Diamonds and Dust

In my previous article Dust and Genesis, I started exploring the relationship between God and Gentiles in the time before the flood and before Abraham. I say "God's relationship with Gentiles", but at that point in time, that was really "God's relationship with people". With the advent of God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a "treasured splendorous people" rose from the background noise of humanity to enjoy and live out a unique and precious relationship with the Creator of the universe..this is the Jewish people.

But what about the rest of us? How did this impact the relationship (if it indeed even existed) between "the nations" and the one, true God and what was the relationship between the nations and the Children of Israel? Can we draw conclusions from those relationships that have an impact on Jewish and Gentile people today? Let's see.

Now Dinah - the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob - went out to look over the daughters of the land. Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivvite, the prince of the region, saw her; he took her, lay with her, and violated her. -Genesis 34:2

This begins Dinah's ordeal in Shechem and the struggle of Jacob's sons to free their sister and to seek retribution for the insult of the Hivvites upon Dinah. As with many of the "interactions" between the nations and the Children of Israel, this one was fraught with conflict. Kidnapping and rape aren't well thought of in any age. To make matters worse, Shechem and his father proposed "intermarriage".

Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife."

Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go." -Genesis 34:13-17

Shechem, Hamor, and the Hivvite men agreed to be circumcised in order to "acquire" the women and other possessions of Jacob's family but acquiesce to assimilation was a ruse on the part of the sons of Jacob. When the Hivvite men were in the most pain after circumcision, Simeon and Levi entered the town, killed all the men and took back their sister. Still, the circumstance does illustrate that any "intermixing" between Jewish women and Gentile men would require that the Gentile men convert to Judaism as opposed to Judaism assimilating and dissolving into the nations. But let's back up a bit.

Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac." -Genesis 24:1-4

Abraham was concerned, and rightly so, that if Isaac took a wife or wives from the polytheistic women of the land of Canaan, he would be influenced by their gods and their religions and distance himself from the God of his father. This is borne out by the differences between Isaac's sons Esau and Jacob and their choice of wives. Jacob and his children became inheritors of the promises resulting in the Jewish nation while Esau and his children did not. It doesn't take much effort to extrapolate what we've read so far into the general prohibition in modern Judaism against Jews marrying non-Jews. History shows that most of the time, nothing good results. However, we have a larger issue to consider:

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. -Exodus 12:37-39

"Many other people went up with them, as well as.." The other people were non-Jewish people, perhaps other slaves who saw a way to freedom from the harsh Egyptian lash by accompanying the Children of Israel or even Egyptians who, seeing the amazing miracles wrought by the God of the Jews, believed in God and chose to attach themselves to God's people. Some estimates state that three million human beings, Jews and non-Jews, walked out of Egypt on that night, following the pillar of God.

Ever wonder what happened to those people?

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD. -Exodus 19:3-8

This scene sets the stage for the Mosaic covenant between God and the Children of Israel...but where was the Gentile "mixed multitude" hanging out when the Mount Sinai event was occurring? The Bible doesn't record that the Jews and non-Jews were segregated from one another, and we are forced to conclude that everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, was standing at the foot of the Throne of God, accepting Him as their God and accepting His covenant. But how is this possible for non-Jews at that place at that time?

The most straightforward answer is that they converted to Judaism in the moment they agreed, as a "single man", as Exodus 19:8 is sometimes translated, to be God's people and to obey God's Torah. This tends to go along with the modern translation of the Hebrew word Ger in the Torah as convert rather than stranger or alien, at least when referring to a Ger who has the same access to God as a born-Jewish person. This somewhat flies in the face of what is taught in Christianity and by Gentile "One-Law" groups (who may also call themselves "Messianic Judaism"), who state that it's not necessary to become a Jew to access God. As this series of articles progresses, we'll see if this is or isn't true.

While the "conversion" process recorded in Exodus 19 seems to be rather quick compared to the modern procedure, it seems just as fast for this young lady.

"Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. -Ruth 1:16-18

Ruth, the Moabitess, subsequently married Boaz and became the ancestor of King David. Of course, being previously married to one of Naomi's sons, she had been married to a Jewish man, but then, as a Gentile woman. One marriage (to Boaz) worked and the other didn't (at least to the degree that Ruth's first husband died). I'm not sure if there's a lesson here, but it should at least be noted.

There's a somewhat parallel story involving the prostitute Rahab throwing in her lot with the Children of Israel by agreeing to help Joshua's two spies (Joshua 2). As a result of her cooperation with Joshua's forces in the destruction of Jericho, Rehab and her family are spared. Rehab is believed to have later married a Jewish man named married Salmon of the tribe of Judah and was the mother of Boaz. She, or rather her husband Salmon, is mentioned in the genealogy of Yeshua/Jesus himself (Matthew 1:5) !

We can see then, in these various examples, that Gentiles, post-Abraham, seem to only have the ability to access God in relation to the Children of Israel, generally by conversion to Judaism. At this point, traditional Jewish interpretation of the Torah indicates that Gentiles cannot have a relationship with God apart from being attached to the Israelites. Is this true today? It would seem so.

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! -Romans 11:11-24

Here we are at Paul's letter to the Romans again, but this time in Romans 11. Even after the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua/Jesus, Gentiles can only have access to God through the Jewish Messiah by being attached to the Hebrew root. This raises the question of whether or not the coming of Yeshua/Jesus actually did anything to change the status of Gentiles in relation to God including access to God by non-Jewish people? Do Gentiles have direct and equal access to God now, as the Christian church claims, or is our access of a different or lesser quality and still dependent on being attached to the Jewish people?

Please understand, I am not saying that attachment to the Jewish people is a bad thing, but the relationship between God and non-Jews has become a question for me lately. I'm stripping away my assumptions and looking at that question with fresh eyes. Who are the Gentile people as a people in relation to God? Does God consider us directly, or only through the lens of the chosen people? As an individual, do I have the right or even the ability to connect to God through Yeshua, as it seems to say in the Bible, or is that only true if Judaism and specifically Messianic Judaism acts as a mediator between me and Him? Beyond that, what do these questions say about the relationship between Gentile people who have faith in the Messiah and Jews who are Messianic?

I'll focus on those questions in my next blog article.

Afterword: Although I suppose she will never know or probably wouldn't care, I feel it necessary to apologize to Joan Baez for adapting the title of her song Diamonds and Rust (1975) to the title of this article. I wanted to keep the word "dust" to indicate this write up is part of a series and it just seemed to fit.