What is Grafting?
The bible uses an olive tree to illustrate the idea of grafting. According to Jeremiah 11:16, God refers to Israel as "a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit." There are two types of olive trees talked about in the bible, the cultivated and the wild olive trees.
The Gentiles are the wild olive tree and Israel is the cultivated olive tree that Paul is referring to in Romans 11: 13-24. This analogy of grafting explains very well that those gentiles who have received Yahshua as their Savior have been taken from the wild olive tree and have been grafted into the cultivated Jewish olive tree. This is similar to how a gardener does, he takes a scion of the type of fruit he intends to grow and grafts it onto a root stock of a better species that will convey vitality.
Which part of Israel are the gentiles grafted into? Is it the nation of Israel? Or perhaps is it into some other areas of Jewish society?
It is important for us to understand that there are Jews who presently lead sinful lives and do not keep God's law. Even during the time of Yahshua and of Apostle Paul, there were Jews who though descendants from Abraham, did not do the will of God. Paul was not happy about this issue as expressed in Romans 2: 21... "You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?" He therefore rebuked the Israelites who boasted in the law of God yet, they did not keep it. It implies that when he was talking about the need for gentiles to be grafted into the commonwealth of Israel, he was referring to something else, that we will see shortly.
Abraham was counted righteous because he obeyed God's voice. Similarly, other patriarchs and prophets obeyed the word of God faithfully, and they looked forward to the revelation and salvation of the Messiah from a far off. These people were those that Paul referred to in Romans 2: 28-29..." 'For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." They were Israelites who were Jews inwardly and who had received circumcision not only in the flesh but in the heart also. These people were not just descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but were a component of the spiritual Israel, the CULTIVATED OLIVE TREE.
Gentiles receive salvation by believing in Yahshua, the only name in heaven and earth through which men are saved as recorded in the book of Acts 4:12... "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Therefore the gentiles are grafted into the family of God by believing and being baptized through the name of Yahshua. This makes them to be rightful heirs in God's promises and in the coming kingdom of Yahshua. We read in Galatians 3: 29, that if we have become the children of God (as explained above through the process of grafting), we are heirs according to the promise.
When God called Abraham, he promised that through him, the whole world would be blessed. Elohim would make him a father of many nations according to Genesis 17: 1-8. He foretold that through his seed (implying Yahshua, the descendant of David), the world would be blessed. The promise about being a father of many nations was fulfilled through the coming of Yahshua to redeem people from all nations and graft them into the family of God, which in Ephesians 2:12, Apostle Paul calls it the commonwealth of Israel.
One of the characters of Elohim is that He is never confused, but executes His operations in a very orderly and systematic manner, in order to bring out His intended purpose and glory. For instance, if we look at the account of creation, we can see that it took six days for God to complete His work of creation, and then He rested on the seventh day. It can be observed that God was happy with His daily achievements during the six days of creation. Furthermore, He was impressed by the outcome of the entire work of creation. It is indeed a remarkable thing to see beauty in individual components and even after these elements were combined, the wholesome entity was also perfectly beautiful.
From the above explanation, we can see how God fashions things to bring out his intended purpose. He is the beginning and the last, the omniscient and Holy one of Israel. Therefore, Elohim had from the beginning intended to establish His church and this vision was attained during the day of Pentecost. We are going to see how the name given to the people of Elohim progressed since the ancient days. In the book of Acts 7:38, we realize that during the time of Moses, it was called the congregation (that was in the wildness). Later on during the time of the Prophets, this assembly was called by another name i.e. the Daughter of Zion as recorded in Zechariah 9:9.
This name was not supposed to last for long because Elohim promised to call her (the Daughter of Zion) by another name, which will come out of His mouth as recorded in Isaiah 62:2 ..."The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of Elohim will bestow." We find this promise being fulfilled by Yahshua in Mathew 16:17-18, "...Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but my Father in Heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." There are some people who teach that Yahshua wanted to build his church on Peter. This is not true because, Yahshua realized that Peter happened to know about the secret through a revelation from God, who is called the Rock in Deuteronomy 32: 4... "He is the Rock, His ways are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He." Therefore, Yahshua declared to Peter that it is the Rock (the Father in Heaven) who had revealed to him, not by blood or flesh, and "upon this Rock (Elohim) I will build my church."
