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The Place given to Israel, "Unto You First"
If we go back into the period immediately before the Day of Pentecost, and to that portion of the Gospels that cover the earthly ministry of the Saviour, we shall discover that there Israel was not
"first" but "alone." "He came to His own." "These twelve (i.e. the apostles vs. 2-4) Jesus sent forth, and commanded them saying, Go NOT into the way of
the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but Go RATHER to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:5,6). With such an explicit command before one, how can a
"believer" maintain that the Gentile has a place in the kingdom ministry of the gospel according to Matthew? Now, lest we might think this prohibition was but local and transient, we
discover it still in force even after the revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: "I am not sent but unto to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24).
Here again, the "faith" of the Gentile who declares that the Gospel of Matthew is truth for the church is challenged. The Saviour said, "I am not sent" -- shall we adopt the
attitude of Peter and say, "Be it far from Thee Lord"? If we do, we too will savour of the things of man.
The apostles were bidden to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high, and to adopt the language of the parable, "Tell them that had been bidden . . .
come" (Matt. 22:4). "Beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47) was the order. Here, the order to go not to the Gentiles is altered to go first to the few. And this is how
Peter expresses the condition in the days immediately following Pentecost: "Unto You FIRST God, having raised up His son Jesus, SENT Him to bless you, turning away every one of you from
his iniquities" (Acts 3:26).
Let the reader search Acts 2 and 3 and note those addressed. They were "Jews," "Men of Judea," 'Men of Israel," "Men and brethren," "All the house of
Israel,'' "Ye and your rulers," "Repent ye. . . He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached UNTO you," "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the
covenant which God made unto our fathers." " God is "The God of our fathers."
If we keep to the inspired record, we shall have to admit No GENTILE took any part in the day of Pentecost, and Peter's own confessed attitude, "Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a
man that is a JEW to keep company, or come unto one of another nation," uttered some time after Pentecost, makes it clear that he would not have tolerated a Gentile at the feast of
Pentecost. In the same way we read that those who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, preached the Word, To NONE BUT UNTO THE JEWS ONLY (Acts 11:20). The
fact that when the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God, they challenged Peter for going in to men uncircumcised and eating with them
(Acts 11:3). This shows that the exclusion of the Gentile up to Acts 10 was not the personal prejudice of a bigoted few, but the conscientious attitude of the whole apostolate and brethren of
the day. An indication that the exclusive preeminence of Israel was waning is revealed in Paul's address at Antioch: "Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and
whosoever among you feareth God, TO YOU is the word of this salvation sent" (Acts 13:26).
If we turn to the epistles of Paul written during the period covered by the Acts, we shall find that Israel or the Jew is given the first place. "To the Jew first" (Rom. 1:16) cannot
be explained away as being merely a statement of chronological sequence, for in chapter 2:9,10 the phrase occurs again with significant meaning. After the Apostle has insisted that in connexion with
the basic matters of Sin and Salvation "there is no difference" (Rom. 3:22, 10:12), he devotes a large section of the eleventh chapter to show most clearly that there existed a great
difference between the Jew and the Gentile believer, using the figure of the olive tree for Israel, and the figure of a wild olive grafted contrary to nature for the Gentile believers. Here, in
the last and most fundamental of Paul's epistles written during the Acts period, the Jew is most certainly FIRST. This priority extends to the frontier of Acts 28:28. Even though when
writing to the church at Rome the Apostle had expressed his longing to see them, being debtor alike to Jew and to Greek, nevertheless, when he did reach Rome, it was the chief of the Jews that he
called together, devoting a whole day persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening (Acts 28 :23), and not until these
representatives of Israel acted in a similar way to the way in which their brethren in Judaea had acted, does Isaiah 6:9,10 appear for the last time in Scripture. Immediately following this
prophecy of crisis, the Apostle declares that the salvation of God was SENT UNTO the Gentiles (Acts 28:28). The moment we traverse the frontier of Acts 28, Israel, the Jew, their fathers and
their covenants, their promises and their hope drop out of view. The territory covered by the Prison Epistles deals with a Mystery, never before revealed or made known, with a company in which
the priority of the Jew cannot exist, with a promise never made to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, with a sphere "in heavenly places" hitherto unconnected with the inheritance of any believer
whatsoever.
