerful moment of His prayer and the place in which He prayed. The menorah, the seven-branched lampstand of the tabernacle, had ten cups on it, presumably for holding oil. The menorah or lampstand was the only light in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was called the world. So when Jesus is called the Light of the World, John is saying Jesus is the menorah! Believers too are the light of the world, according to Jesus. The Church fits into the menorah in Revelation. This makes passages like Rom. 11:17-24 so much more meaningful when we hear about people or people groups like branches being cut off or grafted in. Indeed, Jesus said He is the Vine and we are the branches. Well, the center of the menorah is called the vine, and the six branches that come out of it are well, called the branches. So Jesus has already told us what part of the menorah He is and what part we are, and most Christians don’t even know it. He holds us up. We shine His light. That’s why we can’t do anything apart from Him (Jn. 15:5). A menorah branch that’s cut off can’t burn.

There is another part of these verses I want to make a note of now and come back to later: the burning of the menorah “shall be a statute forever” (emphasis mine). Most Christians think Jesus’ death and resurrection did away with the prescribed order of temple or tabernacle worship. Exodus 27:21 says differently. If we can find foreshadowing of Jesus in the temple worship before He came, why can’t we understand temple worship after His coming as a reminder of what He did? This argument is going to come back when we get to the reading from the prophets for this portion.

Let’s look at the next section about the priestly garments:  “⁵ They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen” (Ex. 28:5). The clothing of the high priest was to be blue, purple, and scarlet. Blue is the color of heaven, the sky, the dwelling place of God. Red is the color of the earth. Hebrew for red is adom or edom. It is extremely close to the name Adam, meaning man. Edom, the descendants of Esau, means red, and Esau is described as being red. Red is the color of the earth, the color of man, literally. What do you get when you mix blue and red? Purple. What color is in the middle in this list of colors for the tabernacle? Purple. Purple is the color of royalty, the color of a king. God is in heaven. We are on earth. We meet in the middle at the King, the Messiah, Jesus. He even was dressed in a purple robe at His presentation before crucifixion, and over His head hung a sign proclaiming His identify: King of the Jews (Mt. 27:37). Well before that, he was born King of the Jews (Mt. 2:2). Jesus was fully God and fully man. Jesus is where heaven and earth meet. Jesus is where we can have communion with God. He is our Mediator, our Priest. He is our Middle Man.

“Aaron your brother”

The priest was not someone above his fellow Israelites. He was one of them, a brother, chosen by God for the special task of the priesthood. Jews today have this understanding of the high priest as well. Jesus was born one of us. He was not born in a palace. He was born like a commoner, even worse than a commoner, being laid in an animal feeding trough after His birth. Believers are Jesus’ brothers/sisters (Matthew 12:50, 25:40, 28:10 just to name a few).

The Shoulder Pieces 

^“9 You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, ¹⁰ six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. ¹¹ As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree. ¹² And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance” (Exodus 28:9-12).

The names of the 12 tribes of Israel were engraved on two stones of onyx and put on the shoulder pieces of the ephod. Isaiah 9:6 says.

“⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be uponhis shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In this prophesy, the messiah will bear the authority and ability to make decisions for the people on His shoulder. It’s not a absolute direct connection, but both the high priest and the Messiah bear the responsibility of the people on their shoulders.

The Breastpiece

The garments of the high priest were the same color and material as the tabernacle itself, showing the connectedness of the high priest with the tabernacle. His garments were also blue, purple, and scarlet. Gold was also a prominent part of his attire. I’ve already discussed the colors in relation to Jesus, how He was from heaven, became a man of the earth, born the King of the Jews. Gold was also a prominent part of the holy place and the vestment of the high priest. In particular, the breastpiece had all these elements, along with 12 precious stones in 4 rows of three “according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes” (Ex. 28:21). Hebrew is read right to left, and if the names of the tribes were arranged in the order of their patriarchs’ birth, then it would begin with Reuben in the top left of the breastpiece (if you were facing the high priest). Judah would begin the next line. That’s one understanding. I won’t iterate the position of every tribe right now because there are at least 30 different interpretations for the order of the tribes on the breastpiece (Chabad.org).  Besides the assignment of stones to tribes and symbolic meaning, “[t]he identity of the twelve stones cannot be established with certainty. Three are unique to this passage.” As for the other stones that are mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, “[w]hether this is coincidence or whether it has any intentional bearing on the selection of stones for the High Priest’s vestment is uncertain” (JPS Commentary, 180). In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Here’s another thing. I’ll be honest with you. I’ve heard it said that these stones tell the story of salvation, but if they do, I haven’t found those details yet. I was told in passing to look it up because this is readily available online. I found symbolic meaning for the stones on Christian sites associating turquoise with healing and emerald with new life, for example, but I haven’t found any Jewish sources making those connections, which means this could be secular or even pagan symbolism being imposed on the Bible, and I just don’t want to go there given that risk. But here is something: “when the Jews traveled through the desert from Egypt on their way to the Promised Land, the flag transported by each tribe was identical to the color of its stone” (Chabad.org). So what did the colors mean? What I did find is that one Jewish approach associates notable characteristics of each tribe or patriarch with the color of their stone. For example, if Reuben was on the ruby, the red of the ruby symbolizes Reuben’s shame when he had to admit he slept with his father’s concubine (Chabad.org). Several of the tribes are characterized by their weaknesses using such connections, but as a critical thinker, I am left wondering how that matches with the high priest’s garments being for “glory and for beauty.” You know? I mean, bringing incest to remembrance just doesn’t match the biblical description of the garments.