The name that came out of His mouth was "the church also called Kenesia", which was established on the day of Pentecost. We can see Yahshua confirming that it was a must for all prophesies told earlier about him to be fulfilled, so that he may die for the redemption of people from all nations. The apostles were expected to preach the Good News to all nations, starting from Jerusalem as recorded in Luke 24:44. The apostles were the pioneers of the new church started by Yahshua, but they had been instructed not to leave Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Holy Spirit. "Acts 1:4... On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about." When the day of Pentecost came, they were all gathered in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit came upon them inform of tongues of fire. They started to speak in strange tongues and on that day about 3000 people believed in Yahshua as recorded in Acts 2:1. The church was already working in full swing to accomplish the work entrusted to it by the founder. When we read in the book of Acts chapter 10, we find that the first gentile to believe was Cornelius and his family. The apostles continued to spread the gospel and many more gentiles were added into the church. It was at this time that the apostles met in Jerusalem to discuss on how the new believers would be handled after they realized that even the gentiles had received the same promise that the Jews were receiving. Other gentiles continued to believe in Yahshua and were grafted into the cultivated olive tree following the same order. Even today, the same procedure must be followed. The gentiles have to be grafted into the family of Elohim by believing in Yahshua and being baptized in His name in order to lead new lives in Messiah. According to Ephesians 2:11, "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called the uncircumcised...that at that time, you were separate from Messiah, separated from the commonwealth of Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." the bible explains very well the status of the gentiles who have not yet been grafted into the cultivated olive tree. However, after entering into the commonwealth of Israel, (which is the Church of God), the person becomes a new creation, the old is gone and now the person bears fruits of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Galatians 5:22 and Colossians 3:1
As already explained above, this is the church that has been "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Yahshua the Messiah himself as the chief cornerstone." Ephesus 2:19-20
It is this congregation that Paul calls the Church of God in more than 12 times in the New Testament. Wherever the church was established, the church was named with reference to that place, for instance, the Church of God at Corinth, the Church of God at Ephesus etc..as recorded in the following scriptures: 1 Corinthians 1: 1; 11: 16, 1 Tim 3: 14-15,
Why the Jews, not any other people in the world?
In Deuteronomy 7:6-7, the bible declares very well that God chose the children of Israel as his own among all the other nations in the world. In Exodus 4:22 God declares that Israel is his firstborn... "Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn." What does the title of a first born entail? In most of the communities in the world, a first born son is highly respected because he knows all details about the riches of his father. To the Jews, God entrusted them with the right manner of worship. Apostle Paul confirms this in Romans 9: 4 "They are the Israelites; theirs is the adoption as sons, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises." Yahshua affirmed this in John 4: 22 when he told the Samaritan woman that they (the gentiles) worship which they do not know, but the Jews worship that which they know, for salvation comes from the Jews. In John 10:16, Yahshua said "And I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there be one flock and one shepherd." In this context, he was referring to the many other people from the gentile world (the wild olive tree) who would believe in him after hearing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. They would all be under one shepherd and will listen to his voice. This is the same multitude from all nations that was revealed to John in Revelation 7:9-17, they had palm branches in their hands and were singing to the one who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.
Therefore in order to share in the glory and promises made to Abraham's descendant, we have to be grafted into the cultivated olive tree by believing in Yahshua and receiving true baptism (emersion) through his name.
Ruth showed a very good example that should be emulated by all gentiles who hunger for the truth, to worship God in truth and in spirit. She chose to detach from her people and be enjoined with the spiritual Israel. We read in the book of Ruth 1:16 how she did not want to part with Naomi, a Hebrew. "But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. You people will be my people and your God my God." It was a hard but a wise decision for her, because she was ready to leave her people and belief systems so that she can live a new life. She was later on married to Boaz, and Jesse (the father of David) was born as a grandson to him. Later on, Yahshua was born in the flesh through this family tree as a descendant of David.
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