Therefore, submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Jacob [James] 4:7, TLV

Can We Look Beyond the Obvious.  I am going a bit off topic here because, well, I think this is fascinating. Jesus’s half-brother, Jacob played an important role in leadership of the followers of The Way (Acts 9:2) after Jesus’s ascension. His one and only letter (epistle), what we know as the book of James, is a stern book.

It is believed that Jacob didn’t come to faith during his brother’s ministry on earth. One wonders if that played a role in the tone of his letter. Still, of all the people of the world — other than their mother — Jacob really knew Yeshua as a person.

Imagine the moment the pieces of his brother’s seemingly odd behavior came together for Jacob. When those pieces finally formed the picture of God’s redemption for all humanity. All humanity?

Even the Gentiles?

Yes?

Surely Jacob had heard about his brother’s disturbing activity in Samaria with a woman of questionable character at a well outside Shechem (John 4). Preaching a message of inclusion for two days to Samaritans—those the Jewish people had not been allowed by God to associate with in the past. It had been strictly forbidden.

But was it? Yes, and no.

“I, Adonai, called You in righteousness,
I will take hold of Your hand,
I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people,
as a light to the nations,
by opening blind eyes,
bringing prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house. (Isaiah 42: 6-7, TLV, emphasis mine)

God had indeed commanded that the Jewish people were not to associate with the Gentiles for thousands of years. Yet throughout that time of isolation, God spoke through prophecies that there would be a set time when the Jewish people would be called to be a light to the nations, to the Gentiles. (Why do you think satan has sought to destroy the Jewish people for thousands of years?) Yeshua was ushering in this set time.

‘A light for revelation to the nations’ and the glory of Your people Israel.”  (Luke 2:32, TLV, emphasis mine)

So, where am I going with this? Both Peter and Jacob were leaders of the believers in Israel. Paul was traveling the surrounding nations and teaching to the paganist Gentiles, much to the unease of many of the more conventional, conservative Jewish believers.

It was Peter, Jacob, and John’s responsibility to not only disciple these new Jewish believers but help them overcome their isolationism. It was time to leave the walls that protected and separated them from the world and embrace these clumsy, ignorant new believers outside those walls. Now as their redeemed brothers and sisters.

Perhaps that is why Jacob is a bit sterner in his book. He, of all people, understood the importance of looking beyond the obvious. To resist the temptation to judge and look down on others.

What about us?

Many of us became accustomed to the mandated isolation because of COVID. Some—and I’m speaking to myself—have become comfortable remaining in that quiet, less complicated isolation.

Or perhaps we’ve put up walls to certain peoples that seem “too far gone” to reach. Let’s remember who God has called us to be, His lights to the nations. To look beyond what appears to be the obvious, to what God has planned for us since the beginning of time. A light to all nations.