Now this is what I propose. The stones were indeed placed close to Aaron’s heart for the purpose of bringing them to remembrance before God. “²⁹ So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord” (Ex. 28:29). Jesus, as the High Priest now in heaven, holds each of us close to His heart and He knows us by name. We are valuable in His sight. He bears our judgment. As He is in heaven with the Father, He is constantly interceding for us, and it is not to bring our vices to remembrance before the Father. Just like the stones of the breastplate were precious stones, so are we precious to Him. And yes, to connect some rabbinical interpretation of the stones to mine, I’ll say that it’s Jesus taking our vices and turning them into something beautiful. He bore our sins on His heart so we can be remembered as valuable instead. 1 Peter 2:4-5 says,

⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Amen to that.

Now I’m going to go a little farther. In Revelation 21, the new Jerusalem is described. It’s in this new Jerusalem, after the old heavens and earth are passed away and there is no more temple because the Lamb is the Temple and there is no sun because the Lamb is the Light, that we see

“[t]he foundations of the wall of the city [new Jerusalem] were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst” (verses 19-20).

The exact stones and order don’t match Exodus, but maybe because the exact order isn’t important. What is in common is they are all precious stones, and there are twelve. If we translate the breastpiece to these stones of Revelation, the very foundations of the city are close to God’s heart, even on His heart, continually. Instead of the names of the twelve tribes, we see the inscribed names of the twelve apostles: “¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (verse 14). I don’t think it’s about the twelve apostles specifically as it is about the people they represent. The twelve names of the tribes weren’t just about those twelve sons of Jacob, but their names were meant to represent their descendants before God in the tabernacle. So let’s apply that to the apostles. The Bible doesn’t name their biological progeny, but they were given the great commission to go into all the world and make disciples. Writing to these Gentile believers, Paul says, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). What then do these names of the apostles represent on a broader scale but the disciples of the nations? I think it’s a beautiful connection that we get by studying and understanding the priesthood God established in ancient Israel. The breastpiece of the Torah actually becomes the foundation of the wall of the new Jerusalem according to Revelation 21.

The Robe of the Ephod

“³¹ “You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. ³² It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, so that it may not tear. ³³ On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, ³⁴ a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe” (Ex. 28:31-34).

Even in the high priest’s robe of the ephod, we see the Messiah. As I said blue represents heaven, so the robe is blue, representing the heavenly. The pomegranates represent the garden of Eden. Pomegranates and palms were all over the decoration of the temple and tabernacle, harkening back to the garden where God and Adam met together regularly. The temple is about getting back to Eden, getting back to communion with God. In fact, according to Jewish tradition, the Tree of Life of the Garden of Eden was on what is today the Temple Mount, and according to tradition, this was the point of creation. The high priest wears the joining of heaven and earth on his robe of the ephod. The blue is above the pomegranates. Heaven is above earth. The pomegranates are about his feet. Earth is God’s footstool (Is. 66:1, Mt. 5:35). In Jesus, we have the heavenly meet earth. The Son of God came to earth and dwelt among us. He communed with us, walked with us, like God walked in the garden with Adam, and through faith in Him, we will walk with God forever.

