Romans 9:4-5 “Blessings”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴ones who are Israelites, of whom [is] the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the [temple] service and the promises. Of whom [are] the fathers, and out of whom [is] the Christ (that [is], according to the flesh), the One being God upon all, blessed into the ages. Amen.

Something else I believe is highlighted by the verses before us – the revelation of just how privileged are the Jewish people. It has to be a good thing for you and I to pause and simply ponder on what a special people the Lord has made them.

All the way back to the Garden of Eden, the Lord had promised that one day the Seed of the Woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. Beginning with their son Seth, I believe the godly people were very aware of that Messianic promise and also very aware of exactly who was carrying it. I suspect that explains why the genealogies of  Gen. 5 contain specifically the men it does – that they were not necessarily the firstborn sons, but rather the ones chosen by God to be the ones through whom the Seed of the Woman would come.

Certainly, the Lord made it clear to Abraham that the Messiah would come through his family. Out of all the world, he and his family were “chosen.” How can we underestimate the enormity of this fact, that through Abraham’s family – the Jewish people, the Messiah would come to conquer all this horrible death and misery and brokenness of our world and restore again the perfect joy and peace of an Edenic world?

Consider what the Lord told Abraham:

“I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and curse them that curse you,

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”

 (Gen. 12:2.3).

Particularly note, “…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That is, above all, the promise of the Messiah, and what a blessing it is! However, please note, the “blessing” is not just for Abraham and his family. It is for all the world. It is for us too! From that very beginning, the promise to us Gentiles is that through Abraham’s family, through the Jewish people, we will be blessed! What a debt of honor and appreciation we all owe to the Jewish people! No wonder Jesus told the woman at the well, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).

But I want to suggest that blessing goes far beyond the Messianic promise itself. As important as that is, yet we would be reminded that our Lord is the God of the “full measure pressed down and running over.” The Jewish people are a blessing to us. It has been said, “For generations, remarkable Jewish leaders have propelled humankind forward by discovering cures for diseases, developing new technologies, composing musical masterpieces, advancing causes of freedom and human rights, and serving as trailblazers in countless other fields.” It has been estimated that they comprise less than one half of one percent of the world’s population, yet their contributions have been staggering.

Consider the following list as just a tiny taste:

Jewish Contributions to Society

Albert Einstein	Physicist
Jonas Salk	Created first Polio Vaccine.
Albert Sabin	Developed the oral vaccine for Polio.
Galileo	Discovered the speed of light
Selman Waksman	Discovered Streptomycin. Coined the word ‘antibiotic’.
Gabriel Lipmann	Discovered color photography.
Baruch Blumberg	Discovered origin and spread of infectious diseases.
G. Edelman	Discovered chemical structure of antibodies.
Briton Epstein	Identified first cancer virus.
Maria Meyer	Structure of atomic nuclei.
Julius Mayer	Discovered law of thermodynamics.
Christopher Columbus (Marano)	Discovered the Americas.
Benjamin Disraeli	Prime Minister of Great Britain 1804-1881
Isaac Singer	Invented the sewing machine.
Levi Strauss	Largest manufacturer of Denim Jeans.

If you think back to someone “great” in history, and by “great” I mean someone who did something truly wonderful for the rest of the world, don’t be surprised to find out they were Jewish! What a shame to think of the Holocaust and all the pogroms and all the horrible mistreatment the Jewish people have suffered in this world. Their presence is intended by none other than God Himself to be a blessing to the rest of the world – and they are – yet all they receive here it would seem is slander and cruelty and endless ingratitude!

May it not be true of you and me!

Certainly all of us truly born-again Christians are aware that the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, are a special people, that they are and always will be the chosen people of God, yet I believe it does us good, as with the present passage, to stop once in a while and remind ourselves just how special they are! May the Lord allow each of us, even in some small way, to be a blessing to them!