In the pursuit of these four items, we have established that the Acts of the Apostles is to be considered one territory, that the frontier line is drawn at Acts 28:28, and that the Prison ministry of
Paul, is what he claims it to be, the dispensation of the mystery (Eph. 3:9, R.V.,Col. 1:25,26).
A frontier naturally has two sides: one facing and ending one territory, and the other facing and commencing another. There is also between these two sides a strip which is neutral.
This feature is demonstratable in Acts 28:23-31. On the Pentecostal side of Acts 28, the teaching of the Apostle was directed to the "chief of the Jews." It is "they"
who appointed the time of meeting (Acts 28:17-23), the place being Paul's lodgings. Here the subject was that aspect of the kingdom of God that concerned "Jesus" and which could
be supported by and developed from the law of Moses, and the prophets, where he found enough material to occupy the whole day "from morning till evening". On the other side of the
frontier, the one that faced the dispensation of the mystery, Paul preached the kingdom of God, and taught those things which concerned "The Lord Jesus Christ", not "Jesus," be it
noted, but this teaching could not be expounded out of the law and prophets, for it was never revealed to any one until it was entrusted to Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles (Eph.
3:1-13). On the Pentecostal side of the frontier, Paul had been met by continual opposition and persecution. This attitude is marked in the opening of his ministry in Acts 13:45 where we
find the Jews being filled with envy spake against the things spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming, so that at that earliest testimony, he had turned locally to the Gentiles (Acts
13:46,47). On the other side of the frontier, no such opposition is discoverable. The Jewish people, as a nation before God, passed off the scene. The closing words, "no
man forbidding him" (Acts 28:31),. were a direct reference to the opposition of the.Jews. The word translated "forbidding," (Gr. akolutos), is found without the negative
in First Thessalonians 2:16, (Gr. koluo),: "Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles": "So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last
drop! But the wrath is on them to the bitter end.'' (I Thess. 2:16, Moffatt). (Here, in Acts 28 that "bitter end" was reached, and Israel's
nineteen centuries of exile began.)
When Isaiah 6:9,10 was quoted by the Lord, He declared that it was then "fulfilled" (Matt. 13:14), using the strong form of the word. When Paul quoted the same passage Acts 28:25-27,
he does not use the word "fulfilled." The judgment pronounced in Matthew 13, was de jure, in Acts 28, it became de facto. Between the pronouncement of doom and its fall there
intervened the prayer of the cross the longsuffering of God the forecast of this suspended judgment and opportunity to repent being given in the twofold invitation of Matthew 22:2. Even then,
at Acts 28, the fall of Jerusalem (foreshadowed in Matthew 22:7) and the destruction of the temple (spoken of in Matthew 23:38), did not take place until A.D.70, some five or six years after the all
day conference with the Jews in Rome. If God could threaten the overthrow of Nineveh within forty days, and yet "repent" upon the "repentance" of the Ninevites, is it to be
denied that He would react in the same way, had Israel repented when called upon so to do during the period covered by The Acts? The words,"they agreed not" and "they
departed" have reference to Israel's "Lo-ammi" condition, and have particular reference to their covenant relationship with the Lord. The Greek word, Apoluo. "to send
away," is in the passive and should be translated "they were dismissed." This word means to "divorce" a wife as can be seen in Matthew 1:19 5:31,32, where the first
occurrence of the verb comes in the New Testament. The Greek word, Sumphoneo, "to agree," is connected with a marriage relationship (I Cor. 7:5) . This dismissal of Israel
spoken of both in the law and the prophets, was foreshadowed in Acts 13:40, "Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets" and symbolized in the miracle
recorded in Acts 13:8-11, where a Jew is blinded and a Gentile believed. At Acts 13, where Paul's ministry commences, one Jew was blinded, one Gentile and his house believed, and a warning
was given to beware lest a judgment threatened in the prophets should fall upon them. In Acts 28 the nation is blinded, the Gentiles are the objects of salvation, and the doom of Isaiah 6 falls.
The salvation of God, consequent upon Israel's blindness, is the third specific "sending" found in the Acts, and keeps pace with dispensational development,
for a dispensation commences when the chosen messenger is "sent" and not before.
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