Now for Aaron and his sons to be priests, sacrifices had to be made on their behalf, one bull and two rams, but Jesus needed no sacrifice because he never sinned. In fact, instead of having a sin offering to consecrate Him, He was our sin offering. Exodus 29:14 says, “¹⁴ But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.” Just as the bull was burned outside the camp, Jesus was crucified outside the city as our sin offering. It was there that He experienced the wrath of hell. Two rams were sacrificed at Aaron’s ordination, to cleans them, a ram was provided by God in substitution for Abraham’s son, Isaac, and ultimately, John the Baptist proclaims Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of the world. Just was the blood of the bull and the rams made Aaron and his sons clean as ministers in the tabernacle, it is Jesus’ blood that can make all people clean as priests to Him. 1 Peter 2:9 says everyone who has been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light is of a royal priesthood. It was the priests who could eat of the ram of ordination and it was at the Last Supper that Jesus said to take and eat the bread that He compared to His flesh. Jesus made his disciples his ministers who could partake of His body like the priests could partake of the ram. According to the JPS Commentary, “Before being dressed in the sacred garments of office for the first time, Aaron and his sons must undergo ritual purification by immersion of the entire body in water. For the regular daily services, only the hands and feet need to be washed, as prescribed in 30:17-21” (The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, 187). The priests underwent a baptism one time and then only washed their hands and feet regularly. Compare that practice to this passage:

³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴ rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet but is completely clean” (Jn. 13:3-10).

It sounds similar to what was done for priests.

Urim and Thummim 

As part of the fabric breastpiece was a pouch to hold the Urim and Thummim, the means by which the high priest could discern the will of God, and make judgments and decisions (The JPS Torah Commentary, 179-180). We don’t know exactly what the Urim and Thummim were like, but they were “small objects thrown to the ground by the High Priest when he sought counsel from God. Other commentators believed they always remained in the High Priest’s chest plate and would shine light from there when used” (The Complete Jewish Study Bible, 110). They were tools used to divine God’s will “in specific matters that were beyond human ability to decide (The JPS Torah Commentary, 181). “Urim comes from the Hebrew word for ‘light,’ and tumim comes from the word tam, meaning ‘finished,’ ‘completed,’ or ‘done’” (The Complete Jewish Study Bible, 110).

When I think about this, I’m reminded of Jesus’ last words on the cross. As He breathed His last (from His chest) He declared, “It is finished!” We know He was speaking Hebrew from the cross because the gospel writers had to translate what He said into Greek (Mt. 27:46). So if He said “It is finished” in Hebrew, He said, “It is tam” or “It is Thummim!” Even if He didn’t say this in Hebrew, it still carried the same meaning. He announced the final divine judgement on our sin that was beyond human ability to decide.

The Morning and Evening Sacrifice

The regular morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb was called the tamid.  Exodus 29:39 says, “³⁹ One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight.” The Hebrew for twilight is bein he-‘arbayim, which “literally means ‘between the two settings.’ Rabinnic sources take this to mean ‘from noon on.’ According to Radak, the first ‘setting’ occurs when the sun passes its zenith just after noon and the shadows begin to lengthen, and the second ‘setting’ is the actual sunset. Josephus testifies that the paschal lamb was slaughtered in the Temple between 3 and 5 P.M.” (The JPS Torah Commentary, 55).

Now check this out: Jesus was sentenced to death twice, first by the Sanhedrin and then by the Roman government. The Sanhedrin sentenced him to death in the morning. Matthew 27:1 says, “When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. ² And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.” When Jesus was crucified, darkness fell on the land at the sixth our (12:00 p.m.) and lasted until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.). At the ninth hour, Jesus died (Lk. 23:46). The JPS translates it very directly for us: “From noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, all the Land was covered with darkness” (Mt. 27:45).

So the Lamb was sentenced to death at the time of the morning tamid and the evening tamid and He died at the time the Passover Lamb would be sacrificed. Jesus died for both Jews and Gentiles.

The Altar of Incense

“You shall make an altar on which to burn incense” (Exodus 30:1).

The altar of incense was framed out with acacia wood and overlayed with gold. Upon it the high priest burned incense daily before the veil to the Holy of Holies. In Revelation 8:3-4, we see the heavenly version after which the earthly version was copied:

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, ⁴ and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

In heaven, our prayers rise to God like incense burning in a fire. When Jesus died, the veil separating the altar of incense and the Holy of Holies was torn in two from top to bottom. At the altar of prayer, we have direct access to God because of Jesus. God answers our prayers because of Jesus, when we ask in His Name (John 14:13-14, 15:16, 16:23-26). The altar of incense was also small, comparably. Your prayers, even small ones, or even ones you feel are small, are heard.

