Saturday, 14 July 2018

How Do I Get Connected? A Conversation with a Hasidic Israeli Jewish Man

The relationship connection throughout all of the Lord’s promises was the same.

“How do I get connected?” The question was a text from an earnest Hasidic (ultra-orthodox) Israeli Jewish guy named Aviel.*

After a series of casual conversations, he made a theological comment about God and time. That was the introduction for deeper discussion. How could anyone know God? His religious orientation was around what he must do to connect with the Lord. My perspective was a little foreign to his way of thinking.

Although we met in Israel, both of us grew up in the United States. We were introduced to ideas about God through Judaism, though our ways of doing religion were pretty different, even before I believed in Yeshua (Jesus). Interestingly, as children we both wanted to know the Lord and to be his child.

Aviel texted me a Hebrew quote about God’s children from a passage early in Jeremiah 31. It spoke of God’s love for his children who returned from captivity in northern Mesopotamia. Since Aviel introduced Jeremiah, I was free to suggest something from the same chapter in response. With his permission, I sent Jeremiah 31:31-34, speaking of the new covenant relationship.

He immediately saw the words “new covenant” and asked what it meant. I tell Christians we shouldn’t assume other people know the Bible, even a religious Hasidic Jewish guy. And, no, I’d never heard of a “new covenant” in the Hebrew Bible before I believed in Jesus.

So I wrote, “It speaks of God’s promise for a new covenant RELATIONSHIP. Though offered to Jewish people, it’s for individuals. The text speaks for itself in context. God offered a covenant with our people that promised renewal of his faithful love.”

Aviel immediately understood but wanted to think about ...

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