A pastor let this slip from his mouth when we were speaking, “Don’t you know all Jews are rich?”  Unfortunately, I have heard similar remarks in both religious and non-believing circles, with no one apologizing.

Those making that claim ignore the fact that almost 50% live impoverished lives in Israel.   Russian Jews have faced abject poverty for centuries; elderly Jews in the western world struggle greatly.  Someone even told me that there were 154 ways in Yiddish to say “poverty” — and only two ways to say “wealth”!

But I’m not talking about Jews and money.

I am letting you know that the Scriptures confirm that all Jews are rich.  The “wealth” is just not measured in greenbacks!

Here’s what the Bible says…and this is found in the New Testament!  The Apostle Paul, known as St. Paul, is speaking:

“Then what advantage has the Jew? … Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” (Romans 3:1a, 2)  Paul is stating the fact that the words of Scripture, God’s word, came through and were preserved through the Jewish people.  That’s rich!

Here are the other ways Paul says his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, the Israelites, are rich:

In Romans chapter nine verses four and five, he writes,

“To whom belong:

1. The adoption as sons
2. The glory
3. The covenants:   (Abrahamic (Genesis 12:1-30; Mosaic (Exodus 19, 20), Davidic ( 2 Samuel 7:8-16),  Palestinian (Deuteronomy 30:1-10); New (Jeremiah 31:31-34))
4. The giving of the Law (Torah, which means “instruction”, teaches the requirements and means to living holy lives  in relation to God, one’s fellow man, and one’s body (health laws))
5. The Temple Service (there has been no Temple since 70 CE/AD)
6. The promises (of Scripture!)
7. The Fathers:  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  ( remember God called Abraham his friend; He doesn’t mind being addressed as “The God of Abraham” when we pray!)
8. From whom is Messiah according to the flesh.” (Yeshua (Jesus) was a Jew!)

So, it’s true.  All Jews are rich!  They have an enormous spiritual wealth and heritage.

Why were the Jews made rich? To make you and the world rich–rich with the knowledge of God, rich with the wisdom that was written through them in the Scriptures, rich with law that helps men govern themselves.  Even the Founding Fathers of America consulted the Torah to create a framework in which liberty and justice for all might prevail.

The Jews were the lineage God used to bring forth Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).

The greatest and richest Jewish man that ever lived, Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, had this written about Him:  “For you know the grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”  (2 Corinthians 8:9)  He left the splendor of heaven; was born as a little Jewish baby into poverty; lived a holy, Torah observant life; bore our sins in His body, on the tree, to make atonement for all; and was resurrected.

He alone enables us all to share in “Jewish wealth”, not by plunder, as the societies in which the Jewish people lived, did over the past two thousand years; but as those who are “far off” (from covenant with the God of Israel) come near to the “Commonwealth of Israel” (Ephesians 2:11-14), by participating in a Jewish covenant, the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-12).

The wealth to be received is new life, hope, peace, joy and eternal life in Messiah; as well as, the wisdom and instruction of the Holy Scriptures, which exist today because of the faithfulness of the Jewish people to preserve them.

If you have harbored bitterness against the Jewish people because they are a blessed people, stop sinning in this way.  It invites cursing – not blessing, as the Scripture says:

“How fair are your tents, O Jacob,  Your dwellings, O Israel! … Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you.” (Numbers 24:5,9b)

The God of the Jews is also the God of the Gentiles (Romans 3:29) and He richly blesses ALL, and ANY ONE, who calls upon Him, as it written,

“For the Scripture (Hebrew Bible) says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Gentile); for the same Lord is Lord of all,
abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”  (Romans 10:11-13, taken from Joel 2:32)

When I was a college student, the Messiah of Israel found me, though most believers like to say we found Him.  I really was “minding my own business” when He began to draw me into His magnificent kingdom, the Kingdom of God, on the same day the Yom Kippur War began in 1973.  Five weeks later I received Him–I was alone when the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God, revealed the truth and love of Messiah, my need for forgiveness, and His provision of atonement.  After I prayed, I literally felt unseen chains break off.  I was free.

I learned there were 400 believers on our campus of 15,000.  There I met a fellow believer named Mike B.

Fast forward thirty years. My husband and I moved to another state.  A neighbor across the street invited us to his fellowship.