A Future Temple

Ezekiel is one of those books I don’t hear anyone really talking about or preaching through. It makes me stop and scratch my head and make me wonder if what I had been taught in church isn’t true:

¹⁰ “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. ¹¹ And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. ¹² This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

¹³ “These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth)^] its base shall be one cubit high and one cubit broad, with a rim of one spa^] around its edge. And this shall be the height of the altar: ¹⁴ from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; ¹⁵ and the altar hearth, four cubits; and from the altar hearth projecting upward, four horns. ¹⁶ The altar hearth shall be square, twelve cubits long by twelve broad. ¹⁷ The ledge also shall be square, fourteen cubits long by fourteen broad, with a rim around it half a cubit broad, and its base one cubit all around. The steps of the altar shall face east.”

¹⁸ And he said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord God: These are the ordinances for the altar: On the day when it is erected for offering burnt offerings upon it and for throwing blood against it, ¹⁹ you shall give to the Levitical priests of the family of Zadok, who draw near to me to minister to me, declares the Lord God, a bull from the herd for a sin offering. ²⁰ And you shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the ledge and upon the rim all around. Thus you shall purify the altar and make atonement for it. ²¹ You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be burned in the appointed place belonging to the temple, outside the sacred area. ²² And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and the altar shall be purified, as it was purified with the bull. ²³ When you have finished purifying it, you shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish and a ram from the flock without blemish. ²⁴ You shall present them before the Lord, and the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord. ²⁵ For seven days you shall provide daily a male goat for a sin offering; also, a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be provided. ²⁶ Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, and so consecrate it^] 27 And when they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, declares the Lord God” (Ez. 43:10-27).

The amazing thing about this temple is that it never existed, not yet. Its description doesn’t match Solomon’s temple or the second temple. Some scholars try to explain it as metaphorical or somehow being spiritually fulfilled already, but none of those arguments seem very plausible. As it was written in the same prescriptive format as the Torah, you could take that same argument and say Israel should metaphorically obey all the commandments, but no one would dare say that. They were obviously supposed to follow them literally. That’s why there was a tabernacle and two temples and a priesthood and a sacrificial system. Why, when we encounter the same commanding format in Ezekiel, do we dismiss it as nonliteral? I think I would have to jump more theological hoops to convince myself that it’s figurative than to just take it at face value. In the future, there’s going to be an even bigger temple in which a priesthood will minister, and sacrifices will be made. Keep tracking with me here. For the antichrist to cut off sacrifices, that means there has to be sacrifices (Daniel 9:27). How can the antichrist proclaim himself God in the temple unless there is a temple (2 Thes. 2:4)? Here’s another point of argument: From this parsha alone, God tells us that the commandments to the priests and their service shall be a “statute forever” (Exodus 27:21, 28:43, 29:9). Last I checked, the definition of forever is, well, forever. If we start to fudge the meaning of forever in the context of the Aaronic priesthood, then we start getting in dangerous territory. If God didn’t really mean the Aaronic priesthood is forever, then does God’s love endure forever (Psalm 136)? As people who profess the Bible is inherent and infallible and cohesive, we can’t take one forever and dismiss the other. We have to trust God and take Him at His word, even when as Christians, it doesn’t make sense to us based upon centuries of Church tradition or doctrine. The Bible trumps tradition and doctrine. If it contradicts the Bible, it’s bad tradition and bad doctrine. It’s heresy. I’m sure I’m stepping on toes, but I hope after your own study, God will lead you to the right conclusion. Thirdly, if God was done with the temple after Jesus died, why did the disciples continue to go there? Acts 5:42 says, “⁴² And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.” They only stopped worshipping in the temple because they were kicked out of the temple. One day there will be no temple (Revelation 21:22), but that time isn’t yet, not until the new heaven and new earth. I would argue that for the disciples, offering sacrifices in the temple was not in conflict with their faith in Jesus. When they worshiped according to the temple system, they were doing it knowing Who the real sacrifice for their sin was.

But this would not be accepted by many Christians. Many Christians hold to Replacement Theology, that Israel has been replaced by the Church and Jesus replaces the sacrificial system. John Piper, who I admired for many years, is a replacement theologist, I found out. This is not a new doctrine in the church. It goes all the way back to the early Church and into the Reformation. Amir Tsarfati, in his recent book The Israel Decree, writes,

As much as Paul tried to tamp down the growing doctrine that claimed that Israel was replaced by the church in God’s plan, it continued to spread, at times evolving into outright antisemitism. We can see the evolution within the early church fathers.

In the early second century, Justin Martyr asserted the replacement of Israel, saying, “For the true spiritual Israel [a term never found in the Bible] and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham…are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ.” “Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so, we are the true Israelite race.” True, that sounds a little innocent. But it laid a foundation of Jewish nullification that later church fathers ran with.

