Daily Devotional for Thursday, June 16

Who Are Israelites?

Beginning with the promise of a Savior who would cancel the death curse in Genesis 3:15 all the way to the gospels of Matthew and Luke of the New Testament, God had chosen families and individuals to be Jesus’ grandfathers and grandmothers. In the New Testament when Jesus paid for the sins of all, God offered the whole world the privilege of being a spiritual Jew in the family of Jesus. “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). 

Many famous people were adopted as children, some only days old, including Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela and Faith Hill. Many adopted children nowadays can find their birth parents by taking DNA tests which are entered into international DNA pools. When Gentiles, children of Japheth and Ham, are saved they are adopted into Jesus’ family, Shem’s lineage. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:11,12).

Thought: As a child, when I asked my mother about my origin, she said she found me under a rock. I was so happy she found me, because no matter the need, she was always there. Like Jesus, she loved me when I was unlovable.

Robert Brock