While looking at the announcements in the bulletin I noticed that the speaker for the evening was a man named Mike B.  Same name.  Could it be the same person? I didn’t remember Mike as being the “type” to be serving in some far off place.

We returned early that evening to see if it was Mike.  Sure enough, twenty eight years after having last seen him, there he was.  He had served the LORD in Africa and was now in Eastern Europe.

Mike had a hard time recognizing me in my salt and pepper hair!  But we hugged and rejoiced at the miracle that had just taken place.  Neither of us had ever been in that fellowship before, as I had moved to that state the week before, and he had been living in Africa and then Eastern Europe over the past twenty five years.  He had just gotten back to the States  a week or so before, and this was a speaking engagement that had been arranged for him.

We marveled at the encouragement the LORD us–that He has directed every step of our lives, and knows the times and the seasons of our lives.

I met his dynamic wife, Kathy, and asked her to tell me about the transition to Eastern Europe…to the same country and city where my grandmother was from!

“The ground is really hard there.  It’s a predominantly Catholic country.”

She spoke of the profound hardness of heart that she and Mike encountered there to spiritual things.  This is not difficult to understand.  World War II ravaged the entire continent.  The suffering was unspeakable. Volumes have been written on the subject.

I had a thought…should I tell Kathy why there might possibly be hard hearts or resistance to spiritual things?  Or, would it be interpreted as self serving?

I knew I had to speak.  “You know, Kathy, during the war, a large majority of the people of that country strongly participated in helping the Nazis destroy its Jewish population.  There is a covenant in Scripture, the Abrahamic Covenant. (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 17)  Here, the LORD promised the Patriarch Abraham three things:  Land, seed, and blessing.  He also stated that “I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you.”  This covenant and promise was reaffirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26; to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28:13-15; 35:9-12; 48:3-4.  Numbers chapter 24:1-9 is very clear:  “Blessed is everyone who blesses you (Israel), and cursed is everyone who curses you (Israel).”

“I am wondering, Kathy, if the way to have softened ground in the country where you are laboring is to join the other believers in confessing the very serious sin of anti-Semitism that led to hundreds of thousands of Jewish deaths.  Innocent blood has been shed in that land…the innocent blood of God’s covenant people is on the soil and on the hands of their ancestors.  Perhaps there is a curse on the land spoken of in Genesis 12.  In addition, the sin of hatred that generations of people in that country have participated in has opened a big door to the enemy of their souls:  Satan.  The people are indeed in bondage.

Kathy listened.  Kathy agreed.  She left to join her husband.

Then it was time for Mike to give the message.  I was amazed.  He had changed the talk he had planned to give, to one that would address what I had shared with Kathy.  He requested prayer for the nation where he was serving…for a spirit of repentance to be granted for the sins that nation committed against the Jews during WWII.

Reader, does it sound strange that the sins of ancestors can have such an impact a generation or two later?

It is not strange, for the Scripture speaks of the principle of curses going to the third and fourth generation (Deuteronomy 5:9), and the blessing of lovingkindness going to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 5:10) to those who love Yahweh (The LORD) and keep His commandments.

One of His commandments is to bless, and not curse Israel!

So, what can we get from this true encounter?

1. The Living God, the God of Israel, is in the business of doing wondrous things.  He literally directs steps/paths of those who seek Him.  It is thrilling to be led by the LORD.
2. When hearts are closed to spiritual things we can’t prejudge and just say, “Oh, they’re not open to Biblical truth.” Such people need us to be the intercessors to help “break up fallow ground” (Hosea 10:12), confessing the sins of a nation or city or people group, so other prayers can be heard on high.  Please note that Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, Isaiah all cried unto God, saying, “I have sinned, and my fathers/people have sinned.”  No one exists alone spiritually.  Sin in our lives affects others, including a nation’s destiny.
3. Anti-Semitism is not just a current topic with political implications.  The spiritual ramifications for hating the Jewish people are borne out in history–in nations, as well as, in individual lives.

Dare I ask if you come from a heritage of hate, a heritage of specifically hating the Jewish people?  If so, confess the sins of your ancestors and any residual anti-Semitism that may exist in your heart.  This may be a key to possible breakthrough in your own life.

Shalom!