Irenaeus, later in the second century, wrote that “they who boast themselves as being of the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are disinherited from the grace of God.” Origen, not many years later, wrote, “We say with confidence that [the Jews] will never be restored to their former condition. For they committed a crime of the most unhallowed kind, in conspiring against the Savior of the human race…and [as a result] in the invitation to happiness offered them by God [is] to pass to others—the Christians!” In Origen’s words, we see spelled out the reason for the rejection of Israel. The people conspired against the Messiah. But did they? Sure, some of them did. But what about the disciples, or Jesus’ family, or the thousands who were healed by His touch? Did they conspire against Him?

And I just want to add that Peter, on Pentecost, fifty days after the crucifixion and resurrection, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, said to the Jews who came out to hear them speaking in tongues,

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. ³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself… So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:36-39).

This was the same generation that crucified Jesus, and they were not rejected. They were not disinherited from the grace of God. And if “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” (2 Pet. 3:8), then why would God’s grace be different now two thousand years later? The Bible is explicitly in opposition to the doctrine of the early church fathers and the Protestant reformers. And I was raised in a Calvinist church! This really shocked me. Tsarfati continues,

This hateful rationale carried through the history of the church and, sadly, was reinforced during the Reformation. Martin Luther demanded, in his aptly titled work The Jews and their Lies, “Set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn.” Why? “This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians.” I’m guessing that little tidbit didn’t follow a lengthy exegesis on Jesus’ words, “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you (Luke 6:27-28).

Even John Calvin got into the act, writing, “[The Jews’] rotten and unbending stiff-neckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.”

I thought Calvin taught everyone is totally depraved. I don’t know how a specific biological demographic can be more than totally depraved (like the rest of humanity according to his doctrine), but whatever. Now no church leaders today are calling for violence on Jews or say there is no way they can receive God’s grace, thank goodness, but Replacement Theology is grounded in these roots. Good thing I don’t follow a theologian or church doctrine. I follow God and His Word.

I don’t regularly talk about my personal life in these posts, but I feel like it’s appropriate at this time. I got an experiential taste of this animosity when I “came out” in college, telling my friends I had Jewish ancestry. My “Christian” roommate and friend of seven years rejected me from that day forward. And I wasn’t even saying I was Jewish, just that I had Jewish ancestry. They all knew I was a Christian. I am not Hebrew roots claiming anyone with this “inner feeling” is a Jew. My family is descended from Aaron through the Ashkenazi Jews. I know this through both genealogical records and DNA. They immigrated to America when it was the 13 British colonies from the Netherlands and settled near the Amish, a peaceful people. The Jews and Amish historically had a great relationship. The Catholics hated them both. The Protestants hated them both, and they got along with each other well. They were both non-violent groups. The Church has got to get over it, guys. Paul, a Jew, wrote,

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph. 2:11-16).

If God took the hostility away, why are we putting it back? It won’t always be like this. Zechariah says,

^23 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’”(Zech. 8:23).

Yeah, looking at the world today, there’s no way I can see that happening, but who in the 19^th century would have thought Israel would exist as a nation after 2000 years? Okay, my great-great grandfather Joseph Addison Scarboro did, but he wasn’t exactly mainstream. Who can imagine today that the temple could be rebuilt? I don’t see how, but God says it will be so. I trust Him. He has a good track record of sticking to His word, and His Word.  

From the tabernacle pattern shown to Moses on the mountain to the vision of the future temple shown to Ezekiel, Jesus is the reason for its beginning and perpetuation. He is the reason the saints could look forward to the Messiah one day and those in the last days can look back on what he did, whether Jews observing through faith or Gentiles trusting by faith (Romans 3:29-31). Until next time, God bless.

Whose grandeur reaches up to the heavens
And touches earth simultaneously?
Who is the Bread of Praise without leaven?
Who died and yet lives incorruptibly?
Who’s manifest, yet One we cannot see?
Who softens stone hearts, Himself as the Stone?
Who humbly emptied Himself of glory
And by such service had His glory shown?
Who is both the Cornerstone and Keystone?
Who can be earth’s future and history?
It’s Messiah, the One Whom God made known
At the proper time, the Great Mystery.
He is the Priest as well as Sacrifice
And by His blood He paid for our blood’s price.

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.

The Complete Jewish Study Bible. Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2016.

“The High Priest’s Breastplate (Choshen).” Chabad.org. The High Priest’s Breastplate (Choshen) – Chabad.org. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.

The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 1991.

Tsarfati, Amir. The Israel Decree. Eugene, Harvest House, 2025.